August 2020

Fishing in Resurrection Bay with J-Dock Fishing Company – Seward, Alaska

Our first adventure of our Alaska trip – fishing on Resurrection Bay!

Now I will be transparent, I do not have sea legs and Seward is a huge fishing location. There are tours you can book that range from full eight hour days to multi-day overnight trips. To catch the “big game” fish such as a 200 pound halibut, you have to drive out a few hours from Resurrection Bay. While it would have been a fun story, I certainly was not confident in my sea sickness staying at bay for that long no matter how much meclizine I pounded.

When visiting Seward, definitely include a fishing trip regardless of your experience level. There are tons of companies and options so just do your research. We picked a half day afternoon salmon and rockfish excursion with J-Dock Fishing Company. Now, their website showcases enormous fish and obviously there is no guarantee you will catch “the big one”, locations – weather, and time of year will impact the probability. The boat also sports some intense fishing hooks – including a harpoon!

We arrived at the dock and boarded our boat with only another group of three. Debriefed on boat safety and before we knew it we were outbound for the next hour. Without realizing it, we were getting a private tour of Resurrection Bay, learning about the history, glaciers, and spotting wildlife like puffins, sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, and bald eagles.

The boat stopped at our first fishing location, our lines went down, and we waited. Google had no problem showing me stories of the lack of salmon this season prior to our trip but I was still hopeful we would grab at least one. And so, we waited.

A few minutes later we moved. And then moved again. And once more. No salmon for anyone on the boat! Animal crossing sure did ruin my dreams of grabbing an oarfish on the first shot, amazing everyone since oarfish are not even a thing here. We moved on to the area where we hopefully would have better luck with rockfish.

And luck we had! Everyone was catching rockfish like crazy – Kevin even caught the biggest one of the day!

By the time we got to this portion of the trip, even a double dose of the meclizine was not keeping the swelling waves from making me sea sick. We had one final stop around the corner to see a colony of sea lions and sea birds.

Back to cruising speed, I felt better as we watched the crew filet the fish with a flock of sea gulls pacing the boat for the left over pieces.

Ah to be back on land, I was relieved! When all was said and done, we had 10 pounds of rockfish to our name. There was no way we could eat all of that in this trip. J-DOCK offers processing, vacuum sealing, freezing, and even overnight shipping back to your home but it would have been over $200 for our location and all that fish. We took about two pounds and gave the rest to the other group who gladly accepted the extra fish.

Despite the sea sickness, this really was a fun excursion! While it was disappointing to not catch any salmon, wildlife and nature is unpredictable. What I did not expect was the have such great exposure to Resurrection Bay – it really served as a two for one kind of trip where we got to do the sightseeing of the Bay, see wildlife, and experience fishing with a goodie bag to take home at the end. If you are considering a Resurrection Bay boat tour, perhaps exchange it with a fishing excursion! We had a great time with JDock and would highly recommend their team to ensure you have a safe and fun experience.