Have been up there in late June Mid-July B4 How's the fishing in early May? Will be up there the 1st week of May. Thanks Mav.

Fishing in early May can be awesome ! Nobody around . Peace and quiet . I was up last year the first week of May . The weather can be a bit brutal , but the fishing was pretty good . Nothing like in late June or early July as far as numbers , but the quality is definately there. We fished inside , mostly around Vitscarey and Shark hole , wind permitting. Averaged around a dozen to the boat a day . We had em anywhere from 25 to 52 # was the biggest . You should have a great time . Dress warm

10-4 ReiterRat on the weather. I think the Sitka derby is around Memorial day and from what I've heard that's when the biggest fish are around. Like 70's! I fished the first week of June and did well last year so I'm sure there's fish there the first week of may.

Beezer

Thanks for the info gentlemen, I've heard that the bigger boy's do show up earlier in the summer. Sitka is a downright kick in the pants fishery for you salmonguys:) ( I still prefer steelhead fishing over salmon hands down!)so this will have to carry me over till June 1st to rivers where none of you types are at!

Mav,
I've been there twice, both times June 21-29th. It's a blast and I know that the bigger fish are taken around the end of may because in the airport there's sure some nice monsters in the low 70's on the wall around Memorial Day. We had a ton of fun, especially fishing out around sitka point for both salmon and halibut. We also did real well at sp. chezalov bay?? That was out of sitka sound and north a ways but don't get caught out there in a wind storm it's not much fun, let me tell ya.... Not in a open 23' alumaweld with a dory front end... Took on lots of water.. We stayed at Mertz Island and rented our own boats, it was all around a ton of fun and in the last week of june it's not uncommon to have 40-50 fish days if you want to fish that hard for them.. But after about 6 days the hands sure get to hurting from all the small cuts and saltwater infections.
Make sure to take some hydrogen peroxide and soak you hands every night in it for at least 5 minutes then wrap your small wounds with neosporin and bandaids.. It's a must if you don't want your hands turning into claws...
Hope that helps...
Keith