# Icy Bay Lodge, Alaska July 5 - 11, 2015



## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

This is my second trip to the lodge.

We fished where we liked to fish and we had one of the best ling cod jigging I've experienced
There were lots of big yelloweye rockfish, but we tried to avoid them.
We didn't have many halibut today not because of lack of halibut, but because of the abundant relentless ling cod.
Still Berecca had a nice 150 lb halibut and I had 80 lb halibut with the ultra light Black Hole Cape Cod
Snapper rod. In fact, I used the rod all day and I caught many lingcod, rockfish as well as halibut with the rod. I can say you can you the rod for fluke. 


we have swell tomorrow though wind is light and we plan to fish inshore for king salmon. Even weather is
good, it is hard to fish offshore two days in a row even you are a hardcore fisherman.
We plan to fish big halibut on Wed.

We used jigs only. In fact, I did not add strip of bait at all today, but I had lots of bites.
The best jig was 8 - 10 oz silver ball with squid teaser on hooks.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

*July 6*

We fished where we liked to fish and we had one of the best ling cod jigging I've experienced
There were lots of big yelloweye rockfish, but we tried to avoid them.
We didn't have many halibut today not because of lack of halibut, but because of the abundant relentless ling cod.
Still Berecca had a nice 150 lb halibut and I had 80 lb halibut with the ultra light Black Hole Cape Cod
Snapper rod. In fact, I used the rod all day and I caught many lingcod, rockfish as well as halibut with the rod. I can say you can you the rod for fluke. 

we have swell tomorrow though wind is light and we plan to fish inshore for king salmon. Even weather is
good, it is hard to fish offshore two days in a row even you are a hardcore fisherman.
We plan to fish big halibut on Wed.

We used jigs only. In fact, I did not add strip of bait at all today, but I had lots of bites.
The best jig was 8 - 10 oz silver ball with squid teaser on hooks.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

All catches below were caught using 3.8 oz ultra light Black Hole Cape Cod Special Tai rod.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

The biggest halibut today was Rebecca's 165 lb halibut. She lost another nice halibut too.
Big lingcod and yelloweye rock fish are on top of a bank and halibut are on the slope, but we couldn't fish halibut properly due to strong current and unexpected wind.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

We opted to troll for king salmon in shore as there is some swell. In fact, it is hard to fish offshore two days in a row as you need time to recover from hard jigging over 8 hours.

We trolled only three hours and we got 4 - 5 king salmon/silver salmon and lost a few.
We will have dinner with fresh king salmon this evening. 

We are going back to offshore again tomorrow. Weather looks fine. We are going to concentrate on halibut jigging.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

We had excellent drift condition and accordingly we had good catches on jigs.
I had 17 yelloweye rockfish in 8 - 15 lb range, 25 ling cod in 20 lb - 40 lb range 
and 5 halibut in 30 lb - 90 lb range. I must caught over 1,000 lb fish on jigs 
That is good fishing by any standard.
All were caught with the ultra light Black Hole Cape Cod Special Tai rod.

We had 6 halibut on jigs in 100 lb - 140 lb 
range. We found bigger halibut in deeper water in the afternoon. 
They were biting when we left. 

I caught many rockfish and lingcod with 8 oz silver ball, but the hot jigs for 
halibut were 8 oz - 10 oz JIGNPOP gold hammered diamond jigs. I don't know why 
halibut liked the jig today. 

We used only jigs. Tipping with strip of bait was not necessary today.

Pictures will follow.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Never jigged for Halibut before...but it sounds like fun. 

With a name like "Icy Bay" you can't go wrong...my favorite beer is Alaska Icy Bay Pale Ale...but very hard to find in Texas. 

Thanks for pictures.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

July 9 



I can not upload pictures for some reason. If you are member of facebook, you can see pictures on Kil Song's site.

I opted not to fish today. I worked computer this morning and went for glacier sight seeing in the afternoon 
We fish offshore for big halibut tomorrow. Weather looks great. If condition is right, we even plan to fish black cod in deeper water. It is a kind of deep drop on the West Coast.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

July 8 pictures


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)




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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

July 9 pictures

midnight



in the morning



bear foot print


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)




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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

Black Hole Cape Cod Tai rod in action.
I must caught over 2000 lb with the rod on the trip. 
I have been testing the rod for several months and I will stop testing the rod as the rod exceeds my expectation and exceeds what the rod is designed for. 
The video also shows how thick ling cod are there. It was difficult to have halibut on jigs because ling cod were thick and they were willing to hit jigs.

https://video-atl1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/h...=c7e6f6f2944adc3cb8328aa1697362dd&oe=55A34605


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

*July 10*

Today is the last day fishing at Icy Bay Lodge.
Weather is calm. We are blessed with find weather for the whole trip which is rare in Alaska.

After jigging halibut/ling cod/yelloweye rockfish offshore, we were going to fish black cod in deep water, but we gave up the plan as current was very strong.

We encountered more ling cod which made harder to catch halibut on jigs. 
But Tod had 90 lb, 120 lb and 140 lb halibut on JIGNPOP Flat Hammered diamond jig. 
He used strip of bait on jig hook which might made the difference.

I must caught 40 plus ling cod on jigs today.

Halibut jigging this year was still great, but it was not like last year's phenomenal halibut catch. I believe it is due to influx of incredible number of ling cod in the area this year.

. There is little chance for halibut to find jigs. 

I feel I am very fortunate to fish at Icy Bay Lodge two years in a row. 
I can't wait to fish there again soon.



Tod used light Black Hole Magic Eye 571XXH this time and caught all halibut upto 140 lb.
He just loves the rod.



It tells you how good fishing is. You never know what you get on jigs next. halibut. ling cod, black bass, yelloweye rockfish. I am going to try to catch octopus next time.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

I also tested Black Hole Cape Cod Special Slow Pitch jigging rod and I can tell the rod can take big fish. I am going to test the rod for tuna and grouper.



I saw many fishermen at Yakutat Airport. Yakutat itself is a good fishing destination.
Alaska Airline in Yakutat allows three check-in bags free.



When ever I travel by air, the major concern is whether your rod case and tackle come with you or not. When I arrived at Newark Airport by United yesterday, I found my rod case was still in Anchorage. I am glad it happened after the fishing trip.


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## ML56 (Dec 30, 2008)

Did you boat the Lingcod that were attacking your other fish too? I've heard or multiples being boated, when only one fish was hooked. We never had that happen on our trip. Congrats on a fabulous trip, it is an awesome place to fish.
Great pictures-Mike

Couldn't get your video to play.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

There are not many places even in Alaska where you catch 1,000 lb fish a day on light jigs like Icy Bay Lodge.

https://video.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-x...=70ad9c3c5372ccfe1f8fd28f64bf7283&oe=55ABEC5D


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