I gave Tim a surprise Alaskan fishing trip for his birthday! Accompanying him were Papa, Jude, Hudson, and Chase. It was truly a bucket list trip….one I hope we will be repeating! And by we-I mean me too! Can’t wait to go myself!
They stayed at the Salmon Catcher Lodge for the week! It was a 3 hour drive from Anchorage. The accommodations I chose at the lodge were a cabin with a bunk room of single and queen beds. There was also a master suite, living room, and kitchen. We chose to have our meals made by the lodge but you definitely could do a grocery run and cook meals yourself. The boys all said the dinners were incredible. Breakfast was served around their fishing schedules and they accommodated leaving early on trips and also sending a lunch out with them each day. Tim said the lodge people come around each evening and would talk through the next day’s plans and meal needs which was super helpful. The lodge also processes and packages all the fish caught and each one in our party came home with a 50lb box of frozen fish.
Where we stayed: Salmon Catcher Lodge
Monday
This first day the guys spent fishing for halibut and cod out of Ninilchik. We used Discover Alaska charter company. The extra fun piece to this fishing trip was the tractor pulled beach launch! The day was extremely rough seas so fishing was coupled with a bit of sea sickness-only Papa escaped that. But limits of halibut (2 pp) were caught and fun was had by all. Bonus fish caught were Pacific Cod!
Tuesday
Fishing for sockeye on the Kasilof River was on for the 2nd day. They drift boated down river to a rocky bar and, once there, they wade into the water to fish. Everyone caught their limit (3 salmon pp on that day) and had fun! We used the Salmon Catcher Lodge’s own guide service for all 3 Kasilof River trips.
wednesday
Since Tuesday was so successful they decided to head to the Kasilof River again! Everyone caught their limit-which was 6 Sockeye pp on Wednesday! The limits of Halibut and Sockeye changed depending on the number of fish in the river at any given time.
thursday
This was the highly anticipated day! The boys took a float plane to a lake to fish for sockeye right next to the brown bears! Limits of sockeye were again caught as they fished from the boat. We used the Talon Air service. All 5 of the boys say this day was the BEST day of all! Amazing scenery, awesome float plane ride, and the wildlife, particularly the bears and eagles, were thrilling to see! A big treat was when the guides would hand the boys a sockeye carcass to throw out on the beach and watch as the eagles swooped down to catch it and devour it! On their return trip they even flew over glaciers which they said was amazing!
friday
Back to the Kasilof River again where we caught one short of our 6 pp limit!
2nd half of Friday was also highly looked forward to by the boys especially – an authentic gold mining experience in the back country using a dredge. The boys could not have had more fun and learned a ton! Even brought home gold-about $100 worth!
Gold mining tour was here: Gold Pan Alaska
{A couple Thoughts}
After the trip, Tim confirmed with me that Chase’s age-9, was the youngest he felt you’d want to take a child.
The guys all felt if going again they would like to stay in accommodations next to water. A river or a lake. They would go back to the same lodge but also felt there were so many lodges everywhere that they’d most likely try a different one.
They also felt a little more time to sightsee both the wilderness and nearby towns would be fun!
One other comment was they felt they would do another sea fishing trip mostly due to the type of fish you catch are very different from anything they would normally catch.
All in all I would say it was truly a bucket list trip that everyone would repeat in a heartbeat!
xo, Sarah
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