Alaska - Salmon fishing and shipping

[jewel]

We'll be in Alaska for the last 2 weeks of September. Starting in Fairbanks for a few days, Denali, Anchorage, and then boarding a cruise - stopping in Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, and British Columbia.

Somewhere along the way, we'd love to go Salmon fishing, have it packaged and shipped back to California.

Any recommendations on fishing charters, and/or how to get fish safely packaged and shipped out?

Thanks....

[FrozenSunshine]

Are you leaving on the cruise out of Anchorage?

Any reputable charter company will clean, package and ship for you. Fedex & UPS will ship it for you too.

Fishing starts to taper off that time of year, but we've still been successful fishing the Little Susitna River (little Su) that time of year. It's just north of Anchorage.

Denali is scheduled to close Sept. 18th this year, but it is gorgeous in the Fall.

[Deleted]

When we were in Alaska my brother-in-law hired a guy (a professional... not some random guy!-- the concierge at the hotel had recommended him!) to take him out salmon fishing. They caught a whole bunch, and the guy cut it up, & packaged it up in dry ice to send it back home.
Just ask when you book the excursion- I'm sure most of them will do it; since it's likely that tourists from the states are their biggest customers!

[Susie]

I highly recommend Tony at www.aurorasportfishing.com/index.html in Ketchikan.

We went in May a couple years ago, which was a time of year when salmon weren't running. We fished for halibut instead, and caught halibut and red snappers. When the salmon are running, he does a lot of that. We went out on his boat, the Never Enough, and had a great time. Caught lots of fish, were very comfortable, and he handled everything, including getting the fish cleaned and shipped back to us on dry ice after we'd be back home. We bought some additional salmon by the lb. to add to the halibut, etc. that we caught just to have some. I'd book with him again for sure.

[sunshinedaydreams]

Not sure how long you'll be in Anchorage and if you'll have time to make it down the Kenai Peninsula, but we salmon fished on the Kenai River out of Soldotna in mid-September a few years ago and had a good time. I caught my limit (3) and my H caught 1. They processed and shipped everything for us, but it cost quite a bit since they had to be shipped frozen and it was quite a bit of weight.

Like PP said, though, any good outfitter should offer the option to pack and ship for you. And in most places, there are swarms of fishing charters you can just hop on. Just do a little bit of research on the Alaska DNR site to see what fish are running where while you're there.

[expatpumpkin]

I bought some salmon there - unfortunately I didn't catch it myself since I was on a biz trip - and they packed it up for me in a styrofoam box with dry ice. And I checked it as luggage on the plane home with me. Easy peasy

[jewel]

Thanks so much for the suggestions! We have a great start here....