2021 Winter Harbour Reports

Our annual group trip to WH will be fishing this coming Sat, Sun and Mon. Hope to be posting a glowing report next week.
 
Hey Guy's I have question regarding Cape Scott and fishing area 27-1. I heard that you are not allowed to fish within the boundary of Cape Scott provincial park which is mostly covered by area 27-1. I checked the regs I don't see any specific ban on this area. Anybody actually know if there is a restriction in this area?
 
First time to Winter Harbour....we trailered in last Saturday & roads were dry and excellent. Fishing was fantastic considering we only went out for morning trips. The kids got into lots of springs in the 20lb range and a handful of coho around 12lb - green & white hoochies and assorted spoons did the trick.. Big lings & rockcod were abundant everywhere we went once we got dialed into the proper terrain. We didn't get out for Hali, but everyone coming back into Winter seemed to have plenty, and some folks were into tons of Pinks as well. Heavy rain overnight Tues & Wednesday made for a much slower drive back yesterday....the road had deteriorated quite a bit but it was still fairly easy & I saved my license plate before it fully fell off. Planning our 2022 trip already.
 
First time to Winter Harbour....we trailered in last Saturday & roads were dry and excellent. Fishing was fantastic considering we only went out for morning trips. The kids got into lots of springs in the 20lb range and a handful of coho around 12lb - green & white hoochies and assorted spoons did the trick.. Big lings & rockcod were abundant everywhere we went once we got dialed into the proper terrain. We didn't get out for Hali, but everyone coming back into Winter seemed to have plenty, and some folks were into tons of Pinks as well. Heavy rain overnight Tues & Wednesday made for a much slower drive back yesterday....the road had deteriorated quite a bit but it was still fairly easy & I saved my license plate before it fully fell off. Planning our 2022 trip already.
What size boat do you have? You might want to consider launching in coal harbour and running in from there. Awesome spot though and glad you had a great trip with the fam!
 
What size boat do you have? You might want to consider launching in coal harbour and running in from there. Awesome spot though and glad you had a great trip with the fam!
1969 17' Starcraft with a 30hp 2-stroke Evinrude. It can get pretty sloppy around Cliffe Pointe when the wind is coming straight on, and we had to duck out in a hurry one late afternoon during a strong westerly. It was sloppy and unpleasant until we got back in the leeward side of Kains Island coming back into Winter Harbour. I need something a foot bigger & a foot wider to have a better WCVI platform. 'Til then I massively err on the side of caution.
 

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1969 17' Starcraft with a 30hp 2-stroke Evinrude. It can get pretty sloppy around Cliffe Pointe when the wind is coming straight on, and we had to duck out in a hurry one late afternoon during a strong westerly. It was sloppy and unpleasant until we got back in the leeward side of Kains Island coming back into Winter Harbour. I need something a foot bigger & a foot wider to have a better WCVI platform. 'Til then I massively err on the side of caution.
Totally fair in that situation. Good for you getting out there.
 
Fished winter harbour 3,4,5 august and did well with Springs. We fished 3 days at north of Hardy and struck out hard, only found small feeders and slow action.
First day we hit Grants, and we lit it up hard! We were the only boat in there and it was on fire, multiple double headers, fish hitting the hook as soon as we got them on bottom in 30ft of water! Never seen a 25lb spring come right out of the water like that before, total high light of the trip!
Next couple days we moved around did some off shore stuff, was hitting springs @ 220ft etc. Lots of pinks. Fished Cliffe on the way back to coal harbour and always got a few good hits and nice fish.
Day 3 we started at Cliffe and got sealed twice in a row and decided to move on, went to Grants again and caught a couple more decent fish and went jigging for ling. All in all a good trip, haven’t fished that area in 25yrs so it was pretty awesome!
 
Home after three days at WH chartering with Qualicum Rivers. Mixed weather, we ran north for hali on Saturday but the wind blew up and we were forced to run home after less than two hours on the hook. Tried salmon off Lippy, two hours of trolling produced a fine 26 lb spring but nothing else. No fish at the lighthouse for us either.

Saturday we ran down toward Brooks and caught limits on lings with half a dozen 30 lb or better. Still fairly lumpy so it was tough sledding on the jig, but worth it. Then hit Gooding and Cliffe hoping for salmon, but only got two - both mid 20s though.

Yesterday the focus was entirely

on salmon. We got three early in Grant's Bay, all in the low 20s, but then it went quiet. Moved out to Lippy and started taking a fish every tack, weird mix of coho, pinks and springs at all the depths we tried. When that slowed down we went to Lawn Pt and picked up more springs plus a lottery fish (aka hatchery coho). Weather was wonderful: sunny breaks, little breeze and smooth, chop-free swell. We had four double headers this day.

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This was another great trip to WH despite a difficult start with weather. Would have loved some more hali but it is what it is. The springs made up for it, no tyees but average weight was 20 lb, larger than I've seen this time of year. We have enough fish in the freezer for another year and some good memories. The area has a huge range of opportunities for those resourceful enough to explore them. If you have a tough boat and don't mind some weather there are plenty of good spots for ling, hali and salmon in the 50 nautical miles of coast between Cape Scott and Brooks Peninsula.

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Saw some tuna pics outta winter harbour. They must be getting with in range.
 
tJust finished 5 days at WH..... great year for fishing for sure. Hit 5 Hali within 2 hours on the hook south by Solander. One was released at about 150 lbs... one at 133, 124, 110, and 97.... then moved on for Ling... got our 12 also down by Solander.. but took a few hours jigging. Largest was 36lbs. Fished for Spring for next few days... headed out to the highway.. non stop COHO action with beautiful fish up to 15lbs. So many COHO in fact that they got annoying as you could not get your lines down to find the Spring. We ended up fishing Kains during tide changes for next couple days and got all our Springs with largest up to 25lbs all on Anchovy. The spoons would work as well.. just not as good as the anchovy.
Weather was great temp wise... but good winds. You need a good boat heading off shore for sure. Such a spectacular place. We did run into Holberg inlet looking for Crab... but no keepers... just a great BBQ on the water. All good.
I also think I heard that Oli found some Tuna last week.. sounded like they were only 25 miles out. I would love to try Tuna...and if anyone out there is looking to do a trip... I am certain that I would run back and take a stab at it with another boat out there... just saying!
So tight lines to all.... put the work in at WH and it pays !
Should be plenty of boats going for tuna early sept as mentioned. Oli has the derby going so should be at least 15 boats going out on reasonable days. We arrive on the 3rd to fish tuna till the 9th weather dependant. Looking forward to it hopefully, the wind gives us a day or 2. Good report thanks for that.
 
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We are heading up for tuna on Sept 3, for a week! If your going to be around let me know, the more boats heading out the better
Where are you guys staying? We are renting out some rooms at the outpost. 2 boats in our fleet, a blue 30ft ocean master, and a 22ft Hourston talk about a killer combo :P
What is your plan for ICE?
 
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