Alaska Vacation Home: Alaska Halibut Fishing

Alaska Halibut Fishing in Seward Alaska

Last year, my parents made their second trip to Alaska for a visit. My dad wanted to go Alaska halibut fishing. He had never been before, so I made the arrangements.

After calling several halibut charter services, I selected an all day Alaska halibut fishing trip with Saltwater Safari out of Seward Alaska. Seward is a long 127 miles (204 km)south of Anchorage.

Later in the day, I realized just how long 127 miles can be!

Driving Directions from Anchorage, AK to Seward, AK

What follows is our Alaska halibut fishing adventure from start to finish. Use this link for a growing list of questions, answers and what to bring on an Alaska Halibut Fishing Trip.

The Thrill and Taste of the Catch!

Alaska Halibut Fishing is all about the thrill of potentially catching something enormous. It was this prospect that motivated my dad and I to get out of bed, at such an early hour, and go halibut fishing

Of course, the great taste of halibut was another motivator, as well!)

Pacific Halibut are capable of powerful runs and and have been known to exceed 500 pounds and have garnered a reputation as the hardest fighting bottom-fish on the planet.

The Day Starts Early

On the morning of our charter, we met up in the main office of Salt Water Safari. It's located in the Seward Small Boat Harbor.

There a friendly lady processed our payment.

In the office were last minute items for sale such as clothing, disposable cameras, film, sea sickness medication (see sea sickness below) and fishing licenses.

A current Alaska Fishing License is required. An out of state (non-Alaskan resident) one day fishing license is only $20!

This is what dad had to purchase. To me that sounded reasonable. I expected it to be much more!

After the necessities were out of the way, the staff directed us to the boat and informed us of the scheduled departure time.

Down to the Dock and on to the Boat!

At the boat, the captain greeted us and gave us a quick overview of all of the safety rules and features of the vessel. We also were given a quick weather forcast.

If you have any health or safety issues, this is the time to mention them to the captain.

After this, we left the dock and were on our way! Normal running times to the fishing grounds is from one hour to about three hours. On this day, we ran about two and a half hours.

Along the way you will be priviledged to witness some of the most beautiful marine ecosystem on Earth. We saw stellar sea lions and a whale or two.

During the trip, though, it is common to see sea otters, porpoises, killer whales, bald eagles and other an assortment of other birds such as puffins.

Despite all the great scenary, I was fighting off a touch of sea sickness (motion sickness).

Do You Get Sea Sick?

I'm the type that gets sick while reading in a moving vehicle. I guess sea sickness should not have been a surprise!

For the trip, several friends of mine suggested an over-the-counter medication for sea sickness called "Bonine".

There is a more common brand out there, but the word was that Bonine was a much better product.

So we drove around, the evening before, looking for Bonine. I had not previously heard of it, but apparently the rest of Alaska had.

Everywhere we looked, it had been sold out. We took this as a good sign, that the stuff must really work.

After all that searching, the next morning we found plenty of it on the check in counter at Saltwater Safari Charter Services. This was the only brand that I saw being sold there.

I took this as another ringing endorsement for Bonine.

Bonine is suppose to be taken the night before your fishing trip, but I quickly took the recommended dosage, got onboard, and hoped it worked fast!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to avoid motion sickness altogether. After the first two hours, or so, it must have "kicked in". Any nausea that I had felt, subsided.

Time to Start Fishing!

After arriving at the captain's chosen fishing location the crew (two deckhands and the captain) instructed us all in regard to fishing tackle and techniques used to catch Halibut.

We were encouraged to hook and land our own fish. It's typical, though, that the crew will bait your hook and net or gaff your fish as they come into the boat.

I thought this was pretty cool. All I had to do was fish. All the messy parts were taken care of by the crew.

Fishing starting out slow that day, but once the first one was caught, we all soon started yelling "fish on!".

By the end of the day, all twelve that went on the charter, limited out with two Halibut each.

I'm sorry to report, that we didn't catch anything that could be classified as a monster, but I did catch a 50 and an 80 pounder, respectively!

A Cool Summer Day in Alaska ... Imagine That!

Despite it being the month of June, the ride out and the ride back in was mostly overcast and a bit cool.

In fact, on the way in, we all decided to shut the cabin door so that the heater could warm up the cabin.

The Boat Captain and the Deck Hands Really Earn Their Money!

Long before I had ever moved to Alaska, I had heard about summer fishing jobs in Alaska.

I heard the pay was great, but until I went on my first fishing charter, I had no idea how hard they worked for it!

After initially thinking the charter cost of $195 was a lot of money, by the end of the day, I felt that that amount of money was quite reasonable. Perhaps even a bargain.

Here's just a sampling of what the crews duties entail. They...

• Had the boat stocked and ready to go
• Got us to the fishing spot
• Baited and rebaited our hooks each time it was needed. All we did was hold the pole!
• As soon as the Halibut got to the side of the boat, they took care of it from there
• They mark each fish in order to keep track of who's fish was who's
• Scrubbed the ship down thoroughly on the way back while most of us were tired and sleeping all the way back into Seward
• THEN, they filleted our fish for us and put it in our ice chests(coolers)

All in all, they worked non-stop from the time we arrived (at 6am) to about 7:00pm. That's when we left Seward.

I'm sure there was more work yet to be done, in order to have the ship ready again for the next day.

To say the least I was impressed. In fact many of those who went on the charter that day tipped the deck hands (not required, but I would have felt guilty not tipping after all the work they did that day).

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