ATTRACTED TO THE WATER
SITKA LODGE AND CHARTER OWNER LIVES FOR FISHING EXPERIENCE BY LUKE KELLY
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verybody has his or her own reason for being drawn to Alaska. For some, it’s the mountains and the allure of untamed wilderness. For others, it could be hunting, or the prospect of solitude. And for the Theresa Weisers of the world, who love boats, fishing and simply being on the water, Alaska provides the sea and that lifestyle as a package deal. Weiser is the owner of Alaska Premier Charters Inc. and Wild Strawberry Lodge in Sitka (1-800-770-2628; wildstrawberrylodge.com). Her successful career running charters has spanned nearly 25 years, and much of this is owed to the fact that she has a wealth of experience in both Alaska’s charter and commercial fishing industries.
BACKGROUND ON BOATS Weiser began her life on the water as a teenager in Oregon working as a deckhand on charter boats. It was there that she got her first taste of the fishing lifestyle – the long hours, the highs
and lows, the thrills that come with working on a boat. It seemed inevitable that from there, she would set her sights and career aspirations on the Last Frontier. “When I was 19 I came to Alaska with $15 in my pocket to work on commercial fishing boats,” she says. In the following years Weiser worked both commercial trollers and longline vessels throughout the pristine waters of Southeast Alaska. When her stint as a commercial fishing deckhand came to an end, she took a job with Icicle Seafoods and worked at a fish-processing plant in Petersburg, adding to her rapidly growing knowhow in the fishing industry. “In the process of working (at Icicle) I got a lot of seafood-processing experience, particularly with salmon eggs. So I started my own salmon egg bait company,” says Weiser. “I moved from Petersburg to Sitka to be an entrepreneur, and I did that for five years.” From 1985 to 1990, Weiser built a flourishing business of curing and marketing salmon eggs that were
used for salmon, steelhead and trout fishing. “I would process around 100,000 pounds of salmon eggs a year,” she recalls.
A NEW VENTURE Always the entrepreneur and equipped with a solid foundation of both fishing and business skills, Weiser sold her company at the beginning of the 1990s to start another one. “Those were my startup funds to be able to go into partnership for starting Alaska Premier Charters Inc. in 1990,” she says. These days, Weiser is the sole owner of the business (and has been since 2005); her company has a reputation for providing a top-notch fishing experience to clients who come from all over the globe. The success of the business, and the high level of expertise provided as far as the fishing and lodging goes can be largely attributed to all of those years that Weiser spent paying her dues in the fishing industry. “All of that prior experience gave me a really good background,” she says. “You could call it the school of
Based in beautiful Sitka, Wild Strawberry Lodge and Alaska Premier Charters put customers within reach of great salmon, halibut and bottomfish fishing. “As far as our clients go, we want them to have a hassle-free fishing vacation from the minute they get off of the plane,” says owner Theresa Weiser. (ALASKA PREMIER CHARTERS, BOTH) aksportingjournal.com | DECEMBER 2015
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