Planning Alaskan family vacation looking for help

[kwackkillncrew]

you could also talk to the charters and see if they do any shallow water stuff. 75% of the time we are halibut fishing we are in 25-40 feet out of homer. The one charter i know who does that kind of stuff the captain passed away. I know there are a few other boats who fish the shallow style. Dont go on a big boat if you are looking for consistent decent sized fish. find a six pack to get on. sounds like you would have 6 people in your party so rent the whole boat will be a much more fun experience.

 

[Bluman001]

Man.....first trip to AK is a daunting task to plan, especially for 6 folks. My wife and I traveled up there in 2016. Rode the train to Talkeetna (Denali was not visible due to clouds) rode it back to ANC and rented a car the next day and drove to Valdez. The drive from Anchorage to Valdez is possibly the most scenic drive in the US imo. We fished in Valdez and stayed for 6 nights. We noticed tons of rental RVs on the road which piqued our interest as we love camping. We were so enamored by the state that the next 2 years we rented an rv for 14 days and went all over. Decided after 2 years of renting rv that we could afford to stay longer than 14 days but not if we had to rent the rv so we ended up purchasing an older class C. Store it in ANC for $75 per month and now we spend 4-6 weeks per summer up there for the last 2 years and plan to do it again this summer.
IMO an RV is the only way to go...AK is the most camping friendly state Ive been in. You can pull over at any of thousands of roadside pull outs and stay overnight for free (rvs are self contained with generators) or stay at any of the RV parks available. Best thing is that when you see a place you like you can stay as long as you want or move along after you are done with a spot. Can be a different scene every night. This has worked well for us. No checking in and out, dont have to leave an area you are loving, no schedule to be at the next town to get to your accomodations, load up in ANC at Wal-Mart and bring lots of your food and drinks so you dont have to eat out as much and you eat when you want. Not to mention prices go up fast after you leave ANC. We have rented from ABC and Great Alaskan Holidays, I can't overstate the convenience of having your house with you. It would be ultimate in convenience if you were able to rent a car also so once the rv is parked for the day or days you will have something to run around in but its not necessary. We dealt for 4 years with only an rv for transportation and sleeping. Finally bought a little Jeep last summer to tow and it sure has enhanced our exploring.
The last two years have had light tourism there so its been like we have the state to ourselves almost and without the major cruise lines this year will be light compared to past years as well. I say this because almost everyone who visits AK hits the Kenai Peninsula. It's gorgeous and has lots to do. Fishing is awesome all over it. Russian River at Cooper landing is epic, lots of bears and lots of fish! Tons to do from Cooper Landing all the way to Homer. If you only stay 7 days or so Id head to the KP probably. Ive not had great luck catching larger halibut on charters off the KP but we always caught fish and honestly unless you are ready to deal with getting it back to lower 48 you wont want 150#-200# of fish. We love to fish out of Valdez on charter and have made some great friends over there so we tend to fish from there for off shore. Denali is unbelievable but the odds of seeing it are relatively low unless you hang out for days. It may or may not be visible and when it is it may only be for a short time. The park itself and Glitter Gulch are a mini vacation alone. Unless you are staying a couple weeks it would be hard to fit Denali in imo and low odds it would be worth a day trip to Talkeetna to see it.
I could talk all day about AK and different things to do. Best advice I can give is stay as long as you can and surely look into RV vs BB&Air or RVBO or whatever.
Holler if I can answer any questions for you. Have a great time and maybe we will see ya'll up there!

 

[grossklw]

Been to AK several times. I've got a buddy that I played football with in high school that has his own charter out of Homer. We always have a blast up there, we spend the entire time down in Homer, but that's mostly because we're visiting him and his wife. If you're up for hiking taking a water taxi across to the state park for an all day hike is pretty awesome up to Grewingk glacier (photo of my son from this summer). The drive down to Homer from AK is fantastic as well.

Agree on booking the entire boat out if you can afford it. Josh (my buddy) likes going way off-shore but his clientele generally dictates how far he can go. As long as it's not dangerous he will go as far as his clients will allow. Multi-species is a blast, I personally prefer fishing rockfish over salmon unless you're mooching, but trolling is boring. If you go in July when the red's are running snagging is fun in China Poot too, but you need a skiff to get over there (can be rented). There's not a lick of sport involved, but man is it good, dumb fun. Here's his business if you're curious. Halibut can get big…biggest on his boat is 349 lbs, guy didn’t have a derby ticket…

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Big Halibut Charters - affectionately known as “Big Butt Charters” - invites you to set sail on the all-inclusive fishing trip of a lifetime in The Last Frontier. Our location in rugged Homer, Alaska is a place like nowhere else on Earth. Cast one look at the deep blue waves of Cook Inlet and...

bigbuttcharter.com

 

[Slugz]

Makes me want to get an RV now.