Alaska fishing question?

[skogler]

Anyone done any fishing tours booked off the cruise ship? I will be in Ketchikan, Juneau, Mt. McKinley, and Denali on our cruise tour stops.

 

Thanks,

 

Scott

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Anyone done any fishing tours booked off the cruise ship? I will be in Ketchikan, Juneau, Mt. McKinley, and Denali on our cruise tour stops.

 

Scott:

 

When you say "booked off the cruise ship" do you mean booked through the cruise line or booked with an independent? Not sure what you're asking. :p

 

I did a salmon fishing excursion booked through the ship in Ketchikan. It was great! Caught five salmon. :)

 

Cheers!

Jayne

[Toyz711]

what type of fish?

junean and ketchikan have fishing for halbut and salmon. what type of salmon depends on what is running.

http://www.traveljuneau.com/

http://www.visit-ketchikan.com/

if you book directly with a local vendor you can save some money over the ship's price. less people taking a cut of the $$.

ketchikan's nickname is "the salmon capitol".

denali and mt mckinley are not on the cruise, they are inland. maybe part of your land tour?

[skogler]

Denali and Mt. McKinley are part of a land tour. I saw two choices for Ketchikan through the Princess shore tour site. One was in a lake, the other was somewhere in the Inside pasage(they said the calm waters). The lake fishing was from a float. I think it was for trout though because it was fly fishing.

 

Scott

[Toyz711]

just a hint for reference...no gty of calm water any where on the "inside passage". on auke bay, out of juneau, i have good waves on the whale watch.(and rain and sleet) i did some research last year when i thought we would do some fishing during our cruise...

1..prices much better when booked yourself. sometimes it could be with the same vendor the ship would use

2..salmon can be a shorter trip, they don't have to go out so far

3..halibut, plan on more time, got to go out further

4..fishing licenses are extra, usually purchased through the vendor

5..king salmon need an additional stamp to the license

6..in ketchikan you can rent a pole and fish right in town (when the salmon are running). it has been mentioned that you can do that in juneau somewhere near the hatchery? not sure about that.

 

4 members of my family did do a kayaking trip out of ketchikan, they were too late in the season for anything, but they did catch a couple of cod and some other stuff. nothing fancy.

can't help with fly fishing, never learned how. good luck, if you look over those links i posted earlier you will find links to fishing that might give you more information. plus the limits on what you catch.

[Budget Queen]

My family has gone out several times with Northern Lights out of Ketchikan. consistantly excellent trips.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

i did some research last year when i thought we would do some fishing during our cruise...

 

1..prices much better when booked yourself. sometimes it could be with the same vendor the ship would use

 

 

Toyz, can you tell me who you found that was less expensive than booking through the ship? My DD and I would like to go salmon fishing on our upcoming cruise so I've been contacting vendors. Every independent I've found so far is $25-$50 more than if we were to book through the ship ($199).

 

In addition, every vendor I've contacted has said there have to be a minimum of four places on the boats purchased, so if no one else booked on the same day/time that we would like, we would have pay double.

 

Thanks,

Jayne

[Toyz711]

true, the fishing boats like to go out with 4 to 6 people. (the limit is 6 from what i heard). my DH decided he didn't want go to fishing while we were there, we fish ALOT and had done halibut fishing out of seward several years ago.

if you tell everyone when you are going and what port...they make be able to offer some hints. are you looking at halibut? salmon? fly fishing?

[Quilting_Cruiser]

true, the fishing boats like to go out with 4 to 6 people. (the limit is 6 from what i heard). my DH decided he didn't want go to fishing while we were there, we fish ALOT and had done halibut fishing out of seward several years ago.

if you tell everyone when you are going and what port...they make be able to offer some hints. are you looking at halibut? salmon? fly fishing?

 

Salmon fishing.

 

I've posted on my roll call, and so far no one is interested. I've talked with vendors and they've told me they don't put charters together, so no help there. I could book through a someplace that arranges tours, but I don't see any difference in that than booking through the ship.

 

Thanks!

Jayne

 

:)

[Toyz711]

hate asking all these questions, but it will help others help you.

what ship, that will help.

then which port are you looking at, juneau, icy straits, ketckikan?

what dates? time you are in port? how many in your party?

there are a couple of locals on these boards that might be able to point you in the right direct.

have you tried "northern lights" in ketchikan, they have gotten great reviews the whole time i have been on this board. last year i was thinking about getting on a wait list with someone, while they put together a full boat. it's a shame they won't work with you, how do they expect to fill their boats?

my family didn't use this company, but they loved this trip

http://www.yakfishalaska.com/

i couldn't do that, could not sit like that for 3 hours.:D

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Not a problem--if helps me and others, that's great!

 

 

hate asking all these questions, but it will help others help you.

 

what ship, that will help. Carnival Spirit (August 15 southbound sailing)

 

then which port are you looking at, juneau, icy straits, ketckikan? At this point, I have something scheduled for every port but Juneau.

 

what dates? time you are in port? Juneau, Aug 18, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

 

how many in your party? Two

 

there are a couple of locals on these boards that might be able to point you in the right direct. I've chatted with a couple--they have recommendations who to go with, but then I run into the issue that my party is too small.

 

have you tried "northern lights" in ketchikan, they have gotten great reviews the whole time i have been on this board. last year i was thinking about getting on a wait list with someone, while they put together a full boat. it's a shame they won't work with you, how do they expect to fill their boats? Ketchikan is where I went salmon fishing on our last Alaska cruise. It was great! Not an option this year--we already have the day filled up.

 

my family didn't use this company, but they loved this trip http://www.yakfishalaska.com/ i couldn't do that, could not sit like that for 3 hours. I agree with you on this one--this is not the experience I'm looking for! ;)

[Toyz711]

maybe eileen at

http://www.harvandmarvs.com/aboutus2.html

can help. she was helpful last year when i had questions about stuff.

she was going to put me on a wait list to see about filling a whale watch tour. i would at least talk to her and see what she might recommend.

[canadiangirl77]

we just booked a fishing trip through what sounds like an amazing company and guide called http://www.truealaskancharters.com/

Bruce sounds like a great guy ... and is located in Ketchikan.

[FloridaFan]

I'm specifically interested in halibut fishing for my DH. We'll be in the following ports: Ketchican (7 AM-4 PM); Juneau (9 AM-8 PM); Skagway (7 AM-8:30 PM); Icy Strait Point (7 AM-5 PM); and Seward (entering port at 7 AM for full-ship unloading). Any charter or other suggestions?

[canadiangirl77]

Florida fan, this is exactly what my DH and DFIL wanted to do, try calling Bruce at True Alaskan in Ketichan, great guy, we're booked to go out with him in May. Reasonable prices too

[Toyz711]

i was in seward the last time i went halibut fishing...but i wasn't trying to catch a cruise:D . had a great fishing trip..but it was a long way out to the halibut.

 

http://www.skagway.com/

http://www.traveljuneau.com/

http://www.visit-ketchikan.com/

couldn't find a website for hoonah (icy straits point). of your ports, ketchikan, juneau and icy straits (hoonah) are your best bets.

be sure to ask about the time element, salmon may be less time riding and more time fishing. (depending on where and when)

[realmccoy]

I am in the process of booking a charter in Juneau, as we too had nothing planned. An 8 Hour Charter is around $850 - 1300 for up to 4 people depending on the charter.

[FloridaFan]

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll check out True Alaskan and the other sites mentioned. I knew a charter for halibut would be a long trip and therefore expensive, but it's the only thing he's got his heart set on. He said I can plan everything else, so I've got to get him one good fishing trip.

[fsdj1097]

We have fished with Capt. Dan Leathers of North Pacific Charters. Check out his photo gallery on his website. http://www.northpacificcharters.com

 

He will work with you on your schedule and number of fishermen.

[RB24]

I just booked with True Alaskan for this July for Salmon fishing. I checked out about 8 companies and they seemed to be the best. Picking us up right from our ship (vs. many others in which a taxi is required) when it comes in and don't have a problem waiting for us if we get tied up in lines getting off. Their boat is within walking distance to the ship. They'll give the four of us the boat exclusively (except for the Skipper of course!) for 4-6 hours. It's our choice when we return in that time frame. Charging $130/person + $20 for license and King stamp.

 

The others were in the $170/person range all inclusive, some with a shared boat and none offering a 4-6 hour range. All were 4 hours only. The ships price was $210/person, a 5.5 hour excursion, but only 3-4 on the water and the boat would be shared with other cruisers as well.

[sea_u_onboard]

I booked in July with Ken at Northern Lights (Ketchikan). There are 4 of us and I chartered the boat for $600 (Plus 6% sales tax). Now I did it last August so I'm sure I got a price break. We will have to also buy the license and stamp.

 

Ken is going to pick us up at the dock at 1 and return us at 6. We are fishing for king salmon so we won't have to travel as far out.

 

We liked the idea of the charter because that way all the fish that are caught are ours and we don't have to pull our lines in for someone elses catch.

 

Ken was very informative. He suggested that we fish for salmon as they will be running and are much closer so we will have more time to fish.