Savor your Catch - a review

[ACorgan]

On 6/21/2023 at 11:00 AM, electro said:

My DH and friend’s DH did a salmon fishing excursion in Ketchikan.

My DH caught a 20 lb king salmon.

I’m going salmon fishing in Ketchikan tomorrow, so very encouraging to hear that people are catching some. I hope the fish will be biting tomorrow 🤞

[PACD_JG]

I've wondered about these fishing trips.  What if all you caught were Humpies, or even worse, Dogs?

[bennybear]

2 hours ago, AncientWanderer said:

 

Right?  I showed it to DH and he's all in.  He loves fishing in Alaska -- and eating fresh fish.   I hope they keep the program.

I love halibut!  And the salmon we’ve had in Alaska has been great.  And compared to the cost of a fishing trip to these areas it sounds almost reasonable!  
It’s always a plus when they make use of the local food.  Our very first cruise was to Alaska and they had a barbecue on deck with fresh fish they had just loaded hours earlier.  That inspired my love of halibut and salmon.

[electro]

13 hours ago, ACorgan said:

I’m going salmon fishing in Ketchikan tomorrow, so very encouraging to hear that people are catching some. I hope the fish will be biting tomorrow 🤞

Good luck, I hope you get a big catch!

[AtlantaCruiser72]

22 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Yes I later saw it for our Excursions in Ketchikan but when I told DH the price $400++ he said we can go out and order several Halibut meals for that. lol

Sometimes the price for something as memorable as this type of experience is worth it. Sure you can go out to dinner several times for the same price, but none of them will have the lasting impact as the “day you caught a 20lb salmon and had it e pertly prepared and beautiful served while sailing the waters of Alaska.”  To me that’s something that’s hard to put a price tag on. 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

10 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Sometimes the price for something as memorable as this type of experience is worth it. Sure you can go out to dinner several times for the same price, but none of them will have the lasting impact as the “day you caught a 20lb salmon and had it e pertly prepared and beautiful served while sailing the waters of Alaska.”  To me that’s something that’s hard to put a price tag on. 

I tend to spend my money on things that are more like a 90% chance of happening, such as booking a Neptune Suites, Flying First Class, booking several spa Appointments on my cruise. The chances of being able to catch that fish, the chance that it will not be pouring rain and even the chance of the excursions being canceled. Those odds do not give me the warm fuzzy feeling of chance it will be memorable 😉 on my cruise. I am getting too old and maybe to wise to not spend money on Chances. But if others and yourself want to do that, that is great and I enjoy reading about it.

[AncientWanderer]

1 hour ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Sometimes the price for something as memorable as this type of experience is worth it. Sure you can go out to dinner several times for the same price, but none of them will have the lasting impact as the “day you caught a 20lb salmon and had it e pertly prepared and beautiful served while sailing the waters of Alaska.”  To me that’s something that’s hard to put a price tag on. 

 

Well, I agree.  I think some here aren't fishermen.  It's like a lot of sports -- skiing, scuba diving -- you pay your money and cross your fingers for that magical day where everything comes together.

 

 

[sp2]

On 6/21/2023 at 3:00 PM, electro said:

I posted asking for info on this program before my cruise but no one seemed to have any information other that what is posted on HAL’s website, which isn’t much, so I thought I would post how it worked for us.

 

My DH and friend’s DH did a salmon fishing excursion in Ketchikan.

My DH caught a 20 lb king salmon. He informed the captain/guide of the fishing boat that he wanted to take it back to the ship to be prepared for dinner. The captain cleaned the fish and packed it in ice for my DH to bring back. 

On the drive back to the ship, the bus driver contacted the ship to let them know that someone was retuning with their catch.

 

My DH had to wait at the gangway with his fish for the executive chef to come and meet him. The Chef came down to the gangway with a thermometer and measure the temp of the fish to make sure it was still cold enough. 

 

He asked how he would like to prepared, gave a list of sides to choose from and confirmed what time we would be going for dinner.

My DH had to fill out some paperwork and that was all.

 

We went to dinner at 7, and after our appys, our fish was delivered to our table. It was prepared perfectly and was delicious. 

There was only 3 of us who ate fish so there was plenty left over.

We shared with the table next to us and the waiters got to have the rest. Our waiter was practically giddy when he packed up the rest of the fish. One waiter put dips on the head as soon as it was served!

 

We were very glad that the rest of the fish did not go to waste.

 

There is no extra fee for this service, it is included in the price of the excursion.

If you plan to do this, make sure you check the fishing season for the type of fish you will be catching. We were cruising for 2 weeks and if they had done the fishing the first week, they would have had to throw back the fish because salmon season didn’t open until the second week, 2 days before the day they went fishing.

 

This is a great program that I hope that HAL continues it.

Another Ottawan! So glad you shared this experience with us. My hubby is doing this excursion when we are on the Koningsdam in August while I go to the Lumberjack Show. What a treat it will be if he catches a salmon and we can have it for dinner! Looks delicious!

[sp2]

On 6/22/2023 at 9:51 PM, ACorgan said:

I’m going salmon fishing in Ketchikan tomorrow, so very encouraging to hear that people are catching some. I hope the fish will be biting tomorrow 🤞

Did you catch anything?

[ACorgan]

1 minute ago, sp2 said:

Did you catch anything?

Nothing I could keep, sadly 😞 I did catch a king, but he was just a small guy. It sounds like it just wasn’t a great day for fishing. Of the almost 40 of us on the bus back, only two people had caught keepers. It was beautiful weather though, and we saw plenty of whales, so I didn’t feel like it was a wasted trip. Great day to be out in the water 

[bennybear]

22 hours ago, AncientWanderer said:

 

Well, I agree.  I think some here aren't fishermen.  It's like a lot of sports -- skiing, scuba diving -- you pay your money and cross your fingers for that magical day where everything comes together.

 

 

Memories of great times are priceless!  

[LauraS]

On 6/21/2023 at 3:00 PM, electro said:

I posted asking for info on this program before my cruise but no one seemed to have any information other that what is posted on HAL’s website, which isn’t much, so I thought I would post how it worked for us.

 

 

 

 

This.  Coming back after your experience and sharing information -- valuable info at that -- with others.  Perfect community experience. 

[electro]

18 hours ago, LauraS said:

 

 

This.  Coming back after your experience and sharing information -- valuable info at that -- with others.  Perfect community experience. 

Thank you

[electro]

Thought I'd bump this up for those doing Alaska this year who may be interested in this program.

 

Lois

[Skicruiser55]

30 minutes ago, electro said:

Thought I'd bump this up for those doing Alaska this year who may be interested in this program.

 

Lois

My husband is doing the salmon fishing HAL excursion in Juneau on our June 22 Koningsdam cruise and hoping he catches something so he can have it cooked for dinner.  He will have fun no matter what though.