To the salty Ags of the OB, I'm hoping y'all can provide me with some halibut fishing charter recommendations out of Homer, Alaska, or within 5-6 hours drive from Anchorage (Seward, Ninilchik, Soldotna). The RIB, her sister, BIL, and I are planning a 2-week vacation to AK in early September and was hoping the OB could throw me a few bones of suggestions/recommendations. The salmon fishing should be tapering off while we're there but there may be other opportunities to catch rockfish, lingcod, trout, and possibly some salmon. We'll be hanging out for about a week and half within 5-6 hours of Anchorage and later squeezing in a trip to Denali. All of it OUTDOORS!

Thanks in advance Ags and for helping' a brother out!!!

No help with a charter. The halibut are cool and all but rockfish and lingcod are much better eating. The halibut taste like its been soaking in water for a week. No flavor and the big ones are grainy.

It's been a very long time since I did a halibut charter, but there were a few operations in Homer, and I went out from there. The one I did left in then evening and came back the next morning allowing us to keep 4 instead of the daily limit of 2. Ask them to cut out the cheeks for you for some poor man's lobster.

Alaskan Fishing Adventures was who we used a few years back.

Shipping back the halibut is worth the time and expense.

Good luck, be safe.

Guy we used has since retired but plan on the cost of shipping it back to me just as much if not more than the cost of your charter. We didn't plan that. Luckily we had some locals on our boat who paid market price for a portion of ours to help soften the cost. We still had plenty and damn was it good.

Have fun!

Rod N Real out of Soldotna is partly Aggie owned. Mike and Lindsi Sibble own it. Lindsi is from Mason and was at A&M the same time I was there. Have not fished with them, but have some friends that did a couple weeks ago and absolutely wore them out.

My fam has gone with J-Docks out of Seward for quite a few years. Always great trips. We do the 2 day excursion, where you go further out and stay at an island out near PWS. Always catch much bigger fish that way.

These pics are from 2019, which was an average trip. Last year, due to less pressure, they caught way bigger and way more. Sadly I wasn't able to go.

^this. I took my dad last year for his 80th and my son with J-docks . This particular guide is good. My son caught a 120lber. We also caught lots of rock fish.

What kind of fish are in the 2nd and 3rd pics?

The 2nd pic is a Lingcod- long ugly fish with a big head and lots of teeth.

The big brown/white diamond shaped fish are halibut.

The red fish are Yellow Eyes. The last picture is the guide on our trip (mentioned by Catag above), and a really really big Yellow Eye from our trip.

I'm going to check out that overnight trip with J-docks, that looks amazing.

I have been with Ninilchick Charters out of Seward twice and out of Homer once (they run 1 boat out of each). Our groups did pretty well with them. Seward you go about 2.5 hours offshore and fish for about 4 hours. Homer was more like 90 minutes offshore.

The operations at Bobs are top notch. Both Sea Predator and Daze Off are great boats. I've gone with Daze Off a few times and had some great success. I go every year or two with these guys.

https://bobstrophycharters.com/halibut-and-salmon-charter-boats/

Without a doubt J&J Smart Charters out of Ninilchik.

Also a beautiful place to spend the night.

I have been out with them a dozen times or so and spent probably 20 nights in their cabins overlooking the water.

One of my favorite places on earth.

My wife and I have used North Country Halibut Charters out of Homer. They were excellent. Limited in 3 casts and spent the rest of the time catching Silvers.

Don't remember exacts but the 50lb insulated wetlock boxes checked as baggage are the way to go. Seems we got them from Alaska airlines themselves.

Barnes04 said:

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I'm going to check out that overnight trip with J-docks, that looks amazing.

I have been with Ninilchick Charters out of Seward twice and out of Homer once (they run 1 boat out of each). Our groups did pretty well with them. Seward you go about 2.5 hours offshore and fish for about 4 hours. Homer was more like 90 minutes offshore.

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Hey good shot of Uncle Wado! Didn't know you were on texags

He landed a pretty nice king salmon this summer too, he is good luck to have in the boat!

Took my daughter to Alaska in June for a father daughter fishing trip out of Ninilchik. We ended up with 33lbs of Halibut filets and a lot of great memories. If you can get your filets vacuum sealed and frozen you can get a styrofoam fish box for about $20 and then just check your fishbox as a bag for your flight home. Our travel time was close to 18 hours and the fillets were still solidly frozen when we got home. I was pleasantly surprised how easy and inexpensive it was to get the fish home.

Used to fish for Halibut out of Home every two years. My old guide finally retired, but that old man was aces.

A few recommendations:

1.) Go out two days if possible.

2.) Keep the 30-50 pound range, and throw back the 100 pounders. Meat is just not very good, unless it is for frying only.

3.) Book as far in advance as possible. Sometimes you can show up with no plans and fish next day. Sometimes they are booked 3 months out. If you are travelling that far, do not risk it.

4.) Note related to halibut, but if you can make the time, drive over to Valdez Alaska. The drive is one of the most beautiful in North America. Amazing. Take a boat tour in Prince William Sound. Phenomenal. I would choose this trip over Denali anytime.

Did you fish with Mike Swan by chance? That's who we fished with in 2009 and he's retired now, and his MO was to go for the under 100lb fish because they taste better and actually fought a bit instead of the bigger ones which was just like reeling in a tractor tire.

For a different experience hit up Paul at www. http://aksupperclub.com/ in ninilchik. He may be able to hook you up to fish on a commercial boat. Worst case scenario you have a great meal there. Also I know you're not asking for non fishing but stop in for 10-30 minutes at https://www.normanlowellgallery.org/ phenomenal wall size oil paintings of Alaskan fireweed and glaciers calving. In anchor point so you'll be driving near there at some point

Thanks everyone for the great advice, recommendations, and photos!!! That's a lot of quality information to digest and hopefully we can pull the trigger on a couple of fishing trips out of different areas to get a full taste of what Alaska fishing has to offer.

Obviously the RIB and SIL don't want to spend the entire trip fishing so any other activities y'all can suggest to do will be greatly appreciated. I've been researching things to do for several weeks but "word of mouth" experience is always better than a bunch of tourist brochures.

Thanks again AGS and hope to post plenty of fishing pics in late September!!! Y'all are the best!

Pahdz said:

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Did you fish with Mike Swan by chance? That's who we fished with in 2009 and he's retired now, and his MO was to go for the under 100lb fish because they taste better and actually fought a bit instead of the bigger ones which was just like reeling in a tractor tire.

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Merle Sweeney as I recall. Last year he took us about 8 years ago he was 78, and about done. He guided salmon and his son guided deep sea halibut. Merle was phenomenal at putting us on the king salmon off Anchor Point.