Looking For Alaska King Salmon / Halibut Info

[MeatintheFreezer]

I am in the infancy stages of putting together a family fishing trip for next summer. Up until recently, I had been looking primarily at Ontario because I've been there before and know what to expect. I was fortunate enough as a kid to get to fly in a few times with my family on vacations. Another reason I had been focusing on Canada is that it is within reasonable driving distance, which I prefer because there is plenty to see along the way.

Recently however, I have turned my attention toward Alaska. I am greatly intrigued by the possibility of catching giant Kings & barn door halibut in the same trip. I understand that when comparing an Alaska trip to a Canada trip, travel expenses and costs in general scales up, but I am leaning toward this more and more each day.

I know I have seen some of you post about going to Alaska, so I am looking for some pointers from anyone who knows of good outfitters & locations to look into. I am also curious if anyone has made the drive before.

[Phil Lilley]

Bill and I have a friend in Kodiak that can put you on fish. But he's in the woods sitting in a tree... it may take a little bit but he'll have a name and phone number for you.

We did that trip for a couple of years and did well- plus it's a beautiful place, especially for families. Not primitive nor heard to get to. But yes, not cheap.

[Phil Lilley]

Bill's in the woods.... not the guy in Kodiak although he may be too.

[jdmidwest]

Several good charters in the Kenai area. I have friends that have fished out of Homer and did well. Fly in to Anchorage and rent a car to Homer.

[kjackson]

Here's my take, but YMMV. I'm basing this on eight or so trips to this wonderful state.

The Kenai River is the most popular spot in the state as the river is your likeliest chance to catch a king over 60 pounds. However, during the height of the season, it is bumper boats on the river, and it is my least favorite place to fish. While it offers the best chance to catch a really big king, the chance of your doing so are very, very low. Soldotna's population grows from something like 10,000 people to over 80,000 in the summer. The nearby Kasilof River is a driftboat show, and it is slightly better for traffic, but it still isn't the best fishing experience.

The upper and middle Kenai offer really good fishing for big rainbows, though.

My trips have been salmon and saltwater oriented mostly, so I'm limited in experience. I've also fished out of Sitka, Seward and Kodiak. Seward probably offers the best chance of the three to catch big fish, but the weather and ride can be tough. The skipper I fished with generally took us on a two-hour ride to get to where we'd fish, and seasickness can be a factor for some (those affected need to get scopalamine [?} patches from the doctor). On the flip side, he also offered overnight trips where we would run three hours fish and then overnight in the boat on anchor. These trips take you to areas not generally fished, and they can be good. However, of the three times we tried this, we actually got to stay out once. The other two times were limited by the weather.

Hit the runs right, and you get outstanding fishing at Sitka (plus you don't fly to Anchorage first but fly from Seattle directly). My experience is that the salmon runs are cookie-cutter fish. You'll catch whatever the run size is time after time...one 30-pound king (or 25- or 40-pounder) after another until you get bored. Halibut fishing there is deep-water fishing but, generally, they're large--up to 200 pounds or so. However, it's worth noting that limits for charterboats have been changed.

My one trip to Kodiak was late in the year, past the king runs. Also, the lodge we were out of was run by the owners to suit their own fishing needs (they were on the boat with us), so we didn't do any real hardcore fishing. This lodge has since closed. Fishing off Kodiak was a blast, and I'd do it again. However we didn't get into big runs of anything. The kings were over, and there were few juvenile feeder kings around. The coho run was still going on, but for whatever reason, we didn't do exceedingly well there, either. However, we did catch a lot of black rockfish on light gear, and Pacific cod and a few big lingcod. Saw tons of sea otters, bears, no moose, dolphins, eagles, foxes and some pretty cool cabins in remote areas. We caught no decent halibut. On the plus side, we ran out of Port Lions, and the water was pretty much flat by Alaskan standards.

[Quillback]

I made a couple of trips up to Sitka when I lived in Seattle. Fished with Denny Cook, it's been since the mid-90's that I went, so I don't know if Denny is still in business, but do a search on Denny Cook Sitka for contact info. He and his wife had a B&B and Denny ran his boat out of Sitka harbor.

From what I remember, the best King fishing was in June before the commercial season started, we always went in August - not many kings at that time, though I remember catching a couple - coho were running at that time, one day we got into a massive school of them and caught out limits of 6 per person as quick as we could drop the line under the boat - fish were all 10-12 lb, nice size for coho.

We also did some halibut fishing out of Sitka, it takes an hour or two to get out to the halibut grounds, it can be rough, so if you are prone to sea sickness, keep that in mind. Average halibut were in the 15-30 lb range and at that time it was a dalily limit of 2 per person. One of the guys with us caught one that went 135 lbs. Halibut fishing is a chore, fishing 300 feet deep with heavy weight, and if you get a good one it's a long, hard slog to get it to the boat. It's good to bring some halibut home, but if I was to do it again, I'd probably just stick to salmon.

Sitka is very scenic, good chances you'll see some whales.

[Al Agnew]

I second (or third) the comments on the Kenai and Kasilof, and the comments on halibut. Personally, I found halibut fishing to be a cross between churning butter and watching paint dry, only on a boat where you are going to get sick if you're susceptible to motion sickness (I'm not but my wife is, and she forced the captain to take her back to the dock within a quarter mile of leaving it)...and if you do hook a big one it's mostly like reeling in a wet sleeping bag up 250 feet. I don't care how good they taste, I'll buy mine.

The Kenai is a pretty river, but the run isn't extremely predictable and if you're there a week or two too early or late you might not get into anything but a lot of other anglers. And if the run isn't happening on the Kenai, all the guides are heading to the Kasilof because the fish are usually there but not as big...and the Kasilof is about the ugliest river I've encountered in Alaska.

My advice is to wait for Phil's buddy to contact you...if I was going to get the full Alaska fishing experience it wouldn't be the Kenai, unless you're just wanting to hard core fish for big kings. It's a nice place to drive to from Anchorage if you want to kill a couple of days, and the scenery getting there is spectacular, though.

Of course, you get what you pay for, and true wilderness lodge experiences in Alaska can be pricey.

[MeatintheFreezer]

Thank you all for the information! Through my own research, I had informally settled on Homer, but after reading your posts I realize I have some more investigating to do.

[duckydoty]

6 years ago I guided the head of Alaska Department of Fish and Game of the Kenia division on the Nushigak River. We talked alot about the kings in the Kenia and the Nush. All major king run rivers in Alaska get escapement allotments (the number of kings they allow into the river for #1. subsistence netting, #2. reproduction, #3. sport fishing). After escapement is reached, commercial fishing is fully opened and very few fish will make it to the river after that. The escapement allotment for the Kenia is 7000 fish. If escapement goals are not met, Fish and Game will close the river to sport fishing. This happens alot on the Kenia. There are probably well over 100,000 people fishing for those 7000 kings and studies have shown that it takes an average of 68 man hours of fishing per king caught on the Kenia without a guide. Studies have shown that with a guide the average man hour of fishing was reduced to 38 per king caught.

The Kenia is famous for size of fish that can be caught. Definately not for numbers. If 4 people went and fished the Kenia for the whole weekend, landed one fish between them, it would be considered a great weekend.

The Nush is the largest wild king salmon run in the world. The escapement allotment for the Nush is 177,000 fish. Only about 20,000 people fish for kings on the Nush. The kings do not get as big on the Nush as the Kenia, but you can expect them to get into and above the 40 pound range. We have had 2 boats fishing on the Nush and boated 103 fish in one day. Now it is fishing just like any other river because we have had days where only 1 or 2 kings were boated.

[Quillback]

Kings are brutes, even if it's a river that has a run that averages "only" 20 lbs., you'll have a blast catching some hard fighting fish.