We recently visited Queen Charlotte Safaris as a family of four (two of us for the second year in a row). After having fished from Western Alaska to SE Alaska, I can say that personally this area (Haida Gwaii) has been my best fishing spot - the most / biggest: Chinook, and ling cod (we also caught halibut and rockfish). For us it's not all about the body count, but in the end we can say that we've never seen a location with such good fishing. The lodge is not as "rustic" as you might expect, it's not a camp in the forest only accessible by small floatplane, Sandspit is a small town where regular airplanes land on a typical runway. Our VERY experienced skipper Ed was a no-nonsense guide and put us on fish. We had 4 fishermen on a boat where the jet-engine cowling takes up the center of the deck, but we made it work well, and he was always polite and safety-minded. We saw black bear, deer, bald eagles, humpback whales, along with a salmon shark, and a big blue shark which followed a fish right up to the boat. We were extremely lucky when it came to flights, weather, and calm seas. And although we initially were going to shop for our own accommodations on the way in, ultimately we decided to go with the Fairmont hotel reservation in the Vancouver airport which QCS preemptively made for us as a backup, a day early (that relieved a lot of the stress; there was time for us to all fly home the same day we departed the island for Vancouver). But a big part of the credit for the success of a trip like this goes to Valerie. As a business owner myself, I appreciate her attention to detail, and organizational skills. Without her, it's just another lodge. QCS understands that it's the little things that count: comfortable beds, great rain gear and fishing tackle, tons of lunch options, hot soup waiting for us after a day of fishing, the best quality fish boxes I've ever seen for the trip home. See the photos; there's no cook, it's an amazing Chef, John from Scotland, and his crew. We can see that all the other staff members follow in Valerie's footsteps, and ultimately this somehow also results in a group of very nice guests.
