Went up to Ketchikan in late July, with the trip split into two parts. The first part was the redhead & I staying about a week at a full service lodge called Clover Pass Resort. www.cloverpassresort.com I've rented boats from them previously, but have never stayed with them. The lodging is spartan, but clean & comfortable, with a self-service laundry on site. The food was great; breakfast was pretty standard fare, but had variety from day to day (french toast sticks, home fried potatotes, etc). There's also lots of self-serve items, like bagels, cereal etc in case you're up and hungry at 3am. Lunch was typically soup of the day, plus a well-stocked salad bar and sandwich bar, with at least six different types of bread, lunchmeats and cheese. The sandwich bar was available 24 hours a day as well, so you can get a midnight snack, or pack a sack lunch before going out on the boat.

Dinner was just ... WOW! Each night the staff brought your seafood-based appetizer to your table (I LOVED the crab-stuffed avocados!), and dinner was a buffett arrangement with something different every day. One day was prime rib, another was fresh seafood feast (crabs, clams, mussels, prawns, etc), and so on. Dessert was likewise phenomenal. If our country were truly civilized, the people who prepare such wonderful food would be royalty!

There was always fresh coffee ready, and plenty of soft drinks & bottled water to take out on the boat.

For fishing, you can either go guided, or self-guided (there are 20' covered boats and 14' open skiffs). Guided is more costly, but if you aren't familiar with the area & methods, it's far more productive. We went self-guided with one of the 20' boats. The lodge does all your fish cleaning & packing, and will custom pack fish if you ask (such as whole fillet, skin on, etc). They also supply all the ice you need for your fishing.

Fishing was poor this year due to the El Nino cycle pushing warmer water into the area - normally when we're there, the water is deep blue, but this time it was green. Still managed to get my annual limit of keeper king salmon from 8# to 13#, and a few silvers and pinks.





Also caught a few halibut, but they weren't very large. The smallest was 14# and the biggest was 21#



The highlight of the trip for me was catching a new fish, called a shortspine thornyhead rockfish, which is a pending world record. This was caught deep dropping at about 1,400 feet while fishing for sablefish (caught 7 of those). Also pulled up a sleeper shark from almost 1,500 feet - y'all can google it. I was out by myself that day, it was a bit bumpy, and I didn't want to risk losing the rod just to get pictures. That was a BIG beast.



The next part of the trip was with the family & friends group at a private rental house. The house is a place we've stayed at before, and we have a good rapport with the owners. We rented a 25' twin engine boat and kept it at the house (they have their own dock!). I didn't get much fishing time for this part of the trip, as I'm the boat driver, rod rigger, fish netter, etc for my mom and her friends. By this time, the water temps had started to get better, and the pink salmon were finally coming in. Pink salmon are to other salmon what sandbass are to stripers - they're abundant and easy to catch, but just don't get as big.

Typical day from the second week, with three people fishing this day:



The weather was pretty windy throughout our whole stay, so one of the problems was finding relatively calm, sheltered areas to fish each day, as my mother HATES being out in anything remotely bumpy or rough. Unfortunately, this kept us very close to home, so we never had a chance to get out to the good halibut areas. Did see some critters we're never seen in person before, including a harbor porpoise, and salmon sharks.

Total for the trip was about 80# of fillets for the redhead & I from our Clover Pass stay. My mom & her friends managed to bring home about 240# of fillets (mostly pink & chum salmon) between 6 people. We've had more productive trips, but it was still enjoyable. I'm already booking next summer's trip so I can get the best deals on airfare and lock in the dates we want for the house ...

*edit* Here's the view from the front porch:



Low tide in the morning:



High tide about 6-1/2 hours later on the same day:

Solid post and thanks for sharing.

Great report! Why is the goldfish eating the other fish?