Alaska Fishing Lodge
The guest rooms at Alaska's Kodiak Island Resort have been described as "rustic elegance." Each suite is tastefully furnished and ensures your comfortable stay with us.
Our Alaska Luxury Fishing Lodge has six individual rooms and a great room for entertainment or meetings, plus a large wrap around veranda for wildlife viewing and realxing with your favorite beverage.
Our waterfont location provides spectacular mountain and waterfront views and wildlife including Kodiak Brown Bears are often with-in close view.
Fishing for halibut at Kodiak Island Resort isand one of my absolute favorite types of ocean fishing is jigging with Cripple Herring jigs. If the fish are active and you're in shallow water it can be just as exciting as fishing with natural baits. I know there are lots of techniques for catching halibut and I've tried most of them. Bounce-balling, drifting bait, rat-trapping, these methods all produce but I'm only going to talk here about fishing jigs in shallow water (40-100 ft.) .
Before you even go out halibut fishing you need to think about your strategy. We mostly ocean fish for these guys so the swell plays an important part in any decision we make when halibut are the targeted fish. I find that in general a big swell will push the fish in to deeper water. If it's rolling pretty good you may be better off drifting sardines in 60+ feet. If the weather looks nice though, and especially if it's springtime, we try to fish a slack or near slack tide. We know that in shallow water the fish will really become more active as the local water temps rise. Some of the hottest bites we have had have been in the late afternoon. These areas will get the local water warming in the spring, as well as attracting bait fish which are usually comprised of herring or candlefish. Some specific things to look for are kelp clumps, eel grass beds, and rocky structure bordered by sand. Often the fish will sit in the aisles between kelp fronds or grass beds. We sometimes fish jigs right along side this stuff.
We fish with 7-0 Shimano rods, Newell 2/0 reels loaded with 30 pound line. When we are fishing jigs for halibut stick to one retrieve. It goes something like this. Cast out and wait until you feel the bait hit the bottom. Pick up the slack using the reel and hop the bait off the bottom. Stop and wait until you hit bottom again. From there I'll go three cranks, stop, hit bottom, three cranks, stop, hit bottom. Don't swing the rod all over the place. Just use the reel to impart the action. When you get a bite keep winding steady until you feel the fish on the rod. This is where that extra 7-0' rod is nice. Once the tip is loaded up swing on it and you're in there.
