How To Ship Your Catch
Getting Your Catch From Alaska To Your Dinner Table
Embarking on a fishing adventure in Alaska, particularly across the picturesque Kenai Peninsula, is a phenomenal summer adventure. However, a common and crucial question for thousands of guests each summer is, “How to ship your catch?” Whether you’re visiting multiple towns like Homer, Seward, Kenai, Soldotna, Cooper Landing, Whittier, or Anchorage, or staying in a single location, we are here to guide you through this process seamlessly.
The journey of transporting your Alaskan catch back home involves three essential steps:
Vacuum Sealing and Processing: The first step is properly processing your catch. This includes cleaning, filleting, and most importantly, vacuum sealing the fish. Vacuum sealing is critical for preserving the quality and making transportation manageable.
Keeping It Frozen While in Alaska: The second step is ensuring your catch remains frozen during your stay. Whether you’re in Homer or Anchorage, we’ll help you find local facilities or accommodations that can store your fish in a freezer until your departure.
Getting It Home: Finally, the decision of how to transport your fish home is the last step. You can choose to take it with you as checked baggage on your flight or ship it directly to your home. We’ll assist you in evaluating the pros and cons of each method, considering the size of your catch, travel duration, and personal preferences.
No matter where your Alaskan fishing adventure takes you across the Kenai Peninsula, we are here to ensure that your prized catch arrives at your home safely and efficiently, ready for you to relish.
Vacuum Sealing and Processing
This first thing to solve when trying to figure out how to ship your catch is to get the fish processed and vacuum sealed. Alaska has no shortage of places to get your catch filleted, portioned, vacuum sealed and frozen. Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Kenai Peninsula use these services every summer. Each has a different price depending upon whether you are bringing in the fish whole or as just fillets and whether or not you need it frozen and stored or additional other services.
Nearly all of these places will store your catch for a few days as well allowing you to just continue to drop off fish. They will process the fish, vacuum seal it, freeze it, and continue to add it to your order.
Then you simply pick it up and nearly all will also put them in airline approved cold storage boxes for the journey home with you.
Here are some suggestions on where you can get this done in a variety of locations around the Kenai Peninsula
Kenai Peninsula Fish Processing Locations & Businesses
| City | Name Phone Email Address Website |
| Homer | Homer Fish Processing (907) 235-1997 info@homerfishprocessings.com Homer Fish Processing |
| Coal Point Trading Company (907) 235-3877 fish@alaska.net Coal Point Trading Company | |
| Ninilchik | Tanner’s Fresh Fish Processing (907) 567-3222 info@tannersfish.com Tanner’s Fresh Fish Processing |
| Soldotna Kenai Sterling | Custom Seafoods (907) 931-5992 sales@customseafoods.com Custom Seafood |
| Peninsula Procssing & Smoke House (866) 262-8846 peninsulaprocessing@yahoo.com Peninsula Processing | |
| Kasilof Seafoods (907) 262-9572 kasilofseafoods@gmail.com Kasilof Seafoods | |
| Cooper Landing | Kenai Cache Outfitters (907) 595-1401 kenaicacheoutfitter@gmail.com Kenai Cache Outfitters |
| Salmon Run Lodge (907) 595-2197 salmonrunlodge@yahoo.com Salmon Run Lodge | |
| Seward | J-dock Fishing Company (907) 224-3300 jdocksportfishing@gmail.com J-Dock Fishing Company |
| Pacific Seafood (907) 224-3366 info@pacificseafood.com Pacific Seafood | |
| Captain Jack’s Seafood Locker (907) 224-8082 info@captainjacksalaska.com Captain Jack’s | |
| Whittier | Fee’s Custom Seafood (907) 472-5055 feescustomseafoods@yahoo.com Custom Seafoods |
| Whittier Seafood (907) 472-2000 officemgr@whittierseafood.com Whittier Seafood | |
| Anchorage | Alaska Luggage & Seafood Shipping Services (907) 644-8256 |
| Huntliegh (907) 248-0373 info@huntleighusa.com Huntleigh USA | |
| Trappers Creek (907) 561-8088 info@trapperscreek.com Trappers Creek | |
| Alaska Sausage & Seafood (907) 562-3636 info@alaskasausage.com Alaska Sausage & Seafood |
| City | Name | Phone | Website | |
| Homer | Homer Fish Processing | (907) 235 – 1997 | info@homerfishprocessing.com | Homer Fish Processing |
| Coal Point Trading Company | (907) 235-3877 | fish@alaska.net | Coal Point Trading Company | |
| Ninilchik | Tanner’s Fresh Fish Processing | (907) 567-3222 | info@tannersfish.com | Tanner’s Fresh Fish Processing |
| Soldotna Kenai Sterling | Custom Seafoods | (907) 931-5992 | sales@customseafoods.com | Custom Seafoods |
| Peninsula Procssing & Smoke House | (866) 262-8846 | peninsulaprocessing@yahoo.com | Peninsula Processing | |
| Kasilof Seafoods | (907) 262-9572 | kasilofseafoods@gmail.com | Kasilof Seafoods | |
| Cooper Landing | Kenai Cache Outfitters | (907) 595-1401 | kenaicacheoutfitter@gmail.com | Kenai Cache Outfitters |
| Salmon Run Lodge | (907) 595-2197 | salmonrunlodge@yahoo.com | Salmon Run Lodge | |
| Seward | J-dock Fishing Company | (907) 224-3300 | jdocksportfishing@gmail.com | J-Dock Fishing Company |
| Pacific Seafood | (907) 224-3366 | info@pacificseafood.com | Pacific Seafood | |
| Captain Jack’s Seafood Locker | (907) 224-8082 | info@captainjacksalaska.com | Captain Jacks | |
| Whittier | Fee’s Custom Seafood | (907) 472-5055 | feescustomseafoods@yahoo.com | Fee’s Custom Seafood |
| Whittier Seafood | (907) 472-2000 | officemgr@whittierseafood.com | Whittier Seafood | |
| Anchorage | Alaska Luggage & Seafood Shipping Services | (907) 644-8256 | ||
| Huntliegh | (907) 248-0373 | info@huntleighusa.com | Huntliegh | |
| Trappers Creek | (907) 561-8088 | info@trapperscreek.com | Trappers Creek | |
| Alaska Sausage & Seafood | (907) 562-3636 | info@alaskasausage.com | Alaska Sausage & Seafood |
Keeping Your Catch Frozen While your in Alaska
The second thing to figure out regarding how to ship your catch is how to keep it frozen while your still in Alaska. In almost every town in Alaska you’ll find fish processing and freezing space. It’s usually not too bad of a problem to take your fish with you from town to town and just drop it off at the nearest fish processor just for freezer storage.
Let’s say for example you are going to start off your trip in Homer after driving from Anchorage. You might be planning to fish the salt-water of Homer for a couple days, then go to the town of Soldotna, then Seward and finally returning home through Anchorage.
It wouldn’t be a problem to have your halibut processed at Homer Fish Processing, then pick it up on your last day in Homer and take it with you, in the cold storage fish box, and drop it off at, say, Custom Seafoods, in Soldotna, where you might fish for a few days. Each day, you can take your catch to Custom Seafoods, where they will process it and add it to the fish you brought from Homer.
Then you head for Seward, where maybe you aren’t doing any fishing. Still, no problem to drop it off at J-Dock for freezer storage and pick it up on your last day in Seward as you head for Anchorage.
If you need to have it store overnight in Anchorage, that’s no problem as the airport has cold freezer storage as well!
The same list above of fish processors will also store your fish if you need.
Getting Your Catch home
The final step in how to ship your catch is the actual shipping part. There is really just two options here. The first, and best choice, is to take it with you on your flight back home. This is the best choice when it comes to cost. Many times, the cost of taking your fish home as checked baggage is free depending upon how you booked your ticket and airline status. Even if you are required to pay for the checked bag, the $25 – $50 you may end up paying is still significantly cheaper than shipping it via FedEx or UPS. Plus there will be no doubt as to when your fish is going to arrive home and you’ll be able to put it in your home freezer as soon as possible.
The second choice is to ship it through FedEx or UPS. Our recommendation is to ship this via 2-day air cargo and not necessarily overnight. The fish boxes that are used have very good insulation value and they will keep a 50 lb box of fish frozen for at least 2 days. This is the most economical method of shipping. Overnight is an option of course as well. Also, we typically only ship fish Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday each week so that we can avoid Saturday delivery charges, or worse yet, no delivery on Saturday or Sunday.
Most fish processors will hold your fish until you get home and give them the instructions to ship it to you. Pricing depends on the destination, of course, but the average price to ship a 50 lb box of fish to the lower 48 is $200 for 2-day shipping and $300 for overnight.
Ready to go Fishing?
Ready to cast your line into the stunning waters of the Kenai River? For more information or to book your unforgettable fishing adventure, visit our ‘Trips & Bookings’ page. Dive deeper into the Kenai River experience and secure your spot with Kenai Sportfishing today – where epic catches and breathtaking scenery await!