2021 Winter Harbour Reports

Cool to see new species!
How far offshore were you fishing for Black Cod? What kind of gear is used to fish that deep? I would love to try it, but the window may be closing for this season - the days when the ocean is flat enough out of WH are few by now it seems.
Pretty much fishing the the contours of the continental shelf, about 15 to 20 miles . I have electric reels which do most of the work, we have been using bait on a spreader bar
 
"Also got this guy which I am Struggling to Identify. He was caught in about 1200ft of water, I am pretty sure its not a yellow eye based on the large bottom fin. He also had a scar on his belly. Most interesting thing was that it didn't have a swim bladder. we put in back in the water and it swam down with no issues. Anybody know what this might be?"

From the picture it looks like a yellowmouth rockfish (S. reedi). Its a deep water species not often caught by rec anglers , usually trawlers. Since you were fishing so deep you will encounter these other deeper living species. All rockfish have swim bladders so this one must have been able to clear itself. They are good to eat.
 
I think the mystery fish there might be a rougheye. A million years ago I did some stints observing on draggers and I recall they would be targeted sometimes. They were deep but not quite as deep as idiots and black cod. And sometimes mix in with rougheye were some shortraker which looked somewhat similar but got really big. In fact your entire catch reminds me more of a deep water trawl catch than anything I've seen caught sport fishing, that's really impressive.
 
I think the mystery fish there might be a rougheye. A million years ago I did some stints observing on draggers and I recall they would be targeted sometimes. They were deep but not quite as deep as idiots and black cod. And sometimes mix in with rougheye were some shortraker which looked somewhat similar but got really big. In fact your entire catch reminds me more of a deep water trawl catch than anything I've seen caught sport fishing, that's really impressive.
I don't think its a rougheye. Wrong colour and scales. There are RE there on the WC though.
 
Spanked the tuna 20 miles off kains last weds. Saw jumpers in the clear green water around 16 miles out , boiling in our spread but no dice . Trolled offshore two more miles till we found the blue and had doubles triples and quads until we had to tuck our tails and head back inshore . Ended up with 18, one hanging 29 lbs after gut and bleed, average was about 15 lbs .
 
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