New! check out John Beath's halibut fishing site.
© by John L. Beath
Few places
on Earth, if any compare to Alaska’s wealth of outdoor opportunities. Look on a map and you’ll see thousands of
rivers and creeks zig-zagging across the expansive 49th state. Take a closer look, and take notice of two tiny,
remote areas in western Alaska. King Salmon
inside Bristol Bay and Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. These two locales stand out not because of their
small size, rather, because of their close proximity to two major bodies of water, the
Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea.
Huge king salmon, countless crazed coho and mega monster trophy halibut weighing to
400-plus pounds call the area home for good reason – an endless supply of food and
wilderness waterways. And let’s not
forget that Bristol Bay holds approximately 60 percent of the world’s population of
sockeye salmon.
Move inland on any one of a few
hundred rivers and streams and you could hook untold numbers of trophy rainbow, Arctic
char, grayling pike, or any of the five salmon species.
With all of these great angling opportunities how do you decide where to go
and what to fish for?
Two of Alaska’s premier sport
fishing providers, King Salmon Guides located on the edge of Bristol Bay and The Grand
Aleutian Hotel located in Dutch Harbor, have teamed up to provide anglers with combo trips
described as “the complete Alaskan adventure.”
Now anglers don’t have to sacrifice one species of fish in favor of
another, they simply begin their combo trip with King Salmon Guides and end with a trip to
“Halibut Heaven” at the Grand Aleutian Hotel.
With a name like King Salmon Guides,
you can expect to find plenty of chinook salmon. The
hardest choice will be deciding whether to catch king salmon on the fly, plug, spinner,
spoons or simply drift fishing your favorite lure.
“We don’t have the biggest
kings in the world, but we have the most!” boasts Aaron Ratkovich, from King Salmon
Guides. “And if you’re into sockeye
salmon, we fish rivers where 5 to 10,000 sockeye swim past your feet every hour.”
Anglers may choose a weekend or full
week adventure. All-inclusive adventures
originating from their lodge or less expensive do-it-yourself unguided float trips on a
remote river round out the possibilities. Some
packages include fly out fishing to remote rivers for rainbows, kings, coho, pike,
grayling or char. You decide what to fish for
and the guides choose the best river based on your ability and the condition of the river. Anglers also fish for chinook, coho, sockeye or
big ‘bows in King Salmon Guide’s home rivers, the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers. And lets not overlook one of the most
popular options, a fly out trip to Katmi Park, where anglers fish with the bears.
“The Naknek and Kvichak Rivers
have the biggest native rainbows in Alaska. During
September it’s normal to catch ‘bows ranging from 15 to 37 inches,”
Ratkovich. Advises.
Halibut Heaven
Some anglers fish all their life
without ever feeling the surge and strength of a 100-pound halibut. Most halibut in the Pacific Ocean weigh only 15 to
30 pounds. Now imagine a place where halibut
are so thick, in numbers and girth, you don’t dare use bait because it just wastes
time and energy!
Ever since the Grand Aleutian Hotel first provided sport fishing trips from Dutch Harbor, the world of halibut fishing hasn’t been the same. The first notable catch out of Dutch Harbor by a sports angler was a 395 pounder that went into the record books. The following season a whopper weighing 459 pounds nearly broke the scale and rewrote the all-tackle IGFA record.
If that wasn’t enough to send
hardcore hali hunters heading to Dutch Harbor, last year’s amazing story will. Babe Winkelman, host of TV’s “Good
Fishing with Babe Winkelman” visited the Grand Aleutian Hotel with the hopes of
experiencing “Halibut Heaven” with his cameras recording the action. Without warning, he hooked into a 411-pound
Boeing-sized barndoor, later declared the largest halibut taken in Alaska during 1997. If that wasn’t enough, on the way back to
port, with cameras still rolling he caught and released another trophy estimated between
350 and 380 pounds, proving that the area deserves its nickname “Halibut
Heaven.”
The Aleutian Islands in Alaska is the
heart of hali’ country. And like the
heart, the area pulses on the seafloor with these fish like blood rushing through an
oversized vein. This main artery of the
Pacific Ocean provides the best opportunity for halibut to gorge themselves on easy meals
and sport anglers to hook up with truly trophy-sized ‘butts almost every time.
“If we take you out of the inner harbor you’re almost guaranteed to limit on 50-plus pound halibut. Nobody keeps fish under 50 pounds because we know you can get larger fish,” boasts Chris Hamill, director of guest services for the Grand Aleutian Hotel in Dutch Harbor. He adds, “Some anglers tell me they quit fishing half way through the day because they get to tired to catch anymore halibut.”
“You can catch halibut most
anywhere in Alaska. But if I had to choose
just one place, my favorite for big fish and numbers of fish would have to be Dutch Harbor
in the Aleutians. If there’s anything
like a guaranteed fishery, that’s it,” explains Chris Batin, author of “How
To Catch Trophy Halibut.”
Guests of the Grand Aleutian Hotel enjoy first class accommodations and meals and
fish aboard a fleet of six 30 to 32 foot boats with skippers who know how and where to
find big ‘butts. Technique is so easy
anyone can do it. Lead head jigs hosting
plastic scampi tails are lowered to depths ranging from 125 to 200 feet. Once on the bottom a gentle upward jigging action
is soon followed by violent, hard-hitting strikes – it’s that easy.
Limits
Alaskan limits are very generous. Anglers
need to plan ahead and make plenty of freezer space.
While fishing with King Salmon Guides you’ll likely bring home a box filled
with 70 pounds of salmon fillets. And if you
plan on fishing three days for halibut in the Aleutians, you very easily could return home
with 200 to 250 pounds of vacuum packed hali fillets.
“Most people don’t realize how much fish they’re going home with. But it does make great Christmas presents,”
Hamill reminds.