Bad AK halibut trip today

[Wazntme]

This is a long story so I’ll try to tighten it up as much as I can. I booked a halibut only trip and even called and confirmed this, got to the dock this morning and there was a family of 4, an elderly woman and me. the captain was tying up hooches for salmon and when I asked about this he said we were going for salmon then halibut later and I just went along with it even though it bothered me. After a 3 hour boat ride we jigged for salmon for about 2.5 hours then went and anchored up for halibut where the 14 year old son hammers a 70 pounder right away and then the dad hits a 60 pounder, little while later one of the poles bends over hard and I tell the elderly lady to grab it and she pulls in a 90 pounder then the action dies. We then move to a different spot where the guide says this is a numbers game now and we arnt goin for size just get the limits we need. We start catching little 8 ponders and get our limits and head in. The captain filets all the fish and hands me a bag with about 5 pounds of fish and when I asked “you don’t split it up equally” he tells me that’s party fishing and it’s illegal, you get to keep what you reel in! I got pretty ticked off because I was basically letting the 2 kids reel in the big ones because it’s the right thing to do and I got screwed by being a nice guy! There are more details that you might find interesting and  I’m sure those questions will come up.

[Stein]

Sounds about right, you got bonus salmon time before the tide change.  They fish the best spot for the tide change and hopefully fill up. 

If not, you hit the chicken ranch on the way home to round out the limits.

Everyone keeps their fish and maybe you get a crew fish if available and they have a full freezer.

In AK, most tides are huge compared to the lower 48 and there is only a relatively small window of opportunity.


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[Wazntme]

I fish Puget sound all year long and I told them I did NOT want to fish for salmon and the lady said “you are scheduled for halibut only not a multi-species, I’ve fished for halibut here a couple other times and the tide is always ripping that’s why we use 4lb weights. And yes we hit the chicken farm on the way back and I was cool with that because I thought we would split the pot equally just as we have done in Hawaii, Florida, Costa Rica, Mexico, Bahamas, and even AK. I’m goin out again tomorrow morning and I guess I’ll stand in the middle of the deck and when a rod tip bends over and hits the water I’ll jump on that rod and start throwing elbows!

[j_h_nimrod]

Not sure about any of the other stuff you allude to, but that is a pretty typical AK charter. The company could have been much more forthcoming with how they are run, but like WA, most people do not know other states Regs or customs and forget that not everyone does things the same way. The fair way is to split the boat catch on a gig like that, but a lot of guys would argue vehemently that their catch is their fish.

Not sure where you were at, a lot of those charters are just fish catching mills with little regard to the people on board. A lot of those guys are just schmuks that are out to make a dollar and by this point in the season are already burnt out and could care less about the next boat full of people as long as they get paid, sad, but the reality of the industry in many places.

Sorry you had a bad experience.

[Wazntme]

I get the rules are the rules, the part that sucks is the parents saw me basically spoon feeding nice fish to the kids so I’m kinda bummed they didn’t just share but the captain pretty much told them that it’s illegal to give me some of the fish so they didn’t. Also you are right, the guy was jerk right out of the gate and just had a bad attitude (I would be burned out by this point in the season also) and to top it off there was 7 of us on a 25’ boat that was probably built in 1989 and I had to stand in the back deck the whole time holding on to the rocket launchers because there was nowhere to sit. That boat pulled in 2 grand today ithe boat is probably worth 20 grand at best. I just have a bad taste in my mouth about the whole thing because I spent a lot of money to come up here and I feel like I got hosed. Oh by the way that family of 4 limited on large halibut yesterday and also caught 4 limits of lings at 6 each. So they had enough to share if the captain would of let them.

[Taco280AI]

Where at? What charter? If it's an honest report, no harm in dropping a name.

[huntnfmly]

So is it called party fishing and illegal or not?

[Wazntme]

It’s called party fishing and it’s illegal to divide meat up equally. I’m fishing tomorrow with same company but different boat tomorrow so I’ll say the name tomorrow.

[Nate Ortloff]

Any update on how the trip went?

[Skyvalhunter]

Where are/were you fishing out of

[b0bbyg]

When I have fished in AK everyone was holding their own pole and jigging, so if your pole got hit your fish. I have never seen where there are just a bunch of random poles and you decide who grabs one.  Guess each captain and company has their own method.   We always were given the fish we caught once trip was done.
I did help reel in a fish for an elderly gentleman and they put in his bag,  He hooked it just was wearing out and crew was busy. I still figured his fish since he hooked it.

What we would always do is have a cooler with ice and leave it sitting open behind our truck, in Homer where we have fished several times there are always a few people wanting to give away their fish or only want to keep one to have shipped home.  I think most trips someone would walk up and ask if we wanted more fish     

[huntnphool]

 Did I miss the deer hunting portion of the story?

[jackelope]

Did I miss the deer hunting portion of the story?

No, but you did miss the "report to moderator" tab. Luckily, I got curious and opened the thread and realized the error and took evasive action.
You're welcome.
 

[Alchase]

Did I miss the deer hunting portion of the story?

No, but you did miss the "report to moderator" tab. Luckily, I got curious and opened the thread and realized the error and took evasive action.
You're welcome.
 

Here I was thinking, same guy had two bad AK Hali trips
Dumb luck, of coarse I went looking in my The “deer hunting” section for the thread?

[HikerHunter]

When I have fished in AK everyone was holding their own pole and jigging, so if your pole got hit your fish. I have never seen where there are just a bunch of random poles and you decide who grabs one.  Guess each captain and company has their own method.   We always were given the fish we caught once trip was done.
I did help reel in a fish for an elderly gentleman and they put in his bag,  He hooked it just was wearing out and crew was busy. I still figured his fish since he hooked it.

This was the experience I had as well. Anchored up, poles in hand, jigging. When you pulled a fish in and you wanted to keep it, the deck hand would mark the fish to later identify as yours (or your party's) for when they fillet them on the trip back. They didn't share the meat equally at the end.