Big Blue Charters is the most marketed charter name in Sitka, family run since 1994 under owner Mike Keating, with knowledgeable local captains and a full salmon and halibut menu across day trips, cruise ship excursions, and multi day packages. Many reviewers come away happy, crediting the captains for putting them on king and silver salmon, halibut, and lingcod and for an easy booking experience. It has the longest marketing reach and one of the larger profiles in the port. The honest read, though, is that it carries enough real weaknesses to land in our mixed band, and they are worth knowing before you book.
The verdict and where it ranks
At 6.9 Big Blue lands in the mixed band, the only operator in our Sitka ranking that does, and the score is honest rather than harsh. The strengths are real: more than 30 years in business, knowledgeable local captains, and a full menu of trips and species. But a ranking weighs the whole operation, and two things hold Big Blue down. First, transparency: it publishes neither a single day or cruise price nor its boat names, lengths, or capacities, which is unusual in a port where most competitors post both. Second, a recurring thread of fish processing complaints, with reviewers describing fewer fillets than the catch should have yielded, wrong species in the box, and boxes overweight at the airport. So it suits an angler set on a well known operation who confirms the day rate and the catch handling up front, and it is a weaker pick than the boats above it for a transparent, dependable day. Compare the field on the Sitka ranking.
The boats
This is the first gap. Big Blue describes its boats only as specially designed with heated cabins, and it does not publish their names, lengths, or passenger capacities on the pages we could read. The heated cabin matters on the cold, wet outer coast, and the fleet is large enough to run day trips, cruise excursions, and multi day packages at once. But a charter that does not state what it puts you on is hard to assess on boat and equipment, and we score what can be verified and say what cannot. If the specific boat matters to you, ask before you book, since the reader has no published specifications to go on.
The fishing and what you target
Big Blue fishes the full Sitka card, salmon first. King salmon is the signature, at one a day for nonresidents at 28 inches or greater, fished hardest from mid May into July, and silver salmon run at six a day through the summer. Pacific halibut is one a day under the 2026 Area 2C charter slot, 34 inches or under or 80 inches or over, with the Thursday closures from June 18 to September 10. Lingcod, black rockfish, and yelloweye fill out the bottom, the yelloweye open only July 1 to August 25. The fishing itself is the strong part of the reviews: knowledgeable captains who get people on fish across the salmon and the bottom. The trip menu, day, cruise, and multi day, is genuinely broad.
Trips and prices
The pricing is the second gap. Big Blue posts only multi day packages, per person, double occupancy: $2,550 for 2 days fishing and 3 nights, $3,350 for 3 and 4, and $4,150 for 4 and 5, with downtown Sitka lodging and a $500 per person deposit. It does not post a single day or cruise excursion price, so a day tripper has to call for a number, which is a real mark against it on value and transparency in a port where the ranked competitors post their day rates in full. Fish processing and rain gear are provided, and the license, the king and halibut stamps, and gratuity are extra. The recurring complaints about the processed boxes, covered below, also weigh here, since the catch you take home is part of what you pay for. Our cost guide sets Sitka’s going rates in context.
The crew
The crew reviews are the better side of the operation. Reviewers describe knowledgeable, professional, friendly captains, naming Jacob and JJ among them, who put people on fish and are good with families, and the booking communication draws praise. Against that sits the processing thread that defines the mixed score: a detailed account of two nice kings yielding only a few fillets, half a box filled with chum the party had not targeted, and boxes overweight and partly thawed at the airport, plus a separate reference to short changing of fish. That is a real and specific pattern about the catch handling rather than the fishing, and it is the clearest reason the operation lands where it does. It is a consistency and trust issue in the reviews, not a verified safety action, so it pulls the score into the mixed band rather than triggering a safety cap.
Booking and what to know
Big Blue books through its own site and by phone out of Sitka. Because it does not post a single day price, ask for the day rate, the boat you will be on, and exactly how the catch is processed, weighed, and boxed before you commit, given the complaints above. Bring warm waterproof layers for the cold, wet outer coast, a hat, sunscreen, and motion sickness medicine; rain gear is provided. Buy your Alaska license and the king and halibut stamps ahead. If you take a multi day package, confirm the lodging and what is included. Confirm the day before in case the weather forces a call.
How we scored it
Big Blue earns its 6.9 and a place in the mixed band on a real split: genuine strengths in a long track record, knowledgeable captains, and a broad trip menu, set against two transparency gaps, no published single day price and no published boat specifications, and a recurring thread of fish processing complaints that goes to the value of what you take home. Trips and access is its strongest factor; value and transparency and track record are the weak points. The score is not a safety cap, which the methodology reserves for a verified Coast Guard action; it is the honest weight of an uneven operation. See how we scored this boat and the rest of the Sitka charters we rank.