Alaska Fishing Guides: Choosing Professional Fishing Assistants Near Alaska
If you’re considering hiring Alaska fishing guides to enhance your Alaskan fishing trip adventure, you’ve already made a great decision. Charters and guides typically know the waters, fish migrations and great strategies to ensure you’ll come home with a trophy-sized catch.
But, like any business, there are good guides and bad ones. So, how do you know the difference? How do you find a great fishing guide or charter company? Should you go with a group fishing vacation or book privately? For hints and tips on how to choose an Alaskan fishing guide, keep reading.
Check References
Ask for the phone numbers or email addresses of former clients. Tell them you’d simply like to check their references. Remember, you could be spending several thousand dollars for a private, chartered and guided fishing service, so requesting references should be automatic.
In addition to verifying references from former clients, you can also try a quick phone call to the local tourism office. Remember, Alaska may be big, but it has small communities. Ideally, you want to hire Alaska fishing guides that are not only known by their tourism office, but also recommended.
Check Crew Qualifications
Before you arrive or upon arrival, you can ask to see the crew’s licenses and certifications. These can be faxed ahead of time or presented to you before departure. You also want to look for a crew that has a lot of experience in Alaskan waters and a strong understanding of the area.
Hire and Experienced, Local Guide
The best Alaskan guides and tour operators are either Alaska-born or long-time citizens with an impressive resume of local work experience. Remember, you’re hiring a guide because of their knowledge of the area and fishing waters - so look for one that has a proven track record.
A great way to check a guide’s success is to ask for their catch track record. How many fish are caught on each trip? What are the average weights? What’s their overall success rate? Remember to ask about their safety record too.
Check What’s Included and What’s Extra
Many Alaska fishing guides will include extra perks like lunches, fish processing and freezing, equipment, licenses, bait and tackle. However, some won’t - so, it’s important to find out what is and is not included in your fishing expedition before you book.
Most people only find the opportunity for an Alaska fishing trip adventure once in a lifetime. That being the case, you want to ensure that any guide you select is knowledgeable, professional, service-oriented, and has a wealth of experience on the Alaskan waters.