Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Halibut Charters out of Seward?

My Dad and I are planning to come up to Seward this summer to fish for halibut. We've not done this before...can anyone recommend a reputable outfit?

I can Google them up online, but there's a bunch, and I'd prefer recommendations from those who have local knowledge or experience with a particular outfit.

Thank you.

Crackerjack or Profish 'n Sea. Two of the best in Seward as far as we are concerned. Clean boats, great captains, super equipment and we have ALWAYS done very well fishing with them. They book up VERY early. We booked our July fishing with them in November and many dates were already full at that time. They do keep a waiting list in case some of the early bookings are canceled. Both outfits run 6-pak and bigger boats. We prefer the smaller 6-pak boats as it is more enjoyable for us with fewer people fishing on the boat.

Good luck!!! You will enjoy Seward. Be sure to take GOOD rain gear.

HERE is a search using a better campfire search engine (bookmark it) for "seward+charters".

There have been a few threads here.

Those are the only 2 I have used and would ever use out of Seward. Best charters hands down in Seward and it ain't even close.

Pro-Fish-n-Sea!

Steve runs a class operation with fast, clean boats and great crews.

There are many cheaper charters but most of those boats are in cradles in the boat yard for obvious reasons.

We prefer to charter the entire boat even though it may not be full......that way we are not encumbered by some L48 Socialist that has a different idea of what our fishing day should be. But that would be an extreme expense for two fishermen.

Thanks guys. I booked with Pro-Fish-n-Sea for late August. This was the only time I could go...hope we're not too late in teh season.

Might get a silver bonus.

how does seward compare to Homer?

I'm going up in a couple weeks we're going to seward for a day for a coastal boat tour then I was planning on going south to Homer since that is where my dad & I went in 98 and it is the "halibut fishing capital" but If I have a good chance at 40pounds of halibut to bring home from seward it would cut quite a bit of the drive out

I much prefer Seward myself.

+1

If I remember correctly, it's called the halibut capital because the highest number of commercial halibut landings happened at Homer.

I've seen some of the "catches" from guides who dedicate a full 10 hour day to halibut out of Homer, and I've never been impressed. One guy toted his "best day ever", and it was an average day for SE, but with no salmon. Basically, I could do what he did 10hrs in 2.

Best halibut fishing in AK is out of the Glacier Bay area. They were running a 60lb average before we got cut way back. In 5 years, due to major cuts in SE for both the commercial and charter, halibut fishing will be unreal. Getting better every year.

For the actual fishing or the proximity of the destination?

We much prefer Seward over Homer for the fishing, although we have had great charters from both locations. We have caught a larger average size of halibut while fishing out of Seward. We don't keep the big ones. Anything over an estimated 55-60 lbs. we release and keep the smaller ones for eating.

And you get your "coastal boat tour" while fishing out of Seward. If you're going to be on boat out of Seward, ya better be fishing. Leave the tour boats for the tourists! I can't imagine being on that fish-ladden water and not fishing.

If you want to travel farther, we have had great fishing while fishing off of Kodiak Island. We have done charters there and quite a bit of stream/river fishing for Silvers on our own. If you want to fish later in the year for Silvers, try Cordova. Lots of neat little spots to get away from the crowds there, IF you don't mind walking on bear trails to get to the fishing spots.

no one was doing 1/2 day charters out of Seward yet so we ran down to Homer did a 1/2 day and then made it back to Anchorage by 8pm.

Inlet Charters, the lady that does the booking was very nice the crew on our boat the Whistler was nice but i was unimpressed with the quality of fish they put us on.

12 or so years ago when my family took a vacation to alaska I would guess the average fish was around 30-35pounds. these ones I don't think were probably hitting 20pounds, having 35pounds of fillets shipped home and that was 4 fish plus some fish from others on the boat.

those that were doing full days out of seward I heard of at least a couple over 100 being brought in the previous day

Half-Day trips can't get you far enough out so you may have to settle for areas that get fished hard.

Unfortunately that's more common these days than the 30-35 lb average of the past. Yes, there are good hauls brought in now and then, but the average fish brought into port in Homer now is 15-20 lb.

I've fished with Inlet before, had good luck with them, but always did a full day charter.

I looked at their website last night and it states that 15-20 lb. average, didnt have internet when we were there so got hold of their phone number off of another company that wasn't doing 1/2 day charters yet.

I hadn't realized that the sizes had changed so much in the last 10 or so years. So i guess it's not an "unimpressed with the charter" as much as disappointed in the size change since i was hoping to bring home about 20more pounds than what we caught

It was still an interesting day of fishing none the less. Not sure if the captain was local, but one deck hand live in Arizona over the winter and 2 others are college students from the east coast. The seas were really calm when we went out, but as we got farther into the bay/inlet things got rougher then hit a nice dense fog and a strong enough current that the 2 pound sinkers were having troubles staying put.

That's because somebody keeps killing all the big fish....

there are fliers out about the halibut derby changing for this year, not sure what the details are but they have decided that keeping the biggest fish isnt the best practice out there