family salmon fishing
 

Planning a trip to Seward and Denali in august with a family of 5. Are any of the salmon fishing charters family friendly? Obviously my 10 and 7yr old would have difficulty with a 20 # salmon. We all love to fish when they are biting :) Does this require a full day, or are there shorter options?

Seward's Silver Salmon Derby will be held in mid-August, so you couldn't have timed it better. The bay fills with 10's of thousands of Silver Salmon.

Having said that, lodging and charter boat reservations will require advance reservations. Don't be slow about getting these, as there are many people in Seward who want these reservations too and the town gets crowded.

Silvers rarely get above 15 lbs and may be closer to 12-13 lbs. or slightly smaller. I think that this will be a family-friendly activity. I'm also sure the charter boat deckhand will help your children land any fish they might catch. As to half-day vs. full-day, that is your choice. A reputable place to book charters is the Seward Fish House (907-224-3674). They can also advise you of prices for the half- and full-day boats.

During our trip to Alaska in August, I was surprised at how interested my sons 9 and 11 were in the salmon fishing. I had not prebooked any fishing tour because fishing just wasn't anything we had done and I hadn't considered it. I wish I had prebooked a half day fishing charter. Most of the fishing charter places have half day family oriented fishing trips. Some were available on a walk up basis but you would be better off prebooking for that time of year.

We stayed in Seward for a couple of days this summer. We went to Soldotna and used High Adventure Air for our fishing. We all caught our limit and we saw a lot of bear while fishing (20+). Consider dogsledding on Godwin Glacier or in Alyeska on a glacier. It was fantastic. Renown tours in Seward had an excellent tour of Kenai. We also did Kayaking at Seward. Kayakak.com I would not miss the train from Seward to Anchorage. I don't think your kids would have trouble with 20lb salmon. A lot of people just fish right on the Kenai River. But the flyout fishing was definatel cool. If you go to Exit Glacer near Seward, be sure and have bear spray and I would walk with several people in a group. Bears and cubs are there. The rangers post warnings daily while we were there.

Thank you for all of your help.
The half day charter sounds awesome.
I am so excited about this trip :)

If you don't minds smaller boats, ask for a "six-pack charter," where the maximum count is ... six. You'll get a lot of individual attention.

Most of the silvers in Seward are in the 10-14 lb. range, but they fight fabulously.