Two anglers show off the largest halibut they caught off of Deep Creek in Cook Inlet. (BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News)

Homer area is halibut heaven
Lower Cook Inlet charters offer a great opportunity for lunkers

By JON LITTLE
Daily News Peninsula Bureau

Ask just about any fisherman, and they’ll say there’s plenty of halibut lurking in the salty deep. The trick, it seems, is reaching them.

The southern Kenai Peninsula, a chin of land jutting stubbornly into lower Cook Inlet, has developed into a launching pad of sorts for flotillas of 16- to 50-foot sportfishing boats. They bear down on halibut hotbeds near the Inlet’s mouth. And many hook salmon while they’re at it.

Homer, with it’s scenic and protected port, and nearby Ninilchik, known for its tractor -assisted boat launches, are home to a sportfishing industry that developed into a juggernaut in the last decade of the 20th century.

Hundreds of guides are based in the two places, each of which offers something a little different.

"The advantage at Ninilchik is that the halibut are closer, on the average. We don’t have to run very far. And the king run is better, " said Will Bailey of Will’s Copper King Charter. His business, at 17, is one of Ninilchik’s senior guide services. Ninilchik-based guides target the massive Kenai River-bound kings.

"On the plus side for Homer, they have feeder kings all year long," said Bailey, who drives down the Sterling Highway to launch their when Ninilchik is weathered in. Feeder kings, sometimes called winter kings, are younger, smaller kings that venture into Kachemak Bay to fatten up before returning to their natal streams elsewhere on the Pacific Rim.

While Homer charters sometimes take two hours or more just to reach the halibut vs. a 45 -minute trip from Ninilchik, the Homer port offers bigger boats and a safe harbor to exit and enter at any time of day.

"Here in Ninilchik we launch off the beach on tractors, which is a unique experience, but it’s a necessity because we don’t have a harbor," Bailey said.

Two tractor services work side by side each summer, turning the cramped Deep Creek state park into a bustling hub of trucks, trailers and increasingly large sea-going sportfishing boats.

Tractors – far heavier and stronger than pickup trucks – back the boat trailers into the Inlet surf. And they’re there with the trailer in the water when the boats come back. In high winds, that kind of docking takes skill.

But, Bailey pointed out, they’ve been doing it since 1991 and nobody’s been injured yet.

New this year is a change in fishing regulations that will cut into the number of silver salmon guided anglers can catch. Silvers don’t start running into the Inlet until late July. Because their numbers have fallen short in recent years, the state has cut the saltwater silver limit from six fish to three a day.

Bailey said his clients, fishing out of Homer especially, would occasionally catch their limit of shiny silvers. "But that’s not an everyday thing. Three fish doesn’t bother me, and I don’t think it’ll bother my clients," he said.

With the extra muscle of tractor launching, guides are using bigger and bigger boats these days, up to 30 feet, which makes the experience a little more civilized for their clients. Gone are the days when they need to wear hipboots, Bailey said. Warm hiking boots will do.

Anyone going on one of these day-long trips ought to wear layers, dressed for cold wind but ready to peel down if it’s a still, hot afternoon.

Finding a guide isn’t too hard. The Homer Chamber of Commerce, 235-7740, and Ninilchik Chamber of Commerce, 567-3571, will provide names and numbers of local charter captains. Homer’s chamber also has a tourist guide with listings.

While fishing for 20- to 30-pound feeder kings or hundred-pound slabs of halibut can be rewarding, it takes some know-how and a boat. For everyone else, there’s still Ninilchik River, Deep Creek and Anchor River.

Shore-based king fishing kicks off in those locations on Memorial Day weekend. Fishing regulations for Cook Inlet are increasingly complicated, so biologists urge anglers to pick up a copy of the regulations at the nearest state Department of Fish and Game office or at sporting goods stores.