Fishing Alaska wanting input

[huntnnw]

 I am planning a trip (my first) to AK next summer as you can see I have a ton of questions and dont know where to start planning really. Taking the family and priority is to catch salmon on this trip as we all love to fish.Im not looking at staying some lavish fly in lodge where it will cost $20k for us all Im looking at 2 different ways of experiencing AK...first idea was to head to Ketchikan and use VRBO and rent a house for a week and rent a boat and fish the bay and probably hire a guide the first day to gain knowledge about the water and so on. The other is using the US forest service cabins that are available and booking one of them where there will be alot of fish to go after. I am looking at any input from anyone who has fished AK on their own and any advice or ideas you can send my way. Im not looking at breaking the bank to go up there, but also know it will cost some money.Im just a DIY guy and not spending that amount of cash some of these lodges want to fish for 5 days is outrageous. Thanks

[JColony]

Sitka would be a good place to look at also.  If you want to be on the road system, Homer and Valdez are real good options as well.

[chukar hunter]

I've done DIY out of Petersburg many times.  I now own a cabin there, we love it so much!  10 years running!  I would also recommend Sitka or Ketchikan. 

There are many places that offer a due it yourself type of experience, without a guide, but can offer places to sleep, fishing expertise, and food without the hassle of planning yourself.  They will probably run you close to $3-4K/week per person. 

Forest Service cabins are very nice, but are often located in bays and tidal flats that would make flexibility of fishing difficult.  Also, if unfamiliar with the area, a trip can get dangerous or real expensive real quick if your not prepared.  Make sure you book well in advance.  I'm on the computer Jan 1 at 12:01 am booking for the few choice days in my go to cabin areas.  The tides runs everything SE AK. 

I've got a few recommended places on the Petersburg Area if your interested.  PM me. 

[Angus]

I've spent a few summers (22 ) in S.E. AK., mainly on P.O.W. Is. but also 5 summers in Ketchikan and 1 in Yakutat and have a few suggestions for you.
1st, if you go to Ketchikan I think I would go later in the season when the silver fishing is good, mid August to mid Sept is the time frame I would shoot for. The fishing can be fast and furious and can be done from a skiff and a short run from the dock. You can get kings earlier in the summer but the action generally is slow/slower especially from a skiff and even slower if you don't have downriggers. Hiring a guide for a day may or may not help you, if you hire 1 that runs you 20-30 miles from town, that won't help much when you switch to a rental boat unless your considering 1 of the bigger 20-22 foot boats I think they may rent out of town now, if that's the case you'll have a lot more options. Also, if you are planning on renting skiffs, I wouldn't have very high expectations of catching many bottomfish, though it sounds as though salmon is your primary mission.
As for a FS cabin, I spent a some time at the McDonald lake cabin above Yes Bay lodge back in the early 90's, most days the fishing was good to great but occasionally it was tough, timing is everything, a day or 2 one way or the other can be the difference between the trip of a lifetime or a day of casting practice. Probably the case at most FS cabins in S.E.
Another option you may want to look into is Yakutat, I spent a month there guiding a couple years ago and pretty impressed with what I saw, the silver fishing was sub-par that year by Yakutat standards from what I was told but it was still decent and the skiff guys were fishing the same spots as the charters and for the most part, doing just as well. Along with the saltwater fishing there is also the Situk river which is a world class steelhead river and a damn good salmon river. The lodges in the area are pretty dumpy compared to the 2 premier lodges I spent 20 years working for in Ketchikan and Craig but that being said, they are more geared toward families and budget minded fisherman, if you don't mind a worn out mattress and a lousy buffet style meal, your $$$ will go a lot farther here. 1 drawback though is there are only 2 flights a day in and out so its not quite as easy to get to as other S.E. AK towns. The scenery here blows the rest of S.E. away too, IMHO, pretty cool seeing 20,000' mountains coming right down to the edge of the ocean, then there's the glaciers, spectacular to say the least.

[huntnnw]

thanks for the input

[KFhunter]

I've had great luck with VRBO's

Did one in Seward and went fishing, but used a guide.

Couldn't find the house I stayed at on the VRBO site though.


Shipping fish down was the killer for us,  hope you have a better way to get your fish home.

[PNW_Hunter]

I went fishing out of whale pass which is a short float plane away from ketchican and had an awesome time. Feel free to PM me if you need any advice or stuff (don't have time to type it all out now).

Took about a day or so to figure out where the fish were, but after that we all limited out on halibut, rockfish, salmon, and had a blast!