I just got back from Anchorage yesterday. Wife and I were in Homer from last Sunday and went on a "group charter" on Tuesday of last week. We went down to the spit on Sunday afternoon to look into charters. Talked to a couple of different people that said they would check their availability and call me but none did. We had dinner that night at Capt Patties and noticed Maverick Charters across the street.
Mary was very accommodating and said they had openings for Monday or Tuesday but the weather looked better for Tuesday.
We opted for the 3/4 day trip on the 56 foot Ultimate. Twelve people on board that morning and not a single a-hole in the bunch.
Capt Billie seemed to know what he was doing and got us on some decent fish about an hour or so from the dock. The crew did a great job of shuffling people around the ensure everyone got their "bigger Halibut" on board and per regulations, My wife and I both got fish in the 40 lb range.
The capt moved to a different location to enable everyone to get their "under 28" fish". It got pretty busy for the crew having to measure and cull several that were "overs" and a few under size that would have been legal but instead of just saying "you're done" the crew worked to get you one at least 26 inches. I caught and released about five overs and one 20 incher. Everyone on the boat got their limit and the big one (55 lbs) was caught by a 9 YO first time fisherman. Several people also caught grey cod too.
The two girl crew did a great job of filleting the fish on the way in and we were met at the dock by a rep from Homer fish processing and they carted the catch up the ramp and back to their facility. Lots of work considering it was low tide. There were several options for processing.
I decided to ship our catch home rather than drag it around for four more days and then to the airport. After doing some quick math I figured that including the trip, tip, processing and shipping I paid about $1 more a pound for the 30 plus pounds I shipped home than I would have paid for it at Whole Foods back in Atlanta.
All thing considered this turned out to be a great way to start my retirement. My last day was the 20th and I decided to tag along with my wife on a work trip. I would highly recommend Maverick charters for a trip, if anyone has any questions I haven't covered feel free to PM but do it fast. I ain't getting any younger and my wife says " memory is the second thing to go" and I can't remember what the first one was.
