(Scott Jorgensen, Owner Pybus Point Lodge) “We’d like to welcome everybody out to Pybus Point, for those that have been with us before welcome back, for those of you who are new, welcome to one of the most beautiful places in all of southeast Alaska.”
Welcome to KSL Outdoors and welcome back to our Alaskan adventure. Last week we introduced you to the remote, scenic Pybus Point Lodge, located in Alaska’s famous inside passage.. My wife, my friends and I had so much fun, caught so many fish,
(Tonya Eakle) “Oh he’s shaking his head, on my gosh he’s going to pull me in! (screams)
there was so much to see, that we just had to show all that southeast Alaska has to offer.
(Scott Jorgensen, Co-owner Pybus Point Lodge) we are out here on Admiralty island national monument, just about 75 miles south of Juneau, AK, the capital of AK. We have all the amenities to support an operation like this while giving you that remote location experience. What makes it remote is the fact that we are on an island that isn’t really accessible than any other way but boat and sea plane.”
(CJ Webb, Co-Owner Pybus Point Lodge) The Trees, the ocean, the rivers, the waterfalls, there’s just so much to see and experience down here.”
(Scott) Fredrick’s sound which is our main body of water that we are fishing between us and the north end of Kupernoff island is the highest concentration of humpback whales in the summer time.”
(Scott) “It’s their feeding grounds. As well as orca, sea otters, sea lions, seals. Everything that lives in the ocean is right here in Southeast Alaska.”
(Whale Breach) “oh awesome, that was fantastic.”
(Dallas & Marcie Woffinden, Lehi) “We’ve seen probably 7 bears, never seen one in real life before, they’ve been awesome. Baby ones, big ones. Whales, doing back flips, it’s fun.”
The scenery, the wildlife, just icing on the cake for most, but the main reason people come to Alaska…
(steve hits fish) “there you go, fish on!”
The fishing of course.
(Adam) “good fighting one huh? (lane) “it is, he’s taking more line than I’ve gotten back.”
(net silver) “and in, Silver.” (tonya) “oh he’s a nice big fat one, he’s a nice one. (steve) “silver.”
(Adam) “nice silver, good eating right there. Captain Dan has done us right, two days in a row, that is unbelieveable.”
(Scott & Michelle Woffinden, Highland) for me it’s kind of the whole experience. We saw black bears today, brown bears yesterday. We’ve caught halibut, we’ve caught salmon, all kinds of bottom fish.”
(Captain Dan, Pybus Point Guide) That is commonly called a yellow eye. It’s one of the most beautiful rock fish that we have in this area. That particular one is probably 45 years old.”
There are well over 20 different species of rock fish to catch. From yellow eye, to tigers to black bass, even some huge toothy, tasty ling cod.
(Dan) “lots of teeth in these ling cod, you’ve got to be careful, they are so ugly they are beautiful.
(Steve Mitchell) “A catch and release record fish for me I’ll tell you.”
and of course, everyone comes to catch the tasty, hard fighting halibut. At times it even takes two to get these big barn doors to the boat.
(Tonya) Reel, (laughs)
(Steve) Oh that’s a dandy! (fish takes off) Woo!
(Adam) Nice fish, that might be a keeper!” (fish splash) (steve) easy there feller.
(Dan) Beautiful fish, that’s the size you want to catch here, it’s the best eating by far and that’s going to be about 40 inches.”
(adam) did it exceed your expectations? (rosemary) Yes it did. (steve) I think we made a good choice.
(Steve) Just all the fish we’ve caught. We haven’t been without catching fish wherever we went, whatever we was after. It was great.
(Tag) (adam) well guys halibut, every species of salmon you can think of and rock fish. These are called yellow eye check out those beauties. What’s the recipe? (tonya) Oh I’ll have to figure that out. (adam) have to talk to Mr. Diamond. (tonya) I will (steve) fish tacos. (adam) there you go. Hey more coming up here on KSL Outdoors, in a moment we dawn our waders for a little salmon on the fly, but first tonights quiz question. ”
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After an eventful day of catching salmon, halibut and rockfish, my favorite thing to do at Pybus Point Lodge is to jump into a skiff just before dinner and head to one of the many glacier fed rivers to catch some salmon on a fly.
(Adam in boat) so we are headed down from the lodge to cannery cove. There’s a river up here that has a run of chum and pinks, just across over here is another river and just over the mountains is another river called Little Pybus.
(Adam) You guys seeing any fish? (lane and Steve) tons of fish. (adam) right on.
(Scott) There are about six rivers or streams right here around the lodge within 10-15 minute ride by skiff, that we can access at any point in time. There is dolly varden, there is pink salmon streams as well as chum. The silvers run late in the year up the rivers that we operate on.
(Adam) “so is this your first salmon on a fly? (steve mitchell, Riverton) first salmon on a fly rod. (adam) what do you think? (steve) i think it’s good. (adam) they are gun aren’t they? (steve) he’s not coming in very nicely.
(Adam) “oh this is a chum.”
(Adam) “he’s going to take off any second.”
(fish runs nats splashing)
(Steve) Now what do you do? (adam) Just wear him out a little bit, then pick him up. Sure i do, gosh that’s a big fish.
(fish runs jumps, laughs)
(Steve takes fish by the tail) (adam) “you’ve got a dog by the tail. Look at that bad boy, look at the teeth on that critter. (adam) “what they lack in tastiness, they sure make up for it in fight. (steve) boy they do. They are pretty fish too.”
Salmon are extremely aggressive this time of year, anything bright like this pink humpy hooker will get their attention.
(Scott) “it’s not the big rivers of the interior of AK, but the quality of the fishery is excellent for those that really want to get out on a fly rod and really learn what fly fishing can be about. We are talking 8 weight rods with salmon that run anywhere from 5-15 pounds when the silver start running. So it can be a lot of fun.”
(Adam) “hey Steve, the big river is over here. Where are you going? (steve) i’m just fishing where he’s taking me. (laughs)
We’re fishing in the delta, right where these glacier fed rivers spill into the ocean, so the chum and pink salmon are fresh and feisty.
(Rosemary grabs fish) (steve) there you go, you got him. (adam) way to bear hug him, you’ve got a fly in your mouth a fly in the fish. (laughs)
(Adam) We really needed a net didn’t we Lane? (lane) we really did.
(Lane landing fish and laughs) (steve) Hey catch him! (lane) “got him.” (adam) what a pretty buck.
(Lane) “look at that big old hook on there.”
(lane) “what a beautiful fish, look at the size of that thing.”
(Adam) (fish in water) “let him regain his strength back.”
(Adam) there he goes. That’s why you come to Alaska right there, beautiful fish, beautiful surroundings, hard fight, love this place.
(TAG)(steve) awe this is good stuff, this is fun. (adam) they are powerful. (steve) they are, they’ve got some backbone. (adam) total different experience than it is trolling? (steve) I’ll tell you what that one I got run me clean around the boat, i was chasing him down. (adam) so much fun, well we’ve got more coming up here in AK, you’ve got this thing in a bear hug, rosemary. We’ll have more in just a second but first back to the guys at Fish Tech for tonights Fish Tech Fish Report.”
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(Adam Intro with John Diamond, Head Chef) “Welcome back to KSL Outdoors and Pybus Point Lodge here in Alaska, I’m Adam Eakle. I’m here with John Diamond the head chef here at Pybus and I’m telling you what John, I think I’ve gained five pounds. You feed people up here like king and queens. (john) Yeah everybody says we have to keep a box of fish off when they take off in the float planes because we add six to seven pounds to them before they leave. (adam) What’s on the menu tonight? (john) “tonight we are going to have surf and turf, we are going to have tri-tip and shrimp.”
The dinner bell every night was a welcome sound after a hard day of fighting fish. John Diamond, grew up as a young boy cooking at Chuck Arama, took culinary arts at the Provo Technical College and now is in his second year as the head chef at Pybus Point Lodge. The food is as good as anything back home, well actually it’s better, in part because, it’s so fresh.
(John Diamond, Head Chef, Pybus Point Lodge) “we kind of build our meals to a crescendo, So that the last meal is a huge feast. So they are totally wowed before they leave here.”
(Dallas Woffinden) Diamond is the man, it’s good food.
(CJ Webb, Co Owner Pybus Point Lodge) Today we are heading back to the crab fields. Going to go up and pull the pots we set on the first day and see what the bounty of the sea has to offer us.
Each week, guests are encouraged to take part in catching fresh dugeonous crab and prawns that are then cooked up fresh the day they are caught.
(CJ) “ready.” (nats of winch)
(CJ) “it’s always a surprise when you pull them off the bottom of the ocean, hopefully you’ve picked a good spot and they are fishing well.”
It’s not quite the Deadliest Catch, but it’s still a lot of fun, pulling up a pot and hoping it’s full sweat, tasty, fresh dungeonous crab.
(CJ) “all females have to be released. Only males are able to be kept.”
(CJ) “This is a male crab, in order to keep it we have to have 6 and a half inches from this point to this point.”
Dungeonous Crab are caught in the back of the bays in about 80 feet of water. Prawns are found much deeper.
(CJ) “this one is in about 315 feet.”
“Oh the mother load, we’ve got dinner.”
(CJ) “those are the two main species up here in Alaska.”
(CJ) If you are brave, you can eat a shrimp raw. If you’d like to see what they are like.”
(Michelle Woffinden) “that is good, can’t get any fresher. Give us a train wreck, give us a train wreck (she does) (laughs)
(Rick) What did you think of the shrimping and crabbing experience. (diane Petersen) Kind of fun, glad I didn’t eat any. (Laughs)
Pybus Point Lodge is the total Alaska experience. The fishing, scenery, wildlife, food, accommodations are all, as good as anywhere I’ve been. The fishing that week was so good, every angler went home with almost 100 pounds of fillets. Our week long excursion quite frankly, just wasn’t long enough.
(Scott Jorgensen) “It’s not just a fishing trip, it’s a trip to build memories. So for families that want to come build memories that will last a lifetime here in AK, this is a great place to do it.”
Time now to open up the pages of our Utah Field Guide as we show you a scenic stop to check out on your way to Pybus Point.
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