CatchWindow fishing intelligence

Port Alexander, AK Daily Water Report — October 4, 2026

Port Alexander is a qualified go for fishing and sailing today, but a poor bargain for small craft and anyone hoping for calm water. The headline is wind and sea state: SSW winds are running around 15 knots, with gusts to 33 knots representative of the day and a much sharper 45.7-knot gust forecast around 1 AM. Combined waves sit near 2.3 m at 7.9 seconds, with a 1.46 m southwest swell and short 1.28 m wind waves adding the sort of texture that makes a boat ride feel longer than it looks on paper. The best usable stretch is late afternoon into early evening. Waves are forecast to reach their daily minimum near 6 PM, around 2.22 m, while the evening high tide arrives at 7:58 PM. That also overlaps the 6:57–8:57 PM solunar major period, giving anglers the day’s strongest timing window. The morning major period, 6:57–8:57 AM, coincides closely with the 8:46 AM high tide, but it comes with the same wet, windy setup and should be treated as the more exposed option. Fishing rates 6/10, a modest but workable result under falling pressure near 1004 hPa, persistent rain, and limited available clarity. Sailing earns 6.4/10: enough wind to work with, certainly, but the gust spread and 2-plus-metre sea demand conservative judgment. Boating is only 4.5/10 and kayaking 4.1/10; neither score is a safety declaration, but both reflect the meaningful wind, waves, current, rain, and near-total cloud cover. Diving is 4.9/10, with 12 C water and rough surface conditions outweighing the relatively mild SST anomaly. Atmospheric visibility is only about 4.2 km and should not be confused with underwater visibility. Compared with the reconstructed recent history, this is an improvement on yesterday’s boating and kayaking scores, but well behind the quieter October 1–2 stretch. The water remains comparatively warm at 12 C, about 1.6 C above average, while very high chlorophyll indicates bloom conditions rather than a promise of action. Rain remains likely through Tuesday, with seas building to 2.7–3.1 m Tuesday before easing later in the week. Wednesday brings lighter wind but still-variable seas; Thursday and Saturday currently offer the calmer marine outlook. Best bet: fish the late-afternoon tide turn, then be off the water before the evening window turns a manageable sea into a long wet argument.