Caught a last minute fishing charter out of Homer yesterday and absolutely slayed it. Alaskan Fishing Adventures has an e-mail list that locals can sign up for. They offer deep discounts on empty seats and last minute cancellations. Limited out on my 2 halibut within 15 minutes of getting hooks wet. Limited out on my 2 king salmon later in the afternoon. Almost everyone in the group caught their limit. The only exception were 2 individuals who only caught 1 king but made up for it by catching multiple cod.

Cannot say enough good things about Captain Joe and Deckhand Justin. Both were great, taught a lot and were fun to joke around with. The scenery was amazing with the volcanoes across Cook Inlet, black bears roaming the beaches, breaching Humpback Whales and a Bald Eagle who followed the boat hoping to help himself to part of our catch.

I will say this, 7' chop at 30 knots in a 37' fishing charter is not an E-ticket ride at Disneyland. Standing on deck in 7' chop is not day in the park either. Fortunately things mellowed out after the morning tide. Also had a great group. All of us had been on charters before and helped when we could. This meant we always had hooks in the water while trolling for salmon. I was also surprised at how boring hooking into a halibuts is. Even the 60 footer that I reeled in put up absolutely no fight. Kind of like reeling in a barn door. The King Salmon on the other hand were a lot of fun. Had a couple cross underneath the boat which caused a dance of everyone on deck ducking underneath one another trying not to get lines tangled. I had a suicidal one who swam right up to the back of the boat. I thought I had lost it as there was absolutely no tension in the line. Then I had Captain Joe yelling at me, "REEL! REEL! REEL! GO FAST! GO FAST! GO FAST!.

Not a bad day, 37 pounds of halibut and 20 pounds of king salmon in my freezer. Some frozen pizzas had to be sacrificed.

https://www.alaskanfishing.com

The group with the day's catch.


Me with the big fish of the day.

Yeah. I bet you gots 12-foot arms....



(very nice!)

Awesome! Nice catch!

i’ve been eating salmon about 3 times a week for the past month or so. copper river and alaska sockeye have thinned out. moving to alaska king salmon these days. i’d love to go to alaska for a period. eat crab, salmon, halibut.

Now all I can think of is smoked salmon. Mmmmmmmm. Congrats on what appears to be a great day on the water.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Yeah. I bet you gots 12-foot arms....



(very nice!)

At 60lbs, I wasn't holding that halibut out away from me to make it look bigger. It was all I could do to hold it far enough away not to get slimed on.

is joke.


(Hence smiley, and comment about "very nice" catch.)

Again. Nice catch!

Oh I know it was a joke, I may have been guilty of it in the past...

(you did notice I never ragged on your old tired ass having to take a sit down during the photo op while presenting Nemo..)

Very nice. With fewer tourists should be a good time to do a few things.

Looks like fun!

Dang, I wish I was there. Looks like a really fun time.

I cannot imagine how good that salmon tastes being so fresh.

Yeah, I can see the allure of fishing.

Now that is an awesome trip. Nothing like fresh fish, caught by you.

Yes, that was a bit more than a good sized coffee can full of nice ones. You might want to double that recipe for hush puppies.

What's the air temperature there?

A bit jealous here gotta admit.....awesome trip!

During my 5 years in Alaska, I really enjoyed the combo trips with halibut, salmon, and rockfish.

I love to eat halibut and I love to hang out on a boat with my buddies fishing for halibut. However, reeling one is more like being a crane operator than fishing and about as thrilling.

Now, King salmon on the other hand are an amazing fish to catch. They're powerful, put up a good battle, and are delicious.

Has the king salmon fishing gotten better? It was at a low point when I was there, and even people who lived on the Kenai were averaging 80 hours of fishing to catch one king. Pretty tough for a guy living in Anchorage to get in enough hours on the river to catch a king.