Alaskan Charter Advice

[Going North]

A group of us are planning to head up to Alaska next year for a combination salmon and halibut trip. We were thining more in the August - September time frame. Has anyone did this before and have any recommendations for a good charter to hire for the combo?

[Trollerman2]

Arctic Tern Charters, Capt Perry Flotre Sterling Alaska 907-262-7631. Quite reasonable in price, excellent guide, Been a few years since we went out with him, but had great success. Fished the Cooke inlet.
Good luck,

[JLWalleye]

I have fished in Alaska on two different trips. Both times was very successful and happy with the ocean charters and not so happy with the river charters.

For ocean charters try a combo out of Homer, Alaska aboard the "Irish" Large 50+ foot boat and very comfortable....price was not bad either.

Nanilchick, Alaska is another option...Smaller boats ...that they LAUNCH from the beach... but what a great trip we had this year.

With either of these, you will be sore from reeling in Halibut by the end of the day.....

[ifishmn unlogged]

This past summer we fished out of Seward for two days, the last week in July and had good luck with Crackerjack charters.

The first day we fished with captain Nic, he worked very hard to make sure everyone had fun and tried a variety of techniques to catch limits of fish. We caught halibut, ling cod and silver salmon.... everyone on the boat limited out, except for the one person who's arms were too tired to pull up anymore fish (she was 90lbs soaking wet and not feeling real well to boot). Her husband was a jerk, tried to fill out her limit too, a no no, Nic politely asked the gentleman to enjoy the scenery while we finished fishing before we moved to the salmon area.

We fished halibut and ling in 200 feet of water with 2lb weights and dead bait, or jigged with a 1lb jig and giant twister tail. Being from MN and walleye angler, i was the first to get the jig rod, it was a blast, the halibut and ling hit like a sledge hammer!!

After everyone had caught their limits, we moved to a shallow bay for the salmon and fished 30ft of water. Immediately, we had 8- 12lb silvers, everyone had limited out and we were headed back for the 2 hour trip back in.

The second day in the bigger boat with Captain Andy was not as personalized, with 12 people on the boat its hard to keep lines from tangling and give each angler the best trip based on his/her experience level. We had 4 young anlers, all seasick and needing lots of help handling the equipment, they did turn out to be the lucky ones, 3 landed halibut over 100lbs. We did not get to catch any ling, which we caught the day before jigging. We had to wait to get bait and get fish gaffed, with the two deck hands helping the captain.

The equipment on both boat was exceptional, gloomis rods, very nice reels(can't recall the make), and sonar equipment that made me drool.

If i did it over again, from my experience, trips on the smaller boats will be more personal and have more variety available. But, you will sacrifice some comfort, no heated cabin, chairs/benches not as comfortable. IMHO, its worth it, would highly recommend captian Nic, i have no connection with any charter, just enjoyed my trip with him.

JPalmer

[Brad@ctspkg.com]

Homer and Seward are both good options. Have been there 3 times in conjunction with King Salmon fishing on the Kenai River which I highly recommend to NOT going to. They call it "combat fishing" with good reason. It's not what you want to see in Alaska. Have a good trip, you won't be disappointed if this is your first trip.

[Fish mojo]

http://www.reelaffair.com/ in Sitka.

I did a trip for 4 last year with 4 guys in June. Excellent hosts, great fishing and wildlife. Excellent boats and gear. Excellent fish processing and packaging. Very reasonable priced.
I'm still eating fish from that trip!!

[egc]

Going North;

I have used Capton Ron in Whitier, AK. Went out about 80 miles from Whitier and we stayed on the boat for a week. Our biggest halabut was 197# however, the average was around the 40-60# lb range. Caught a lot of yellow eye, salmon, flounder, shark, and ling cod and cutthroat trout in streams.

I'd use Capt. Ron again in a heartbeat,

Good luck,

Jawjerker