Blue Ice Charters — Local services in Seward

Wouldn't Reccomend Them

Recently went on a halibut charter with Cpt. Tim and Peyton. I've experienced charters before, and this was not a good experience. No need to get into details but communications between the office and the Capt. ,the office and the clients, the Capt. and the clients sucked. Once underway, our "instructions" on safety and the handling of poles / equipment were barked at us. Clearly these guys did not enjoy this job. We were treated just like tourist cattle. We were told that the poles were owned by the company and the lure rigs were the property of the Capt. and Peyton so pay attention and don't get snagged and lose lures plus if it seems like you could have avoided a snag and a tip of a pole broke you'd be charged an additional $40 for repairs. There wasn't any clear plan to place us on fish, after the first place wasn't productive we had too much hap hazard drops. Most captains or mates have a list of previously productive coordinates. Not here. We were catching lingcod and rockfish with only one halibut for the day. I saw clients get yelled at because they weren't reeling up fast enough. We'd drop in a spot and be told to pull up 5-10 minutes later. Fresh bait wasn't used till over 1/2 way thru the charter. Then it was used profusely in order to get rid of it. One woman caught a yellow eye and when it was brought on board some tiny shrimp spilled out of its mouth on to the deck. The capt. reached down, picked one up and popped it into his mouth and ate it. "Sushi", he says. There were two things that upset me most and IMHO were not very professional. 1) The fish were "hacked" apart on the deck of the boat as we were returning at full speed bouncing around like a mechanical bull. In most places it's illegal to filet fish prior to docking in order to maintain size and species limit counts etc. Our fish were hacked. A 10 yr. old with a jackknife could have done better than Peyton. His only concern was to get it done before we hit shore. So much was wasted in the butchering. 2) Each fish was marked when it was caught cleaned and bagged according to client that caught it. Not all the fish were cleaned. The largest lingcod were slyly set aside and not distributed at the dock but were claimed by the captain and mate. I know this because mine was one of those fish. I protested at the dock but was told mine was in a bag that was handed to me for processing. Rather than raise a stink, I reduced their tip by 2/3rds. Don't trust them, they've got a game for the unwary client. They skim...

I booked a trip of lifetime for me and my son for August 10th. On August 9th, I received a text from the owner saying there was a problem with one of the engines and the boat was headed to the shop. I was told the shop would look at it at 8am when they opened and the mechanic knew what the problem was. I texted the owner back at 10am and was told he hadn't heard back from the mechanic. A short while later, I received a text stating that it wouldn't be until afternoon that the boat would be ready. Not having a good feeling, I looked for another charter even though at this time it would be a half day. No luck. All boats were either out or full. I waited and around noon I asked if we could still squeeze in a half day trip. I was told that if the boat was done by 1pm that it would be a possibility. Didn't hear back until 2pm and at that time was told he would have to refund our money. We were leaving to go back to Ohio the following day so we never fished. I read a prior review and the owner offered to let them borrow his poles to fish in a river for salmon. That would have been acceptable but nothing was ever offered to me. No apology, nothing. From a few other posts (like running out of gas 2x on the same trip) this charter needs to get their act together. Though it wasn't their fault their boat broke down, nothing was offered in compensation like a voucher for money off if we ever go back etc. Oh, and by the way, when I mentioned we would go to the docks to see what the second boat was going to bring in, I was told that boat too was out of commission because "there was bad weather coming this weekend, we wouldn't be going out, and it's a good time to do maintenance". I just wonder if the people who had that second boat booked thought it was a good time to do maintenance! Feel bad for those groups too. Bottom line, this charter left me with sour grapes. I wouldn't book with them again because it seems like their boats are very unreliable. Everyone should consider this before booking with Blue Ice. After just reading several more reviews, the way this company communicates is via email, and if reception is bad, that's no way to communicate. Mike also said he was driving to Anchorage and didn't know his phone was 'dead'? Really? What kind f business forgets to plug their cell phone in at night to recharge if that's your only way to communicate. Stay away from this...

Mostly disappointed in the owner’s response and lack of communication about the cancellation of our charter this morning. I began texting Mike at 5:45 this morning, asking where to meet since I had not heard anything from him after our reservation was made. We even called the different number from Mike’s number, the B&B number, whose message said to send a text if it was urgent or an emergency, which we did….no response. After walking around the docks for over an hour, asking if captains and dock hands knew him, and still no response from calls or texts to various numbers we found for Blue Ice, we drove to the bed and breakfast, hoping for answers.

We felt his reply was unapologetic, and dismissive, by stating “I sent an email”. I had already checked every folder in my email earlier that morning to make sure I hadn’t received anything from him, and there was nothing from Blue Ice, Mike or anyone. And I still have not received the email that was supposedly sent. Perhaps he made an error in my email address? But it seemed he was completely passing the blame to us, taking no responsibility for the situation. He and I had exchanged a few texts when I made the reservation in July, so it’s difficult for me to understand why I wasn’t contacted by phone to tell us the charter was canceled, especially after reading other reviews where it seems the boat problem wasn’t a new issue that just happened the last couple of days. His response of “I thought you had made other plans when I didnt hear back from you” ….also dismissive. How did he made this assumption when there had been no other communication with me, and why didnt he call and confirm receipt of the email to make sure we knew the charter was as canceled? So disappointing.

We woke up at 3:30 am to make it to Seward for this charter, and wasted a day because of the lack of communication. Just not an impressive way to run a business, and not a good experience when compared to other charter businesses we’ve dealt with. A sincere apology would’ve been nice to hear, not “I sent an email” (communicated through text), especially after we felt like we’d done everything we could to figure out what had happened. I regret not using the charters we have used...