# Alaska advice ???



## Carpn

Taking a family trip to Alaska this summer . Flying up and renting a RV so we can see the sights . 

Flying into Anchorage . Want to do a little roadside fishing here and there for trout ,char , and grayling . Definitely doing a charter for halibut . 
Also want to see the sights . 

So , who has advice ?


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## bumpus

If your looking for halibut I'd suggest going to Homer its known as the worlds capital of halibut fishing. I was there in 2017 it was a blast we went out fishing with silver fox charters, they did a great job getting us on the fish it was a great experience and I'd go back and do it all over again in a heartbeat


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## Carpn

Thanks . Looking at either Homer or Seward to fulfill the halibut charter . My 10 yr old boy wants to go as well .

In his words " Can you reel it in partway " lol


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## bumpus

I've acctually been to both places my wife and I went to Seward for our honeymoon, It was a great time they have sea life center there that was pretty awesome


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## LittleDrummerBoy

bumpus said:


> I've acctually been to both places my wife and I went to Seward for our honeymoon, It was a great time they have sea life center there that was pretty awesome


Seward was my favorite place in Alaska.


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## 1more

bumpus said:


> If your looking for halibut I'd suggest going to Homer its known as the worlds capital of halibut fishing. I was there in 2017 it was a blast we went out fishing with silver fox charters, they did a great job getting us on the fish it was a great experience and I'd go back and do it all over again in a heartbeat


And then having it flash frozen and shipped back and then you see the cost to ship back!!!! But worth every penny


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## jcrevard

We did a fly in trip to Crescent lake Grayling fishing, one of the coolest trips I've ever been on, scenery was awesome!
I do believe you can hike to that lake also
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## bumpus

1more said:


> And then having it flash frozen and shipped back and then you see the cost to ship back!!!! But worth every penny


Yeah not cheap I think we paid like 300 bucks for packaging freezing and 2 day shipping but how often do you get to do it so yeah totally worth it


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## twobob

Denali is a must. You can camp right in the park. If you plan your fishing towards the end of your trip you can check the fish box with your luggage. I brought home 50 lbs of fish for only a $35 bag fee as opposed to the $275 I paid to ship the first box.


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## 1more

twobob said:


> Denali is a must. You can camp right in the park. If you plan your fishing towards the end of your trip you can check the fish box with your luggage. I brought home 50 lbs of fish for only a $35 bag fee as opposed to the $275 I paid to ship the first box.


I am pretty sure that it must be frozen solid when putting on the plane???


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## twobob

Absolutely. Most of the charters I have dealt with up there process and freeze it for you in boxes for shipping.


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## fishwendel2

Two years ago my son and I flew into Anchorage and rented an RV for two weeks and fished all over. Russian river for salmon (plus all of the bears, very intense), Kenai river, Eagle river, etc. Drove down to Homer and went halibut fishing. If you message me I can get you the guy we went out withs info. Not a "guide" but a part time resident of Homer who loves to fish. Great rv park in homer close to everything right on the bay. Amazing sites every where. You will love it!


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## Carpn

Man , keep the info coming . 

I had planned on bringing fish back as a checked bag . 
While it's not necessarily a full blown fishing trip I want to squeeze in as much as I can along the way. 



fishwendel2 said:


> Two years ago my son and I flew into Anchorage and rented an RV for two weeks and fished all over. Russian river for salmon (plus all of the bears, very intense), Kenai river, Eagle river, etc. Drove down to Homer and went halibut fishing. If you message me I can get you the guy we went out withs info. Not a "guide" but a part time resident of Homer who loves to fish. Great rv park in homer close to everything right on the bay. Amazing sites every where. You will love it!


I'll shoot you a PM . Thanks!


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## fishwendel2

Carpn said:


> Man , keep the info coming .
> 
> I had planned on bringing fish back as a checked bag .
> While it's not necessarily a full blown fishing trip I want to squeeze in as much as I can along the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I'll shoot you a PM . Thanks!


I went to Walmart and they sell boxes specifically for shipping fish and they are WAY cheaper than some of the other places around Alaska. For example an outfitter in Kenai wanted $200 to ship back some salmon we caught. The box at Walmart was under $10 (a big box too) and the dry ice was about the same and we checked them in as baggage so it only cost us $50 for about 90 lbs of salmon, rainbow trout and halibut


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## Doboy

Carpn said:


> Taking a family trip to Alaska this summer . Flying up and renting a RV so we can see the sights .
> Flying into Anchorage . Want to do a little roadside fishing here and there for trout ,char , and grayling . Definitely doing a charter for halibut .
> Also want to see the sights .
> So , who has advice ?


"flying in,,, Seeing the sights"

That's What we did, many years ago.
We WENT everywhere possible from Anchorage, up to the volcano, & then all the way back down to Homer & Seward. One whole week of non-stop driving,,, 'just to see'. (I didn't even have A fishing pole! :<(

Having that camper, & a MONTH, would be the way to go,,,, specially if your with 3 or 4 FISHING friends! (NOT 3 'city' women! ;>)

Back then, we went on the Anchorage train, N to Denali. The conductor said that all we had to do is ring the bell & he would STOP THE TRAIN & let us off to CAMP,,,, anywhere we wanted,,,, & he would pick us back up again, in a week or two,,, whatever.
Man-o-live,,,, would I love to go back up there again, & do something like that,,,, WITH fishing gear!

*"family trip to Alaska this summer"*

THE ONLY advice I could give you is to make sure that your there, at least for the first time, AFTER 90% of the snow has melted, & AFTER the rivers & streams 'clean up' & get back to a clean normal flow.
We were there in late July, & the rivers & streams were still MUD & blown out. IT RAINED 5 out of our 7 days.
THE only place ON SHORE, where we even seen a fisherman or a fish in a stream, was down Homer. At that time, we were told that the 'RUNS' were just starting. 

Anyway,,, your talking about an Alaska vacation, brought me a bunch of good flashbacks.
"Man-o-live,,,, would I love to go back up there again".

PLEASE keep us posted.


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## T-180

Hey Jake, when are you going & for how long ?? My wife & I went this past summer for 17 days & had a blast. Fished quite a bit in the streams for graying & dollies/char, & the Kenai for rainbows & dollies, but tried flossing a few red salmon.


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## hatteras1

I asked a Southwest check in agent at OAK. if I could buy an extra seat to fly a 200#lb Halibut on the seat next to me


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## AFadenholz

I was up there last May - we did a cruise from Anchorage to Vancouver. We went the week before and spent our time in Seward. They have a spot for campers right along the Bay and we had whales come in every evening right off the beach. There isn’t deep enough water around Anchorage for Halibut so we did a charter in Seward too. I highly recommend that area!


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## AFadenholz




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## bridgeman

The kenai river trout around Coopers landing are unreal. Fished there for bows then headed south to Soldotna and caught silvers for a couple of days. Went to Homer for halibut, there's tons of charters there and I chose the boat o'fishal. Halibut limits are a sure thing there but you'll wear yourself out cranking in 30 to 45 lbers looking for something bigger. I settled for a 60 lber because the tide was really starting to rip after weeding through 4 or 5 smaller ones. The seas in Seward seemed way calmer but I went there after I went to Homer. Your in for scenery that will absolutely blow you away. Talked to a lotta locals there that said not to waste my time going to Denali because it's usually so socked in with clouds and fog you can't really see it. It's a pretty good drive up there north of anchorage. You can stock up the RV in Anchorage or Soldotna, the price of stuff in Homer is almost double. Your gonna love it


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## afishinfool01

My advice...GO.

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## Carpn

Well , anyone got anything to add ?
My plans are evolving but so far we are planning to head for Denali for a few days , then head south towards Seward from there . Wanna hopefully head towards Homer to .
I have a couple location in mind to stop and fish for Pinks and Silvers . Gonna definitely fish here and there for rainbows , dolly varden , and grayling .

Been looking at charters out of Seward to do a combo trip with halibut being the primary Target but also go after silvers and rockfish that time of year .


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## miked913

We did a trip out of Homer with Central Charters. It was on July 4th we signed up for a 6 pack charter, it was very rough that day no 6 pack charters went out, they gave us the option to combine 2- 6 pack charters on a bigger boat and we agreed it ended up a 14 person charter and headed off to the barren islands 70 miles 3 1/2 hours 1 way. It was a combo halibut/lingcod trip but we caught quite a few rock fish too. The entire boat limited on Lingcod and halibut. It was a very long day 15 hrs dock to dock in some pretty rough conditions but it was one of the most memorable fishing days of my life. Most of the day was jigging 24 or 36 ounce jig heads with giant twister tails 2-300' deep! It was quite a workout to just reel in the jig! This was not a trip for the faint of heart and the galley definitely had it's share of quitters laying around. I loved every minute of it!












































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## Carpn

Well . Trip got cancelled for 2020. But we are headed up this yr . And for a longer period . Almost 2 weeks .
Planning to stream fish for trout , grayling , and char along the way . But also wanna do a couple halibut/rockfish charters . One with my wife and son and one solo . I want to be able to jig for halibut , not just fish bait on a circle hook . 

Anyone able to recommend stream baits for roadside fishing , or specific charters for the halibut and rockfish . We're gonna spend 4 or 5 days in Seward , a couple in Homer , a couple in denali . But also stopping in talketna and girdwood . 
Leaving days in between since we will have the camper allowing is to be flexible .


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## Flathead76

20 years ago my bride and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon in Alaska. It’s been so long that maybe she remembers the stops. We had two long stops on our trip. We did salmon charters on both. Back then trolling for salmon was one rod per man. Both trips we did well. On the taxi rides to the boat anything that looked like a ditch was wall to wall salmon. This was the first week of august. Most of the stops were tourist traps that rented rods and reels and you bought janky spoons for 8 dollars each. I brought an 4 piece ugly stick and a box of cleos and Melos aglias. Every short story I went donkey Kong on the humpies and kings while she went shopping. Not like either of us wanted to eat. If you do not understand you have never been on a cruise. So it was not like I didn’t want to to go out to eat at the stops. It was a 10 day cruise and I gained 14 pounds. Last cruise that I have ever been on. Once in a lifetime experience I guess.


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## flyman01

my long time friend and I did a fly in trip to the Koktuli River back in July of 2020. Certainly was the trip of a lifetime, the scenery was awesome, did not see any other humans the entire week we floated the river. Unfortunately, we were early and the King's had not started up the river but we did catch good numbers of Grayling, Char and Rainbow trout which some of them succumbed to the frying pan for dinner. Saw lots of Eagles and Grizzly Bears on our as we floated the 50 miles of river to our take out point.


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## miked913

We threw a lot of these, caught just about everything that swims up there on them, they come with a single hook also as you may run into treble hook restrictions.









reelylivinsportfishing.com


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