Rainbow Tours
Homer, Alaska
This crew was extremely helpful they really worked hard getting the gear prepped, helping every person on board, they cleaned every fish caught, and they were really cool people to fish with. It's not required or asked for but remember to tip your crew. I saw first hand a genuine hard working crew and they still managed to smile and have a fun attitude. That made the fishing trip even better.
To give you a brief idea how the half day halibut charter goes down. You meet at the boat in the morning, launch out of the Homer Spit. It's a bit of a ride out to the fishing spot maybe an hour if I remember correctly. At times the waves are large I recommend taking the motion sickness pills. I took the pills and still felt sick but if I didn't take the pills I think I would have felt so much worse then I did. I always get motion sickness so I take the pills and just deal with it and stay focused on having fun even if I feel sick. A tip is to keep your eyes looking out on the horizon further distances, I tried that too. Anyways, the crew is getting all the gear ready while everyone is either inside the boat looking out the windows or standing on the deck of the boat. Once you arrive to the fishing area they pick, the crew gives everyone giant pins used to identify which halibut is yours and also indicates what size halibut you've already caught because there's limits and these pins help in easily identifying these limits and to ensure you're staying within your limits. Everyone is handed a fishing reel and once you catch a halibut you determine if you want to keep that size or release it and try for a size you want. The crew is very helpful to every person fishing. You just let them know you have a fish and they come over to you and will help you reel it in if you need help. They will unhook the halibut and take it to a measuring table and you decide if you want to keep it or not. If you keep it the crew will pin it and keep your fish in a holding area on the boat with everyone else's fish but it's easy for them to identify which fish belong to which person because the pin is hooked to your halibut and it holds that information so you don't take home someone else's halibut. The crew is busy because people are catching the halibut left and right and the crew has a lot to do from the time you catch the fish. After everyone has caught their limit the boat heads back to the launching dock. During the boat ride back people are drinking coffee or on deck taking in the view or talking with other people. Meanwhile the crew members are in another area of the boat cleaning everyone's fish before the boat reaches the dock again. They clean the halibut for you and put it in a regular garbage looking bag. When you arrive back at the dock there is a representative from the local fish processing outfit who will filet, package your fish for the freezer, and box your fish for a fee. If you don't need their services you can just take your bag of halibut and call it a good day fishing. If you do utilize the fish packaging services there is a fee depending on how you want it packages for example do you need it ready to be mailed or put on a plane or do you just need the fish packages ready to drive home and put into your freezer. They do an excellent job and its ready that day. The business is called Coal Point Seafood Company and they are located within walking distance of the boat launch on the Homer Spit. The boat charter crew is very efficient, knowledgable, professional, and you can visually see them working hard for all the people on the boat to help make their fishing trip successful. Upon exiting the boat at the end of the trip people individually thanked the crew as they exited off the boat and people also hand them a cash tip while thanking the crew. A tip is not asked for or expected however I watched most people hand the crew a tip to show gratitude. I tipped because I truly appreciated all the hard work they did to make my day of halibut fishing a truly memorable success.
It was a great day fishing for halibut. I highly recommend Rainbow Tours Halibut Charter. I hope this review has been helpful. read more