Question: Alaska Fishing

[Shady]

Has anyone gone fishing in Alaska? The wife and I are planning on doing an Alaskan cruise this summer and I'd like to get in some fishing while out there.
Possible fishing locations are Seward and Ketchikan.
I've done a little bit of research, but I'd like to know if anyone else has fished out there and their experieces.

[chimo]

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread... Trying to plan a Halibut fishing trip up there for August ish but haven't gotten very far yet.

[J.A. Veil]

Ryan -

In August 2011, I went to Alaska with 5 other guys. We chartered a 52-ft boat with captain and mate for 4 days and 3 nights of fishing in open waters. We left from Homer, which offers numerous day trips for halibut fishing and longer trips like ours. Two of the nights we tied up at a dock in a quaint fishing village, but one night we anchored up in a remote fjord. The fishing was excellent, but hard work. Most of the time we used what we consider heavy trolling tackle here -- but in Alaska we jigged 16-24 ounce jigheads in 150 ft of water with those rods. I had serious tendonitis from all the strain.

We limited out on halibut and lingcod each day, and caught several species of pacific rockfish, and a few salmon. At the end of the trip, our accumulated catch was over 600 lbs of fillets that we had trimmed into 1-lb pieces, vacuum sealed, and deep frozen. I brought back 40 lbs of fillets -- one of the guys shipped home over 300 lbs.

We booked through Homer Ocean Charters. They took very good care of us. I posted a story on snagged line after I got back http://www.snaggedline.com/showthrea...hlight=halibut. An even more detailed story with many more pictures was made on Tidalfish (the snaggedline article gives a link to the longer report).

The guy who organized this trip for our group has also fished from Seward.

[Shady]

Thanks for the reply John, I think I remember reading your post. Those bright orange Rock Fish are awesome! Unfortunately, I'm not going to have that kind of time and I dont think any of the cruise ships go by Homer. I'm really just hoping to get in one solid day trip. Maybe in the future, I'll be able to get back for a serious fishing trip.

[J.A. Veil]

Thanks for the reply John, I think I remember reading your post. Those bright orange Rock Fish are awesome! Unfortunately, I'm not going to have that kind of time and I dont think any of the cruise ships go by Homer. I'm really just hoping to get in one solid day trip. Maybe in the future, I'll be able to get back for a serious fishing trip.

Once you know where your cruise stops for at least a day, you can do some internet checking for charters. Some do full day, others half day. The weather up there can be very rough and fishing trips often get cancelled.

[Redfish12]

I have also fished in the area and traveled to Seward. We did not fish there, however, I did happen to be by the docks when one of the halibut trips came in and there were a few in the 40-90lb range put up on the hooks. Pretty cool. We fished in the Deer Creek (I will double check) area and did very well on halibut.

There were some salmon chasing what looked like smelt or some other small fish around the docks in Seward, and it killed me I didn't bring my rod with me for our trip down there (left it in Wasila). I figure a spoon would have done really well on those fish right off the beach! I plan to go back there this summer to visit my cousin who lives there and if you'd like any tips on Seward or charters in that area I would be happy to ask for you.

[Shady]

Whatever insider information you could provide would be great

[Fisholog]

I run a fishing business on the Kenai Peninsula, about 2 hours from Seward. I book quite a few trips out of Seward, so feel free to give me a call if you want recommendations. I'm not sure how much time you'll have, but if you can get out of Seward and want to do some freshwater fishing, the Kenai Peninsula has some of the best salmon and trout fishing in the world! My website is www.akfishology.com. I was born and raised here, and have been guiding for nearly 20 years, so I have tons of experience and connections. I'm happy to answer all your questions, and will probably give you more info than you want Either way, enjoy this amazing place while you're here!
Mark
Fishology Alaska

[chimo]

Welcome to the site Fisholog! But how does someone who runs an Alaskan fishing guide service end up on a Delmarva kayak fishing website??? Lol!

[Fisholog]

Great question... Google alerts is the answer. Anytime someone publishes something on the web about "Alaska Fishing" I get notified
I must admit I have never kayaked in Maryland. Lol
But hopefully I can help out with an Alaskan fishing adventure!

[J.A. Veil]

I received an email from MKF member Steve Rehner, who was unable to log in here. He asked me to post this reply on his behalf:

"I saw that you had replied to Shadyfisher85 question about fishing in Alaska. If you don't mind could you add another post to his thread to recommend Howard McKim in Ketchikan, AK. He's a kayak outfitter and he will do single day trips just north of town. He also has excellent 5-day kayak fishing trips south of Ketchikan. He's first rate. I've got some great photos of that trip."

[Shady]

Thanks for the info, I'll definately check that out. Would be amazing to kayak fish there.

[Shady]

Bumping this post to get the dumb ski resort spam off the home page

[OBX_RAT]

The Slamon Bake "Bar" in Seward is awesome was there June 2012 for a week of fishing

[ronaultmtd]

I am headed up August 3-8 for salmon and halibut- I'll let you know when I get back-