Captain Steve's Fishing Lodge, Ninilchik

For Alaskan fishermen, few things equal the thrill of hooking up to a barn door. And by "barn door," these sportsmen refer to a specific trophy—a halibut weighing more than 300 pounds, whose flat, broad physique makes fighting its strength like reeling in a sheet of plywood. Captain Steve Smith remembers when one of his parties hooked up to a 375-pounder. After an hour of fighting and backhanded insults, the behemoth finally came up to the boat. The captain shot it, only to renew the fish's vigor. It ran for 100 yards and added almost another hour to the battle. "Only fish I've had to shoot twice," he said. And the captain still wonders if this was his most memorable catch. It's that, or the world-record ling cod claimed on one of his guided trips.

A lifelong Bay Area fishermen who almost had his 100 Ton Master Captain's License before his high school diploma, Captain Steve fell in love with Alaska while on vacation. Upon moving there, he saw few accommodation options on the Kenai Peninsula, so Steve and his wife, LeAnne, opened a bed and breakfast in 1996. By 2006, they had expanded to an 8,500-square-foot lodge capable of accommodating up to 24 guests. Even though the two 30-foot Alumaweld offshore boats can only handle 12 total fishermen at a time, the captain observes his regulars are more drawn to the food and social element, exchanging stories with LeAnne and sampling the dishes of chef Patrick Duffy, formerly the head chef at Maxwell Inn Restaurant in California.

To enhance guests' experience even further, the captain's staff can arrange roundtrip transportation from the lodge to the airports in Homer or Kenai. And for fishermen who want to take their catches home, each fish is filleted, packed, and froze onboard so quickly after the catch that the captain claims the meat will taste fresh for up to two years.