Update: despite the last minute setback mentioned below, I had a good experience today on the smaller boat out of Ninilchik with Cpt. Thomas. Everyone landed a halibut or two. Out of 5 fisherman, we landed three halibut over 38" and some small ones. Not as big as I had hoped, but a good experience nevertheless. ------------ Everything went smoothly over the past month as I booked/planned my travel to Alaska from California- a trip of a lifetime of sorts for me, such that I ended spending/investing 6K+ total for the opportunity to fulfill my dream of landing a giant (4ft+) halibut. They told me if that was my sole focus, then I should definitely head out of the Homer, AK port. it was a major commitment, not only for me- but for my wife who was willing to accompany me, since she knew how much it meant to me... after enduring ~6hrs of flights (+3hr layover) and driving 6hr (one way) from anchorage to homer, I received a call from them-- just as I was pulling into "lands end hotel", which i booked soley for this. ---- Unfortunately, they decided to cancel my original booking out of homer (larger boat w/capacity 16+) and sent me to a smaller boat (full capacity) from ninilchik instead (40-60m) drive. Prior to booking, weeks ago, I was ensured by Dustin that my boat out of Homer would head out no matter what (ie: even if the resulting ticket/sales came too low and only my wife and i were on it). But they (corporate?) decided not to honor our original terms, i assume to save on costs. note: i do not blame Dustin for this. it is out of his control. I write this only to hopefully illuminatue how poorly it seems to be run and focused over money-first I understand things can change, ie: massive storm can cancel a trip, but this instance, at least to me, was just out of corporate greed and i ultimately have to pay the consequences. The excuse given to me was that they needed to perform maintenance on the boat, but i hope its obvious to folks reading this that it is not -- with several contradictions. note: Dustin himself was decent enough, so I have no ill will there. it is Ninilchik Charters itself that needs to be held accontable read more

So, Ninilchik Charters Management... You were quick to take my money, but now will not return it, because of a late cancellation? I understand your 60-90 day cancellation policy, but did you know that my wife fell a few days ago, broke her knee, and is now unable to travel or even put weight on it? We had to cancel our entire Alaska trip! We have a Dr's statement stating she is unable to travel at all. So, we have had a medical emergency. So I guess we are just out the $3200, and now you are not returning my calls or emails? Shame on you! If or when we travel to Alaska, we will definitely not book with you all. You know my name and number if you want to communicate. Messages were left on your machine. Ron L read more

Great experience. Very friendly, helpful and professional crew who made sure everyone caught their limit before returning to shore. Don't let the name fool you. The boat leaves and returns to Homer. Alcohol permitted on board. BYOB, and your own ice. Very reasonable, competitive prices. read more

The Bear view was AWSOME, Capt Dave and Joe were excellent guides. We had a wonderful trip over the bay they were always telling us to hold on when a wave was coming and they helped my wife off the boat as well. no one got wet. Oh except for Capt Dave stepping into one of those hidden holes I guess :). He walked us around and showed us some bear far away and then took us to the most excellent area where the bears literally came within less than 50 yards away. The trip was totally worth it . I highly recommend Ninilchik Charters, we have booked several outings with them and they are very professional and an outstanding group of people. From the time you set up your reservation to when you go they send you reminders of what to bring to have a wonderful and memorable trip. read more

Ninilchik Charters - Big Brown Bears in Lake Clark National Park - Boat Charters Near Me - Ninilchik, Alaska

You asked " what can they do to improve?" Don't take your guests out in 8 foot seas for a 2 1/2 hour horrible ride to bear watch. Don't strand the boat on the beach overnight. Don't call in a rescue boat, then require your customers to wade 1/4 of a mile out to the rescue boat to make a soaking wet 2 1/2 hour Return trip again in 8 foot seas. Don't do all of this when a small craft advisory has been issued. I feared for me and my family's safety! read more

Avoid this company! While they claim to put your safety first, the negligently endangered our lives by ignoring a small craft advisory warning of dangerous high seas. We were tossed around the boat like rag dolls and our excursion became a reoccurring nightmare. All they did to "make it right" was a bottle of champagne, and apology and small reimbursement for their gross negligence/incompetence. read more

Great trip. We had captain Jack for 2 halibut trips.Caught our limit on both trips. Seas got rough on our 2nd trip, but the capt.did a nice job of getting us to the dock safely and with a limit of nice fish. We stayed at their lodge which was beautiful and had incredible views of the volcanoes. read more

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BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY double booked our charter 6 mos in advanced, charged us for both bookings, tried to set us up to fish in 2 different places on the same day then refused to refund their mistake, told me I should have cancelled the 2nd dates even though I had no idea they were accidentaly made by them. Then got charged for an exclusive halibut trip, but showed up to 4 other people on the same boat. tried to work out the issue but they are blaming us for their booking mistake. No morals at this place what so ever. try another company, this one isnt worth the pain.july 2024 read more

Our salmon fishing trip with Bob was amazing! Very rainy but we made the most of it and still had a great time, highly recommend Bob as your guide! read more

We booked three separate tours - (1) Mixed Species out of Homer and (2) the Halibut out of Ninulchuk. All were great. Corey was a great guide for the Homer trip and we had only four of us on the boat, so lots of action. Guide Thomas and crewhand Josh were amazing on our Halibut trips...beach launching is a definite to do. Limited on halibut each trip. read more

Wife and I went out with Ninilchick Charters out of Seward, Capt Johnny and Mate Skyler were awesome. The first spot we stopped at was slow for me, while others were hooking up, after a while I started to hook up. About three fishes in, I hooked the fish I wanted, a 94+ pound halibut. In the end, my wife and I caught two halibut, one small and the one big one, two silver salmon (both really good size), one plane rock fish and one color. On the way back to the dock Skyler cleaned all the fish, when docked, he then brought it to a processor/shipper so we could send it home (not cheap if you have a lot of meat, but that's part of the experience) I would highly recommend Ninilchick Charters. Can't say you will catch what we did, but i can tell you that Capt Johnny kept trying to get everyone lots of fish and you can just tell he loves fishing. Scott read more

Ninilchik Charters - Boat Charters Near Me - Ninilchik, Alaska

Don't book with these guys. You can definitely find better fishing charters on the Kenai. I did a multi-day package with these guys and only one trip was done well. We had one good halibut day out of Ninilchik, but the rest of the days were pretty bad. One day, we spent 4:30AM to 5:30AM waiting on a dock at the river for our guide to show up. The guide had never done the trip before and didn't take the time to scout it out beforehand. Our entire group had the same horrible directions. We all saw each other driving around at 4AM, so we stopped, talked, and scouted around and found a dock on the river and assumed that that must be the place. We were able to reach the guide by phone who told us that we were probably in the right place and he would be there soon. Once he got there, things went fine after that, but I didn't appreciate how much time was wasted. The next day it was on to Seward. Again the directions sucked. They ended by saying turn right down a road. OK, then what? We parked, had lunch, left a voice message with the captain and crossed our fingers. Thankfully we got a text back apologizing for not contacting us the night before. We then got clear instructions on where to go. The experience on the boat was mixed. The captain worked his ass off, but his deckhands were worthless. Just a warning, yelling "fish on" seems to slow the deckhands down. They also got my bin confused with two other groups, so we all had to meet and agree to who got what. Next, halibut fishing out of Homer was a complete disaster. There were 14-16 guests with a captain and one deckhand. The crew worked very hard. However, how do you think drifting with 14+ lines in the water is going to go? Not good. We were tangled 80+% of the time. Several guests had no clue what they were doing and one guy had 2-6 lines tangled with his every time he brought his line in (which was about every 2 minutes). Some of the guests were ruining the experience for all, but there just weren't the resources to address it. We also had to stop at another boat to get weights because we didn't bring enough. Miraculously I did catch a halibut, but most did not. I also missed a trip because I wasn't notified in time. At first, these guys put the blame on me. I had to push back quite a bit, but they did eventually make it right. Another issue is that their gear sucks. I guarantee that many of their rods and reels are older than me. Some of the line was pretty frayed too. Some of the workers work very hard and some really suck (I was pretty annoyed when I lost a fish when a knot that a guide tied failed). Everything points to the owner just being too cheap to run a good fishing charter business. I hope the owner gets his stuff together, but until he does, find another fishing charter on the Kenai. read more

Great captain and crew! We had beautiful weather, calm water and easy fishing. As a result, we were able to return as soon as everyone caught their limit. Would have loved to be able to spend the extra time fishing, but grateful that we had such a lucky day. read more

Got my limit and had a great time!!. they were able to rebook my fishing charger due to bad weather within the same week, and I had so much fun. 15 people limited in under two hours!!! read more

Ninilchik Charters - Boat Charters Near Me - Ninilchik, Alaska

An amazing fishing trip!! Cpt Johnnie "the knife" has always taken great care of my family. I've been in Alaska for 3 years and my family does a charter or 2 every Summer. We made the mistake of booking somewhere else once. Don't do it! This is a top notch company and it was an AWESOME experience every single time. Do not waste your money or time with anyone else. read more

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Mike and his team did an outstanding job with our large group on both the Kenai River fishing trip as well as our Halibut charter out of Homer. The fishing was excellent which was a bonus, because, all kinds of things can happen to cause a minimal catch. What was over the top was the service, the attitude, playfulness and professionalism. When a fish was "on" our guides didn't walk over to help, they RAN! They were Johnny on the spot and an absolute joy. I highly recommend! RWADE read more

We fished with these guys 2 days and had a great time...we didnt catch the biggest fish, but the staff was top notch...very people friendly and accommodating. Capt Joe was our skipper and worked just as hard as any skipper that I have used, but not only hard working, he was competent, and friendly. All 6 of us had very nice and big fish, just no monsters this time. They have fish processing and holding right on the premise which is very nice and convenient. The boats are in good condition and more then adequate. They have 3 RV sites in the gravel parking lot, nothing spectacular, but very convenient when you're leaving the next morning. I will definitely be going back there, a great company that hires quality people...most places can find you fish, but its a huge bonus when you get fish and deal with great people! Joe, Brad, and Lea...top notch! read more

Ninilchik Charters - July 2015 with Capt Joe - Boat Charters Near Me - Ninilchik, Alaska

Took an all day multi-species charter with the guys this past 4th of July. The trip was the last of three for my family's trip to Alaska, with the other two being taken elsewhere. Communication leading up to the trip was great and the directions to find the boat and meet the crew for departure were easy to follow. Capt. Jamey and deckhands Johnny and Devin were fantastic to work with. There was a part of 11 total on the boat with some of the fishermen having limited experience. Given that the crew was really patient with everyone regardless of skill and tried to educate everyone on how to be successful. Trip was about 2.5 hrs out to the first site but the current was working against and we had trouble landing the anchor so looking at conditions we moved on. 2nd stop was more of the same. Finally on third we got anchored and even though the current wasn't ideal we started to land rockfish (several types). After a bit of that we moved and picked up some halibut as well as salmon. Couple skates too but the target fish were coming in spurts. Crew decided we would stay later and come back to the dock later because of the unideal conditions earlier. This paid off as my dad caught a great looking lingcod which was my hope for this particular trip. Coming back to Seward we heard a couple of mayday calls and helped tow an ill equipped boat to safety. This put us into dock about 9pm which unfortunately meant my dad and I couldn't drop off at the fish processor. Hearing this the crew came to the rescue. They offered up to store the catch in a marine ice chest overnight for us. We picked up the fish the next morning and got them successfully processed and shipped. Would highly recommend Ninilchik Charters out of Seward. The crew was fantastic. read more

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Captain Garrett was amazing! He made sure that we all caught our limits! The deckhands were all very good and were on the ball when someone was on fish! We even got to see whales on the trip! Definitely will do Ninilchik Charters again!! read more

Ninilchik Charters - Boat Charters Near Me - Ninilchik, Alaska

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Great day of fishing with Ninilchik Charters out of Ninilchik and Homer. Caught our limits of halibut and king salmon. Had an awesome time!!! read more

My family and I took this adventure, halibut fishing, with Captain Schuyler. He was absolutely amazing as was our whole experience on the boat. Everyone in our group caught our legal limit of halibut and couldn't have been more satisfied with the level of professionalism and courtesy from Captain Schuyler. He was encouraging and helpful to those of us who were less experienced in the fishing process and he allowed those of us more familiar with the process to take confident control as appropriate. I strongly recommend Ninilchik Charters for your Halibut fishing adventure and particularly the great Captain Schuyler! read more

Great crew! Boat was spacious, clean and the crew were super helpful. Captain was very knowledgeable and deck hand was very attentive. They took their time with each client and were always eager to help. Would definitely go fishing with them again! read more

Ninilchik Charters - Boat Charters Near Me - Ninilchik, Alaska

Would not recommend for bear viewing tours. We booked a bear viewing with them. The whole day fell apart because of weather. I understand that but they were unprofessional and did not communicate that with us until the day of..as we were getting on the boat. They told the other group on our charter the day before but decided not to tell us until the day of. They also gave us a hard time about getting our money back. read more

Spent the entire day on 6/5/16 with Captian Demar and deckhand Brandon fishing halibut and salmon combo. They are a top notch company with and outstanding crew. Fishing was difficult at best. They stayed out well beyond the published times of the charter. Due to there commitment the entire boat got their limit of halibut. Highly recommended this charter company!!! read more

I had a great time lfishing with Ninilchik Charters. Everyone was very friendly, service was great and captain Brendon was great and helpful during this halibut fishing trip, which was my first. He was friendly, professional, quick and efficient, serving on all 5 of us and results followed. Everyone got their 2 halibuts and had fun while doing it! The girls at the office we're friendly and helpful with getting my fish ready to be taken on the flight back home with me. Thank you guys! read more

I was so excited to finally go out on a charter, halibut fishing! It's been on my bucket list for a long time and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to do it. We came down from Anchorage the night before and spend the night in one of their cabins. They were extremely clean, sparse, the beds were comfortable. Our Captain was Nick, he was very knowledgeable on where to fish. Everyone within a short period of time caught their big fish. We moved locations and everybody caught their smaller fish. I spent the entire trip extremely seasick. I would recommend that people take medicine with them. My husband totally enjoyed the trip. I would recommend to my family and friends to take this charter. The fish was beautifully packed and processed. read more

My husband and I used this charter for Halibut fishing in June 2018. We had a great time. The crew was friendly, knowledgeable, and super happy to help (it was my first time so I needed a bit of help). The boat was clean and comfy and we left with a huge amount of halibut. We were allowed 2 halibut a piece and they knew exactly where to go to get them and followed the regulations to the tee. The fish practically leapt onto the boat! Everyone had a great time. read more

We took a trip out of Homer with Capt. Garrett and his deckhand, Josh fishing for rockfish and halibut. We had a great time and felt very safe and well taken care of even in some gross weather in spots. We didn't catch too many bites at first, but our Capt. did not give up and kept searching for the perfect combination of locations and baits/techniques to get us what we were allotted and to make sure we enjoyed our day. They were a great help with the equipment and teaching us how to fish (being first time fishers) and also fun to be around which made us comfortable and really able to enjoy our day. Would highly recommend! Our catch was also filleted (free) and packed and shipped (charge) to our home in Texas, eliminating the need to do anything other than have fun catching fish. A great first experience with these guys! read more

Mixed review Loved the crew and had a once in a lifetime experience. We visited Alaska to get married and my husband and his brothers went fishing with Ninilchik and thought the captain was a blast. We also had a great deal by getting coupons that saved us a ton! However I had a terrible experience with Deziree and for that I don't recommend. Customer experience can mean everything and working in a corporate industry I know how one person can truly ruin a companies representation. My husband and his brothers were on the ship along with my brothers/in-laws and another man had to be air lifted off due to cardiac arrest which resulted in them returning early (understandably) the other people aboard were offered another trip out of homer but my family was not. Again understandably some were sick but we lost hours of fishing and while others were compensated we were not. I reached out and spoke with deziree and was immediately met with confrontation, I was not confrontational or rude I just asked if there was a possibility of a refund and she immediately went on defense and was accusatory. Reading the reviews here it looks like a common behavior as all her responses reflect the same mannerism. She ended up never getting back to me. Unfortunately I will not be using them again. Thank you to the captain and crew as they were wonderful. read more

Great fishing trip. The owner is awesome. Recommend to anyone. Make sure you bring food :)

I gave one star because I couldn't post zero or negative. Worst fishing trip I've ever experienced. 11 hours on the water for halibut, and we fished for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Captain Brando was terrible. No deck hand. Six people fishing. Brando never introduced himself. I'm had to go to him to ask his name. He never taught us anything about halibut fishing, but at least one of the other guests on the boat did. When one of the other guys hooked one, captain Brando informed us he lost his gaff a few days earlier so he didn't have one. He got the first fish on the deck. We lost the second one.....no gaff. After an hour of drifting, he decided to move and set anchor in a very swift tide. Anchor down, tide too swift to hold lines on bottom. Tangled and lost three lines. So we stopped and we're going to drift again. Anchor stuck. Brando said we had to wait for the tide to shift......in about an hour and a half. Five hours later, the tide slowed and began to shift. Brando's expert knowledge of the tide was a bit off. So we fished again for an hour. I caught one! Little, but at least it was a fish. And we got it on the deck with no gaff. As the tide picked up again, Brando attempted to get the stuck anchor up. No luck. He then did what he could have done six hours earlier and use the forward thrust of the boat to circle and pull it. By the way, another captain had offered Brando assistance six hours earlier, but he declined. So, now the anchor was finally up, and we were going to drift and see if we could catch more fish. One engine wouldn't start. So Brando worked on that for about 45 minutes. No luck. So we started limping back to shore with one engine. He got someone on the radio who told him to reset the kill switch. That worked! Too bad he didn't know enough about boats and fishing to have tried that himself. But now, more than ten hours into the trip, with about two hours of fishing, he had to radio shore and ask them to wait for us so we could get trailered. Fishing was done for the day. One tiny halibut. If you halibut fish in Ninilichik, at least ask for a different captain, or try a different charter. Next time I head to Alaska to fish I'll likely drive to Homer. Worst fishing trip ever. If we had lines in the water all day, well, that's why they call it fishing and not catching. But we had little opportunity to have lines in the water. So we never rally fished. Instead we sat on a boat for 11 hours mostly just watching drifting wood, weeds, and jellyfish. I booked a fishing charter, not a boat sit. Just say "no" if you hear the name Brando. And if you have no choice, bring your own gaff. read more

August 11th, my Dad and I went out with Garrett and his crew. We had the BEST time and have decided to make it a yearly tradition. They put us right on the fish and all 15 people on board got their halibut limit within a couple hours (maybe even an hour) I was having too much fun to pay attention. We had an absolute blast and can't thank this crew enough for taking us out and making us feel like family. They encouraged everyone to fish and helped reel fish into the boat. You couldn't get any better than that. Garrett knew where the fish were and put us right on them. It was awesome! read more

We were very happy with the communication leading up to our trip. We also had to make a date change and it was more than smooth. Our captain made sure that everyone on the boat got their limit. He was very attentive, knowledgeable and managed the trip extremely well. The weather cooperated as where we were fishing there was no rain and the seas were smooth. Our Captain Jaimie filled in out of Homer and made our trip very enjoyable. Highly recommend this fishing charter. The only thing missing was a scale to actually weigh our fish. We did get to take photos with our "over" fish. read more

Had a wonderful time aboard the Sunday. Garret and his sister Sierra along with Riley made time at sea great. They went out of their way to make sure we had fun and got our limit. Would take their boat again and again. read more

Let me start off by saying that I think we had a great captain who worked with the weather and tried his best to get us to some spots where we could get good fish while taking safety into consideration. My wife and I went on a beautiful sunny day but the waves were high and we were on too small of a boat to make the experience very enjoyable. My one complaint was that the administration didn't back up the captain in his request to have us get picked up at Homer due to the waves in order to allow us enough fishing time to actually catch our fish. We probably spent 75% of our time time on the boat fighting the waves and only 25% percent or less actually fishing. It would have been much less disappointing if we had found some halibut, but it just ended up being a bummer day. The group of five of us on the boat fishing caught a total of 3 halibut, none of them were very big either. Again, the captain and crew were fantastic and helpful, and he even processed and packaged the few fish we caught free of charge, but I wish we had gone somewhere where we could have been sure to at least all catch our limit. read more

I booked 4 persons for the 8-hour Halibut & Rockfish combo on a 15 persons boat. But due to the unexpected reason, we were changed to the 6 pack vessel. This turned out to be a much better experience because we worked closer to the captain and folks on the same boat. Captain Garrett Lambert was the best captain I've ever seen. At first I couldn't find the dock, and he answered my numerous calls very patiently and politely. He was very knowledgable about what he does, and the most important, he got us a lot of fish! He was always busy about helping us out, and made sure we got what we need. When the second day we went to picked our already-processed-fish (filleted and vacuum sealed) on our way back to Anchorage, we met Garrett's wife who was working at the office. She was as nice as Garrett. She tried her best to fit our fish into the smaller box, and after she knew we had a long flight ahead of us, she even gave us the box for free! Anyway, if you got the chance to fishing in Homer Alaska, you gotta go with them. Garrett was the nicest captain I ever seen! read more