Halibut fishing in Alaska

[bow newby]

I’m leaving June 12th for a week in Anchorage. We have 2 days booked with a guide in Whittier. Any one been on one of these trips? Wondering what to expect. Can’t wait should be some beautiful boat rides to the fishing grounds

[Duane]

Whittier is a cool little harbor town. I did my halibut fishing out of Seward but I’m sure the scenery will be just as grand. Good chance of seeing whales that time of year. I really enjoyed the halibut, but I had no idea how good the ling cod would be. Hopefully you get into a mess of both.

Also, tip your deckhand before he starts cleaning fish and ask him to cut the cheeks out of the halibut for you! I ended up with the filets from my two halibut as well as a bag full of all the cheeks from the 40 fish boat limit.

[shwacker1911]

We went out of Homer last year man the swells were big hard to brace and crank a fish up from 150-200 feet down. But I agree make sure to tip the cheeks are great eating. Also be prepared to pay a arm and leg to ship it back

[TX CHICKEN]

I did a trip out of homer last year and we all limited on halibut, kings and rockfish. Rockfish was by far the best eating of the three. Biggest advice I can give is make sure to plan on bringing your fish back on the plane. My buddy told me shipping wouldn’t be bad and it was $750!


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[TX CHICKEN]

We went out of Homer last year man the swells were big hard to brace and crank a fish up from 150-200 feet down. But I agree make sure to tip the cheeks are great eating. Also be prepared to pay a arm and leg to ship it back

We fished on a boat with the seakeper gyro thing and it was dead calm in 3-4 foot swells! Amazing technology.


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[shwacker1911]

Yea we spent 300plus to send back 4 fish and some extra stuff we bought. Couldn't take it on the plane cause we were there for 5 more days driving all over the state went to Anchorage then to Seward to Homer to fairbanks and so on

[shwacker1911]

[QUOTE=TX CHICKEN;16196033]We fished on a boat with the seakeper gyro thing and it was dead calm in 3-4 foot swells! Amazing technology.

Oh yea no we had 5 foot plus was just a big roll even 10 seconds made jigging easy

[shwacker1911]

The nice part about Homer is you can fish right off the beach and catch halibut and a type of flounder all day long on squid

[savage1134]

Halibut

I go every year and love it.

Fish out of Ninilcheck Whittier and PWS for Kings.

Love it. Have tons of pictures

[kenner27]

Headed back this June. We DIY towards homer for halibut with good success on the tides. I love it up there!

[diamond10x]

Do yourself as well as the fishery a favor, release any halibut over about 50lbs. After they get to that size the fillets are too dang thick and just don’t taste that good. I much prefer jigging over bait fishing, much more fun and that initial bite is a good one. If there’s a chance to jig for rock bass take it as that is some fun stuff. Long cod are the best tasting saltwater fish there.

Don’t be one of those knuckleheads who keeps all the fish they catch to then just leave it and give it away. You catch it and kill it, take it home and eat it. There’s no excuses when airlines/airports are very accommodating as well as hotels and processors for storing fish for you.

[Bassdeer]

Get an electric reel.

[RiverRat1]

When we went we tried super hard to get a real fishing guide to target just BIG halibut. Turned out to be impossible as every boat is catered to the regular fishing person. I guess, maybe I could have rented an entire boat for 24 hours.

We did catch a few way out from Homer. We didn't keep our halibut. The deckhand and captain were confused when I said catch and release. They didn't like that at all!

Try to get any legal fish carcass to use as bait.

[7sdad]

We went out of Whittier on a Halibut/Bear hunting trip and had a blast. One day we caught 12 fish that weighted a total of 1,400 lbs with the largest being 225. We went with Bubba Griggers and now him and his son have a deer processing place in Weatherford I believe. Bubba now has a lodge on Prince of Wales Island called Tree Tops Lodge.

http://www.alaskatreetopslodge.com/location.html

[Trapper76]

My wife and I spent 9 days fishing out of Thorn bay for our tenth anniversary. Amazing trip! Get some good rain gear and Ketchikan tennis shoes(rubber boots), it rains a lot! Jigging was my favorite way it fish, it keeps you busy and you feel the bite. Eat a light breakfast, it helps with motion sickness. The scenery and whale watching is worth the trip alone, fishing is the icing on the cake.