What's the best time to fish?
For us there are 4 criteria:
- Best weather (historically driest): May through June (believe it or not)
- Silver salmon: July - September
- King salmon: May through June best (but still really good fishing through mid Aug… although sometimes there are so many darn silvers biting that it's hard to catch a king). Our catch rates are better than Sitka's (less competition) and 2 to 25 times better than anywhere else!
- Halibut, sablefish, rockfish and lingcod fishing is evenly great ALL season long! The best time might be when we have an opening.
We have the biggest halibut in all of Alaska... 3 times bigger than Sitka, Seward and Homer. Our king salmon catch rate is the very best in the state (ten times and a hundred times better than most other locations). One of the best things about fishing with the Highliner is that we can catch salmon, halibut, lingcod, and black rockfish everyday. Most places you only catch salmon on one day and halibut, lingcod and rockfish on another day. Also, we can keep 2 halibut per day. Many other places you can only keep one small halibut!
Usually, we fish for salmon until around lunch time and then fish for halibut in the afternoon. More than half of our fishermen limit out on king salmon and halibut on the same day. We target lingcod and rockfish if we haven’t caught them incidental to fishing for halibut and they are relatively easy to catch. Our guests averaged 120 pounds of fillets over the last five years, after 4 days of fishing!
Target Species - Daily and Annual Limits
King (Chinook) Salmon (2024)*
- Our daily bag limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length
- Annual limit is 3 king salmon beginning of season - June 30
- Annual limit is 2 king salmon July 1 - 15
- Annual limit is 1 king salmon July 16 - end of season
*Please note that the 2025 king limits have not yet been released
Silver (Coho) Salmon
- Bag limit: 6 per day
- No annual limits or size limits
Sablefish (Black Cod)
- Bag limit: 4 per day; any size
- Annual limit: 8 per year
Halibut - Area 2C (Southeast Alaska)
- Bag limits: 1 per day
- Size limits: Must be less than or equal to 37 inches or greater than or equal to 80 inches in length
- Closure days: Charter vessel anglers in Area 2C may not catch retain halibut (except GAF) on Tuesdays in 2025
Halibut - Area 3A (Southcentral Alaska)
- Bag limits: 2 per day
- Size limits: 1 of ANY size; 2nd fish less than or equal to 27 inches
- Closure days: Charter vessel anglers in Area 3A may not catch and retain halibut (except GAF) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in 2025
We have licenses to fish both areas and our guests have the choice to keep two halibut per day of any size in Area 3A or a bonus halibut (any size) in Area 2C using our Guided Angler Fish Permits!
Lingcod
- Bag limit: 1 per day
- Annual / Size limit: 2 per year; one of the 2 must be between 30-35 inches and the other has to be over 55 inches
- Closure dates: June 15 - August 15, 2025
Shortraker Rockfish / Other Slope Non-Pelagic
- Bag limit: 1 per day
- Annual / Size limit: no annual limit; no size limit
- Slope non-pelagic rockfish include: Blackgill, Blackspotted, Bocaccio, Brown, Chilipepper, Darkblotched, Greenstriped, Harlequin, Northern, Pacific Ocean Perch, Puget Sound, Pygmy, Redstripe, Redbanded, Rougheye, Sharpchin, Shortbelly, Shortraker, Silvergray, Splitnose, Stripetail, Vermilion, and Yellowmouth
Yelloweye Rockfish
- Bag limit: 1 per day
- Annual / Size limit: 1 per year; no size limit
- Closure dates: closed until July 1, 2025
Pelagic Rockfish
- Bag limit: 3 per day
- Annual / Size limit: none
- Pelagic rockfish include: Black, Blue, Dark, Dusky, Widow, and Yellowtail
HIGHLINER LODGE FISHING TIMELINE
May and June: King Salmon and Halibut are abundant at this time (and continue to be so through September!) We have the driest and sunniest weather this time of year as well.
July 1: Dude Fishing starts
Early August: Cohos start to get big!
September: Coho numbers peak in late August to early September, but the fish just keep getting bigger!