We are located next to an area that is 400 miles long and 50 miles wide that has almost zero sportfishing effort. That is 20,000 square miles of halibut and salmon habitat!

As the halibut and salmon migrate to the Southeast, we are first in line to catch them. We are not overwhelmed by tens of thousands of fishermen. We are not located, like most lodges in Southeast Alaska, a hundred miles away from the gulf of Alaska, where the fish are! Other areas, namely Haines and Skagway, in Alaska are too far away from the ocean to have anything but little halibut.

The map below shows the statistical areas that ADF&G use to track the catch per rod hour for salmon and halibut and the average weight of halibut. Elfin Cove, Gustavus, Glacier, and Pelican are all in the same statistical area.

Pelican has so few fishermen that it isn't even shown on the map! Pelican and Highliner Lodge and Charters Inc. are located about 20 miles south of Elfin Cove.

The table below (from Alaska Department of Fish and Game) shows that the “Glacier Bay” Area has a mean weight of 45.3 lb, in comparison Homer, “The Halibut Capital of the World,” has an average weight of 15.4, the reason our average halibut weight is three times the average in homer is simply because we don't have the intense fishing pressure that Homer, Seward, Sitka, and others have.

Homer had 58,222 angler days in 2006. Sitka had 42,681 angler days. If you combine Pelican 569 angler days, Elfin Cove 5471 angler days, and Gustavus 4420 angler days (The Glacier Bay Area), we had only 10,460 angler days. When you have too many fishermen catching too many halibut the average size has to go down.

Our costs are much higher than a lodge doing business out of Sitka, Homer, Seward, and the like. Electric rates are three to four times higher ($.60/kwh) in Pelican than Sitka. Gasoline costs $1.25 more per gallon.

“Closest to the Fish” means farthest from the customer, Costco, Home Depot, and a reliable supply of labor. That means that we have to transport you and your fish (additional expense ~$500) and all of our food on a seaplane (add $1.25 for every pound).

We have invested over $300,000 to purchase charter halibut permits that allow our guests to fish in an area where they can keep two halibut per day! When comparing prices, please make sure you are comparing "apples to apples."

When comparing prices, be sure to look at the fine print of other lodges. Does their advertised price include the cost of the float plane, freight, professional fish processing, lodging and meals on travel days? Will you have to get a hotel and figure out your own meals on the first and/or last day? Are you getting FULL days on the water or is their best-case scenario (weather-dependent), to get you on the water by 10AM on the first "day" of fishing? 

Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that we are in any way inferior to other “high-end” lodges because our package price is sometimes hundreds of dollars less their rates.

Well, we don’t have Calvin Klein bedroom furniture, and we don’t have gourmet cooking lessons or water color painting lessons by nearly famous chefs and artists. I suppose some lodges want to appeal to some clients who judge a service by its price and not its performance.

If it costs more, it must be better! Right? This is a marketing strategy for them. Our business grew 80% in 2010, 22% in 2011, and 98% in 2012. This was during the “Great Recession” when most fishing lodges in Alaska were down 30%-50% in each of those years (and they were discounting very heavily to fill their calendar).

Hmm, maybe I just don’t charge enough? My accountant used to wonder what the heck I am doing, but now my accountant says we "must be doing something right!" He has other clients in the Alaska lodge business who have lost a lot of business these past few years. I think we are simply the best service, at the best price. We are striving to be highliners!

It’s legal, but not likely. In 2006, there were 2,162 king salmon fishes that landed in Homer, but it took 58,222 “angler days” to catch those fish. That works out to one king salmon for every 27 days of fishing effort. (58,222 / 2,162 = 26.9)

In 2006, there were 1,057 king salmon landed in Seward. It took 42,681 “angler days” to catch those fish. That works out to one king salmon for every 40 days of fishing effort.

In 2006, there were 367 king salmon landed in pelican. It took 569 “angler days” to catch those fish. That works out to one king salmon for every 1.5 days of fishing effort. Obviously, Seward and Homer are not on the migratory path of king salmon!

All of my data is taken from The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) or the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

No, but I can refer you to someone at a competing lodge who will tell you anything you want to hear. His guarantee works like this:

1. He tells you anything to get you to book a trip.
2. You fall for his bison excrement.
3. You don't catch a one-hundred pounder.
4. Either you forget the guarantee, or he says "sorry" if you remember.

Even if you do catch a one hundred pound halibut, you will probably be disappointed. I suspect that wasn't the only guarantee he made, and that you will probably still be disappointed because he misrepresented many things to go to his lodge.

Please don't choose based on empty promises. I don't expect anyone to take my word for anything so I back up my statements with evidence from ADF&G. Additionally, I can put you in touch with satisfied guests who will vouch for my veracity. Please see charts and tables on our Catch Rates page.

You will fly into Juneau on Alaska Airlines. They have a monopoly!

It would be a lot cheaper for us if we put five, six, or more fishermen on a boat. To give you the best opportunity to catch fish we limit our boats to four.

Compare boats too. Our boats are 30 plus feet in length and are relatively new—costing ~ $250,000 each—compared to much smaller and older boats that cost less than $75,000.

Some “lodges” do not really own a lodge, but really house you in a hotel, give you a voucher for a meal at a restaurant, and many times don’t even own the boat you are fishing on. They subcontract virtually every part of their “service” to a third party. When you don’t have the cost of owning anything you can price your trips rather cheaply.

More often than not, a “bargain” price means a vastly inferior experience all the way around. Be very careful when it comes to $100-500 a day for your trip of a lifetime or your annual Alaskan fishing trip. You may end up very disappointed.

Simply put, a “highliner” is the very best fisherman. The term is used in the charter and commercial fishing industry widely but is not so well-known in the sports fishing industry. Bill Poole of San Diego was a highliner in the Southern California sports fishing industry.

We very rarely give discounts beyond our group discount rates. If other companies deeply discount, it is because their price is too high in the first place or they are desperate to fill in their schedule. Sometimes you do get what you pay for. Please see our rates and policies page.

Unlike many other destinations, our “window of opportunity” to catch king salmon is four months long. Most other fishing lodges have a window of two to three weeks because they are fishing only on local stocks of fish returning to their native stream near that particular lodge. We fish on mixed stocks returning to every stream from the Taku River in Northern Southeast Alaska and the Sacramento River in California.

Unlike many other destinations, our “window of opportunity” to catch halibut is 4 months long. Most other fishing lodges face diminishing returns as the season progresses because there are too many fishermen taking fish out of their local waters. That is why the average weight of halibut is so low at some of those destinations. That is why you must endure a sometimes grueling boat ride far off shore to fish in 400 to 600 feet of water using up to 6-7 pounds of lead to reach the bottom.

Please Google “local depletion halibut.” Also, refer to my answer in “What is the catch limit for halibut this year?”

We don’t put more than four guests on our four boats 30 to 37 feet long boats unless you have a group of five or six and you’d like to fish together. We do have a new 50 foot delta charter boat that we may put up to six guests on.

Both or whatever you like! We make recommendations, so you have the most productive fishing, but we don’t dictate to you how you are going to fish.

We mostly anchor but drift when the conditions are favorable.

Mostly, we use bait, but sometimes we jig. It is a matter of personal preference, and we like to let you do what you like to do.

If you must cancel your trip, half of the deposit is refundable IF we are able to re-book your time at the lodge. If for some reason you must cancel after the final payment is made, you may transfer your booking to another person, or we will credit one half of your full payment towards a future trip.

Because it’s my lodge and I built the website! When you are at Highliner Lodge and Charters Inc., it will be all about you, I promise!