Ketchikan self trip

Greeting all,

I am in the beginning stages of planning a self done trip to Ketchikan early next July.

Plan so far is to take our 3/4 ton Dodge, 8' cabover camper, towing 20' Alumaweld Blackhawk from Kitsap to Prince Rupert, board the Alaska marine highway ferry for a 6 hour ride to Ketchikan.

Once in Ketchikan we will stay at the Clover Pass resort, they have RV parking, launch and moorage facilities and will quick freeze your catch for the trip home.

Has anyone done this type of trip to SE Alaska before using the ferry system up there?

Any tips, tricks, advice, cautions are most welcome.

TIA!

sounds like a freakin blast. good luck

Sounds like a great trip! It is just over 1,000 miles to Prince Rupert - I checked having considered towing there and then running to Alaska by boat. I like your approach better.

You might want to be sure Canada won't give you any problems with the boat/trailer braking system. Seems that is a difficult thing to pin down as to where the dividing line is on what requires more than a surge brake system.

Another thing to consider is that you can have frozen fish shipped home via Alaska Airlines. That airline also has cold storage at its freight terminal at SEA-TAC although not sure how long they will hold it or have family/friends pick it up.

Thanks Larry. I had read something about the trailer brake issue up there as well so we will check into it as we get further along.

I had toyed with the idea of towing to Prince Rupert and then running the boat up from there but there is a lot of open water between the two for our boat, plus I like the idea of having the camper as a home port to fish out of once we are there so I think the ferry gig is the better option for us.

Although when i get the "next" boat I might play with the idea more seriously. :-)

We have 2 100 qt and 1 75 qt coolers so I was thinking we would have the resort freeze the fish then throw it in the coolers with dry ice for the trip home. We will bring the vacpack up with us so everything will already be processed.

I've been going up there for 20 years, I keep a boat up there. I go in June for kings and Sept for silvers, July and Aug are mostly pinks & chums unless you want to take a long run to POW. I wouldn't recommend that option in 20' boat. I don't know how long you plan to stay but if you're leaving before silvers show up, you're missing some awesome fishing.
Halibut is easy all summer.
I'm happy to answer any questions you might have and if you're in town when I'm there, I can show you some remote spots to fish.
Pick up a chart and make sure your Gps plotter has a detailed card for that area. Without it, you'll be lost! I'd also make sure you have good safety equipment, especially a good radio.
Regarding getting the boat there, I sent mine by barge. You might want to get a quote and see if it makes sense financially.
That area is absolutely beautiful and fantastic fishing.
Pm me if you want some info.

Thanks Luckydogss.

Planning on first week of July, I'm thinking there should still be some kings around and a few silvers starting to come in and we will do quite a bit of bottom fishing as that's our preferred eating fish.

We've been up there a couple of times, the last in 2013 where we spent a week in Misty Fjord in mid-July with Capt Rob on Classic Alaskan Charters. Awesome trip to an awesome area. We caught pinks until I couldn't hardly hold a rod any more, limited on hali and rock fish and jigged up a bunch of silvers as well. Brought back 85lbs of fillets between my wife and I, the other three family members brought back about 50 lbs a piece. No shortage of fish and incredible scenery to top it off.

Thanks for the offer to answer questions, I'll PM you some.

I was just up there! I fished out of Knudson's which is just a bit North of Clover Pass resort.

Bob and Dave


I was hoping for 6 fish days but it wasn't red hot. Still caught quite a few and came home with 2 50# boxes of filet's.


I have a buddy who pays $2+ per pound and just drops his fish off at Clover. Not me. I did my own. Takes some time, but I think it's part of the game. Knudson's has 2 chamber vacuum packers so if you wait until the crowd is gone vacuuming fly's. The freezer is right next to the vacuum packers. Only thing I didn't like about that setup is they wanted you to use their bags at $.75 each. I found a 1000 bag's for $45 online. I sure like those chamber VP's


I might get tempted to take the same trip.