Halibut Fishing

We have been fishing Halibut in Kachemak Bay and Lower Cook Inlet for over 30 years. We have learned a few things along the way about the tides and weather, different times of the season, when and where the Halibut show up and when they leave.

We catch Halibut just about every month of the year except the month of January, the only month that is closed to halibut fishing. We usually start seeing good catches of Halibut from April thru October.

Weather is a factor any time of year. The other big factor is the tide; we seem to have better luck when we have more water moving or a bigger exchange from high tide to low tide and vice versa. More water moving will help carry the scent trail and bring Halibut into us.

Another factor is technique, such as using bait or artificial jigs. When we use bait, we always use the finest we can buy, whole Herring, Octopus, Cod, Pollock, Pink Salmon, Chum salmon and Irish lords. As far as jigs go, we use lead head and hair jigs in different sizes from 2 – 24oz., depending on what the tide is doing and if we are anchored or are drifting.

We tend to fish at a depth of anywhere from 20 – 300 feet of water, with an average range of 100 – 200 feet.

Every year our clients catch numerous halibut over 100 lbs, a few halibut over 200 lbs and even has had a 300 lb halibut. It’s a pretty great way to fish for halibut and the running time is usually no more than 1 hour each way.