Sport Fishing Alaska (SFA) is a trip planning service working directly with anglers to plan personalized Alaska sport fishing trips.  We represent you, the angler, and it is our goal to place you where and when fishing is at its peak.  We are not fishing guides.  We assist you in planning and arranging fishing (and sightseeing) trips based on your wishes as to species of fish, type of fishing and facilities, within the amount you wish to spend.  When planning is finished you will have a complete itinerary with confirmed reservations for everything you wish to do including in-state transportation, lodging, fishing guides or lodges and sightseeing activities.  Everything will be arranged and scheduled for (and with) you from arrival until departure.

Operating in Alaska for over twenty years, our service is unique because of Sport Fishing Alaska's professional qualifications and extensive first-hand experience in the Alaska sport fishing industry.

After retiring from his career as a biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Sport Fishing Alaska founder, Russ Redick, built the company based on the premise that folks visiting Alaska needed a way to plan their fishing vacations through an unbiased third party who would act both as their friend in Alaska and provide them with a reliable source of local knowledge.   Fifteen years later, he passed the company helm to Larry and Sheary Suiter, a couple who had extensive first hand knowledge from their years spent operating lodge services in bush Alaska.

As an Alaskan fishing guide and air taxi operator, Larry has been featured in numerous articles in outdoor magazines such as Sports Afield, Alaska Angler, and Alaska Outdoors. For over 10 years, the Suiters owned and operated the premier Kenai River fishing lodge, Freebird Charters. In 1986, the operation expanded to the Naknek River and surrounding Bristol Bay watershed, where the couple provided guests with customized sport fishing trips. 

During those years in the Alaska bush, Sheary managed all the behind the scenes trip planning, organizing the details of everything from do-it-yourself non-guided float trips to upscale lodge accommodations with daily guided fly-out fishing.  Since 2000, Sheary has sustained this pattern of personalized service, working one on one with all Sport Fishing Alaska clients to help them match their trip objectives with the best trip options in the state.

Planning is critical.  While Alaska has some of the world's greatest trout and salmon fisheries, many of our waters grow few fish.  Most of Alaska's fish are migratory.  Consequently, many locations provide outstanding fishing as a run migrates through the area, but provide few fish during other times.  The quality of fishing often changes drastically from week to week and various species of salmon are only available at specific locations at specific times.  Fortunately persons experienced in Alaska sport fishing can predict the timing of the best fishing with good regularity. To enjoy the best fishing you must be at the right place at the right time.  It is a shame to visit Alaska and not experience good fishing.  The secret is in thorough, competent, advance planning!

What you receive when contracting with Sport Fishing Alaska:

1)  Our extensive local knowledge and experience re where and when to go for top quality fishing and sightseeing activities.

2)  Trips scheduled when and where you will get maximum benefits for your time and money based on your budget, schedule, species, and type of facilities desired.

3) Our knowledge of guides and lodges which are competent and well established.  When you deal directly with guides, their primary object is to attract you to when they have vacancies, not necessarily when fishing is best.  When working with SFA, you receive the assistance necessary to plan what is best for you and when to be there.

To begin the planning process, SFA clients complete an extensive and detailed trip planning questionnaire that helps us become familiar with your trip objectives, allowing us to evaluate your individual needs, abilities, and desires so that we may customize your trip according to your interests and budget.

After we hear back from you on the questionnaire, we'll provide customized trip options for your review and feedback.  Email correspondence is utilized whenever possible, enabling quick and efficient access to the recommended services' web sites for additional information. You can expect that we will have a number of email and/or telephone conversations to further define your objectives and preferences before finalizing your itinerary.

As part of the planning service, we confirm reservations for all or any portion of the following: hotel/motel/lodges/bed and breakfast/cabin accommodations, rental cars or RV's, air taxi charters, boats/kayaks, National Park/wildlife/glacier tours/cruises, Alaska Railroad/Alaska Ferry, fishing lodges/guides, as well as providing the information your travel agent will need to schedule commercial flights to and from Alaska.

When planning is complete, you are provided with a detailed itinerary along with confirmed reservations and pertinent information for all planned activities. SFA clients pay the same rates (sometimes even less) as if booking directly with the service(s), but without the inherent hassles and uncertainty of dealing with strangers.  The SFA planning fee for an entire party traveling and fishing together is $95.00.

So how do we earn a living on $95 a trip? Simple: Each service we reserve for you pays us a commission to handle the reservations and paperwork, so they can concentrate on providing the service. That's why it doesn't cost you another penny to have us deal with the services as your personal representative. You save time and the expense of making all those calls to Alaska. More importantly, you can rely on local knowledge that only an Alaska resident with an extensive sport fishing industry background can provide.

In summary, if you would like us to work with you in planning a personalized Alaska fishing and/or sightseeing trip, upon receipt of the $95.00 planning fee, we will forward the questionnaire, and upon its return the trip planning process can get underway!

However you proceed, we encourage you to begin planning well ahead of your departure for Alaska.  Many of the better facilities fill up early, often as much as a year or more in advance.  Therefore, if you decide to have us assist you, adequate time to discuss your needs and finalize your arrangements will better allow you the type of trip you desire.

If you would like more information about our service or if you just want to talk about Alaska sport fishing, please email or phone 888 552 8674 and leave a message with a good time to return your call (Alaska is 4 hours earlier than East Coast).  Thanks, and good fishing!

Smiles,

Sheary Suiter