Seward in May

[lunkerhunter]

Visiting my sister who lives in Anchorage in mid-May, this will be my first time there. During that time I wanted to do some charter fishing in Seward. Any suggestions, recommendations or information would be great? Was looking to fish for halibut and/or salmon. Thanks for the help.

[brian6715]

You will have MANY to choose from, I don't remember who I used (there are just so many).

Something to consider, if you go out on a large charter, say 10+ people, they are going to bring you to a "chicken hole." Essentially they bring you to a spot where you can catch a lot of halibut, but most will be under 20 lbs. The day we went our boat got 3 that went 45-55 lbs but countless 20 pounders. If you didn't get a bite within 5 mins of your bait hitting the bottom, something was wrong. It is a LOT of fun, but if I had to do it again, I would go on a smaller charter with just a few people and specifically go after some bigger halibut. For you, just to get the experience of catching a lot of fish, the large charter might be a good idea for your first time. We caught dogfish (sharks), rays, and halibut.

There are shore spots to fish in Seward, I don't know what would be running in May but I was there sometime in June and we caught salmon just casting spoons from shore. I would have to look the beach up but I can do that when I get some time today, if you are interested.

Also, I would do the Kenai Fjords boat tour, that was probably the highlight of my trip. We saw a ton of sea lions, otters, humpbacks, and had a pod of killer whales swim directly at us and dive under our boat (AMAZING). They bring you to a glacier and that is pretty cool. An absolutely beautiful tour, well worth the money.

[lunkerhunter]

Thanks for the info...I was also wondering about that, if you're able to catch them from shore. Not sure if we would have much time doing it, but again, thanks for info.

[AlaskaJedi]

Your timing and location is more important than the charter you choose.

Mid-May is still very early in the season as the Halibut move to shallow spawning habitat. I am not a guide, nor do I fish the salt water everyday, but I do make several trips every summer between - May and August fishing offshore in both private boats and chartered vessels.

Cracker Jacks is a popular charter and, I personnaly recommend you also look into the family owned Semaka Charters. Either one will do their best to catch some big fish.

Capt Steve's Charter is not out of Seward but I would strongly recommend you consider them also.

Be prepared for a long boat ride to get to the fishing areas and also expectations should remain realistic. I have fished many times for a big halibut on many different boats out of many different locations and have yet to catch a triple digit sized fish.

Good Luck.

[fivebucks]

Having lived in Seward, your timing for shore fishing for salmon would be off. I have done several halibut, rockfish, lingcod combo trips the last couple of years and they are fun. You go out on a 6 pack boat and can catch a variety of fish. I don't know if the lingcod season will be open then (at least I think there is a ling season). With the combo trips you typically don't get big halibut but the rockfish are fun to catch on light tackle and are mighty tasty. The lingcod are fierce predators and fun to catch. I am probably switching charters next time up there so I would prefer not to recommend the boat I used.

[live4chrome]

Lingo don't open till July, there are also some new halibut regs on charter boats. Something like one over 29" and one under. Ill second the keni fjords tour. Beautiful scenery. We did it last year and got stuck in a craft advisory. About half of the boat was puking. It really was great and I do recomend it we had orcas 20 feet away from us and saw humpbacks and porpoises too.

Brian, I'd be interested in hearing about where to catch the salmon off the beach. I'm assuming silvers right? June is the semi off season guiding on the kenai this year and Seward is a cool place. Might be worth a try when we make it to Seward this summer.

Oh, and on the halibut, if you do get a big one consider letting it go, they are getting more and more rare. We kept a 90# and 120# last summer because the guy whos boat we was fishing on insisted on keeping them. When we got to the dock he insisted we take them, even though we wanted to release them.Needless to say they weren't that good. dry and chewy with a not so clean taste. The fish in the 15-35# range are by far better eating.

[traveler]

Seward...one of my favorite subjects, and towns:)

I'll 3rd the kenai Fijords tour. This will be our 6th trip to AK, and also our 6th KF tour, everything mentioned above is spot on:)

Fishing...Brian, I would also like to know what salmon you caught from shore in June in Seward with spoons. How long ago? theres just not an opportunity there, in June, that I'm aware of, but I'm always anxious to learn!

Yes it's early form Butts, and no lings till July. We'll be fishing with Crackerjack June 7th...been wanting to fish with them for a long time. They run any early season special, check their HSOforum. We fished with Semaka last year and would do so again as well. ProFishNSea would round out my top 3 in Seward. Those are all 6 packs, btw, like Brian said, I prefer not to fish on the larger 15 passenger boats either. Except, not that I think of it, Crackerjack has a new boat called the "Voyager" I think, that Andy (the owner) runs himself, and supposedly he goes hard after bigger fish, so that would be an exception to the rule for me.

live4chrome...you owe me a PM on the parks rivers on the "other" forum:) no hurry of course...

[live4chrome]

Traveler I see nothing in my inbox from you on the other forum

[traveler]

sorry lfc, my bad! It was fishkid, not you, that replied over there:)

But if you have any tips, I'm making my first run up the parks highway this June and although I don't expect to fish much along there (too early for salmon) I want to check the area out for future trips.

[live4chrome]

I never made it up there, the fishing was too good on the kenai last year. The closest I got was fishig bird creek for a bout 20 minutes but all the fish were half the size of the kenai ones so we just went back to the penninsula

[fishkid]

hahaha I know. been busy with school and changing jobs currently. I will try to get one out to ya tonight or this weekend!!!

[fishkid]

and if it was later in may you could try to snag salmon off mcdonals beach. get a long whippy rod 20 pound test and a weighted treble hook and snag away! I will be down there late may early june for the run