Ray is a POS (period). Rude and unprofessional and his other charter guests were also embarrassed with his unprofessional demeanor. In fact the few chum we pulled out of the river had more personality than Ray. His website also claims numerous awards over the years - fact check it, as it just isn't true. Save yourself the embarrassment and go somewhere else! read more

Not trying to ruin this business, but I would be doing a disservice to other customers if I wasn't honest with my experience with Fisherman's choice. We got completely skunked (zero fish) during peak season; first warning sign should have been when they had availability (unbooked) for the entire week I inquired about, and they were also the cheapest. You get what you pay for, this is an inferior guide. Second red flag I should have noticed was when he took us fishing in a river that absolutely nobody else was fishing in; now keep in mind that this isn't some small secret hidden lake nobody else knows about, it's a huge river that nobody else chooses to fish in. And we learned that too late, for good reason. The lake is dead. Completely dead. Lake may have been good back in 1987 when he may have started fishing in Alaska, but now, the lake is completely dead. Guide probably keeps fishing this dead lake because he lives close by and is the only lake he can access, rather than more productive lakes like Kenai. Don't come fishing here with this charter. He blamed Chinese people for illegally fishing his waters, and said that we weren't catching anything because we were right in between the King and Silver runs. Bullshit, saw folks catching so many silvers yesterday at Ship's Creek. Just a bad guide taking none-the-wiser customers' money and fishing a dead lake. Their website goes on and on about how customers need to tip, even if the guide doesn't put you on any fish, that it's not the guides fault. Well, it sure as hell ain't the customer's fault, either. The customer is already paying upfront the fees, why should the customer pay for getting skunked too? Business owner chose to go in to business that has uncertainty, the business should eat the costs (tips) when the conditions aren't ideal, not expecting the customer to pay for that too. Yet his website goes on and on about tipping 20% to 50%, even if they don't get you any fish. What kind of participation trophy did these guys grow up depending on? Plus, they complain about their "good reviews" being intentionally hidden by Yelp. I find that hard to believe, the more likely explanation for their "good reviews" "hidden by Yelp" may be due to them writing fake good reviews about themselves, and Yelp recognizing the fake reviews and thus hiding them, appropriately. Plus, this guide hadn't caught a fish in over three weeks, just duping and collecting fees and tips from unsuspecting out of town visitors. Not like he made the trip enjoyable, he had the personality of a wet log, he ignores your questions, and plays with his phone while you try for fish. Absolutely do not recommend, this is a inferior, cheap, not booked up charter that fishes a dead lake that every other fisherman was smart enough to abandon. read more

Fisherman's Choice Charters - Guide playing on his phone, son bored out of his mind from not catching anything. Great times. - Fishing Near Me

We had an amazing charter with Doug! He had us on fish and we had our limit within 2 hours! All the equipment was top quality and in good shape. Terri did a great job communicating with us on where to meet that morning and what we'd need to bring. I would definitely us them again when I'm salmon fishing in Alaska. read more

See all

We had Doug for our charter. He was super awesome and friendly. He made our fishing experience awesome. We knew going into this that we weren't guaranteed fish. Doug can't control when fish hit or not. So we weren't going to be mad if we didn't catch any fish. However, we almost caught our limit within the first hour. All in all, it was a good experience. read more

Fisherman's Choice Charters - 39" king salmon - Fishing Near Me

Great fishing adventure! Very friendly and had a great time. As everyone knows you don't always catch a fish when you go fishing and we had that in mind. Doug was awesome and we almost maxed out within 1 hour. read more

Extremely rude and unsportsmanlike guide. Boxing out other fisherman and barking at others. We were embarrassed to be on his charter. No reason to act like that, everyone was catching fish read more

It's funny and speaks volumes that you would respond to a post 7 years after the fact. What about the 3 straight days I booked with you and when I tried to cancel the last day because we both knew there wasn't any fish you wouldn't let us. Money hungry with no consideration for your guests. I wouldn't waste my time with you even if you offered a free trip. Give me my money back like you should have. DON'T USE THIS COMPANY No MATTER WHAT. UNETHICAL read more

Just getting ready to make reservations for this year's fishing trip to Alaska.... Had so much fun and a great experience last summer with Fisherman's Choice..... Gonna book with them again this year while their Valentine's Day special is still in effect! The staff helped us find a bargain car rental and hotel accommodations relatively near to the area we fished out of.... The time on the river was so peaceful and quiet til I hooked a REAL salmon and we all started screaming.... It was sooo fun and exciting! The captain Ray helped us not feel like such amateurs.....my fish weighed 12 pounds!!!!! Can't wait for June!!!!! read more

This was a great trip on the Talkeetna River! They supplied all the gear, had a great guide (Greg) who took us to the perfect spot where we caught our limit of Salmon (Silvers) would definitely do it again! read more

The above reviewer is correct - Terri is too honest, but our family will fish with her always. When AK Fish & Game closed King season prior to our arrival in Alaska, Terri laid out our options and we had a fantastic trip in spite of not being able to land any Kings. We fished in Big Lake and caught beautiful trout , a large Dolly Varden and had amazing wildlife/Denali views. The next day our 16 year old fanatic fisherwoman daughter caught a pink on the Little Su and had the time of her life with guides Greg and Jerry. Can't wait to get back to "our" Alaska and friends at "Fisherman's Choice". read more

Took us out knowing that salmon were late this year. Caught nothing and wasted 5+ hrs & $130 bucks.

FC was not truthful about how poor the fishing was. Our guide, Warren, was reckless: hot rodding a powerful new engine and running the boat aground, exacerbating my wife and son's mostly healed, old back injuries. It will limit how much we can do in the rest of our Alaska vacation. No life jackets handy. FC's owner, Ray, was utterly unsympathetic, concerned only that he might be sued. As a former trout guide, I could see how useless Warren was at guiding as well, either ignorant, or unwilling to do the work. Other guides in Alaska have been concerned with our safety, and enjoyment. They used good judgement and had expertise. You would be much better off using them, e.g. AKTroutfitters. Jerry Stein, MD read more

I met Ray and "World Famous" Terri at the outdoor fair in Palmer. The fair is so small that if you blink, you will miss half the vendors. I was lucky not to miss Ray and Terri's booth. There were so many fishing services. I have used their services twice since then. Ray's loves to fish and really enjoys being out there with you. Terri is always great on the phone. I have been fishing around the world: Chile, New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico, Alaska, Montana, Macedonia, France, England, Australia, etc., etc. Terri is the first fishing guide to say to me, "Wait, the fishing isn't great right now." What kind of crazy guide says that? I tell you what kind, one who loves their customers and wants them to keep coming back. I WILL. If you plan on fishing in Alaska, DON'T just go to the Kenai, although that's great. Fish the Mat-Su Valley and be sure to call Fisherman's Choice!! read more

We had the same experience as Kevin K. Before we had even left the dock, our guide told us the fish weren't biting, and he was right! We parked in a spot, you could see the fish, and we cast over and over and over again = nothing. We didn't try different lures. We didn't try to use bait. Wasted an entire day of our vacation, and we have nothing to show for it. If you know the fish aren't biting - don't go out! read more

We booked three days of fishing with Ray and Terri in the Mat Su Valley in Alaska, after reading their webpage which claimed that they are voted the best in that area. When making inquiries with Ray, we asked whether it will be he who take us out, and we were given a positive answer. Upon arriving from California, the four of us were taken out by a young guide, because we were told that Ray has doctor's advice not to go. The guide came from New York in the December before this summer, and as we were subsequently told by others, have only gone on the river two or three times before he took us out. During our miserable fishing trip, it was quite obvious that the guide does not know where to go to fish, and all four of us did not have a single bite during the entire 5 or 6 hours. Although fishing is fishing, other guides also agreed that something has to be wrong if during the salmon fishing season, there is no bite at all in a river full of salmon. The guide tried his very best, but it was obvious that he did not know the river well. He is an absolutely nice guy, though, so we tried not to speak ill of him and just cancelled the rest of the fishing trip when we got back to our cabin, and described to Terri that the trip was not what we expected. Imagine our surprise when our credit card statement came and we saw that the company has just gone ahead to charge for the rest of the trips. This was not disclosed to us when we talked to her on the phone for the cancellation at all. read more

Absolutely terrible guide service, I don't know what else to say when the guide catches more fish than the six clients in the boat. I booked a trip to get my father-in-law and brother-in-law a chance to catch some salmon, and after reading reviews for this charter decided to go with them. To keep this short, I will just list the things that occurred; no opportunity to put on life jackets, no introduction to our guide, my brother-in-law had to teach another client how to cast his spinning outfit while our guide fished, I had to help my father-in-law learn how to cast. Our guide, whose name is Doug, fished for approximately three hours out of the five, Doug caught 11 salmon while the six clients caught 5. I confronted Doug about the terrible job he was doing after I overheard him talking to Terri about the 25-30 fish that we had caught. This was not the first guided fishing or hunting trip that I had been on, but it will be the last that I take with Fisherman's Choice. The only good thing I have to say about this business is that Terri was polite and seemed genuinely concerned when I contacted her about Doug's actions on the trip. She told me to talk to Ray when we got back to the launch site. When I attempted to speak with Ray about our trip, he was extremely rude to myself and one other client. After I told Ray what had happened, he basically called me a liar and said too bad, he couldn't help us. I will NOT recommend this service to any of my friends, family, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, or Marines that I work with. read more