Ninilchik, AK (non yak) report

I'm finally getting around to posting on my fathers day weekend halibut trip to Alaska..  was an amazing weekend but WAAAY too short.     This is a trip that some of my dads friends do every year, and my dad has done it once before..    First thing in the Sac airport I find that one of the guys on the trip is an NCKA'er,   JD71 , who's dad is a friend of my dad so that was cool!

Long.. long travel day.. finally got to Ninilchik after an amazingly scenic 3 hour drive from Anchorage.   Picked up our licenses and headed to the B and B we were staying at:

http://www.alaskabluffhouseinn.com/  ..   great place with a killer view of the cook inlet and Redoubt volcano.

First thing next day we headed out for some halibut  on a 28 foot Alumaweld boat with captain Jason.. first stop was a little slow and mostly Alaskan Cod (pacific cod?).. some were huge and we kept a few to use as huge chunks of bait.    The second stop we were on the fish and got some nice fish ranging from about 25 lbs to 40 of so..   biggest problem we had was the tide..  21 ft!!!  so that made it rough at times to hold even a 5 lb weight on the bottom at 180 ft...     Fished all day and got our limits along with a nice size starry flounder that I didn't even feel on the line.     

Next day we were out again on the same boat and pretty much the same thing except for JD71's fish.    .     First monster he got was a huge skate, easily over 200 lbs.   That thing was wing hooked so even harder to pull in but he finally did and got it released..        Early on we were in a spot that was in about 30 feet of water and JD got another big fish on the line.. this one turned out to be a 180 lb halibut..  monster fish!   Hes got a great video clip of boating the beast and what happened after as well.   Hopefully it gets posted..  captain Jason will forever on be known to us as the halibut cowboy.   I'll leave it at that!   

We got nice limits that day as well.. along with more cod, and even some Irish Lords..  looked like a cabbies much uglier cousin.   Another good size skate was also caught.     All round great trip and good job by the boat crew!     Posting some pics of the trip but all I had was my android phone since my camera went swimming at shelter cove so the quality isn't great.    The pic of the big hali along with JD and his dad,  is kind of an anti fish sniffer pic..   the fish is actually behind them so it almost looks smaller than it is.. the tail is actually on the ground!

I would definitely recommend anyone going up there to fish if you get the chance.. amazing place!

Awesome pics, that starry is a monster! 

Bills post pretty much sums up the trip...was an incredible trip and a great way to spend fathers day with Dad!  Here is brief summary of the trip...

Arrived in AK to unbeliveable weather...limited swell (Maybe 2 ft tops for the entire trip) and no wind.  Stocked up on food and beer (Alaskan IPA) on Thursday afternoon and arrived at the B&B in Ninilchik (Cook Inlet).  With 21 hours of daylight, it was tough to go to bed, but after enough IPA's it made it a bit easier.

Woke up early on Friday (Boat left at 8:30am), seemed very early after 10 IPA's...and arrived at the launch.  Because of the large tides, they launch the boats from the beach via tractor.  Upon boarding the boat, I noticed the rod and reels we would be fishing with for the day. I knew that we would be fishing heavy tackle, but was a bit taken back with the leaders/hooks (Nylon rope leader with 15/0 circle hooks) and 5lb weights...Needless to say the fish were not line shy!  Proceeded to the first drop in 180 - 200ft of water (Got there fast with twin 225hp powering the boat and a cruising speed of 33mph) and immediately started catching pacific cod (Big fish that we would normally be very happy with here on the North Coast) up to 20lbs...as soon as they hit the deck, they became our bait in addition to chunked herring.  Caught a couple of deecent halibut, but it was time to move.  Second stop, we started getting into the halibut (Nothing huge, but 20-40lb butts).  Wanted something a little bigger, so the deckhand hooked me up with a whole cod head for bait (Thing must have weighed 5lbs)...could feel fish hitting the bait, but captain said to be patient and wait for a big take down.  Had one big take down and a fish on for a few minutes but it came unbuttoned.  Second big take down and it was on...unfortunately it was not the targeted species and ended up being a skate (200lb+)...wore me out.  We ended up catching limits of Butts up to 40lbs...


 

We started fishing Saturday in 35ft of water and not sure what we were going to catch as they said the big halibut had not moved into the Inlet yet...oh well.  Fishing 35ft of water was a great break from the previous day hauling 5lb weights 200ft.  Started off using cut herring and on the first drop got a few light bites...so I thought.  Set the hook (Setting the hook is very different, as I am used to swinging for the fences...does not work...need to reel hard 5-8 cranks and it sets the hook!) and the fish immediately took off peeling line.  Thought at first it might be a salmon, but the captain corrected me and said it was a big halibut.  After a 10-15 minute fight, the beast showed itself and it was huge.  The captain proceeded to harpoon the fish (Upon impact, my hook flew out of its mouth) and it went crazy.  He instructed the deckhand to get the gun (Are you kidding me...gun(410 with a slug)!).  I thought the fish was going to pull the captain overboard a couple of times, but he finally lined up the shot and click...misfire (Was educated to the fact that they shoot anything over 100lbs before bringing in the boat for safety reasons).  Asked for another round and misfired again (Crap).  It was decided the captain and deckhand would gaff the fish and bring it on board to subdue the beast.  Thats when it got kinda crazy (Aka Halibut Rodeo)...the captain mounted the fish and proceeded to apply the aluminum shampoo.  The fish went nuts and it looked like he was riding a rodeo bull...179lbs.  Unbeliveable trip!

Here are a few pics...the fish was 70" long and weighed 179lbs (The tail was 19" across....).  Everyone left with limits and an incredible experience...cant wait to go back.

I'll be up in Alaska in about three weeks for a week. Fishing 3 days on the ocean, two flyfishing trips and one drift on the Kasilof for a king. Can't wait and I hope to put a 100 pound halibut in the boat.