The Lodge

Weekly Report Ending January 22, 2021

The Lodge, Travel / By

Busy week interviewing. The staffing lists are filling up and our guests will appreciate all the great staff they will encounter this year. We are super excited about this coming season. The next step for Mark and Kristina will be to put the final touches on the food menus; that will occupy another couple of weeks. We will try and write about some of the new food options as we finalize the items.

Mark did get all of the foundation concrete and steel ordered for the new powerhouse and drying room floor. He is not looking forward to pouring 30 yards of concrete from 80 pounds bags by hand.
Fortunately, he has some good helpers.

We have been receiving some of our fishing supplies at the office this week. One of the items that we are adding is rubber nets (easy to untangle hooks from). Not being able to able to touch and feel at a trade show made ordering difficult but from the picture, you can see that they will be big enough to handle a big sucker fish! The handles are in a separate box. Don’t worry, we will attach them before you arrive.

Lynda has been busy working on reservations. She has been working on truing up the reservations for this year and she noted that the 2022 season is already starting to fill quickly. We are thankful that so many of you are planning ahead. Lynda has also been looking at ways for people to do payment plans rather than get nagging emails from us when payments are due. Our hope is that we have more conversations about fishing and less about money when our guests call! Fishing calls are always more fun.

Weekly Report Ending January 15, 2021

The Lodge / By

Interviews have occupied most of the week for Mark and Kristina. We are excited about those that are returning. It is going to be a particularly difficult decision to select the best candidates for the season. We think we have enough good applicants to fill the open positions twice over or more. We expect to have the hiring done by the end of the month. We are thankful that we have been blessed with so many choices; we have high expectations of a fabulous season.

Lynda continues to help guests get into their preferred weeks. She sent out the invoicing last week. We have been having internal discussions about how to move people to automatic payment plans. We think this will help our guests and not require so much “bugging”. We love to talk with people but it is always more fun to talk about fishing than money.

Last week Lynda took a call from a guest from last year. It was memorable because the guest indicated that he had come fishing with us as a once-in-a-lifetime trip with his brother. They decided that was incorrect. They had such a good time; they really want to come back again! We love hearing those types of calls.

Lisa has also had a busy week. After getting all of the tax work done for the year, she found time to meet with the embroiderer and drop off this year’s new clothing for the trading post. She has also been working on getting large bottles of soap, shampoo, and conditioner for the showers. Our plan is to convert to the larger bottles as we finish using up the smaller ones this season.

Weekly Report Ending January 8, 2021

The Lodge / By

We are back in the office after the holidays more often now. Much of our work is portable so it made it easier to take some time off but still get things done as needed.

Kristina and Mark are working diligently with the hiring processes. We have several returning staff that have committed to the season and we begin interviewing new candidates next week. We are making adjustments trying to identify and remove any bottlenecks in our guest experience.


Lisa has wrapped up the end-of-year financial things and has us in top shape for this coming year. She also helped us attend our tackle buying show remotely. We don’t think we really like the remote format. It is hard to handle things with our hands via the internet. To compensate we have had to talk directly with manufacturers over the phone and try and describe the need and their solutions verbally. Both the vendors and the buyers are looking forward to in-person shows in 2022.


Lynda is starting the next round of invoicing. As people’s plans change, the invoicing activity creates some movement in the available space. She has already been able to reduce some of the waitlists. She does enjoy it when each of your calls in to visit.

Weekly Report Ending January 1st, 2021

The Lodge / By

Happy New Year! This last week has been filled with typical end of year activities. Lisa has been busy wrapping up financial details and preparing for the next year. She also found that under the current travel- to-Alaska protocol, people still need to have a PCR test 72 hours before departure.

There is a couple of changes to how to report the test. We know that it will change by the time the season kicks in so we are not troubling people with details until we are much closer. Overall, it should not be near as challenging as last season.

Lynda continues to find space for people at the lodge as guests’ plans change. We continue to have record bookings for the next season. The return of so many of you in 2021 has impacted when we bring in staff and supplies. The adjustments will allow us to train better and to improve our customer experience starting day one of the summer.

Mark has been chipping away at some of the long-term projects. He has been making adjustments to the hiring documentation, operational documentation, and a more formalized training plan for seasonal
staff. He and Kristina continue to work on the menu for next summer and trying out new products and items.

What are Alaska Fishing Lodges Like?

The Lodge, Travel / By

The Alaskan wilderness is beautiful. It’s known as the “Last Frontier” for many reasons, one of which is that the best fishing in the US can be found here. Your Alaskan fishing lodge will serve as your home base throughout your vacation so we would like to give you a quick description of what a lodge will look like, what purpose it serves, and what amenities it should have.

Fishing lodges can vary wildly from simple cabins to full-fledged resort facilities. This makes the general makeup of an average Alaska fishing lodge something difficult to determine on the whole, but there’s three main things that make a lodge what it is, and we’ll go through each one with you.

Alaska Fishing Lodge Locations

First and foremost the location of the lodge can make or break your trip. If you’re looking to get away from civilization, then take that into consideration. Here at Doc Warner’s we’re far enough away to help you disconnect, yet close enough to have access to health services if needed.

Whichever the case for any specific one, all Alaska fish lodges share something in common: beautiful vistas. The 49th state has natural beauty in abundance, and you can go to lodges that take you near glaciers, snow-capped mountains, forests, rivers, waterfalls or all of them. Whenever and wherever you’re fishing in Alaska, be prepared to feel goosebumps with all the beauty around you.

Accomodations in The Last Frontier

You can count on comfort and safety while going to most Alaska fishing lodges. There are various options for accommodations in a fishing lodge, from shared dorms to small cabins, to luxurious rooms. As they are, most lodges have much more than just the basic amenities for you. You can stay in separate private cabins within a lodge’s grounds, or a spacious dormitory with common areas.

Not only will you be able to keep warm and keep clean with comfortable living quarters, there’s also much more that has to do with the task of fishing itself. For Alaska fishing lodges that pride themselves on their name, as ours does, you’ve got meeting spaces, gardens, a fire pit, and dining facilities to sit down together and share stories. And speaking of sharing stories…

Meeting Amazing People

Most of what makes an Alaska fishing lodge is the people who work and stay there. These people love two things: Alaska itself, and fishing in Alaska. Having these two things in common means you’ll be in the perfect place to share your passion for angling and having a great time with people who appreciate a good catch. There’s always good conversation to be had at a fishing lodge, and there’s always something to learn while spending some time with fellow anglers.

If you enjoy fishing in Alaska and are looking for a lodge to have a great fishing experience, you’re more than welcome in our Alaska fishing community at Doc Warner’s Alaska Adventures! Visit our website and check our availability!

Weekly Report Ending December 26, 2020

The Lodge / By

This week there was not much going on in the office. Lisa is out spending time with her new family.

Mark made it into the office to go through packages. The filters for all of the various equipment showed up and needed to be reconciled. Other than that, he has spent some time working on the interview and hiring processes. On Wednesday, his son, Mark Jr., got married to Daisy so that has made his time vary distracted.

Lynda has been playing shuffle with people as some add and drop this last week. The phones have been relatively quiet. On Thursday, the Christmas text went out. We hope that all of you have had some nice times with your families this week.

Next week are generally out of the office until after the first. We don’t know if there will be much of a weekly report for that week. We want to wish you all a happy new year and many fishing adventures this coming summer.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Doc’s!
The Doc Warner’s Crew

Weekly report ending December 11, 2020

Fish Tales, The Lodge / By

Some of the highlights this week:

Lynda is booking people regularly for the 2022 season now. Space is probably about 25% full for the 2022 season. We think people are more willing to plan out so far into the future because they know there is no risk of canceling or moving dates with us.

We have had to become a little stricter on deposits for holding space though; $250 is all that is required to secure your next fishing trip to Doc’s.

Lisa got all of the Christmas cards and pictures out just before Christmas. A few of them came back and needed better addressing. If you came fishing with us last year and did not receive a Christmas card and your picture, let us know and we will update our records and try to rectify it. We love having such an extended Doc Warner’s family. Thank you for being a part of that special place we call Doc’s.

Mark had some data entry to do on the food orders from last year. The spreadsheet where we track things has gotten pretty good at predicting quantities to purchase for the coming season. The only real challenge is when the menu changes and then trying to figure out the impacts on the old data. We often remark that it would easy if we had weekly deliveries when we see food delivery trucks driving around.

Kristina and Mark have also started the preliminary work on staffing. Already they have reached out to some of the staff from previous years to see who is interested in coming back. Along with that work, the forms and paperwork for hiring are getting refreshed. They have also spent some time working on the interview questions to take into account lessons learned from this last year. The interview processes are under a tight timeline as Mark will be leaving mid-March to begin work on projects at the lodge.

Weekly Report Ending December 5, 2020

Fish Tales, The Lodge / By

It has been a busy week getting back into the swing of things after the Thanksgiving break. Lisa worked over the break to get Christmas cards out to our guests. It is always fun to cull through all of the photos from the summer to select all the personalized pictures. Lots of good memories get revisited. We hope you all enjoy your pictures from last season.

Lynda had the phones over the holiday. She said it was obvious that people had time to slow down and visit with family members about upcoming vacation plans. It took her a couple of days to get all the updates, reservations, and changes input into our systems. She has also been diligent in rooting out who is holding space and who is really coming. Her efforts are slowly starting to chip away at the weeks that have waiting lists.

Mark has been wrapping up much of his ordering. The rest of the plumbing parts for the new sewer system showed up this week. He has also been making progress on our master document for orientation that we call the Room Book. He expects to have the final touches on it in a week or so. This has been a several year project.

On Thursday, at our request, Kristina arranged for a food tasting event. The purpose was to see what changes we can make to the lodge menu to improve the quality and consistency of meals. Our team was hosted by some of our guests who work there and we were treated with everything from breakfast to lunch to dinner ideas. We plan to have Kristina work closely with their chefs to come up with some new offerings at the lodge. We are excited about the opportunities in that area of operations.

Looking back on the week, it feels like we touch on fewer than 10% of the activities we are engaged in. Selecting those we think are most interesting can be a challenge. It takes a surprising amount of moving parts to make Doc’s the place we all love.

Packing Fish Home

The Lodge, Travel / By

Many of our first time guests have two pressing questions before they arrive. 1) How much fish can they expect to take home? and 2) How do they transport that fish home?

The first answer is up to you. If you catch your daily limits, you will be taking home plenty of fish. …

Packing Fish HomeRead More »