Halibut Fishing Alaska

Halibut fishing is what Homer is famous for. Homer Ocean Charters has been fishing halibut out of Homer since 1979. We operate full-day trips and multiple-day long range trips. We begin fishing for halibut in late April and fish until mid September. The fishing is great. The daily limit for halibut remains at 2 per person.

Our knowledgeable and helpful office staff can help you with your fishing needs, arrange: lodging, flight seeing, kayaking, bear viewing, water taxi service and many activities for you while you are in Homer.

A halibut fishing day trip begins with an advance reservation to our office although walk-ins are gladly taken on a space available basis.  Check in is at 6:30 a.m. for a 7 a.m. departure daily.  Here we will collect the balance due for the charter, answer any last questions, provide you with free coffee, and sell you licenses and  halibut derby tickets if needed, and probably try to sell you a shirt or hat. Your captain will greet you at our office and escort you to his boat.  Once on the boat, you will be given a safety briefing, and we'll probably try to sell you a shirt or hat again.

The ride out to the fishing grounds will be anywhere from 45 minutes to a couple of hours.  Yes, we travel a long way sometimes; we are trying to provide you with the best halibut fishing possible.  Since all of our vessels are twin diesel powered, they are fast enough to get you to the fishing grounds quickly, economical enough to go anywhere we want, and safe enough to get you home.  The trip is more than a boat ride however, we usually travel near the beautiful shore line and regularly see sea otters, whales, puffins, and other sea life.  The ride will give you ample time to decide on a color for that new shirt and/or hat or to admire the one you already purchased.

Once at the fishing grounds, you will be given instruction on the proper halibut fishing technique.  Your hook will be baited, and the halibut will be handled for you.   We are there to help at all times.  We may stay in one spot all day or we may move several times, every day is different.  When fishing is complete, we will return to Homer. Sometimes we fillet fish on the ride home, if not back at the dock we will haul your fish to our office, hang them for pictures and weights, then we will fillet them for you free of charge.  While we are filleting is an excellent opportunity to purchase that shirt and hat.

Halibut fishing in Homer is probably the most consistent fishery in Alaska and we have one of the best success rates around.  Our boats limit out the majority of the time.  While 100+ pound fish are fairly common, the average sport caught halibut is 25-35 pounds.  The keys to improving on this are listening to what we say, fishing hard all day, and of course a little luck (and having on an H.O.C. shirt and hat!).  The limit is two halibut per day, four in possession.   State law requires that each person hook their own two fish.  Once the fish are processed they are off of your possession limit.  You may catch and release halibut until you get the two you decide to keep.  Once a fish is brought into the boat, it goes onto your limit.  We encourage you to keep only the halibut you can realistically eat, release the big spawning fish if you are not going to eat them, they'll only get bigger and produce more halibut.  Halibut dress out at 60%+, a 30 pound fish will yield 15-20 lbs. of boneless fillets, that is a lot of fish.

We give your halibut to you in the filleted form, from here you have several options.  You can take the fish and process it yourself, or you can have a processor do it for you.  We recommend Coal Point Trading Company to all of our customers.  After the filleting, Coal Point will pick up your fish right at our office.  They will further process your fish, and vacuum pack it into whatever size package you desire and quick freeze it.  They will keep your fish until you are ready to depart, you can take it as is or have them pack it in airline approved insulated boxes.  The least expensive method is to take the fish home as luggage, if this is not practical, they can Federal Express it to you overnight after you get home.  Coal Point also has a nice retail seafood shop with excellent products.

 You may request to go an a particular vessel or size vessel.  Some people prefer the stability and comfort of a larger vessel and others prefer six passenger vessels, we have the best of both.  Be sure to ask us about options available for children.  Non-fishing passengers or guests may also be accommodated for a $75 charge.  Again, they will not be allowed a limit of fish.  Full payment will be required from everyone on all six passenger vessels.

What you eat and what you wear.  Warm layered clothes, hat and gloves, raingear, boots are not necessary but nice if it rains hard.  We have a lot of room on all of our boats, bring whatever clothing you think you might need, you can always take it off.  You will need a lunch, you can pack it yourself or we can arrange a charter lunch that you can pick up in the morning, they are $13.  We have free coffee in our office and all of our boats have water aboard.

Why yes we do!  We have very nice T-shirts along with quality, heavy weight sweatshirts, and an assortment of hats, call now, office staff are standing by.