Just got back from a weekend and stayed at Ballards for the first time. Thought I would give a quick review.
Lodging, organization, and other non-fishing items. Overall I thought they did a good job. Friendly staff and no weird delays/paperwork glitches. Everything ran perfectly smooth. We popped in the bar all three nights. Had a good time talking to the staff. On Friday night the bar was a bit small for the crowd. Walked over to Sportsman’s for a seat and caught the band. Only minor gripe was after cleaning our fish they put them in the freezer for transport. I was hoping cook fresh not frozen fish for my wife when I got home.
Fishing stuff is where it got interesting. If you saw my post “counting down the hours” the overall them was fishing was slow and downright sucked the first day. This had our group downright cranky and wondering what the guides were going to do. On the second day we were driven to a different house. Our guide, Tyler, was also telling us that they moved 8 houses overnight to try to help. Overall they had four sqare miles covered with their clients and were trying to find the fish. About 11am Tyler gave us the opportunity to try a different house if we wanted.
Summary on the guiding: They can’t make the fish bite but they can work to try to make you successful. After a terrible first day we saw that they did what they could. Our group was happy at the effort put in by the Ballard’s guides and Tyler in particular.
Overall I would recommend Ballards for those looking. Having stayed at Sportsman’s also I had a similar review for them. Did like Sportman’s a bit better yes, but both are really good.
