Favorite PNW Inside Passage Guide

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Jknox0601

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I am starting to plan a trip for next season (2020) up the inside passage from Anacortes to Alaska and back (hopefully we make it all the way to Glacier Bay). If I am feeling frisky and the time and weather look good, I might decide to come back down the west side of Vancouver Island. I have fished the west cost of Vancouver many times in smaller fishing boats and love that coastline. Besides, the fishing is world class!

I am retired and have plenty of time, and my boat will be a 47’ semi displacement trawler that cruises at 8-9 but can get up and go 14 if needed. I plan to cruise slowly and only use the extra oomph if navigationally necessary.

I am busy steeping myself in the charts and anchorage guides out there, but am wondering what those who have done this feel are the best overall guides to routes and “local knowledge” tips along the way.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
 
First you need the Waggoner Cruising Guide. They publish a new edition every year with the latest information. The reason this is important is that the marinas along the way may go out of business. So you cruise hours to get to a location because they have a service you need ( garbage drop, propane, groceries, fresh water, etc.) and then discover they are no longer in business. This guide covers from Olympia to Ketchican.

Then there is the Exploring series guides by Don and Reanne Douglass. These cover so much area and are so complete that they come in several volumes. You would probably want the following: Cruising The South Coast of British Columbia, Cruising the North Coast of British Columbia, Cruising SE Alaska. These will cover nearly every nook and cranny along the way. They are not cheap but well worth it.

Don't get real excited about salmon fishing in BC. This year it has been closed to Chinook fishing from the south end of Vancouver Island to the north end of Vancouver Island, inside and outside. It finally opened on July 15th and then they put a limit on the size you can keep. My guess it will be this way for several years to come. North of Port Hardy it was open as usual.

These guides are available at most marine stores , Fine Edge Publishing in Anacortes, and Amazon.
 
Russell Clifton said:
Then there is the Exploring series guides by Don and Reanne Douglass. These cover so much area and are so complete that they come in several volumes. You would probably want the following: Cruising The South Coast of British Columbia, Cruising the North Coast of British Columbia, Cruising SE Alaska. These will cover nearly every nook and cranny along the way. They are not cheap but well worth it.
Click to expand...

:thumb:

Russell Clifton said:
Don't get real excited about salmon fishing in BC. This year it has been closed to Chinook fishing from the south end of Vancouver Island to the north end of Vancouver Island, inside and outside. It finally opened on July 15th and then they put a limit on the size you can keep. My guess it will be this way for several years to come.
Click to expand...

I read recently that over 500 million salmon were caught commercially last year and BC's commercial fleet only accounted for 4% of the total. They are trying to protect the very few that have a chance to spawn.
 
I would suggest that there are several blogs and you tube videos about cruising the inside passage... Slowboat is one, Flemming does lots of great You tube videos and there are a couple of more that currently escape me. That and some good insight on this and other forums.... That should get you started....
 
Russell Clifton said:
First you need the Waggoner Cruising Guide. They publish a new edition every year with the latest information. The reason this is important is that the marinas along the way may go out of business. So you cruise hours to get to a location because they have a service you need ( garbage drop, propane, groceries, fresh water, etc.) and then discover they are no longer in business. This guide covers from Olympia to Ketchican.

Then there is the Exploring series guides by Don and Reanne Douglass. These cover so much area and are so complete that they come in several volumes. You would probably want the following: Cruising The South Coast of British Columbia, Cruising the North Coast of British Columbia, Cruising SE Alaska. These will cover nearly every nook and cranny along the way. They are not cheap but well worth it.

Don't get real excited about salmon fishing in BC. This year it has been closed to Chinook fishing from the south end of Vancouver Island to the north end of Vancouver Island, inside and outside. It finally opened on July 15th and then they put a limit on the size you can keep. My guess it will be this way for several years to come. North of Port Hardy it was open as usual.

These guides are available at most marine stores , Fine Edge Publishing in Anacortes, and Amazon.
Click to expand...

+1. What Russ said. Waggoner is fine for general info but the Douglas books have the detail you need for upper BC and SE AK.
 
The Slowboat folks have a lot of good, specific info which can really augment the Waggoner Guide which has a ton of good, general info.

Slowboat
 
Thanks. As expected from this group, lots of good suggestions! As far as salmon fishing goes, we’ll see what next season brings, but at least this year the north coast refs did not change, and west coast of vancouver is open like before after 7/15 (which is the best time anyway, having fished that many times). I am going on a trip for a few days to Hakai Pass (by plane) in a couple of weeks and we will see how the fishing is up there.

I have some of the books mentioned (Douglass north and south), but I am wondering if there are any that propose sample itinerary’s for the whole journey, or substantial parts of it. Having essentially a list of anchorages is helpful, but it is the stringing them together part I am interested in exploring by way of examples others have done.
 
I’m planning a similar trip, and I really enjoy the planning process so I’m always on the lookout for good resources. The guides that were previously mentioned are all good and “must haves” IMHO. One book that very rarely see mentioned is “Charlie’s Charts - North to Alaska.”

I picked up a copy last week, and I’m glad I did. It is a really comprehensive guide to your route that contains ALOT of information on cruising areas and anchorages that are not in the more popular and well known guides. Mind you, I haven’t put the “local knowledge” to the test yet but I can tell that this volume is going to be a really valuable addition to trip planning.
 
I started writing a new cruising guide for SE, so I purchased copies of all the guides available to compare them. Each one offers a little something different. If you are going to hop from one marina to the next, all you need is the Waggoneer guide. If you want to anchor where all the other boats are, use the Douglas guides. If you want to go where there are no there are no other boats, there are some obscure guides that will help with that. All depends on how you want to cruise.

Douglas has potential itineraries in several of the guides.
 
Jknox0601 said:
Thanks. As expected from this group, lots of good suggestions! As far as salmon fishing goes, we’ll see what next season brings, but at least this year the north coast refs did not change, and west coast of vancouver is open like before after 7/15 (which is the best time anyway, having fished that many times). I am going on a trip for a few days to Hakai Pass (by plane) in a couple of weeks and we will see how the fishing is up there.

I have some of the books mentioned (Douglass north and south), but I am wondering if there are any that propose sample itinerary’s for the whole journey, or substantial parts of it. Having essentially a list of anchorages is helpful, but it is the stringing them together part I am interested in exploring by way of examples others have done.
Click to expand...

In the Douglass 'Exploring SE AK' book starting on page 512 in the appendix there are sample itineraries. My book is a little old (2000 edition) but I bet the current edition has it too.
 
Thanks. I am just starting to plan my 2020 trip from Blaine WA to Juneau AK. I have cruised the Gulf Islands extensively, but now that I am retired, I'm ready to take on a multi-month trip like the Inside Passage. I've collected a number of good guide books and charts to help me put this trip together for a June 2020 departure.
 
I know a couple of folk have recommended Slow Boat, an excellent resource, but let me start you off with one of their most appropriate video for you, others are excellent as well:

 
If you plan on fishing in AK make sure you know the regs. - especially for Halibut, they are quite draconian.
 
Jknox0601 said:
Thanks. As expected from this group, lots of good suggestions! As far as salmon fishing goes, we’ll see what next season brings, but at least this year the north coast refs did not change, and west coast of vancouver is open like before after 7/15 (which is the best time anyway, having fished that many times). I am going on a trip for a few days to Hakai Pass (by plane) in a couple of weeks and we will see how the fishing is up there.

I have some of the books mentioned (Douglass north and south), but I am wondering if there are any that propose sample itinerary’s for the whole journey, or substantial parts of it. Having essentially a list of anchorages is helpful, but it is the stringing them together part I am interested in exploring by way of examples others have done.
Click to expand...

If you have Coastal Explorer, I can send you a copy of the file that includes all stops we made on the trip you describe. PM me if you do and I'll email you a copy. Lacking that, I can scan and send you a calendar that lists all stops without the routing information.

I would also recommend a subscription to Active Captain. Again, on Coastal Explorer I see comments on a great many anchorages that are not covered in Waggoner or Douglas-Hemmingway's guides.
 
Russell Clifton said:
First you need the Waggoner Cruising Guide. They publish a new edition every year with the latest information. The reason this is important is that the marinas along the way may go out of business. So you cruise hours to get to a location because they have a service you need ( garbage drop, propane, groceries, fresh water, etc.) and then discover they are no longer in business. This guide covers from Olympia to Ketchican.

Then there is the Exploring series guides by Don and Reanne Douglass. These cover so much area and are so complete that they come in several volumes. You would probably want the following: Cruising The South Coast of British Columbia, Cruising the North Coast of British Columbia, Cruising SE Alaska. These will cover nearly every nook and cranny along the way. They are not cheap but well worth it.

Don't get real excited about salmon fishing in BC. This year it has been closed to Chinook fishing from the south end of Vancouver Island to the north end of Vancouver Island, inside and outside. It finally opened on July 15th and then they put a limit on the size you can keep. My guess it will be this way for several years to come. North of Port Hardy it was open as usual.

These guides are available at most marine stores , Fine Edge Publishing in Anacortes, and Amazon.
Click to expand...

Ken E. said:
+1. What Russ said. Waggoner is fine for general info but the Douglas books have the detail you need for upper BC and SE AK.
Click to expand...

Moonfish said:
The Slowboat folks have a lot of good, specific info which can really augment the Waggoner Guide which has a ton of good, general info.

Slowboat
Click to expand...

I would agree with the above. We are on our 3rd trip and the Waggoner is OK and good for your first time. We have found the Exploring series to be the best. There are 3 volumes we use. The South Coast of BC, The North Coast of BC and SE Alaska. They are well worth the money you pay for them.

May I also suggest you pickup a copy of "Port and Passes" The show tides and most importantly "current" slack.
 
Jknox0601 said:
Thanks. As expected from this group, lots of good suggestions! As far as salmon fishing goes, we’ll see what next season brings, but at least this year the north coast refs did not change, and west coast of vancouver is open like before after 7/15 (which is the best time anyway, having fished that many times). I am going on a trip for a few days to Hakai Pass (by plane) in a couple of weeks and we will see how the fishing is up there.

I have some of the books mentioned (Douglass north and south), but I am wondering if there are any that propose sample itinerary’s for the whole journey, or substantial parts of it. Having essentially a list of anchorages is helpful, but it is the stringing them together part I am interested in exploring by way of examples others have done.
Click to expand...
Yes indeed, Slowboat does this.
 
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