My husband, father in law, and I booked a 4 hour Halibut tour outside of our cruise ship- We were in port from 1230p-730p and wanted a more personalized experience rather then going through the cruise line. I am SO GLAD THAT WE DID because we had a great day and ended up with a nice catch of fish!
This operation offered transportation from the cruise ship to the marina. As we were getting off the ship, Mark, called us and said he was in the parking lot waiting for us. It was about a 20 minute drive to the marina where we met our captain Hunter. The boat was in excellent condition and managed the sea’s well. It was overcast/rainy (typical for Ketchikan) but also a little breezy. Hunter and Mark had told us that they were concerned with the weather report and we would have to “play it by ear” if it got to rough. Thankfully, it did not get to rough and we were able to spend a lot of time out on the water.
It took a little while for the Halibut to turn on as the tide was not moving in the right direction, but when it did, we quickly caught our limit! One Halibut was 35 inches, which is big considering we couldn’t keep it if it was over 40 inches, so we were thrilled!
After we caught our limit, Hunter gave us the option to do some Salmon fishing or do some bottom fishing for cod/sea bass. Since we wanted table fare, we opted for the bottom fishing- it was not Salmon season yet. Hunter ran for about 20 minutes to get us to a more protected area (the wind was starting to pick up a bit and we needed calm waters to jig). No sooner then we got to this new area, he saw fish on the meter, told us what to do, and boom we started catching sea bass. Unfortunately we did not catch any cod, but we did limit out on sea bass. During this time there was a bald eagle flying around and doing his own fishing which allowed me to capture some amazing photos. We also saw Orca’s and sea lions.
Overall this trip was amazing. We ended up with 3 Halibut, 1 pacific cod, and 15 sea bass. When we got back to the marina, the dock guys met us, took the fish, cleaned them up for pictures, and then filleted and packaged the fish for shipping. Now that we are back home (in Maryland) we should be getting the fish this week. We are so excited!
I highly recommend this company and this tour. It was excellent and we had a great time. While we had a great day, remember, its called fishing, not catching…. Although I am confident Hunter will do anything in his power to put you on the fish :)