Ketchikan Salmon Fishing Vacations Are Not Just About Fish

By Krystal Branch


Everyone can enjoy a Ketchikan salmon fishing vacation even if they've never fished in their life - and have no intention of doing so. The best case scenario, however, would be for avid fishermen and women to take their whole family with them. They will have an unforgettable experience, and others in the group can fill their time to overflowing with activities and adventures.

Charter guides will direct the anglers to the best spots. The others can choose between museums of history, culture, or wildlife. They can go hiking in state or national forests, take guided excursions through the rainforest or along the waterfronts, or enjoy the amenities of first-class resorts and lodges. There are shopping, galleries of paintings, carvings, and photography from local artists, and great restaurants in the historic town center.

Getting around from one place to another in this wilderness area is an adventure in itself. Some places can only be reached by plane or by hiking in. Vehicles can go to others, and boats reach the rest. On the way to whatever activity chosen for the day, visitors might see black and brown bears, moose, mountain goats, deer, porpoises, seal lions and seals, and even whales. Birds to keep an eye out for range from hummingbirds to Bald Eagles.

Chartered trips for a half a day up to as many as you have to spend offer the best spots to catch salmon. There are five species of this great, delicious fish which come from the open ocean to spawn in great numbers, dramatically fighting their way upstream. All have both common and local names: King (Chinook), Silver (Coho), Red (Sockeye), Pink (Humpy), and Churn (Dog).

There are also five species of trout in the lakes and streams, including Rainbow, Cutthroat, and Steelhead. Those who want even more can go after halibut, cod, and Red Snapper. The town, once known as 'the salmon capital of the world', was an ancient fishing camp for the Tingit natives, who spent their summers there collecting food for the long winters. The town was founded in 1900 by commercial fishermen and canneries once were the main industry.

This description should occupy anglers for at least some of the time. However, there is so much to do that it may be hard to decide where to start for the rest of the family. Kids might like a vintage cannery tour, a hike through the Tongrass National Forest, an excursion to the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Center to see fish enclosures and rescued raptors, or a video presentations at the visitor's center.

Even young kids will love the totem poles that decorate the town and the 19th century ones moved to the Totem Heritage Center so they wouldn't be lost when native villages were abandoned. Everyone will like the wooden boardwalk of Creek Street, the downtown arts, shopping, and dining center. There are also live theater and music to enjoy.

Fish may have made the Ketchikan salmon fishing grounds famous, but today this town is one of the top ten places to visit for vacationers. Go for the fish and enjoy all the rest: wildlife sightings, the native culture, the wilderness areas all around, and the first-class resorts and lodges waiting to welcome visitors to Alaska.




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