Anyone who's fished Southeast Alaska knows that the number of fish caught sometimes feels almost unfair. Southeast Alaska's waters are some of the most productive on Earth because of a rare convergence of geology, forest ecology, and ocean physics, all working together to build a food web from the bottom up.

If you've never held a rod in your life and you're staring down your first charter trip, take a breath: you're in good company. Booking your first fishing charter is exciting and if you've never fished before, it's normal to have a few questions. Here's what you need to know to get ready, from the basics every beginner should pack, to the details specific to fishing Southeast Alaska's waters.

Southeast Alaska is home to all five species of Pacific salmon, King, Silver, Sockeye, Pink, and Chum. While they're all cousins, they don't look alike, fight alike, or taste the same. Knowing the difference is the kind of thing that turns a good fishing story into a great one. Here's a field guide to Southeast Alaska's Salmon to tell them apart, whether they're fresh and chrome-bright off the troll or starting to color up for their spawning run.

This Species Bucket List covers anything and everything you can catch in Southeast Alaskan Waters. We'll explore the trophy catches, the best table fare, the oddballs, and the ones we ask you to say a quick "see you later" to. Consider this your preseason cheat sheet to all Southeast Alaska has to offer.

You walk down to the dock, coffee in hand, ready to fish. What you don't see is everything that happened before you got there. By the time you step aboard, our crew's already been at it, cleaning, loading, rigging, brewing, so all you have to do is show up and start fishing. In this entry we'll take you behind the scenes and walk through how our boats are prepped for the day.

Alaska's fish and game managers have built a system of seasons, size limits, and release rules designed to keep these fisheries healthy for the next hundred years of anglers and knowing the difference between a keeper and a "photo and release" fish makes the day on the water even better.

Many guests don't realize how much they're investing in an Alaska fishing trip until something unexpected happens. A quality travel insurance policy can cover trip cancellations or interruptions, emergency medical care, evacuation, baggage delays, and missed connections, particularly important when traveling to Southeast Alaska.

At Sportsman's Cove Lodge, we love introducing guests to the variety of fish that call these waters home. Each species has its own personality, its own challenge, and its own reward. Let's take a closer look at what you might catch and what makes each one so memorable.

Not everyone in your group needs to fish to have an incredible trip. From a day on the water watching humpback whales to evenings around the dinner table, here is everything a non-angler needs to know before arriving at Sportsman's Cove Lodge.