If you have ever dreamed of fishing Alaska for Giant Halibut, King, Coho (also known as Silver) and pink Salmon or some of the many really cool bottom dwellers they have up there like Ling Cod, Yellow-eye, Black Rockfish and the really elusive Black Cod (AKA Sable fish) just to mention a few, this is the trip for you!!
Our 2018 trip was very successful and absolutely a blast of fun. The fishing was very good with plenty of action most of the 3 days. One of the days was really hot and basically was nonstop fishing action from start to finish. Not only catching our limit, but catch and release of assorted big bottom fish and Halibut up to about 200 lbs. On the last day, five of us decided to go crabbing instead of fishing. It was the most spectacular boat ride through all of the cuts and passages around the hundreds of untouched islands of the Tongass National Forest that nobody lives on except for the bear, deer, eagles and all of the other Alaskan wildlife.
Our group had the whole entire lodge, enabling us to have after fishing snacks and drinks down on the huge floating dock under a lovely gazebo. Imagine this… Eagles soaring overhead with snow capped mountains in the background, sea-lions swimming by chasing the pink salmon all while we are having a cookout down on the dock. One night was grilled Salmon, another was fried Halibut, Flounder, Turbot and Black Rockfish. On our last night we enjoyed a crab boil with the most delicious crab that we caught ourselves on the last day. The crab boil had corn on the cob, sausage and potatoes and was the best dinner of the whole trip.
For 2019 we have added a fourth day of either fishing or crabbing as an option or you can choose to just fish for three days. The whole process is so easy – the Gulfstar staff will assist you if you need personal items or would like info for sight seeing or gift shopping. The lodge and boat staff are very efficient as well and are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They will handle all of your tackle needs, fish processing, breakfast and lunch and your room cleaning.
A typical day goes like this:
- Breakfast at 5 am downstairs at the restaurant.
- After breakfast you make your lunch the way you like it and pick your snacks for the day too.
- On the first day of fishing you then go down to the foul weather gear lockers in the boat house lounge and pick your rain gear and boots. You can also opt to bring your own or purchase gear at the supply house two doors down from the lodge.
- Depart the dock around 6 am and return between 3:30 and 4 pm.
- We take group pictures of our days catch and let the staff start processing the fish. They have an amazing fish processing room and make it look easy. They filet, portion, vacuum bag, label and blast freeze your fish. The fish gets divided equally between everybody on your boat and remains in freezer storage until departure.
- Pre dinner snacks: you go up to your room and get cleaned up and if you want to you can join the group for after fishing banter and snacks.
- The package includes 3 dinners that we cook on the dock down at the gazebo. We have access to a gas grill, a deep fryer and a giant boil pot. All of the fish and crabs we cook are fresh from our catch. Your fare includes some $$ towards all of the sides, drinks, plates, utensils etc…
- Turn in and do it all over again.
On a trip with 3 days of fishing, your catch gets divided evenly by the fishermen on the boat you fished on.
On a trip with 4 days of fishing, you fish the first 3 days then opt to go crabbing on the 4th. If you opt to go crabbing, the crabs get cooked the last night and everybody in the group, including boat staff, eats them. If you opt to go fishing on day 4, the fish from day 4 only gets divided evenly between all of fisherman/crabbers in our group.
Click Here for more info on Gulfstar’s Alaska 2019 trip
Click Here To book the 2019 Alaska Adventure
Click Here for photos of our 2018 Alaska trip