When you see someone that has achieved 100% five star ratings (from over 100 reviews), you wonder if that’s possible. The answer is YES it is! We booked a six hour Halibut / Salmon charter with Captain Mike of the The Alaska Catch Fishing charters a couple weeks before coming to Ketchikan on a cruise. Everything was excellent, right from the start.
• Captain Mike was responsive to our questions and thoroughly explained why he recommended the six hour trip over the four hour trip and why we should go for Halibut first rather than Salmon.
• Everything about the booking process was totally straight forward. Once we agreed he sent us an invoice which we were able to pay using PayPal.
• Captain Mike met us right at the top of the ramp as we disembarked our cruise ship with a sign that was clearly marked “The Alaska Catch”. His boat was tied up at the marina directly adjacent to where our cruise ship was docked. The “5 minute” walk he told us would occur was really only about 3 minutes.
• His boat is a beautiful 24 foot fishing that was meticulously clean with plenty of room in the cabin for 5 adults (there were only 3 of us). After taking about 5 – 10 minutes walking us though a safety talk and showing were everything was that we’d need to know, we purchased our fishing licenses directly from him (cash only). This took another 6 to 7 minutes.
• Captain Mike has been fishing out of Ketchikan for 10 years, so he knows what works to catch fish and where to look for them. We pushed off and headed out. It took us about an hour to get to one of his “secret spots” for Halibut. After about another 10 minutes to anchor and set-up our gear, we dropped our lines in (all the while, Captain Mike was explaining what he was doing and why he was doing it that way). (BTW… While this was going on, 3 dolphins kept giving us a show by circling the boat.)
• Within 10 minutes of dropping our lines in we had our first strike. Within 2 hours we had 3 nice sized halibut (in addition to two that we released because they were too small), two rock fish (and a large dogfish which we released).
• Since we had our limit of halibut, Captain Mike rigged new poles for Salmon and we pulled up the anchor. He was very careful about reminding us that this was the very beginning of the King Salmon run and consequently we shouldn’t get our hopes too high.
• Once the anchor was up, we started trolling for Salmon in a cove very close to where we had been fishing for Halibut. Once again we had our first strike within 10 minutes. (Note: this was obviously the biggest salmon in the ocean because we didn’t successfully land it….. ) However, over the next hour and a half we caught two “shakers” (i.e. King Salmon too small to keep) and a beautiful 20+ pound King Salmon to keep! (BTW… While we were trolling, a whale entertained us by swimming along the shoreline close to us)
• Unfortunately, our cruise ship wouldn’t wait for us to keep fishing so we headed back. We discussed the options for what to do with the fish. We decided to have the Halibut & Salmon processed and shipped home and donate the rock fish to a local charity (Note: It is illegal for sport fisherman in Alaska to sell their fish to anyone.) Captain Mike made the process painless. We filled out a form with the shipping and billing information and he took the fish to the processing plant after dropping us back at our ship.
• We received our fish frozen in one pound packages on the morning of the day that we wanted them. (The processing and shipping charges worked out to be about $10 / lb. Definitely better than the local food store)
So I’m pleased to add our review to the 5 star reviews that Captain Mike has already received. It was a wonderful experience from start to finish and we would have given the same rating even if we hadn’t been fortunate enough to catch a King Salmon.