BL Trip #2 - Fishing in Alaska

Two years ago, my (Mike's) family did an Alaskan cruise during which we tried salmon fishing. Although it was fun, we didn't have much success because a) not the best time of year, b) it was a short-duration trip and we couldn't boat to better fishing, and c) we couldn't keep what we caught. However, we learned how to best plan for a later trip. Planned last summer, Mike and some of his family finally took the trip.

Destination - Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan calls itself the "Salmon Capital of the World!" With that title, and a 3-day trip scheduled in prime season, we were confident we would catch fish. Little did we know just how much fish we would catch!

We planned a package trip with Santa's Choice Charters, which included a 4-night rental house, 3 full days of fishing, and a rental car. This package was recommended to us from our boat captain two years ago, but we didn't really know what to expect. We were not disappointed.

Our group was me, my brother-in-law Rick, my nephew Adam, and Rick's brother-in-law Steve. After everyone's arrival, we drove through town so Steve could see it, then we stopped for lunch.

After lunch, we bought some groceries before heading out of town to our rental. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the rental was awesome. Three bedrooms with a central kitchen, dining table, and couch/tv area. There was also a nice deck and new gas grill where we hung out each day after our fishing was done.

Our hosts were Joe and Brenda Rudolph, parents of Alex Rudolph who would be our fishing captain the next three days. Joe and Brenda also helped clean and process our catch each day, vacuum-sealed, weighed, and froze all our fillets, and later boxed them for us to ship home. They were wonderful hosts! That first night we all crashed very early as all of us were jet-lagged and had little sleep the past couple days. We also had a 6:00am start.

In July, the days are very long. It doesn't get dark until after 10:00pm, and it gets light by 4:00am, so I never saw darkness while I was there. We also had exceptionally good fortune with the weather. Every day was sunny with highs in the low 70s which is very abnormal.

We met Captain Alex at the marina. The rental was only a 5-minute walk so it was nice to simply walk to and from the boat to our rental each day.

Alex is a serious fisherman. As soon as we got there, we cast off and headed out. There was very little small-talk as Alex wanted to get to the first fishing spot. It was easy to develop a first impression that Alex wasn't very friendly, but we soon learned he was a great guy and simply serious about fishing. We shared more than one beer with him after our fishing was done.

It took us about 45 minutes to arrive at our first location. For those of you who are fishermen, we put out four trolling lines with down-riggers in 100-300 feet of water. As soon as the lines were set, we started getting bites and landing salmon. In fact, that first day we caught salmon at a rate of 10 per hour! By about 10:00am we already had our limit! I was close to giddy at how good and how much fun the fishing was.

There were three types of salmon that we could catch. Pinks (most abundant but smaller), Cohos or Silvers (larger but less frequent), and Kings (limit one/day/person and harder to catch "keepers"). Once we had caught 24 Pinks we had our limit and moved on.

We then boated about 45 minutes to another location to fish for Halibut. Halibut is a prized catch because of their delicious white meat. To catch Halibut, we anchored and jigged over the side of the boat in 300 feet of water. Reeling in from that depth is not an easy task when a large fish is on the line!

The limit for Halibut is one/person/day. So once we caught our Halibut, we headed in. But before catching our limit, we were lucky and caught a lot of Pacific Cod. Cod is also a great tasting fish and they were fun to catch. We caught some nice ones!

Once we caught our four Halibut, we had a cooler full of fish and headed back to the marina. We had caught 24 Pinks, 3 Kings, 2 Coho, 4 Halibut, 14 Pacific Cod, and 1 Rockfish!

Once we returned to the marina, Alex and his family got to work. They filleted, cleaned, weighed, vacuum-sealed, labeled, and froze all our fish.

Later, we returned to our rental, enjoyed a beer on the back deck, and grilled some fresh salmon!

The next day was almost exactly the same. We caught our limit of salmon, then went jigging and caught our limit of halibut. We didn't catch as many Pacific Cod this day, but I did catch a nice Flounder (which looks almost identical to a halibut)!

On our 3rd day, we once again caught our limit of salmon, but we couldn't go halibut fishing as it was banned on that day. So our captain surprised us and took us jigging for Rockfish. He immediately put us on fish and we caught our limit. Some strange looking fish we caught that day!

After catching our limit of Salmon, Widow Rockfish, and Yellow-eyed Rockfish, we headed back to end our day. Our 3rd and final day of fishing was again a success!

It was an amazing three days of fishing, and easily the best fishing trip I've ever been on. And if that weren't enough, we were fishing in one of the most scenic areas of our country full of wildlife and nature. By the end of the trip we saw numerous eagles, sea lions, and Rick spotted a whale.

In case you are wondering how much a trip like this cost, it was incredibly reasonable. The entire cost for fishing, lodging, fish processing, rental car, and our tip for the captain was about $2,500 per person plus airfare. And we brought back 300 pounds of fresh Alaskan fish that was probably worth about $5,000 if bought at a fish market. I brought back so much fish that Jen and I bought a freezer to store it!

So was it worth it. For me, that's a resounding YES! In fact, it was so much fun I'm planning to return again next year. But is this trip for you?

There were a couple negatives. First, the seas can be a little rough. We did a lot of rocking in 2-4 foot seas with white caps on the water. At times it could be a little nerve-wracking standing in the back reeling in a fish while trying to keep your balance. For those who are prone to seasickness, this might be too much. Also, although we had amazing weather, the typical weather is rainy and temps in 50s/low 60s which can feel colder on the water. Again, this might not be for everyone. This trip, as we did it, was for serious fishing.

Ketchikan is quite small and it gets a constant flow of cruise ships in the summer. Unless you want to do some serious hiking, the town and activities could be seen in 1-2 days. There are probably other Alaskan locations which offer more sightseeing, museums, and other activities.

Thanks again for following us, and I hope this provided a good overview of Alaskan fishing.

In September, Jen and I are taking Sam and Shane to Portugal for a family trip. We've had numerous friends and family who have visited Portugal and told us it was amazing. We look forward to experiencing it and telling you about it.

Thanks again for following us, and let us know if we can answer any of your questions.

Love and Peace,

Mike