During the off-season, we got a chance to spend some time with Crab Wizard Captain Keith Colburn at the Chicago Outdoor Expo show.  He’s a really great guy with a cool story – one that begins 25 years on Kodiak Island.

Captain Colburn has a special connection with both Kodiak Island and Larsen Bay.  He began his crab fishing career in 1985 at the age of 22 – he arrived with zero experience and $50 to his name.  With an adventurous spirit, unrelenting determination and aspirations of a giant pay-day, he set off as a greenhorn aboard the 135-foot Alaska Trader.

Colburn excelled in the the harsh, difficult work environment and loved the adventure and challenge of the elements.   He rose through the ranks and eventually purchased the Wizard, which he captains on the TV series Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel.  The Wizard is a former WWII vessel that was converted to a fishing boat in 1978.  It is 155 feet long and is a perennial top-five king crab producer.

Captain Colburn plans to return to Larsen Bay to fish with us sometime in the future – he went salmon fishing here 25 years ago when he first came to Alaska.

We are big fans of catching crabs like on Deadliest Catch, so much so that we have created our own version of the TV show, crabbing without any of the risk.  We bait and soak crab pots out in Uyak Bay (in front of the lodge) so we can catch our own delicious tanner (snow) crabs.

This off-season we built a “crab shack” – a screened-in gazebo-like structure with a great, panoramic view of the bay.  The crab shack will be a gathering place for guests to enjoy crab boils and cocktails and wind down after a day spent in the field fishing or wildlife viewing.