Depends a lot on weather and size of your boat
2025 Winter Harbour Reports
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Knot Working
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We have a 2052 Trophy W/A
TroySchmidt
Member
Family and I are on day 2 of 7 of our trip up in WH now. Fishing for lingcod and springs in brooks today was absolutely insane. Had 6 peoples limits of lings and springs by 10:45 this morning. Even picked up a spring on a lingcod jig while jigging. Only took 1 hour of fishing to pick up the other 11 springs. Couldn’t keep both lines in the water. I think the longest a piece of gear stayed down before getting hit was 2 minutes and that is not exaggerating. Fastest fishing for springs I have ever seen.
Weather looks nice tomorrow- we’re planning on making a run for tuna in the morning if anyone wants to join! Call name on the VHF is “Fishin Magician” or feel free to PM if anyone wants to buddy boat.
Weather looks nice tomorrow- we’re planning on making a run for tuna in the morning if anyone wants to join! Call name on the VHF is “Fishin Magician” or feel free to PM if anyone wants to buddy boat.
TroySchmidt
Member
Excellent day out for tuna. Got 20 to the boat and only 20 miles from the lighthouse. Just south of kwkauitl canyon and east of the south end of the pencil. 62 to 64 degree water where we were trolling for the day. Will try and upload the pic when I’m in better WiFi/service
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TroySchmidt
Member
Traveling home on the ferry now. Had a few minutes to write a report from my fams trip this year. Overall report: excellent fishing all around. Had 6 people on the trip and filled all 6 peoples limits on halibut, springs, lingcod, as well as a few bonus coho, rockfish, and one day where we got 20 tuna! More detailed report below:
Day 1: ran north all the way to cape Scott for bottom fish. Weather was a little lumpy but totally fishable. Honestly, I expected better for how far of run it was. We came back with 7 lingcod (most of which pretty nice size) and 1 halibut we jigged up. Also hit 2 springs and a couple coho trolling off the topknot RCA on our way home. Not a killer day but a solid start nonetheless
Day 2: ran south to brooks bay and this was the right decision. Focused on limits of lingcod first then springs and had both (18 lingcod and 12 springs) by 10:45 in the morning. One of the lings tipped the scale at 50 pounds. It was absolutely red hot from the moment lines hit the water till we got our last fish for the day. Even got a spring on a lingcod jig while jigging for lings. Springs came on the highway fishing spoons.
Day 3: Tuna run. Was a little nervous about it as we had heard spotty reports lately and a lot of boats only catching 1 to 5 fish or so per boat. Weather looked great so we gave it a shot. We had an excellent day and ended with 20 tuna to the boat with 13 of them coming before 8:30 in the morning. We were fishing only about 21 miles off the lighthouse.
Day 4: blowing 40 knots offshore so we slept in and visited San Joseph bay beach and Ronning’s garden. Both were super cool!
Day 5: went south again looking to finish off our limits of lingcod and springs for the trip. We finished off both but had to work for them a bit harder this day. Had to fight the humpys and coho more today but we ground it out and got all of our springs by mid afternoon. Again, fishing the highway towards the north end of brooks bay.
Day 6: weather looked promising again so we made another run for the blue water. Tuna gods must have flipped a switch as we didn’t touch a fish all day! Not sure if the strong winds earlier in the week changed water conditions but when we got back and saw some temp shots from when we were out there it looked like the warm water totally moved and apparently the fish did too. Never saw as warm of water as we did the first day out for tuna.
Day 7: went looking for halibut as this is all we needed to finish everyone’s limits. Anchored up and had our halibut in about 2 hours including one right at 102 cm and one at 94. The others were right around 90 cm. Perfect eaters.
All in all a fantastic trip and we enjoyed every moment! Good luck all!
Day 1: ran north all the way to cape Scott for bottom fish. Weather was a little lumpy but totally fishable. Honestly, I expected better for how far of run it was. We came back with 7 lingcod (most of which pretty nice size) and 1 halibut we jigged up. Also hit 2 springs and a couple coho trolling off the topknot RCA on our way home. Not a killer day but a solid start nonetheless
Day 2: ran south to brooks bay and this was the right decision. Focused on limits of lingcod first then springs and had both (18 lingcod and 12 springs) by 10:45 in the morning. One of the lings tipped the scale at 50 pounds. It was absolutely red hot from the moment lines hit the water till we got our last fish for the day. Even got a spring on a lingcod jig while jigging for lings. Springs came on the highway fishing spoons.
Day 3: Tuna run. Was a little nervous about it as we had heard spotty reports lately and a lot of boats only catching 1 to 5 fish or so per boat. Weather looked great so we gave it a shot. We had an excellent day and ended with 20 tuna to the boat with 13 of them coming before 8:30 in the morning. We were fishing only about 21 miles off the lighthouse.
Day 4: blowing 40 knots offshore so we slept in and visited San Joseph bay beach and Ronning’s garden. Both were super cool!
Day 5: went south again looking to finish off our limits of lingcod and springs for the trip. We finished off both but had to work for them a bit harder this day. Had to fight the humpys and coho more today but we ground it out and got all of our springs by mid afternoon. Again, fishing the highway towards the north end of brooks bay.
Day 6: weather looked promising again so we made another run for the blue water. Tuna gods must have flipped a switch as we didn’t touch a fish all day! Not sure if the strong winds earlier in the week changed water conditions but when we got back and saw some temp shots from when we were out there it looked like the warm water totally moved and apparently the fish did too. Never saw as warm of water as we did the first day out for tuna.
Day 7: went looking for halibut as this is all we needed to finish everyone’s limits. Anchored up and had our halibut in about 2 hours including one right at 102 cm and one at 94. The others were right around 90 cm. Perfect eaters.
All in all a fantastic trip and we enjoyed every moment! Good luck all!
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Bearded wonder
Well-Known Member
Where abouts is the “highway”?
TroySchmidt
Member
Roughly the 300’ contour the whole way down the west coast. The migration route where salmon run down the whole coast. If you look at a chart for the brooks Bay Area you’ll see tons of pinnacles, humps, and Rockpiles right around this 300’ contour. We were trolling right around these humps and pinnacles near the 300’ contour
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