Fishing Forum

We just booked an Alaskan cruise which departs in less than a month and will be stopping at Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan. I am looking for charter services in any of these cities that offer day fishing trips for salmon and halibut (don't want to book through the cruise line if at all possible- they tend to charge more than booking yourself).
Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with specific charter services in these ports. I would appreciate any input my BFT brothers can offer.

Thanks
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I just returned from an Alaskan cruise. I booked a salmon trip thru Princess in Ketchikan. They handled all the details. It worked out really well. Fishing was slow but we saw whales, eagles and sea otters. We had an eagle swoop down and try to grab a rockfish one of the guys hooked. If you don't want to book through the cruise line I suggest calling the visitors bureau in the city where you want to fish or go on line and see what you can find.
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Never fished in Sitka but that's your best bet for halibut and salmon. I have fished both Juneau and Ketchikan and the halibut holes are probably to far to run with the time you have.

Try Cedars Lodge for full guided service in Ketchikan, or try Clover Pass for a more self guided experience. Both owned by the same folks and they do a good job.
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Thanks. I will look them up.
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We did an Alaska Cruise in 2009 and I set up my own day trip out of Sitka. I don't remember the name of the outfit that took three of us out, but it worked out very well for us. We caught Kings and Silvers.

Just a couple things that you should be aware of. In Sitka you have to be tendered from the ship to the dock, and the ship lets the paqssengers that set up trips through them get off the ship first. Our guide contacted us by cell phone as soon as the ship arrived, and keep checking on our progress until we arrived at the marina.

Also our guide took us out further than those that had booked through the ship. He said that if the fish were closer to Sitka the other boats would do good, but the fish were out farther than they would take their clients. Later we compared note with several people that had gone out that didn't catch anything.

While at home, before we even booked with our guide, I made sure he new the schedules of the ships and would get us back on time to be tendered to the ship. He said he does it all the time, and if he didn't get us to the dock to be tendered he would get us out to the ship, and if we missed the ship he would get us to the ships next stop.

I will let you know if I remember who we went out with.

Brian
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What did you do with the fish you caught? Ship home?
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Thats right, we had the guide take the fish to a place in Sitka to vacuum pack, freeze, and ship home. Most expensive fish I have ever had.
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My guess I that even if you spent a full week up fishing in AK and brought the fish home on the plane with you it would be the most expensive fish you ever had. []

Fish caught for sport are not economical or cheap as a food source.
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Pookiebar, you should know, considering how much time you have spent in Alaska fishing.

If I just added up how much I have spent on fishing equipment and gas for the last say 10 years and very seldom bring home a fish for a food source, the local trout I have caught and kept to eat would be very expensive.

Some times I think my wife regrets letting your brother Flint pick out some fly fishing equipment that she could give to me for Christmas years ago. By the way how is Flint and the family doing? I hardly ever hear from them since they moved in to their new home.
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Flint is doing really well. They just adopted a little girl from China and our kids have a great time playing across the street from each other.

I am sure all wives regret the loads of fishing equipment we all seem to buy. At least my wife will go "trophy" fishing with me. If there isn't a chance at a 20 plus inch fish she isn't interested, but she comes on the big trips. Guess that's what I get for taking her to AK and after steel head when we first got married. []
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Fishing keeps me sane, providing food is just a bonus.

That said I did finally book with a charter service out of Juneau, mostly because of the tender issue in Sitka and the lack of time in port in Ketchikan. It looks like our party of 4 will have exclusive use of the boat.

Thanks for all the advice, I will let you know how it goes in about a month.
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