Homer – Halibut Fishing

Homer bills itself as the halibut fishing capital of the world. As you walk down the spit every other shop advertises halibut fishing trips, fish processing or some other service related to fishing. We figured we’d better give it a go despite the fact that neither of us has fished before – so we signed up for a ½ day halibut trip with Homer Ocean Charters.

We had the choice of morning (5.30 start) or afternoon – so afternoon it was then. We met at the shop and then went down to the “Bay Explorer” with 14 other passengers and Captain Dave. It was an hour or so out to the fishing grounds – in the comfort of the cabin. When we got there Captain Dave gave a rapid description of how to fish – basically through the line down and reel in the fish – we were handed rods and told to get on with it.

Now both of us had gone into this expecting to catch nothing. Within 30 seconds I had caught my first fish – a good 20 pound halibut. After 10 minutes I had 2 and that’s your limit for the day. Sarah wasn’t far behind. So we had 4 fish – around 40 pounds of meat. We gave two of them away as we figured we just couldn’t keep that amount of fish in the freezer or even eat it any time soon.

After catching my two I did a bit more fishing – catch and release – but only caught another two before calling it a day. After around an hour fishing everyone on board had caught their two fish so we headed back to the shore.

On the way back the deck hands filleted the fish and by the time we got back to shore it was all ready to be either taken away or sent to a fish processor for freezing  and packing. We took 2 fillets in a bag and sent the rest for freezing.

We headed to a local restaurant called Captain Pattie’s where they will cook your fish for you and you pay for the side orders. I can honestly say it was the best fish I’ve ever had – caught by my fair hand and eaten within 2 hours of being caught.

If you think you can’t fish – think again – Halibut fishing is so easy even we can do it !