Is anyone familiar with the best time of the year, locations, charters etc to go fishing for Halibut and/or Salmon in Alaska ? Also, can the catch be quick frozen and brought back home in a carry-on ice chest? I have a niece moving to Alaska that we'd like to visit and thought we might be able to get some fishing in also. Thanks.

How good is your stomach?

The best time to fish for Salmon is June thru September, with the Reds and Kings earlier and the Silvers later. A lot of charters will like to catch them in the mouths of the rivers but I much prefer being up river a ways. Either way really.

You can catch Halibut all year if you can handle the conditions. As a tourist May-Sep. The most important thing about catching Halibut is understanding the tides and how hard they are pulling any particular day.

My suggestion is always to contact J&J Smart Charters in Ninulchik, about 30 miles from Homer. It is paradise on earth. I could spend every day of the rest of my life in that area if I could. I can't, but I could.

Just got back. Flossing for salmon is about the most boring fishing I've ever done. Effective, but boring. Once you snag one, all is good. Good fighting fish. Right now is a good time for fishing there.
Every one of the fish packing houses are well versed in packaging and overnighting it to the lower 48. There are tons of them. Your guide will have one they work with. It will be just under $400 to overnight a 50 lb box. Much cheaper to use a checked bag and your airline. There is a counter at the anchorage airport that will hold your fish in a cooler, if you need to drop it for a couple days before your flight. It is by the baggage claim.

We just got back 3 weeks ago from King Salmon, AK. Best fishing trip ever.

There will be plenty of fish all summer long. As was said above, different months have specific types of fish. I suggest hiring a guide, at least for your first time there:

1) They will know how and where to put you on fish
2) They'll know how to prepare fish for shipping back to the lower 48 states. On our flight home from Anchorage, there were at least 20 fishermen checking boxes of frozen salmon to take back home.

Excellent information! Thanks. Sounds like we will need to plan a trip next year between May and August. Where did you all fly out of, what was your destination in Alaska and where did you stay while in Alaska? I called J&J and they seem like great people. We are in Victoria (between Corpus Christi and Houston on Hwy 59), so we can conveniently fly out of Houston, San Antonio or Austin. Sounds like the airplane trip may be the biggest expense. Any info would be appreciated!

It's not Alaska but BC, Canada. Check out Langara fishing lodge. It's a first class lodge and we slayed them. Had an absolute blast. You can take out a boat on your own or use a guide. It was a trip of a lifetime for me. They provide everything.

I just got back from salmon fishing Alaska. Good times. We took a buddy's boat up the Yentna. Also fished Jim Creek of the Knik River


We froze filets over night and packed in waxed (cardboard) freezer boxes and checked bag them home. Those freezer boxes are for sale EVERYWHERE in Alaska

Aggie19Eighty said:

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Excellent information! Thanks. Sounds like we will need to plan a trip next year between May and August. Where did you all fly out of, what was your destination in Alaska and where did you stay while in Alaska? I called J&J and they seem like great people. We are in Victoria (between Corpus Christi and Houston on Hwy 59), so we can conveniently fly out of Houston, San Antonio or Austin. Sounds like the airplane trip may be the biggest expense. Any info would be appreciated!

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Alaska is expensive. The plane ticket will be your biggest single expense, but everything else will add up.

All that said, do it. It is freaking awesome.

Kings in May/June. Earlier in Cook Inlet (or open salt water) and later in the rivers.

I recommend this.

Halibut same time.

Halibut is not exciting - you are on the boat to enjoy the view and you catch them like catfish.

We fished Kings out of Anchor Point.

Go to Home. Highly recommend The Homestead Restaurant. They had a white salmon that was out of this world, and I am told you cannot find anywhere outside of Alaska.

I went last year and a friend took us out on his boat, so can't offer any recommendations on guides. We caught salmon, he processed and froze them for us. I bought a box at a local fish market and carried home as a checked bag on the plane.

Sounds just like my trip. A little DIY salmon

I dipnetted for years. One year we had 270 pounds of sockeye in the freezer. We flew half of it down to relatives in Texas and ate the other half.

It takes a little bit more than just a license. But yes as a resident you can dipnet. And it is tradition for local residents to kick the **** out of non residents caught doing it.

It is also fairly difficult physically. It will tire you out fast b

I've done Alaska fishing the last 3 years out of Sitka (not going this year due to some family health issues) but plan to go back next year. We've stayed at a lodge in Sitka that handles everything from picking you up at the airport, feeding you, getting you to your boat every morning, packing and flash freezing your fish and then getting you and your fish back to the airport and on the plane. We've absolutely slaughtered them each year. Last year the 4 of us that went brought back a total just shy of 600 pounds of king salmon, coho salmon, halibut, black cod, ling cod, black rockfish and shortrakers. We use the same captain every year and he just loves to catch fish. We limited out before lunch a couple of the days so he prepared a nigiri lunch of salmon and halibut cheeks while we sat on the boat in a cove, drank beers and then jumped in the ocean just to say we did it. If it interests you, I'm happy to share contact info and the captain's name so you can get the right guy. He books up pretty far out, but if you're looking at next year, you should be able to snag a trip with him. Just let me know.

Throw out

I sent you a DM
Thanks.

I'm interested in your Sitka contacts. Looking at doing a trip next summer with my brother and dad. burtonshop@protonmail.com

I would be interested in your contact info. dr.ballow@gmail.com

Sent you an email. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Sent you an email. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

agsalaska said:

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How good is your stomach?

The best time to fish for Salmon is June thru September, with the Reds and Kings earlier and the Silvers later. A lot of charters will like to catch them in the mouths of the rivers but I much prefer being up river a ways. Either way really.

You can catch Halibut all year if you can handle the conditions. As a tourist May-Sep. The most important thing about catching Halibut is understanding the tides and how hard they are pulling any particular day.

My suggestion is always to contact J&J Smart Charters in Ninulchik, about 30 miles from Homer. It is paradise on earth. I could spend every day of the rest of my life in that area if I could. I can't, but I could.

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I haven't been to that exact spot but I've been to Seward a couple times and that area is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We sea kayaked out a couple miles then hiked up to Fort McGilvray, picking berries along the way and had lunch. Pretty unbelievable country. I wish I had had more time to head over that way for a Halibut fish.

One thing to note is the limit for sockeye is 6 pp. coho is 2 and I think king is 1.

More catching than fishing - but quite fun.

The 50 lb boxes are the way to go with checked luggage. 95% was frozen like a rock after 20 hours of traveling.

I think the processors freeze them to a lower temp than you will get at home. So they may last longer.

When I was there a week ago it was 3 fish limit and one could be Coho. No kings. This was in the south central region. One thing I learned was that they change the regs based on what the fish are doing so keep an eye on that.

Thank you. Love fishing in Alaska as does my wife. We will be looking into in next year.

Thanks to everyone that responded and provided great information! It always amazes me how much information Aggies can and will provide on these forums!

I've fished a few times with Kenai River Drifters Lodge (https://www.drifterslodge.com/). They can take you for reds or trout in the diver and set you up for halibut or silvers. Good people and neat place to stay.
On halibut, be able to tell them if you want big halibut or "chickens" (smaller). It will make a difference on where you go.

As someone else said, be prepared. The seas up there are not the bay. Many many people say, "the ocean never bothers me" and turn out miserable. But, don't let that stop you, just don't be surprised.

It will be one of the best trips (all of it) you ever do.

I went to Port Lions Lodge in August 2001. Took my FIL. Lodge was great as was the fishing, we caught most of our silvers actually in the "bay" as they hadn't really started their runs. Great Halibut fishing and the Lodge has great food and accommodations. Different than main land river fishing, but highly recommend.

We went to the kenai peninsula in mid July and brought back 100# of halibut, rockfish and salmon from a single day fishing trip out of Homer. If you're going to multiple areas (we stayed mainly in Seward and Homer) I'd recommend fishing last so you can flash freeze the fish and pick it heading back to airport. A lot of hotels in anchorage have chest freezers to put fish in if you spend the night before you fly out. The fish processing places charge you a lot for the insulated cooler boxes. We bought them for the convenience. We noticed quite a few people shipping fish back in their own coolers. Most of them were inexpensive igloo type coolers they bought there, filled with frozen fish and duct taped them close. Seemed to be more efficient than the cardboard boxes. But the convenience factor makes spending $50 on cardboard boxes appealing. On Alaskan airlines it cost approximately $100 for two checked 50# boxes of fish. Would've been close to $1K to overnight them.

Thanks austinAG and CANNONCREW! Solid information!

so what's the recommended length of a trip? and what would be a normal budget for something like this? I would love to add it to my bucket list.

If you can avoid it, do not fly through Seattle. I've gone through there twice in the past few weeks for work and it was a ****show each time, especially with checking bags.

Recommend flying direct if possible.

Naveronski said:

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If you can avoid it, do not fly through Seattle. I've gone through there twice in the past few weeks for work and it was a ****show each time, especially with checking bags.

Recommend flying direct if possible.

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Didn't know direct was possible. Both times I've gone to Alaska I've had to stop either in Seattle or Minneapolis.

I did Dallas to Anchorage on American

Never been, but a friend owns this place in the Bristol Bay area.

https://www.angryeagle.com

Just did Bush to ANC and back on United.

Living in BCS we find it's easier to do Alaska Airlines out of Austin. It's 100 times less headache getting in and out of there with TSA (even with Precheck).

They don't do non stop from there. You can go through Seattle, Portland or SF. I've done all three. It takes longer with a stop of a couple of hours but direct is like 7 hours. And I can't take being cooped up in a can that long.

And yes SeaTac sucks. It's been under renovation longer that IAH and it may be the worst airport in the free world.