Alaska / Washington Salmon, Steelhead & Halibut Fishing Guides, Charters & Lodging

King, silver, sockeye salmon - Rainbow trout - Steelhead - Halibut - Ling Cod and more on the Kenai and Olympic Peninsulas

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Why choose Piscatorial Pursuits?

You've probably found our site  through a search engine, a small banner ad on another fishing site, or from the recommendation of a friend or relative.

We know that when customers search for someone to book their fishing package with, the options that come back in search results are often overwhelming. Who do you choose?

We'd like to take this opportunity to share with some of the reasons that we feel we should be your best option for booking.

First of all, we believe our site is a representation of what we have to offer: completely built and maintained by Bob himself, it demonstrates our commitment to the details and personal service in every trip that we offer. Highly text-based, it's not all about having the coolest technology and spiffiest graphics and put together by someone who doesn't know one end of a fishing rod from the other, rather it's about helping in laying out all pertinent information that we feel will be helpful to you in planning the perfect trip for you and your group!

There are dozens of pages providing loads of detail about different timeframes and trip types, for some people the amount of information can be overwhelming, but always feel free to contact us if you need any clarification of what's here or help with questions and / or recommendations for your group.

We are always happy to provide references regarding either our Washington or Alaska services, just let us know and we can pass some contact information of previous guests along.

Just some of what our customers have to say:
 

• 'Bob; I just wanted to send you a short note and thank you for a wonderful fishing trip. My dad Harold, my brother Gary and myself were there from the 16th to the 18th of August fishing for silvers. My dad, my brother and myself all agreed that you were the best guide that we had ever been out with. My eighty eight year old dad really appreciated all the special treatment he got and he really enjoyed seeing himself on the internet. The Smoke Shop did a super job with our fish and dad said that the smoked fish was the best he had ever tasted. If dad is feeling up to it next year you will probably hear from us for another trip. Thanks again you are the best.'  - R. Weygint
• 'Hi Bob, This note is long overdue. Bard and I had the time of our lives halibut and salmon fishing. You do a super job. I would be glad to give references for you anytime ... ' - A. M. Mohlenhoff
• 'I would just like to thank you for a great time while I was in Alaska, The fishing was great had the time of my life. Thanks for putting in all the extra effort in getting the trips lined up. I will definitely use you again next time I come up to go fishing.' -  R. Moore
• 'Hello Bob - you truly are the steelhead warrior. We all thank you for an unforgettable trip on Sunday, I could not have found a more knowledgeable, professional guide. Tell Gordy & Jim that they are also top notch. It was very difficult to get back into working mode on Monday morning! Please let me know if you can get us on the river for the big pigs in February. My dad, myself, dad in law, and brother in law'  - P. Reising
• 'Hello Bob,
  Thanks a bunch for the great trip and the pictures.  We both had a very good time.  Your knowledge, experience and professionalism on the water are world class.  I will definitely be fishing with you again, in Alaska and on the Peninsula.  I will recommend your services to any body that has an interest. I hope that's okay :-) Thanks again Bob for a great trip.  Thank Corey for being great too.
  Your friend,
  Alan' - Alan R.

• Hey Bob & Corey, Just a quick note to say thanks again for the great trip on 25 Feb. Bob thanks for being so patient and helpful to my son, Jake, he really appreciated as well as I. He's been talking about that trip non-stop since we got back. He also told me to tell you that he stayed awake the ENTIRE trip back (yeah I was shocked too). I will definitely be booking with you all again in the future, and will be passing the word on what a quality
  outfit you run up there. Thanks again, C. Dewey aka Rocklizard

• 'Hi, Bob! Thank you again for such a wonderful day on the river. My dad and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, and we'll never forget it. Here's the shot of the big one, let me know if you cannot open it. Please send me the shot of my first fish if you get the chance.
  
  Thanks again,' - T. Nordstrom

Enough letters already??

We'd like to share some of the reasons we think we stand out from the crowd!

• Experience: Over 20 years serving our guests! You don't hang around that long unless you're doing something right.

Many guides hired by the bigger lodges or booking services are 18-25 year old college kids that have never been to Alaska. While many of the charter services you have to choose from may have operated for a long time, the guide you will fish often may not have. For many guests, a trip Alaska may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience ... that should not be the case for your guide. He / she should not have run a boat for the first time or handled their first salmon a few weeks before your arrival.

That's not the case with our guides. We employ only full-time fishing guides, most of whom spend hundreds of days on the water every year. All have been at it for some time; an average of 20+ years, and usually specialize in guiding on one particular fishery throughout the course of the season. They also own their own boats and equipment, meaning they take the very best care of it and know how to use it!

Guides that have thousands of days on water under their belt not only have a better knowledge of how to best ensure your safety, they also have the expertise in helping you through unusual angling circumstances on the water (perhaps, how to best help position the boat or net with a once-in-a-lifetime fish), and other times simply the long-term knowledge of a fishery in how to best increase your odds when fishing may not be at its best.

• Just the Right Size: Too often we see the prime objective of many operations is to run as many people through their operation as they can. Lost in this is the sense of personal service and the attention to the little things that can make a guest's stay a boom or a bust. Our goal is not to be the biggest, rather we simply wish to be known as the very best! While we're large enough to meet the needs of most every guest, we always pay attention to the little things from the moment you first contact us regarding a booking to the time you make it home!

• No Run-arounds!: Because of the fact that we network with lodging providers and other independent guides, we don't have to try to keep lodging facilities or boats full all season long. That means when you contact us regarding your trip, we'll give you the straight scoop on when to come and we'll help you pick out the trips that will best suit you! No sweet-talk to fill a boat or a cabin / room in a lousy timeframe!

A look at our Alaska halibut fishing section will illustrate this point. We take the time to explain how tides influence the fisheries and then give you tide charts to help pick your dates for the best odds at taking home nicer fish. We'll guarantee you that you won't see much of that out there on other sites and it's an excellent representation of how we operate.

• Superiority in Subbing: Subletting trips is a common practice on the Kenai Peninsula. Subletting trips? That is the practice of hiring independent charter captains and guides to fish guests of another business. This is how all the charter / guide services / lodges offer such a variety of trips in each of the Peninsula’s fisheries. Basically, it is a huge network of operations working together. The super high-end lodges do it (many of them call us to take their guests), so do the booking agencies offered through retail storefronts, no one offers every single type of trip without ‘hiring out’.
  
  We also hire out, especially during very busy periods or on specialty trips such as sea kayaking; but there are several things that we do differently than most other companies in our subletting practices. Most important of these is that we will not finalize your booking until we can make sure we have a quality guide lined up for you for each fishery. Some companies will just book you in and then worry about finding a guide / boat to take you at a later date (they often call around the day before a trip!). We will NOT do this, as occasionally, a quality guide is not available even some time out. Sometimes this means that we may have to make a few phone calls to make sure we can accommodate you, but it's pivotal in providing a great experience for you!

• Flexibility / Customization of your Trip: We've often heard from prospective clients that they didn't care for the rigid schedule of operations they've fished with before. Most often relating to meal schedules for fully-inclusive packages, trips always left and ended at the same time - despite the fact that in order to provide guests with the best fishing, that's not how to do things!

By providing no more than breakfast at any of our lodging locations, our guides can set trip times to work on fishes' schedule and not the cooks'. We do whatever it takes to ensure you have the best fishing trip possible. Day-to-day weather changes and tide cycles influence nearly all of the fisheries and we'll travel to wherever we need to go and always schedule your day to put you on the best fishing possible.

You can also start / end your packages anytime you wish to. No requirements of coming in on a certain day or departing on a certain day ... this can often mean substantial airfare savings and work better with your vacation planning. Our packages are fully customizable, simply let us know what you'd like to do and we're always happy to accommodate your requests!

• Your Best Value: We're not the cheapest, nor are we the most expensive. Like most any product or service, we've always been a believer that you get what you pay for ... up to a point. With Piscatorial Pursuits, you get the best guides, boats, lodging, and equipment all for what we feel to be a reasonable price.

As our Alaska trips are European-plan where guests handle their own meals, guests can save loads of money versus meal-inclusive packages by visiting one of the 50+ restaurants in the area or doing some of their own cooking if they wish as most of our lodging facilities offer full kitchens. Because we operate year-round, we also don't have to try to inflate our rates to provide ourselves with a decent living with only 4 or 5 months of actual operation. By operating year-round in two locales, we can offer our guests fair rates for our services.

In addition, we operate under a business model that includes advertising little and working with a high repeat-guest rate, yet paying our guides well -- allowing us to still be able to keep our rates affordable, yet providing service and trip quality that is a far cry from what is known in the industry terms as a "cheapie charter".

• Commitment to the Fisheries / Communities / Involvement: Piscatorial Pursuits has long been an advocate of responsible / selective harvest in our fisheries. As full-time fishing guides who wish to keep doing so for many more years, our involvement in the conservation of our fish stocks is nearly unmatched in the industry. While politics are probably are our least favorite part of the fishing industry, we also know they are perhaps one of the most important parts of it.

Piscatorial Pursuits has been a long-time contributor to fisheries enhancement as well as other outdoor / community groups through donations of numerous trips and fundraisers through this very site to organizations such as the Wild Steelhead Coalition, Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Quillayute Valley Scholarship Auction, Langley Christian School, Children's Hospital, Toys for Tot's, Make-A-Wish Foundation, The Caring Place, the Alaska Sealife Center and many others!

Bob is also the Region 6 (Olympic Peninsula) representative of the Wild Steelhead Coalition and also has served as past Vice-President and the current President of the Olympic Peninsula Guides' Association. Both groups are heavily involved in fisheries issues, conservation, and in the case of the latter group, some major enhancement projects in the Forks area.

Have a question, like to book some dates? Use our online information / booking request form.

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