Need Ak Fishing Trip Advice

I have a good friend who has just returned from Iraq. My wife and I want to treat him and his wife to a fishing trip with us to Alaska in late July or Aug this year. What I want is a decent lodge anywhere in Alaska that is nice, but not extravigantly expensive, where we can fly fish in a river for Silver Salmon and possibly for arctic char for 2-3 days and also go out on a boat to halibut fish for 2-3 days. If I can't find an Alaska trip, an alternate trip plan would be to go to a Canada lodge to fish for brook trout and char. Any suggestions or advice would be very much appreciated.

Doug Evans
662-801-0351

What would be reasonable? If your trying to go cheap, one of the best routes is flying to Anchorage, renting a car and driving to Seward or somewhere similar. You can stay in a motel or camp and take daily charters. If you want to go to a lodge with great fishing, that normally adds a float plane trip. If you are looking for an awesome experience, check out http://www.flyfishalaska.com/Index.htm. It is an amazing lodge with any type of fishing you want (ocean, lake, stream, etc.), great meals, hot springs for soaking, lots of whales, and the fishing is awesome. I've fished with a couple folks out of Seward as well. This fall I'm headed up to fish with
http://www.garylarose.com/fishing_ak_peninsula.html
His prices are reasonable, but several connections to get to his place. Let me know if you want more info.

David Dukat
www.huntingvideosonline.com

Thanks 367

The Baronof Lodge looks good, the only thing that bothers me is that the website says they only allow you to bring back one box of halibut. I planned on bringing back more if possible. How did you find out about Larose? What sold you on them? Thanks for the information.

Doug

RE: Thanks 367

Baranhof is an awesome place. We went up a few years back and caught a 230# halibut (plus some 40#ers) and plenty of salmon. One of the folks in camp caught a 325#er. Quite a fish. They just have a high class operation. Lots of bald eagles around, saw quite a few bears, were really close to a pod of killer whales (they swam under our 24' boat 5 or 6 times) and saw other whales as well. If your looking for a great experience I would highly recommend them. I'm sure you could give them a call and find out about the restriction on halibut. You take a small plane over, so that may be the issue, not sure. The other option would be to spend an extra day and take a charter out of Sitka and catch more halibut. Not sure if you've fished up there before, but the salmon are a lot more fun to catch anyhow. I think we came back w/ 70#'s of halibut and 70 of salmon and that was plenty.

I had a buddy go with Gary LaRose two years ago and I met him last year. Just a fun guy and we are duck hunting as well, so his lodge was a good fit. The buddy who went caught salmon until he was tired of it and hunted ducks and geese quite a bit as well. Send pictures if you make the trip. I'll try to find some from Baranhof.

David Dukat
www.huntingvideosonline.com

RE: Thanks 367

Here is a shot of the killer whales coming at the boat.

Here is a shot of the big halibut caught during our trip.

Both of these were with Baranhof.