Last night, we (SIL & I), went with an internet friend, 'Joe' on a nice boat ride to do some whale watching and fishing. We were out about 3 hours in the Lynn Canal and saw lots of whales breaching and fished for about an hour or so. In that time, I caught a couple small 'buts' and we caught a boatload of P-cod.

As for canoeing/yaking the Inside Passage, that is the thought I had 8 years ago when we did a cruise. I think it would be almost mandatory to wear a wetsuit, and to be skilled in self-rescue, and, of course, to always wear the PFD. The water temps are in the high 30's-low 40's in the summer. The fishing boats, cruise ships, etc show no mercy if they see a canoe/yak, and the wake can easily swamp such a vessel.

We saw several lighthouses and ship wrecks of yesteryear while we were out. Lots of fun!

Tomorrow, we go out again, and are looking forward to some nicer halibut. The scenery up here is simply spectacular! Lots of glaciers and snowcapped peaks. 'Joe' is trying to convince me to move up here so he can take me fishing more. Wish I could.

As for a canoe trip, yes, it would be lots of fun and no portages. The fishing is fantastic, but you'll have to figure out how to boat the 'buts'. A 50 lber would not fit in a canoe. You would have to shoot it in the water, and tie it up alongside, and then the weight might roll you. Those would be fun problems to solve, and could probably be a whole 'nother thread. We saw thousands of chums running and jumping all over the place. The commercial fisherman figure every jump equals 500 salmon, so what we saw was several 100,000's. We were fishing a ridge about 190-200' deep, but the water gets easily into 1000s of feet deep.

More later. I'll try to post a few pics later...