Heading to Alaska!

[mrwalleyee]

I'm heading up to Alaska on a cruise. I am having trouble finding a halibut charter out of Juneau that I like. So I am looking for recommendations from you guys. We have all day to fish if we want to, so I figured a halibut trip would be in order. After all, I don't know if I'll ever get back up to Alaska again. If you want you can email me at [email protected]. Thanks, Paul

[fishing tech]

Was on an Alaska cruise 3 years ago. We did the inside passage. Let me tell you pictures do not do it justice. We sat in the bar of the ship while we were docking in Ketchacin and watched Bald eagle take turns swooping down from the big pines and plucking fish from the water. I never had a chance to fish but when I got back my favorite brother tells me that "oh so and so runs a fishing chartor out of Ketchican you should have told me you were going there". I could have killed him. So if you want to try there I can see if he is still doing that. Are you doing any excursions? In Juneua we rented a wreck, 3 couple split a mini van and went on our own to see the sites for $60.00 vs $100.00 a person for a tour. There is only about 80 miles of road. We also hit a little bar for some fresh halibut and beverages. When are you going? things start shutting down late September. You may be able to pickup some deals.

[ocf]

hey just got back from an alaskan cruise.... what line are you cruising... we were on holland americas zaandam... you will prolly see it... but anyways if you stop in sitka i would definitly fish there, they have a much higher catch rate than any other place, when we were in junaue you could see salmon jumping out of the water, these guys caught about 20 of em in like 10 minutes. its pretty cool.

[mrwalleyee]

We are on the Princess line. We leave from Vancouver and are making stops in Ketchican, Juneau,Skagway, and end up in Anchorage. I was hoping to do some Halibut fishing in Juneau. We already have a salmon charter for Skagway. I have the digital camera ready to go and the card can hold over 800 pictures, we'll see if I can fill her up. Thanks,Paul

[ocf]

cool. ive heard good things about princess, hope the weather is clear as ours was clear goin in and goin out. well you can always check with the excursions desk. ketchikan was my favorite stop. there is a a small salmon shop in the blocks of shops that has some great deals and food. be aware... you are going to be buying jewelry there i counted 28 jewelry stores. check out the great alaskan lumberjack there if you like comedy and are an outgoing person. be sure to look at the float planes taking off right by the edge of the ship in ketchican

[mrwalleyee]

Thanks ocf, we are already booked for the lumberjack show in Ketchikan. Heard good things about it, and we are only there from 6:30am to 2:30pm, so not much time to do any fishing. Still looking for reliable halibut charters out of Juneau. Thanks, Paul

[Blue Kayak]

I was on the same Princess tour last year and had a great time. We left in the end of July and came back on August 8th. My one regret was not bringing a rod, reel, and some tackle. There were several times I could have fished if I had only had some tackle.

I did go out in a skiff from Ketchikan. This was kind of disappointing. We were using heavy tackle because there was the possibility of hooking up with a Halibut. All our boat caught was rockfish, the largest was maybe four pounds. But, you are fishing in water from 100 to nearly 200 feet deep with a half pound sinker. Belive me, the rockfish do not put up much of fight. The limit is three, and we quickly filled out and had to switch over to salmon fishing. The salmon were not biting.

The best fishing I had was in a small stream in Skagway. I rented a rod and reel with a spoon for $20. The salmon were not biting, but there were so many you could not help snagging them. These were well into the spawn and not suitable for food. Unfortunately, the rod and reel was much heavier than I would like to have used. I think a medium weight with 8 to 10 pound line would be good.

At one of the ports (maybe Juneau) people were fishing right from the peir behind the ship. They had good luck with salmon.

I was researching fishing for the cruise, and that was the first time I had ever heard of fishing from a kayak. I wish I would have tried that instead of the skiff fishing. After the cruise I bought a kayak for fishing.

[tjm]

Send me an e-mail if your still looking

tjmalaskan(at)yahoo

[bturck]

We were on the Coral Princess in August of 2003. We cruised the inside passage from Anchorage to Vancouver, its a much shorter flight back to Mpls from Vancouver than from Anchorage. You will enjoy it beyond belief. Be sure to take binoculars along. When in Skagway as you walk from the ship dock toward downtown, check out the crab shack on your left, about a block from the dock, best crab cakes you'll ever eat. As mentioned things shut down right after Labor Day, great time of the year to cruise and pick up some good deals. Sorry can't help with the fishing info, next time up I will definitley be doing the halibut though. Enjoy, you'll love it. Bill

[TSCTSC]

We were there in 2004. Went with 2 charters for Halibut. I would recommend crackerjack. Cannot remember the name of the other one. Crackerjack charters have a moderate sized boat, and is newer. More help from them too. They are from Seward.