2018 Haida Gwaii Reports

[ILHG]

Day3: 4:30am start and a beautiful morning. We headed over to our hot spot and dropped lines. Immediately we hooked up. Over the course of a 4 hours we had caught easily over 2 dozen salmon with a mixture of nice coho and Chinooks. Still no big Chinooks with the largest being 14lbs. As the sun came up and warmed things up the winds started to pick up. We only had a couple hours until it would get rough out there. I decide to try something different and trolled a nice 180' contour to try for some halibut. After 3 fish under 6 pounds i went shallower and thought maybe i would pick up a spring down on bottom. The tide was running hard and thought it was worth a shot. At around 90' deep we got into some nice halibut. All about 90-93cm and lots of them. I took one for my over and my buddy ended up picking up a 17lb Chinook.

With the tide ebbing hard and wind blowing stronger it was time to head towards home. We had our Chinook limits and a couple halibut in the boat. Plus some nice bonus Coho. The rough seas gave me a chance to test out my boat and man am i happy with it. Waves over the bow and im sitting warm and dry in my suspension seat!

I dropped my fish off at the processor and my buddy took his home to do himself.

Day4: Wind was the strongest i have ever seen out there. None of the guide boats were out and i knew i was not going to be either.. After sitting on the deck for a few hours i was itching to do something. I loaded up the family and took the boat for a drive down Masset inlet. I went all the way to the end and it was so nice. Beautiful scenery and great time with family. I dropped a bottom fish line and my son caught a decent dog fish that was it for fish for the day but still great.

Day 5: Woke up at sun rise and rushed to the window to see what the sea was looking like. It was beautiful! I went back to bed and laid with my eyes open for what seemed like forever. Finally my wife got up to go pee and when she came out of the bathroom i had already had the bed made. She rolled her eyes and said should i get the kids ready??

While she got the kids up and ready i got the boat ready to go. I told my buddy i was going to head put for a family trip and would be back that evening. (Need to insure to get some time with family on holidays. Plus he has a 12yr old kid i wanted to push overboard on many occasions).

We were on the water in now time and dropped the salmon gear in the same spot as last time. We picked up lots of fish but only small springs?? I decided to drop for some halibut in the same spot we caught the big girl the last time. As soon as the bait hit bottom it was getting bites. When i brought the fish up it was a ugly as sin "arrow tooth flounder".. i had heard of them but never caught any before. We moved spots and again nothing but arrow tooth flounder everywhere.

I look at my Navionics and seen a sexy spot that came up to 600' and was surrounded by 900' of water. It was a long ways offshore but the ocean could not be any flatter than it was. After a long boat ride i was at least 25-30km out. I rigged up my electric reel and set myself up to drift off the hump. As luck would have it we picked up nice 110cm with in the first 20 min. Shortly after a long line boat showed up and started pulling his gear. He was loaded up with halibut and i didn’t like fishing by him. I picked up and headed north to a new spot. I didn’t want to cross the border and the GPS had a line that I’m sure could have been the boarder.

We stopped and i dropped my line down to 900' to try for some sablefish. After a hour of drifting and nothing we packed up and started to head south towards home. I stopped in at my salmon spot and had fun catching salmon after salmon for the last couple hours. When i was back at the docks i seen so e folks who didn’t have much luck and had been putting time in. I took the time to show them where i was doing good and told them to give it a try.

That night while eating supper i decided it was time to go went through the narrows.

 

[ILHG]

Day5: It was time to take the boat through the narrows and fish the west side. I have dreamed about this for years. The way the tides were we would have to be on the water no later than 6am. The launch for this trip was 1.5hrs away. We woke up the kids and loaded them in the truck at 4am. Hit the road and headed for queen charlotte city.

We had the boat off the trailer and floating by 6am. Everyone was half asleep but i was ready to go. The drive through the narrows was beautiful to say the least. It’s hard to concentrate on the markers with so much beauty.

On the way out i dropped my prawn traps. I totally wished i un raveled the rope and put it in my tote ahead of time. After 30 min on untangling pots were on bottom and i was off to chase some lingcod. It was a sunny morning and i worried the NW winds could pick back up.

I headed straight for marble island and set everyone up for jigging. It was not easy as i had a light wind and current to contend with. Tried a couple spots for 15 min each and nothing home,,,?.. Moved over to a pininical with kelp coming off the top and started the drift downhill. I switched out my white grubs for butterfly jig on my Shimano Type J.

I worked the jig aggressively and fast and that quickly became clear it was the ticket for boating any lings. They were on a aggressive reactionary bite.

I set my wife up with a slimjim jig on a trevalla rod with Penn clash spinning reel. She seen how i was working mine and started to aggressively jig hers the same way. We would jig it and reel up each time until we were about 30' feet off bottom, then drop it back down. On the way back down they would nail it. After 15min we had 3 lings to the boat. My wife caught the biggest.

My buddy didn’t like the work of jigging nor did his kid. They baited up a jig and put it in the rod holder. I asked them to not do that that as it would be my gear they would lose. After 2 jigs gone in 5 min it became clear this was not working for them and i either needed to target a different species or run out of gear.

After fishing for lings about an hour the tide started to ebb and the NW winds were picking up. Nothing to rough but impossible to jig without back trolling. The way my boat is set up i can’t possibly do both especially with a full boat.

I decided to do a drift with dead bait over top some big pinnicals with flatter tops. I had caught a rainbow trout from a stocked pond the night before and had plans for it. I rigged it up and tried for about an hour and only 1 hit. It must ga e been a smaller one or i would have seen more damage to the bait.

My buddy’s kids was so loud and annoying the whole time. He definitely wanted to let me know he was bored. I looked up at tge bow of the boat and seen my kids just so happy sitting there.

I finally packed it up and drove back into the narrows and up a small inlet so my buddy could bbq brunch. My wife had a big smile because she knew how hard it is for me to do anything but fish while in the boat, especially when its the west side of Hiada gwaii and i want to fish the fishiest place on the planet. However everyone seemed happy about the bratwurst and to be honest it was tasty.

During lunch i had to remind myself i can’t expect folks to fish as hard as me. Lol! When it’s just my family out there i fish hard and they are used to it.

After lunch i decided to switch over to salmon as it would be easier for everyone and a slower pace than jigging lings.

I started the troll about 1 km east of the end of narrows. There was a pack of boats there and i hate fishing in the pack. I trolled my way to the mouth of the narrows where it had mega structure (pinnicals) a mountain wall and kelp.. I loved it!! I marked bait off the base of the wall and around the pinnicals. Trolled gear for 20 min and only 1 hook up. Cut the gut open and it was full of medium herring and tiny mackerel (6" long and as round as a nickel).

I switched over to bait. Herring on one side and anchovy on the other. The herring had a inline kone zone flasher (bright green with uv reflective tape, & the anchovy was strait up. I set the baits at 25 & 30' and started trolling at ~4-5 mph (35-40 degrees with 18# ball).

First pass between the wall and pinical and the rod went off. Off the clip and taking line.... Nice 17lb fish! Over the next 2 hours we caught 8 chinook between 15-17lbs. So much for the slower pace fishing! My wife insisted on using tye knuckle busters and sure enough it got her good. She lost a BIG salmon after having it with in eye sight before breaking off. She was made and wanted redemption. I did tell her how big the fish was she lost.

The time line for getting home through the narrows was closing and it was time to leave. I pointed the boat towards home and seen only one other boat left. As we got closer i seen the flare go up and knew i would be towing someone back in. I was joking about how we would have to tow a local back during this trip.

The tide had been dropping for 2 hrs and now i had to pull a boat back through it with the clock ticking. The only place we could tie up to his boat was on top of his closed bow. I don’t know what type of boat it was but i do know it was big heavy fiber glass. We started heading forgone and i could only get to a max of 10 mph. As i would pull the boat his front would try to lift but the tow rope would pull the nose down. It was a slow long drive home, but it was the first time i actually had time to enjoy the scenery. At one point i only had 7' of water to work with... definitely made me nervous. By the time we got back to the house it was 11pm. Kids and wife were sleeping.



Edit:::: no prawns in my first set...

 

[ILHG]

Day6: it was my wedding anniversary and i knew i shoukd stay off the water. We went down to north beach with the net and had 16 jumbo dungees in about 30min. Most didnt even fit in the measuring device. After that we hiked up to the ship wreck and comed the beach. Man it was a nice day and the water was calm. In my mind i was fishing

 

[ILHG]

I took the next couple days off the water for folks to recover and spend some time with the family doing other things. The second day the kids asked to go out fishing and that was all i needed to hear. A good part of this time frame after is a blur and i can’t recall which day is which? One day that does stand out for me was an evening fish with my wife and daughter. We went to my trusted spot which was now a well-known spot with a few boats around. I couldn’t even clip my bait to the downrigger without it being pulled out of my hand. I ended up putting on AP spoons and had the craziest fishing i have ever witnessed. Eventually i just gave up with down riggers and trolled spoons behind the boat. It was equal chinook vs Coho. Chinook around 10-14lbs and Coho 7-12lbs. We decided to keep some coho for the smoke house and keeping a bunch of Coho around 12lbs. Within 1.5 hrs we had caught over 15 salmon, with constant double headers. We lost as many as we let my daughter try to bring some in. It was epic!

Suddenly out of the corner of my wife’s eye she spots a orca fin. Within seconds of seeing that we were surrounded by a super pod of orcas. I shut everything off and watched them feed for a solid 5 min. There must have been 100 orcas everywhere just cleaning house. Sone came within 50' of my boat. They were all moving fast and taking part in the food below.

Once tge orcas were done i knew salmon fishing would be dead for a while. It was time to switch to halibut. I made deal with a woman we meet there. The deal was to trade a halibut for a crab pizza. To me this seemed like a no brainer!

I rigged up a spreader bar with a herring and found a new hump to work. First drift we picked uo a nice 80cm under. Exactly what i was looking for. Next pass the dam arrow tooth flounder moved back in and after 6 or so in 30 min i was finished.

I picked up and went to a new spot. Dropped down a bait and immediately hooked into a monster grey cod. Dropped it back down and same thing. I put 4 in the fish box. I didn’t want to keep anymore until i tried eating them. I moved 2 more times and all i could find was arrow tooth flounder?

I headed back for home as it was getting dark. I cleaned the halibut and went and traded it for a crab pizza. Man o man that was some of the best eats i could ask for.!

 

[walleyes]

Nice tub of fish ILHG,, well done.

 

[ILHG]

July 10th: it was time for us to finally be able to get our 2 extra Chinooks! I decided i wanted size and made plans to go to the Westside again. The tides were more in our favor this time with high tide at 11am. We loaded up the boat and headed for queen charlotte city. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky and not so much as a breeze. On the way through we dropped the prawn traps at a new spot. My buddy was discouraged because he wanted to drop them in a spot with a couple other floats. I tried to explain to him that i fell its more about finding them and understanding how to find them. Dropping beside others is like getting lucky with the village "bicycle".


After dropping traps i went out to try again for lings. The tide was smaller and not moving much at all. It was easy to hold over one spot but the lings seemed turned off. Again i busted out the slow pitch jigs with my Game Type J and got on some fish. After a couple lings and nice vermilion i decided its time to move on. I had desended 4 yellow eye and it was getting old.


I decided i was going deep dropping. The ocean was so calm. I headed out and started my drop at 900'. Immediately i got a monster yellow eye. I quickly descended it but felt terrible about its chance of survival after coming up 900'. I moved i to 1600' of water. It had more slope then what i wanted but dropped down. Caught a few nice rough eyes and spotted a precise of structure out another 10km that went from 1300" to 2200" and then leveled off for a bit. I had limited time and was trying to decide if i should fish the top of the structure for short rakers or the bottom for sable fish. The structure was a couple km long and i also worried about it being commercially fished.


I ended up working the top of the structure and got a couple small 10lb short rakers. It eats up time quick when deep dropping as it takes 10min to hit bottom and more if you are bringing up any decent fish. With minimal time left i went to fish the flat bottom at 2200'.... after letting out 2400' of line and not finding bottom it became clear Navionics is a little off on the depth. My depth finder is useless after 900'. While deep dropping 2 big cruise liners went by us. They were on a remote Alaskan cruise and they pass by a boat with a rod hanging off the back. The second ship came close to us. Way closer then i liked. I couldn’t help myself, and mooned the ship as they went by. Im sure my white butt would have blinded them.


I rigged out my deep drop gear and headed back to the mouth of the narrows for salmon. With in seconds of dropping bait down to my trusted 25' the line came off the clip and reel sung its beautiful tune. It was a nice 17-18lb spring and it went into the box. I picked out a nice dry salted herring i have been waiting to use all day. I put it in a bloody nose teaser head and it had the perfect roll. The kind of roll you can only describe as sexy. I looked over at my son and said "Hunter this fish is for you bud". I went back to the wheel and set course for the kelp line in between the outer wall and a shallow pinical. I went as close as i could to the kelp when both rods went off. Hunter screamed dads its my fish right? I knew it was big fish and didn’t expect it to last to long. He insisted on doing it by himself so i left the boat in gear, so he at least had a chance of keeping tension on it. I have never seen a 6 yr old so determined to catch that fish. A couple of times i could see his arms were tired and would support the rod in the middle. When he looked up and seen it he asked me to please let him catch it. He finally had it beside the boat and i knew it still had life left in it. Last second i reached out with the net as the fish went for a run. I know its the worst thing to do but i honestly was shocked it even made it to the boat the first time. By the grace of god that fish swam right into the net. I have never been so happy! My little guy caught a 20lb chinook all on his own... in the attached picture his arms were so tired he couldn’t hold them up. He ended up just bear hugging the fish.


We continued to fish for a while longer and got our limits on chinook. I know i pushed how long we stayed out but the fishing was epic and it was nice to get everyone limits on springs of such nice size.


After the last fish we headed for the prawn traps. When i went to go for the puller it was not there. It was replaced with a bbq.... pulled up 3 traps each with 10lbs of weight from almost 300'.... not a single prawn again... This took a lot of time and now it was getting dark. I headed for home and it got dark fast. The narrows are bad enough without it being dark. It was aa dumb mistake and one i will not ever make again. By the time we exited the narrows it was black outside. The boat was back on tge trailer by midnight and we headed for home. On the way home we stopped by CBI and picked up some fresh ice. Once home all the salmon were dressed and packed on ice.

 

[ILHG]

Sorry for all the spelling mistakes. I am doing the update on my phone and its impossible to proff read. Plus auto correct sucks

I ha e one more update to give and will try to finish tonight

 

[outbeen]

Nice work. Enjoy the cod they are great eating.

 

[adanac]

What a great read , can tell how passionate you are about the islands!

 

[ILHG]

Here is a pic of my rough eye & my sons first lingcod

 

[Cuba Libre]

Wonderful-- thank you. It brought back good memories of QCI

 

[walleyes]

Man I love that pic with the little guy holding that salmon lol,, that's one of the best you'll ever see. Kids got it in his blood to chase them down you can see it in his eyes. That's awesome.

 

[ILHG]

Im finally at a computer & can properly proff read my post. I went through & correct what I could in my previous post.

Last Day: I spent the last day just having fun with the kids. I was lucky to have my buddy there as he passed the rods off to the kids every time we hooked up. We may have had a 20% success rate getting them to the boat but man was it a blast. We knew we needed a couple more Coho to send to St Jeans so we kept the few bleeders we had.

Summary: In summary it was an amazing trip. One I will never forget for the rest of my life. It left me sad when it was time to leave. I definitely have some un finished business in Hadia Gwaii & am already being kept awake at night. I struggled more than I thought I would with the Lingcod & it was a humbling experience to how much I still have to learn. I think the pinnacles closer to the narrows entrance & around Marble island might have had a lot of pressure on them. There are 1/2 dozen guide boats daily & they don't like to go far out to chase bottom fish. With gas being $1.78/L its understandable. Also the local Haida People drop some long lines over these pinnacles often to gather food. That said, next rip I will go further away in search of fresh holes to fish. I also never caught any Halibut on the Westside. While I never really targeted them there, I would like to learn what structure to fish for them. Any Halibut that do come out of the waters on the west side are typically bigger fish. Having my own boat & being able to take my family out was one of the best parts about the trip. I am very grateful for all the help I had from members on the site with picking & equipping my boat. The SeaRunner is one hell of a boat & exceeded my expectations. I didn't catch a single prawn in my traps. Only thing I found in the traps was a tiny sanddab. This is ok as it gives me a challenge to figure these buggers out! I will find my own honey hole one day. The salmon fishing was like nothing I have ever seen before. It would be an understatement to say we caught less than 100 Salmon. The fish were late showing up, but when they did they came in numbers. The size of the avg Chinook was much lower than typical but the volumes of fish were insane. The Coho were much larger than I have ever caught this time of year. The Chinooks on the Westside were much larger on average. I know if I would have spent the time I could have caught some BIG fish. One boat caught a 55lb Chinook the day we were out there. Out of the 2 trips I made to the Westside I only trolled for salmon the last couple hours during the flood tide prior to heading home. Most fish were close to that 20lb mark, so its hard to complain about that. While I didn't reel in a single salmon during this entire trip the joy of taking out loved ones & putting them on fish felt just as good. I was the guide during the trip & having a plan work out felt awesome. Having my buddy & his kid there definitely changed my pace a bit. However having in the back of the boat to help with the kids was awesome. Being able to show them a trip they will most likely never have topped was a great feeling. Next trip I will want to spend an overnight in the boat on the Westside. I seen one boat my size pull into an inlet for the night & I was envious. I had to many people in the boat to even think of it, however just my wife & kids would be doable.

I strongly recommend this trip to anyone. It is so worth it in every aspect. The only thing I would do different is I would have stayed in Queen Charlotte City vs. Masset. I love fishing the west side of the island & being staged out of Masset made it to difficult to log the trips I wanted to. However staying in Masset offers good fishing closer to base & also has the beautiful North beach for the family. If you like eating crabs then Masset would be the place for you. A big thanks to Curtis at "The Tackle Shack". The kids (actually mainly my buddy & his kid) lost so many jigs while bottom fishing I would have ran out. He managed to get a parcel to me up there & kept me supplied with the gear I needed in short order.

I attached pics of the locations I fished for reference. The salmon spot out of Masset is a good spot to go to if the fish are not close to shore in the kelp. The spot seems to always hold bait. The other spots are where I ventured out to. The Masset Halibut hump was a experiment & it is a favorite long line set so not recommended. One attachment that is ~42km away was a amazing find. I only had such a small window (less than 30 min to fish). I plan on spending a full day there the nest time & getting into some deep water monsters. The top of the structure is as shallow as 530', with over 2400' around it. No doubt it will have commercial pressure on it, but it should still have plenty of fish.

 

[Stizzla]

Im finally at a computer & can properly proff read my post. I went through & correct what I could in my previous post.

Last Day: I spent the last day just having fun with the kids. I was lucky to have my buddy there as he passed the rods off to the kids every time we hooked up. We may have had a 20% success rate getting them to the boat but man was it a blast. We knew we needed a couple more Coho to send to St Jeans so we kept the few bleeders we had.

Summary: In summary it was an amazing trip. One I will never forget for the rest of my life. It left me sad when it was time to leave. I definitely have some un finished business in Hadia Gwaii & am already being kept awake at night. I struggled more than I thought I would with the Lingcod & it was a humbling experience to how much I still have to learn. I think the pinnacles closer to the narrows entrance & around Marble island might have had a lot of pressure on them. There are 1/2 dozen guide boats daily & they don't like to go far out to chase bottom fish. With gas being $1.78/L its understandable. Also the local Haida People drop some long lines over these pinnacles often to gather food. That said, next rip I will go further away in search of fresh holes to fish. I also never caught any Halibut on the Westside. While I never really targeted them there, I would like to learn what structure to fish for them. Any Halibut that do come out of the waters on the west side are typically bigger fish. Having my own boat & being able to take my family out was one of the best parts about the trip. I am very grateful for all the help I had from members on the site with picking & equipping my boat. The SeaRunner is one hell of a boat & exceeded my expectations. I didn't catch a single prawn in my traps. Only thing I found in the traps was a tiny sanddab. This is ok as it gives me a challenge to figure these buggers out! I will find my own honey hole one day. The salmon fishing was like nothing I have ever seen before. It would be an understatement to say we caught less than 100 Salmon. The fish were late showing up, but when they did they came in numbers. The size of the avg Chinook was much lower than typical but the volumes of fish were insane. The Coho were much larger than I have ever caught this time of year. The Chinooks on the Westside were much larger on average. I know if I would have spent the time I could have caught some BIG fish. One boat caught a 55lb Chinook the day we were out there. Out of the 2 trips I made to the Westside I only trolled for salmon the last couple hours during the flood tide prior to heading home. Most fish were close to that 20lb mark, so its hard to complain about that. While I didn't reel in a single salmon during this entire trip the joy of taking out loved ones & putting them on fish felt just as good. I was the guide during the trip & having a plan work out felt awesome. Having my buddy & his kid there definitely changed my pace a bit. However having in the back of the boat to help with the kids was awesome. Being able to show them a trip they will most likely never have topped was a great feeling. Next trip I will want to spend an overnight in the boat on the Westside. I seen one boat my size pull into an inlet for the night & I was envious. I had to many people in the boat to even think of it, however just my wife & kids would be doable.

I strongly recommend this trip to anyone. It is so worth it in every aspect. The only thing I would do different is I would have stayed in Queen Charlotte City vs. Masset. I love fishing the west side of the island & being staged out of Masset made it to difficult to log the trips I wanted to. However staying in Masset offers good fishing closer to base & also has the beautiful North beach for the family. If you like eating crabs then Masset would be the place for you. A big thanks to Curtis at "The Tackle Shack". The kids (actually mainly my buddy & his kid) lost so many jigs while bottom fishing I would have ran out. He managed to get a parcel to me up there & kept me supplied with the gear I needed in short order.

I attached pics of the locations I fished for reference. The salmon spot out of Masset is a good spot to go to if the fish are not close to shore in the kelp. The spot seems to always hold bait. The other spots are where I ventured out to. The Masset Halibut hump was a experiment & it is a favorite long line set so not recommended. One attachment that is ~42km away was a amazing find. I only had such a small window (less than 30 min to fish). I plan on spending a full day there the nest time & getting into some deep water monsters. The top of the structure is as shallow as 530', with over 2400' around it. No doubt it will have commercial pressure on it, but it should still have plenty of fish.

Gonna give this report the nod as the best report this site has ever had! You must like Haida Gwaii. Congrats Josh, you deserved it.

 

[tburns]

Holy smokes. just read every one of your reports. Sounds like you're a pretty fishy guy and know what to do to get on top of the fish. Congrats on your trip - sounds like you were able to have some incredible fishing of multiple species and share some special time with family.

Tight lines

 

[ILHG]

Holy smokes. just read every one of your reports. Sounds like you're a pretty fishy guy and know what to do to get on top of the fish. Congrats on your trip - sounds like you were able to have some incredible fishing of multiple species and share some special time with family.

Tight lines

Thanks Man! I think I am more lucky than anything. A guy just needs to have a few different game plans to work with depending on what conditions are like. This includes fishing different sides of the island. The west side is always the best bet for salmon if times are slow up north.

However one thing I still need to work on is Lingcod hunting. I never gave enough credit to guides in the past. I got to used to hot Ling action & over simplified it in my head. It was definitely a humbling experience this trip & let me know how much work to be done. I need more hours on the water targeting them before I will get better. Also need to understand how the tide effects the bite (or if it does?)

Lastly, I am the worst prawn fisherman ever. LOL!

 

[scott craven]

Just back from 3 days at Langara North island lodge.
Started slow Friday and Saturday then
pretty epic fishing Sunday.
our group had 15 Springs ranging from 12 - 30lbs
most in the low twenties.
lots of coho 8-12 lbs.
Staff at Westcoast fishing club were awesome and food was fantastic.

 

[scott craven]

I should mention the sea lions were brutal....
we lost at least one fish a day to them.

 

[Aces]

I should mention the sea lions were brutal....
we lost at least one fish a day to them.

They need to start shooting those bloody things

 

[Tommygun]

They need to start shooting those bloody things

Start?