Homer Sports & Outdoors

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The "Fishing Hole" is a small saltwater pond (with a narrow opening to the bay) on the Homer Spit near the boat harbor. The first king salmon smolt were planted in 1984 and silver salmon have been planted also. It is a terminal fishery, i.e., the hatchery-raised smolt are planted and have no fresh water destination for spawning. The king run begins in late May, peaks in mid-June, and ends in early July. The silvers have two runs starting in mid-July and ending in mid-September. The kings range from 8 - 30 lbs. and the silvers from 4 - 14 lbs. Snagging is allowed at the end of each run to harvest the fish. You can see from the pictures that many people park a RV on the Spit and do "combat fishing" (shoulder to shoulder) in the Fishing Hole. There is a fish cleaning station above the south corner and a pipe dumps waste from it into the Fishing Hole. That is where the most fishing action was when I was there.

Equipment: The salmon can be caught from shore casting with artificial lures, flies, salmon egg clusters, shrimp and cut herring. Trolling from a boat with herring and lures along the eastern shoreline of the Spit is another option.