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Juneau Fishing Trip - First Time to AK

Ttannahill14

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Heading to Juneau first week of August. This will be my first time to Alaska. Couple questions...


What are the opportunities from shore... look relatively decent from what I've google searched.


Guided trips look too expensive/crowded for my taste.


How difficult/dangerous is renting a small john boat and doing self guided. My boating experience is limited to only freshwater.... duck boats, fishing boats, wakebaord boats, and sail boats(that one ended badly)... How complicated are the tides. Waves? Basically will someone who's never navigated a boat in saltwater be able to not capsize and die. If it were just me I'd totally give it a go without even second guessing.... but my wife will be on board. Prefer not to kill her. And if we do figure out a way to not die, what are our odds of catching any fish? Again, zero salt water fishing experience. Not looking to set any records for salmon... just catching some good eaters to bring home.

I remember seeing randy do a black bear hunt renting a skiff in Southeast AK... which i'm hoping this will be a good little trial run for a future Alaskan black bear hunt with this style of transportation.


Thanks!
 
Tidal changes can go well over 20'.

I've been in AK over 20 years and would hesitate to take a "small jon boat" more than a couple hundred yards from shore; even on a dead calm day. Hell I'd be very careful on a large lake to get far from shore in a SJB. AK waters are COLD (even factoring in global warming) and if the boat swamps or one of you get washed overboard, hypothermia is no longer a possibility. Survival is measured in minutes after immersion.
IF this is going to be a "once in a lifetime" trip, bite the bullet and go with a charter boat. You should be able to find a smaller boat with no more than 4 other clients. August is also heading into the end of the tourist season and charters may be less crowded than earlier in the summer.
I'm not familiar with the Juneau area, but you should also check for "wildlife cruises", which go for less than a fishing trip and the scenery and wildlife seen will be incredible.
Oh, by the way, be sure to bring GOOD rain gear. Juneau does get some summer showers (haha).
 
You should be able to find some boat rentals.They rent these boats all the time so I'm betting you'll survive just like everyone before you has.Use common sense and pay attention to safety and you'll be fine.I had boat rentals where I stayed on Prince Of Wales,and all they were were little skiffs with gas motors and fish finders and GPS.If you really can't afford a charter then rent a boat at least a day.A charter will almost definitely get you on fish and a lot of them.Save some dough,and do your best to go that route.You'd also learn which lures are working and fishing techniques if you go chartered.After that you could rent a skiff and have much better idea on how to catch different fish
 
Thanks for the couple replies...

18' boat is what most the rentals looks like... I wouldn't call that a little John boat... but a small vessel none the less.

Definitely not a once in a lifetime trip... only 27 years old, first of many! Why I kinda want to figure it out for future trips.

I guess I'll talk to the boat rental place when I get there and see how it feels... like you said mixedbag if they're renting to people and have business insurance I can't imagine its THAT dangerous.

$200 for a day rental. Charters are about $500 for 1/2 day for two people. In my mind I can get twice the fishing in for half the money! Gosh I hate being cheap ha.
 
The difference is the charter will actually know where the fish are and how to catch them. There is a small bay close to the city that gets a lot of salmon during the run. Lots of boats fish it but you can drag herring there and maybe catch a fish.
 
Thanks for the couple replies...

18' boat is what most the rentals looks like... I wouldn't call that a little John boat... but a small vessel none the less.

Definitely not a once in a lifetime trip... only 27 years old, first of many! Why I kinda want to figure it out for future trips.

I guess I'll talk to the boat rental place when I get there and see how it feels... like you said mixedbag if they're renting to people and have business insurance I can't imagine its THAT dangerous.

$200 for a day rental. Charters are about $500 for 1/2 day for two people. In my mind I can get twice the fishing in for half the money! Gosh I hate being cheap ha.

I'm not arguing that cheap doesn't have a place, but to give you an example: after moving here, I fished the upper Kenai a couple times each year. Didn't catch much, decided I needed a raft (I did, but that's a different story). Got the raft and my fish count didn't really improve much. I fished with some friends that caught more trout than I did, but not by much. Finally convinced my youngest son that we needed to go with a charter, when he visited in the fall. Cost us $500 and guess what - we both had a 30 fish day. It didn't take much, just a couple of tweaks to what I had been doing all along, but it made all the difference in the world.
IF you spend the $500 bucks you are (almost) guaranteed to catch fish - probably your limit(s). You won't need any tackle, bait and the guide will clean the catch. It will also give you a damn good idea of what you need to do, if you decide to rent the boat and fish on your own, afterwards. Look at it this way, if you save the money and catch fish you'll be tickled to death and think I'm just another big mouth idiot. If you save the money and don't catch fish, you haven't really "saved" anything, you've wasted the money you spent on a boat rental, bait and any fishing tackle rental and you'll probably do that 2x's because of all the money you saved on not doing the charter. Now you have the same amount invested and still don't have anything to show for it (except for some great scenery pics - which you'd have gotten on the charter boat, too).
Good luck and catch some fish.
 
I'm not arguing that cheap doesn't have a place, but to give you an example: after moving here, I fished the upper Kenai a couple times each year. Didn't catch much, decided I needed a raft (I did, but that's a different story). Got the raft and my fish count didn't really improve much. I fished with some friends that caught more trout than I did, but not by much. Finally convinced my youngest son that we needed to go with a charter, when he visited in the fall. Cost us $500 and guess what - we both had a 30 fish day. It didn't take much, just a couple of tweaks to what I had been doing all along, but it made all the difference in the world.
IF you spend the $500 bucks you are (almost) guaranteed to catch fish - probably your limit(s). You won't need any tackle, bait and the guide will clean the catch. It will also give you a damn good idea of what you need to do, if you decide to rent the boat and fish on your own, afterwards. Look at it this way, if you save the money and catch fish you'll be tickled to death and think I'm just another big mouth idiot. If you save the money and don't catch fish, you haven't really "saved" anything, you've wasted the money you spent on a boat rental, bait and any fishing tackle rental and you'll probably do that 2x's because of all the money you saved on not doing the charter. Now you have the same amount invested and still don't have anything to show for it (except for some great scenery pics - which you'd have gotten on the charter boat, too).
Good luck and catch some fish.

Definitely understand where you're coming from... makes total sense. I'll look at some guide options and make a decision. Might not be a bad idea to bite the bullet and ask a ton of questions so next time when I go I'll be able to do it DIY.
 
Might not be a bad idea to bite the bullet and ask a ton of questions so next time when I go I'll be able to do it DIY.

If you are planning to return to the same fishery several more times, a guide can help you with the learning curve. Also, most of those rental boats don't come with downriggers or other equipment that a guide boat may be using. You can spend a lot of time trolling right over the fish and never get a bite. But if you have a downrigger or other important gear not provided with a rental, your catch rate will greatly increase.
 
Why Juneau? I'd recommend a smaller town that is not jammed with huge cruise ships and thousands of tourists. (Petersburg, Prince of Wales Island, Sitka, Yakutat, etc.)

If your really into do it yourself mode, consider renting a Forest Service cabin.
My first trip to Alaska was in the 1980s and we rented a Forest Service cabin
and rented a 16-foot Lund and had a blast catching silvers and char.
Also got crab traps with the boat rental and ate Dungeness every day. Yum, yum.
 
Why Juneau? I'd recommend a smaller town that is not jammed with huge cruise ships and thousands of tourists. (Petersburg, Prince of Wales Island, Sitka, Yakutat, etc.)

If your really into do it yourself mode, consider renting a Forest Service cabin.
My first trip to Alaska was in the 1980s and we rented a Forest Service cabin
and rented a 16-foot Lund and had a blast catching silvers and char.
Also got crab traps with the boat rental and ate Dungeness every day. Yum, yum.

We are going with our church... we are building a church for a youth camp up on echo cove. 5 days of church building and 3 days of fishing and exploring. Most of the camp staff are young guys who love to fish and hunt. So hopefully we'll be able to pull a few out of Berner's Bay in the evening's during the work days.
 
If that's the case and you are in one spot to fish 3 days I would try the rental boat. Take a heavy rod for halibut and a mooching rod. Tie on a slider and dropper and have several ball weights in 4-5-6 oz. Buy a few mooching rigs for plug cut herring. You can use a heavy weight and bait for halibut or use a heavy halibut jig. Might be fun just to be able to mess around and you should be able to catch halibut, lingcod and maybe a salmon or two. Have fun.
 
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