Kenai River Guide Recommendation

[Heat]

I'm planning a trip to Alaska next summer. Of course I'm going to fish. We are going to try Halibut fishing out of Seward and I know of a few outfits that will work for that. Want to know if anybody has any experience to share and a recommendation for a guide if possible for the Kenai or Kasilof rivers. We understand that the King Salmon fishing has been very sparse so we are perfectly fine with Sockeye and trout/dolly varden. A full day combo trip to catch whatever is biting is what we are after. We are going the last couple of weeks of July. Thanks for any info you can share!

[Ohthatguy]

From some family up there..

[Kelney]

I fished for kings last month on the Kasilof. They were not running yet on the Kenai. Anyways I fished with an outfit called Fishology and our guide worked hard and we did well. You can Google Fishology for their info. I forget our specific guides name though.  I got way more bang for the buck salt water fishing out of Homer but I enjoyed the experience. I can recommend a few outfits out of Homer if you did not want to make the long drive around to Seward.

[Heat]

3 hours ago, Kelney said:

I fished for kings last month on the Kasilof. They were not running yet on the Kenai. Anyways I fished with an outfit called Fishology and our guide worked hard and we did well. You can Google Fishology for their info. I forget our specific guides name though.  I got way more bang for the buck salt water fishing out of Homer but I enjoyed the experience. I can recommend a few outfits out of Homer if you did not want to make the long drive around to Seward.

We are staying in Cooper Landing so it will be much further to go to Homer, but yes please let me know of any reputable charters for Halibut fishing out of Homer. My in laws got an earful about Homer from some friends of theirs who have been a bunch of times and now have that in their head. I would appreciate it!

 

[WhtMtnHunter]

3 hours ago, Kelney said:

I fished for kings last month on the Kasilof. They were not running yet on the Kenai. Anyways I fished with an outfit called Fishology and our guide worked hard and we did well. You can Google Fishology for their info. I forget our specific guides name though.  I got way more bang for the buck salt water fishing out of Homer but I enjoyed the experience. I can recommend a few outfits out of Homer if you did not want to make the long drive around to Seward.

Who do you recommend out of Homer?  Heading that way(hopefully) in a few weeks. 

[Kelney]

I fished with Brooks Alaskan Adventures and Josh Brooks is very enthusiastic and he and his first mate (an ex-beautician), work hard.  Due to weather he was not able to take us to the spot he wanted and gave us a nice discount on the trip. My brother pulled in a 100lb butt and mine was around 70. Caught some miscellaneous stuff as well. He has nice Penn International 2 speeds for halibut reels.  (Second Picture

Driftwood Charters was the other charter I went on. Hard working as well but did not go as far because we also were targeting Kings. Halibut were smaller but we did bring in a 100 pounder. I would not hesitate to go with Captain Shane again. (First Picture)

A Soldotna local that was on the river trip I was on just went on a Charter called Big Dan's Fishing Charters. It looks like he will target large halibut if that is what you are looking for. She really had a great review.

All these can be Googled for their website for further info. Book as early as you can since the season has started. 

[Heat]

Awesome brother! Thank you so much for sharing your info and pics! That get's me fired up!

 

[IA Born]

Back in 2003, we fished with Captain Bryan Bandioli, out of Homer.  He's originally from AZ.  When he hit the "Interested in Fishing" button on the Homer Chamber of Commerce page, we got letters and postcards from everyone who owned a boat on the Kenai Peninsula.  Capt Bryan wrote a personal note about Tucson and living there, and we knew he was our guy.  He tried UofA and NAU, but got bored, moved to AK to fly fish for trout and ended up becoming a halibut boat captain.  Had an absolute blast fishing with him.  He and I ended up sitting on the gunwale on the back, shooting the breeze and working on filling my wife and I's limit.  He handed me his personal rod and took my "client rod" back.  I caught our last fish on that and it was a blast.  He let me club it in the boat.  That's Capt Bryan behind me.  I don't know if he's still in business anymore, but he was absolutely great to hang out with.  I can't imagine he's out of business.  When we go back, I'll be reaching out to him first.  His website is still up. 

http://www.fishinghomeralaska.com/

 

[5nRamirez]

I like to access the keni from Soldotna.  when the fish are running it can be a blast..As for Halibut fishing I've gone with BoBs trophy charters the last few years and have done very well. I'll see if I can dig up the big halibut pictures there on a different device 

[PRDATR]

1 hour ago, 5nRamirez said:

I like to access the keni from Soldotna.  when the fish are running it can be a blast..As for Halibut fishing I've gone with BoBs trophy charters the last few years and have done very well. I'll see if I can dig up the big halibut pictures there on a different device 

 

Great catch, what are the darker colored fish?

[5nRamirez]

The dark black are Rockfish super delicious. It was a halibut/ rockfish combo trip I also caught a big lingcod. Just my group of 3 came home with just over 700 lbs of fillets 400 of which were Sockeye from our week stay on the kenai.