2019 Haida Gwaii Reports

[ILHG]

@ILHG When your targeting lings I see in your picture you're using a Shad style lure. Do you find this keeps the rockfish off your hook? Those little buggers chew on everything.

Normally when I bottom fish I use a halibut rig (1lb ball with hook) and use chopped up herring for the hook side. I have never had this setup work well for lings; its nonstop rockfish or halibut.

I definitely use large baits in order to avoid the rockfish. I also will jig aggressively to trigger more bites, & also to make it harder for yellow eye to get my bait. A lot of folks will say that Lingcod are easy & anyone can go out & catch them on anything. When fish are biting & and they are actively feeding this is true (just like salmon). However I have found that Lingcod, do get a case of Lockjaw & for what ever reason shut down. Especially for larger quality lings, not so much the case for the small lings.
Also I find later in the season, in areas that see a lot of fishing pressure it is important to trigger the bite & not rely on them just being pigs and eating anything.

Now, I am not saying you have to use swimbaits to catch lings. You can use almost anything, if you can make it look alive & get them excited. Which ever lure you use, it can never look like a dead or inanimate object. I will say that matching what they are eating will give you an advantage at times, & its almost always fish. Lingcod are a crazy predators. They love the chase & are programmed to go after anything that looks like its wounded & panicked. The best way I can explain it is a dog.... A dog sees a cat or a rabbit & it gets excited. It will watch closely & its tail is wagging, In most cases as long as that rabbit or cat is staying in one spot it that dog wont engage. But as soon as it runs away that dog cant help its self & its on the case & that dog only cares about catching it.

I always start out by dropping the bait to bottom. as soon as it hits bottom I start giving it quick 3' pulls & cranking the reel once on the drop. I give next to no time between pulls (jigging up). This looks like a wounded bait darting up that is disorientated. as soon as i get about 25' up I immediately drop it back down. This is when I get over 1/2 of my bites typically. Watch your line as the bait drops back down & the second you see anything different like the line not sinking at the rate it should, click the reel over & pull hard into it. You wont feel these bites & wont know you have a fish until you set the hook & the rod piles over. I know this can be a lot of work at times, but its worth it. I only spend a 2-3 drops over an area & if nothing bites then move on.

Lastly, the area you fish is important. You need to be working habitat that the Lingcod will be on. Once you have drifted over the structure, pick up & set your self up again for the drift. You wont find a cat in a bath tub full of water, so dont expect to find lings in plaes they dont live.

If you wnat to know any of my favorites & how I use them send me a PM

 

[Madman]

I definitely use large baits in order to avoid the rockfish. I also will jig aggressively to trigger more bites, & also to make it harder for yellow eye to get my bait. A lot of folks will say that Lingcod are easy & anyone can go out & catch them on anything. When fish are biting & and they are actively feeding this is true (just like salmon). However I have found that Lingcod, do get a case of Lockjaw & for what ever reason shut down. Especially for larger quality lings, not so much the case for the small lings.
Also I find later in the season, in areas that see a lot of fishing pressure it is important to trigger the bite & not rely on them just being pigs and eating anything.

Now, I am not saying you have to use swimbaits to catch lings. You can use almost anything, if you can make it look alive & get them excited. Which ever lure you use, it can never look like a dead or inanimate object. I will say that matching what they are eating will give you an advantage at times, & its almost always fish. Lingcod are a crazy predators. They love the chase & are programmed to go after anything that looks like its wounded & panicked. The best way I can explain it is a dog.... A dog sees a cat or a rabbit & it gets excited. It will watch closely & its tail is wagging, In most cases as long as that rabbit or cat is staying in one spot it that dog wont engage. But as soon as it runs away that dog cant help its self & its on the case & that dog only cares about catching it.

I always start out by dropping the bait to bottom. as soon as it hits bottom I start giving it quick 3' pulls & cranking the reel once on the drop. I give next to no time between pulls (jigging up). This looks like a wounded bait darting up that is disorientated. as soon as i get about 25' up I immediately drop it back down. This is when I get over 1/2 of my bites typically. Watch your line as the bait drops back down & the second you see anything different like the line not sinking at the rate it should, click the reel over & pull hard into it. You wont feel these bites & wont know you have a fish until you set the hook & the rod piles over. I know this can be a lot of work at times, but its worth it. I only spend a 2-3 drops over an area & if nothing bites then move on.

Lastly, the area you fish is important. You need to be working habitat that the Lingcod will be on. Once you have drifted over the structure, pick up & set your self up again for the drift. You wont find a cat in a bath tub full of water, so dont expect to find lings in plaes they dont live.

If you wnat to know any of my favorites & how I use them send me a PM

Thanks for the Reply @ILHG Im heading up to the west side of Haidi Gwaii on the 23rd. Im going to mix up my lures. This was really helpful.

 

[ILHG]

Just got back from a short trip to Haida Gwaii. This trip was a different trip than I usually take. I had the chance to take my Uncle up fishing. I brought him up & one other older fella that I knew he would get along with great. My uncle has never fished the ocean before. In fact it was his first time ever being on the ocean. This was a special trip for me because he is getting up there in age. Last December I lost my Auntie (his wife), & it hit me how quickly we can run out of time with the ones we love. My uncle is a special man. I grew up with my mom & 3 older sisters. If it was not for my Uncle taking me out hunting & teaching me, I would have never had the opportunity. He had his own family & many of his own friends who would have loved to join him in Hunting camp, but he took the time & effort to have me there. He worked out of town for weeks at a time & was gone far more than he ever was home. Now I am grown up & a father with my own family & I look back & I can see what he gave up to have me there. This was my chance to try to give back what he has given me.

So when planning for this trip, I had to find the balance between giving him a lifetime trip that I think would be awesome & what he would think is awesome. Also I had to keep in mind his age & limitations with out insulting him. I had worked on this plan for a few weeks & was on version #5. Then of course no matter how much you plan it mother nature will have the final say. The final version of my battle plan had the base foundation around giving him the full westcoast experience. For him everything he seen would be for the first time he seen it in reel life.

In the days leading up to our trip I was watching the wind forecast constantly. We basically had 2.5 days on the water to fish & forecast showed that 2 of those days was going to be very windy... We arrived on Friday & flew out on Tuesday. Saturday & Sunday were the only full days we had to fish. Monday I need a half day to get demobbed & packed away.



Day one: We arrive in Sandspit & I was only thinking about all the stuff I need to get done & prepped for the trip. My last trip out I spent way to much time on the water the last day & was not able to get things put away & organized the way I should have for the following trip. When I walked out of the airport doors I was so happy to see my truck sitting there. When we finally made it to the rental house in Masset, I spent at least 4 hrs unloading the boat of gear & supplies & getting it set up.


My plan on this trip was to drop crab traps & Prawn traps on the way out to the fishing grounds & then check them on the way back. This was something I thought my uncle would enjoy because he has never seen it, & he loves crab. Now with prawns, I have not had any prior success & haven't ever caught a single one, not even bycatch. I had done 1/2 dozen drops to date & still hadn't got it figured out.


I finished up around 5:30 pm & asked the guys if they wanted to go out in the boat to see if I could find my crab traps that I had not been able to recover the last trip. I let them know the conditions would suck, & it was up to them if they wanted to venture out of masset inlet with the conditions. They were excited to go for the ride & we headed out. As luck would have it one of the guys spotted one of the trap bouys tangled up with a bunch of kelp. It was a bit of a washing machine out & not ideal conditions to look for a trap. I pulled the trap into the boat & no sooner did I set it down & I was puking over the side. Like clock work, every time I go out on the water after being off of it for a while I puke. It has become a routine I need to do before I get my sea legs back. I freaking hate it, & always know its coming. By the time I was done puking I was happy with finding at least one trap & we headed back in. That evening I had a chat with my uncle about the reels we should use for salmon. He had never caught a salmon., & didn't know what a knuckle buster was. He insisted on using the knuckle buster & said "I dont need no training wheels, Im sure i will figure it out".

 

[ILHG]

Day#2: This was the first day of action & the plan was to head out to the westside of the island through the skidigate narrows. It was forecast to be the only nice day we would have during the trip & I was planning on taking advantage of having access to the entire fishing grounds. High tide was at 6:00 am & it was a 12' tide so we had a little room on crossing later in the morning. We left the house by 6:30am & made the drive to Skidigate to launch the boat. On the way out we dropped 3 crab traps in separate locations & also dropped the prawn traps.


My first plan was to head over to Marble island & troll for salmon & see if anything was home. I dropped 2 teaser heads with a small herring at 45' & 35'. I reviewed the reels & went over them with my uncle. We discussed how to play a salmon. I made my way down the south side of the island when I found my first bait ball. Shortly after the rod started bouncing & I set the hook & pass the rod over. You could see it was a salmon. He was not able to keep any pressure on the fish so I was running the kicker hard at times to compensate. He was standing at the back of the boat facing the port side & was not to interested in relocating to the other side when the fish went in the opposite direction. I was trying to keep the boat moving & the fish in front of him so the line wouldn't go under or around the boat. I had never seen or been part of a show like this one... The other guy in the boat said , he would net the fish. I agreed as I had my hands full already. I just told him to put that net away until I say as the fish was still hot. When we finally got the fish close to the boat it was a small spring. Maybe 15lbs. Im not going to lie, It took me a lot to not start laughing at what was happening.... (Inside I was laughing hard) So the guy grabs the net & goes to net the fish & the net is still compressed & 1/2 the handle is parked down the middle of the net! I tell him to wait & pull the handle out before he tries. After watching him struggle I leave the kicker controls & get the net ready. In the 5 seconds I was away form the kicker controls the fish decides he is going for another run. With the rod still pointing out the port side side the fish runs in the opposite direction. My uncle was having no part of it and held onto the reel paddles & stood his ground. The fishing line made its way under the boat & out the back enough that it got cut on the main motor propeller (which luckily was off.). As quickly as it started it was over.... Holy hell I was trying not to laugh.... After I took 30 seconds to recap in my head what just happened I thought of the best way to give some pointers to my uncle on what he could have done differently... I focused on him facing the rod in which ever direction the fish is & keeping the rod tip up & pressure on the fish...


I got the gear back in the water & over the next hour 3 more salmon were lost.... By the end of the fourth salmon, I just couldn't do it anymore. I could see he was getting very frustrated & no one was having a good time. Sometimes a time out is needed & I needed to switch it up. I told the boys its time to go hunt some lingcod & rockfish. I had some shallow pinnacles picked & rigged up the jigging rods. First drop started out at 60" at the top & 150' at the base. I wanted to try for some shallower fish than I typically do, so I didn’t tier anyone out. I set us up for a downhill drift & gave a good pep talk. The other guy I was with had fished the west coast before & wasted no time getting his jig down.

Over the next hour we limited out on lings & kept a couple Vermilion rockfish. We probably caught 20 Lingcod and kept a few ~15-20lbers & the rest 9-10lbers for the box. A few of them were beautiful green lingcod. My uncle was on cloud 9 & could not believe the amount of fish below us. I had them using White/red plastic grubs ~10” long with a 16oz white jig head & a silver jig head with a silver skirt on it. They worked perfectly. I was worried about losing some gear in the rocks, but luckily the lured never had the chance to actually hit bottom before being bite.

As we were doing our Lingcod drifts I could see a boil of black bass feeding on bait on the surface. Once we were finished with lings we went over to the black bass & I rigged up some light action combos. It was silly how many black bass there was & took seconds to get hooked up. They had a blast catching them on light action.

Once we finished up, we stopped for lunch. I asked the guys if they were interested in going for some Halibut. I told them I had electric reels & we could use them if they wanted. They both loved the idea of the electric reels & I did a 15 min boat ride over to some sand flats ~2km SE of Hunter point. I decided I would do a drift & rigged up one rod with a spreader bar & 2# weight. On the other end I rigged up a Lighthouse Lure LED squid with a stripe of black bass belly.


I used the kicker to backtroll & control the drift to ~05-0.75 MPH. With in 15 mins into the drift the rod folded over & we had our first Halibut. The Shimano Beastmaster easily handled the Halibut & we boxed a nice 25#er. I dropped back down & with in 20 min we had another fish on. It was a 28#er. We caught one more but I cant remember the exact weight. It was ~20lbs. We had limited on our bottom fish & it was time to start the trek back. We couldn’t of fit another fish in the floor fish box even if we wanted to. The transom box was empty, but I was keeping it clear for the crabs I hoped to have in the traps We had Prawn & crab traps to pull.


I had set my prawn trap in Trounce Inlet. There is a bowl in the middle that goes down to about 200’ with mud at the bottom & rocks on the incline. I had previously laid out 3 traps ~ 50’ apart from the bottom of the bowl up. I rigged up the trap puller & started to pull. I honestly had no expectations at all. When I finally seen the first trap it had some colour! It had about 20 prawns! Nothing huge but definitely worth keeping. I don’t remember that last time I was that happy. The second trap came up the same except it had mostly shrimp in it. Looked to be Side Strip Shrimp. The 3rd trap was all shrimp. Well I was beyond happy & the first thing I did was peel & eat one right there on the spot. If you have not ate a fresh prawn minutes out of the water you are missing out. I remembered the advice I had received on the form about shrimp being in mud & prawns on the incline in rocks. So I re dropped the traps & tried to keep it out of the muddy center.


We headed over to the first crab trap & pulled it up. It was packed with jumbo’s & all males. I honestly don’t think you could have fit another crab in it. Most were to big for the plastic gauge you use to size them. Wouldn’t even fit ion the Alaska King Crab slot! In total we had ~17 in the first pot. All we needed was one more to limit. We pulled the second & 3rd pots & they were all the same! It’s a weired feeling dumping back over 30 jumbo crabs.


We set for home & I stopped in at the processors. It was about 9:30pm by the time we got there. I quickly dressed the fish & took the heads off before the person meet us to take in the fish. I filled the boxes full of ice for the next day & headed for home. When I got back home, they guys went & made supper & had a whiskey while I cleaned boat & prepped the boat & cleaned/cooked the crabs. for the following day. The guys asked to help but it was easier for me to do & to be honest I enjoy it. It was about 12am before I finally finished up & could call it a day… When I got into the house the guys had been sharing a box of whiskey & were recapping the days events. I shared a quick night capo with them & ate some crab before calling it a night.

 

[anorthernhunter]

Great story!!

You should write for a fishing mag.

Keep the stories coming!

I am going up to NIL end of July.

Glenn

 

[Stizzla]

Day#2: This was the first day of action & the plan was to head out to the westside of the island through the skidigate narrows. It was forecast to be the only nice day we would have during the trip & I was planning on taking advantage of having access to the entire fishing grounds. High tide was at 6:00 am & it was a 12' tide so we had a little room on crossing later in the morning. We left the house by 6:30am & made the drive to Skidigate to launch the boat. On the way out we dropped 3 crab traps in separate locations & also dropped the prawn traps.


My first plan was to head over to Marble island & troll for salmon & see if anything was home. I dropped 2 teaser heads with a small herring at 45' & 35'. I reviewed the reels & went over them with my uncle. We discussed how to play a salmon. I made my way down the south side of the island when I found my first bait ball. Shortly after the rod started bouncing & I set the hook & pass the rod over. You could see it was a salmon. He was not able to keep any pressure on the fish so I was running the kicker hard at times to compensate. He was standing at the back of the boat facing the port side & was not to interested in relocating to the other side when the fish went in the opposite direction. I was trying to keep the boat moving & the fish in front of him so the line wouldn't go under or around the boat. I had never seen or been part of a show like this one... The other guy in the boat said , he would net the fish. I agreed as I had my hands full already. I just told him to put that net away until I say as the fish was still hot. When we finally got the fish close to the boat it was a small spring. Maybe 15lbs. Im not going to lie, It took me a lot to not start laughing at what was happening.... (Inside I was laughing hard) So the guy grabs the net & goes to net the fish & the net is still compressed & 1/2 the handle is parked down the middle of the net! I tell him to wait & pull the handle out before he tries. After watching him struggle I leave the kicker controls & get the net ready. In the 5 seconds I was away form the kicker controls the fish decides he is going for another run. With the rod still pointing out the port side side the fish runs in the opposite direction. My uncle was having no part of it and held onto the reel paddles & stood his ground. The fishing line made its way under the boat & out the back enough that it got cut on the main motor propeller (which luckily was off.). As quickly as it started it was over.... Holy hell I was trying not to laugh.... After I took 30 seconds to recap in my head what just happened I thought of the best way to give some pointers to my uncle on what he could have done differently... I focused on him facing the rod in which ever direction the fish is & keeping the rod tip up & pressure on the fish...


I got the gear back in the water & over the next hour 3 more salmon were lost.... By the end of the fourth salmon, I just couldn't do it anymore. I could see he was getting very frustrated & no one was having a good time. Sometimes a time out is needed & I needed to switch it up. I told the boys its time to go hunt some lingcod & rockfish. I had some shallow pinnacles picked & rigged up the jigging rods. First drop started out at 60" at the top & 150' at the base. I wanted to try for some shallower fish than I typically do, so I didn’t tier anyone out. I set us up for a downhill drift & gave a good pep talk. The other guy I was with had fished the west coast before & wasted no time getting his jig down.

Over the next hour we limited out on lings & kept a couple Vermilion rockfish. We probably caught 20 Lingcod and kept a few ~15-20lbers & the rest 9-10lbers for the box. A few of them were beautiful green lingcod. My uncle was on cloud 9 & could not believe the amount of fish below us. I had them using White/red plastic grubs ~10” long with a 16oz white jig head & a silver jig head with a silver skirt on it. They worked perfectly. I was worried about losing some gear in the rocks, but luckily the lured never had the chance to actually hit bottom before being bite.

As we were doing our Lingcod drifts I could see a boil of black bass feeding on bait on the surface. Once we were finished with lings we went over to the black bass & I rigged up some light action combos. It was silly how many black bass there was & took seconds to get hooked up. They had a blast catching them on light action.

Once we finished up, we stopped for lunch. I asked the guys if they were interested in going for some Halibut. I told them I had electric reels & we could use them if they wanted. They both loved the idea of the electric reels & I did a 15 min boat ride over to some sand flats ~2km SE of Hunter point. I decided I would do a drift & rigged up one rod with a spreader bar & 2# weight. On the other end I rigged up a Lighthouse Lure LED squid with a stripe of black bass belly.


I used the kicker to backtroll & control the drift to ~05-0.75 MPH. With in 15 mins into the drift the rod folded over & we had our first Halibut. The Shimano Beastmaster easily handled the Halibut & we boxed a nice 25#er. I dropped back down & with in 20 min we had another fish on. It was a 28#er. We caught one more but I cant remember the exact weight. It was ~20lbs. We had limited on our bottom fish & it was time to start the trek back. We couldn’t of fit another fish in the floor fish box even if we wanted to. The transom box was empty, but I was keeping it clear for the crabs I hoped to have in the traps We had Prawn & crab traps to pull.


I had set my prawn trap in Trounce Inlet. There is a bowl in the middle that goes down to about 200’ with mud at the bottom & rocks on the incline. I had previously laid out 3 traps ~ 50’ apart from the bottom of the bowl up. I rigged up the trap puller & started to pull. I honestly had no expectations at all. When I finally seen the first trap it had some colour! It had about 20 prawns! Nothing huge but definitely worth keeping. I don’t remember that last time I was that happy. The second trap came up the same except it had mostly shrimp in it. Looked to be Side Strip Shrimp. The 3rd trap was all shrimp. Well I was beyond happy & the first thing I did was peel & eat one right there on the spot. If you have not ate a fresh prawn minutes out of the water you are missing out. I remembered the advice I had received on the form about shrimp being in mud & prawns on the incline in rocks. So I re dropped the traps & tried to keep it out of the muddy center.


We headed over to the first crab trap & pulled it up. It was packed with jumbo’s & all males. I honestly don’t think you could have fit another crab in it. Most were to big for the plastic gauge you use to size them. Wouldn’t even fit ion the Alaska King Crab slot! In total we had ~17 in the first pot. All we needed was one more to limit. We pulled the second & 3rd pots & they were all the same! It’s a weired feeling dumping back over 30 jumbo crabs.


We set for home & I stopped in at the processors. It was about 9:30pm by the time we got there. I quickly dressed the fish & took the heads off before the person meet us to take in the fish. I filled the boxes full of ice for the next day & headed for home. When I got back home, they guys went & made supper & had a whiskey while I cleaned boat & prepped the boat & cleaned/cooked the crabs. for the following day. The guys asked to help but it was easier for me to do & to be honest I enjoy it. It was about 12am before I finally finished up & could call it a day… When I got into the house the guys had been sharing a box of whiskey & were recapping the days events. I shared a quick night capo with them & ate some crab before calling it a night.

Has anyone ever told you you’re good at fishing and storytelling? Oh right, I do... everything you go fishing or tell any kind of story!

 

[walleyes]

Yes incredible writing, always an enjoyment to read. One can place themselves right in there.

 

[ILHG]

Yes incredible writing, always an enjoyment to read. One can place themselves right in there.

It was never my intention either... I dont know how or why my reports end up this way. Probably because I think back about fishing that day and end up telling everything and reporting everything as its recapping in my head??

I am working on day #3 & 4. Almost done. It's not as exciting because of the wind & losing salmon after salmon.. but there were a couple of nice suprises.

On the 25th I leave again for a trip I have been looking forward to. It's with my fishing buddys who I have been going with for years. They are more hardcore than me & it's full impact fishing. Already talk of fishing at night if its windy during the day. It will be a trip where I get to fish.

 

[advTHXance]

Sorry for the late report sirs. Been busy with setup and guests and organizing the new staff etc, as well as ****** internet. Fishing on the west side for us has been good at times, and poor at times. We've had some really good days when the weather allows us to get offshore. Lots of fish 14-22lbs and some bigger ones mixed in. My boat has been lucky to avoid the skunk thus far but now that I've typed it out u can bet I'm not gonna catch a damn thing tomorrow. Ap herring spoons are outfishing bait on my boat right now. Did a little experiment yesterday and it was 5-1 for the spoon vs a holy roller within 2 hrs. The fish have mostly been offshore and deeper than 100ft. Even the inshore fish i caught today were all found deeper than 100.

 

[ILHG]

Well, I fly out again tomorrow morning. I gave been looking so forward to this one. It's just me and my buddy Dale. We have been fishing the charoletts for years together & he is as hardcore as they come.

This will be some hardcore fishing. Looks like the wind will be a challenge for a couple of the days but not to worried. We each have suspension seats and I dont have to worry about anyone with out one so it will be hammer down.

I am really looking forward to dropping the prawn traps and trying a different spot so I can see if I can repeat my success. If I find them it shows I am learning how to find them. If I dont it means it was just luck... I'm confident I will repeat.

I will let you folks know how the fishing is.

 

[Madman]

Got back from a trip to the west coast. Did great on halibuts and lings. We got completely skunked on salmon the whole trip. Out there 4 and a half days and not a single salmon hit. A couple other guys had the same luck as us. A couple other guys got their limit. Previous years we have always came back with our salmon limits, this was a first, not sure if we never put ourselves in the right area or they just weren’t interested in what we were fishing. Great trip though beautiful weather.

 

[ILHG]

Just got back last night from my trip. It was an adventure to say the least & a trip I was very much looking forward to! .! This trip had much smaller tides than I had seen this year & some flat calm days, which I have not seen much of this year.




Day#1: A couple days before we were to arrive the wind reports were looking worse & worse for the first couple of days. This threw a wrench in the gears as they were coming hard out of the North West & gave little options for shelter. The first day had 45 km/hr winds with just over 50km/hr. The wind was angled hard out of the West & meant that I didnt have much to work with. Im not afraid of some wind & this season has been one of dealing with wind. I have had enough **** go south while fishing in the wind this season that I know what is not worth even trying. I was not going to spend 2 days staring out the window so I came up with a plan on what we could do. I decided to pack up the boat & head to Rennel Sound. It was the only option that would give shelter & would allow us to at least still fish. I would have to stay to the north & see how far west I could push it before wind became an issue. I have wanted to do Rennel for a while now & what not a better time.


My GPS showed it would be a 2hr treck from Masset. I was loaded up & out the door by 6am. The drive turned into a 3hr treck due to the terrible road conditions. Not something I recommend hauling a boat trailer on. The road was pounded out to **** & it took almost 2 hrs to go 36km… ½ way through I was so temped to head back, but decided to see it through to the end… My poor boat & trailer….


When we finally arrived, I could not wait to get the boat into the water & get to fishing. We finally found the boat launch & got going. The water was flat calm & the place was absolutely beautiful. I decided to bring the prawn traps along & give it a shot. We dropped traps just off a ledge on the North side of Gospel Island. From there we stuck close to the north end of the sound & headed to Seal Point. I wanted to work the flood slack & try for some Salmon. We dropped the gear & trolled for a good 2hrs. We found lots of bait, but could not find a salmon…. Lots of black bass but no salmon?


After a couple hrs. I decided to switch it up & go target some Ling’s. There are some nice pinnacles at the entrance to Seal Inlet that looked promising. We set up for our first drift & lowered our jigs. They didn’t even get a chance to hit bottom & we were both hooked into a fish. A Beautiful pair of Lings ~ 15 lbs each. I boxed mine & my fishing partner let his go. He had a goal to only keep Lings that were 20lbs this trip. No bigger & no smaller. A guy has to have some goals in life & I thought his were respectable.


I switched up to a small 6oz jig before we set up for the next drift. I could see some black bass surfacing & had a plan. When we dropped for our next drift, I had a black bass come and smash my jig 5’ away from the boat. I opened the spool & let the jig slowly sink the fish to the bottom. Once on bottom, I just slowly let out line & made sure I was keeping up with the ledge. After about 60 seconds the fish started going nuts & the rod bent over. I had my first hitch hiker! I slowly reeled it towards the boat & it had ~10lb ling on it. It was wild to see! It was not the size of fish I was looking for & I needed to get the Ling off of my bait. I thought I could just lift the head out of the water & it would let go….. Well that didn’t work… This ling was determined to keep its dinner. Finally, after a solid minute of pulling its head out of the water & playing tug o war with it it let go. But now it sat there 4’ below the surface staring at me & the black bass waiting for me to drop it back in….. When I finally thought it left I dropped it back down & it hit it again about 20’ below the boat….. Well, this fish deserved this meal & I gave up. I pulled the hook out of the black bass mouth & let the ling have it. He happily took his meal back down to the bottom with him.


After that I switch up to a big jig. In the time I took pissing around with that ling & black bass my buddy had caught & released 3 beautiful lings over 15lbs. I positioned the boat to drift a deeper & steeper pinnacle. Sure, as heck we both nailed 2 beautiful lings with in moments off getting to bottom. Mine was 18lbs & my buddy’s was 21lbs. However, mine was a bigger fish. His weighed more because it had a massive meal in his belly. We both boxed the fish & continued to fish. Over the course of a couple hours we caught at least 20 Lings with only one being under 10lbs. The majority were 15-20lbs. It was an absolute blast fishing for these buggers.



After the lings we switched up to salmon again & spent another 2 hrs with out a single salmon. Again, no problem getting the black bass. I finally gave up & said we should start heading back. We had a 3 hr slow drive ahead of us. On the way back we grabbed the prawn trap, & unfortunately, nothing… When I got to the boat launch, I was greeted by @Madman. It was cool to meet up with another forum member, & what a crazy place for it to happen. We got the boat loaded up & headed off to home. It was a long drive home & it was 10:30pm before we finally pulled into he driveway. I dressed the fish & put them back on ice so they would be ready to drop off at the processors in the morning.


The next day was forecasted to be windy, but there was no way I was going to even think about going back to Rennel. I had fish on Ice that needed to go to the processors in the morning. That meant I had to have a bit of a later start as I had to wait for the processor to open. That night I sat at the table drinking a Rum & Coke & thought about what we could do…

 

[Aces]

Uh oh, Ling Cod pictures

 

[wildmanyeah]

The suspense is killing me

 

[Teja]

Does anyone have any suggestions for a guide out of the Masset area for a day of fishing on short notice? Much better half and I have a three day flight and accomodation package at a “non-fishing” lodge that we need to use next weekend and I have struck out over the past day trying to find someone to head out with.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dogbreath]

Bret posts here sometime and is Highly Recommended

http://fishmasset.com/

 

[Teja]

Bret posts here sometime and is Highly Recommended

http://fishmasset.com/

Thanks for that! In between my posting above and your reply, Bret replied to an email that I had sent to him and we have confirmed a day on the water. Looking very forward to it. Thanks again!

 

[Confused]

Any recent reports out of Masset? Heading there on the 20th.

 

[wishiniwasfishin1]

Any recent reports out of Masset? Heading there on the 20th.

Apparently there's the odd almost 80lb'r around ....

 

[ILHG]

Gents, just rolled back home on Saturday afternoon. Back at work today. I will give more detailed reports of what worked & what was hot later today or tomorrow morning. I just wanted to get some basic stuff out for the guys/gals who are leaving soon.


A quick summary of fishing.

Masset: Fishing was decent. Not as hot as last year at this time. I only spent 4 days out of 2 weeks fishing Masset.

- Lots of bait around. More than I have seen in a couple of years. Seeing a ton of Sandlance
- Lots of Coho around & some of size. Biggest for us was around 15lbs.
- If conditions allow make the drive out to the "Pork Chop" or also called "Whales Tail". Its silly how many coho are in. Your sonar will show the large wolf packs feeding there.
- Easy to pick up Coho offshore in the tide lines. I found more around 45' which I found odd. However it was bright & sunny out so maybe thats why they were deeper.
- Best day was 15 salmon in 5hrs. 6 were chinooks.
- Biggest chinook was 27lbs & was caught offshore in 200' of water while trolling bait at 80'. No flasher
- Good fishing inshore for Chinook. Edenshaw was the place to be last week & was giving the best inshore fishing. There is a couple of sealions living out at 7 mile (red ca) that are making fishing frustrating. I gave up there after an evening of being followed by a sealion the whole time.
- I caught a fair number of Chinook offshore.
- Started to see some pink salmon last week.
- No chum salmon caught this trip. Which is a first for this time of year.
- Halibut fishing was silly. A ton of small chickens around & you have to sort through them to get to some quality fish. As usual I find more quality Halibut in shallower. Trolling salmon gear at bottom in 70-80' was the ticket for the perfect unders or smaller overs. Still lots of bigger fish to be found in 50-60' of water soaking bait or trolling.



Westside (Skidegate Narrows):

- A ton of bait around. I found medium herring & sandlance in most belly's
- Still lots of salmon around & some decent size fish if you put the time in.
- Found it to be slower than typical this time of year, but that can change at any time.
- It could have just been timing, but I caught a lot of small chinooks this trip along "the wall". That can be seen as a good thing because they will be next years fish. I kept one of the smaller fish because it was bleeding & it was not mature for breeding when I cleaned it.
- More Coho on the north end of the island.
- Did best with Bait. Anchovies or smaller herring in Army Truck teaser head.
- Some great Halibut fishing. All nice sized overs.
- Lingcod fishing was good. Most nearby pinnacles are getting picked over. Found nice quality fish in the rocky areas & deeper pinnacles where most charter boats dont fish.
- Some big squid around again this year. I had a couple lingcod puke up in the boat & the squid were fresh & big. They were as round as a beer can & 15" long. Not sure what type of squid they were?