Port Hardy / Winter Harbour / North Island Report - Spring and Summer 2011

[Bait tricks]

Great story, Beauty fish!

 

[Fish Assassin]

Nice fish.....Great Job,

 

[spring fever]

Best of the year so far SG!! Great looking water at WH next sat. sun Mon!! and I can't drum up a crew!!!-got to work harder at it!! Those fish have got to be showing on the Hi-way in strength now!!

 

[Cuba Libre]

Good job!! Nice to hear the commercial guys didnt get ALL the halibut as had been previously reported

 

[Bassblaster]

Great job SG! NIce pic too. Gets the blood going for sure. Now if I could only catch one of the damn things!

 

[Striper Sniper]

Hey David, outstanding fish! Great job and thanks for posting!

SS

 

[kthomas]

Nice fish!

I'm heading up to winter harbour on thursday, so save some fish for me! Excited to finally try out the new jigging rod...

 

[Sharphooks]

Wow, nice fish Serengeti... stunner.

What type of gear do you guys typically use this early in the season for those big springs?

It would be great to get that type of info from the Port Hardy / Winter Harbor part of the forum

 

[spring fever]

Spring Fever has a crew and we will hit Kain Island about 3 pm Sat. until Mon Noon at the mouth of the Sound. Green and white Orca-listening on 68 and 6. If you need some info give us a call. Handle is Sring Fever. Will post tues evening. Tight Lines.

 

[Halilogger]

So my trip to Winter Harbour last Thursday, fished Fri, Sat,
We targeted Halibut, Friday was nasty 20knot South east not fun to fish, managed 2 chickens 15lbs 3 lings and 3 snapper, we had to call it at 10:30am 1 of the people on my boat had puked
for the 3rd time, he toughed it out for 3 and half hours. Went back to the cabin had a nap, got up and decided we still had a little fish left in us so we went out about 2 miles from the cabin and dropped
a couple of spreaders and the guy that was puking picked up a 65lbs Hali.
Saturday was a bit better for weather, 1 28lbs Hali 1 more chicken 3 lings 2 snapper 2 Coho no springs, all in all a okay trip. We did a lot of bottom dragging with minimal results.
Will post a picture if i can figure out how..............help..............

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Spring Fever, have a safe trip. Looking forward to your report upon your return,...........BB

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Halilogger, great report, looking forward to your pics. Sorry you had some rough seas,.................BB

 

[SerengetiGuide]

This early in the year I use pretty much same gear as later on, but more purple flashers and UV as the early columbians have a real purple back, its actually quite pretty. So to match that I throw on either UV flashers with UV purple head, or some sort of purple gold combo.

 

[spring fever]

If anyone is interested SpringFever is moving up the depature for WH by 24 hrs due to weather and swell forecasts. Now Fri to Mon-will post Mon evening

 

[Halilogger]

Thanks holmes will try that.

 

[Poppa Reelie]

June 24-25

2 full days, 12 springs, biggest 25 and smallest kept 8 lbs.

 

[theJohnD]

Fishing out of Port Hardy, wife and I have limited on springs, 16, 18, 20, 20, 21.5, 26.5, 28.5, 43.5.. All but two caught at Duval so easy on fuel bill. Will start on bottom fish for a while and then get some coho's when they come in. Retirement is great.

 

[Bait tricks]

That's awesome salmon fishing. How about Cape Scott for some very large hali..

 

[spring fever]

Winter Harbour report for fri,sat sun-Kain island by 3 pm fri water was fishable-saw boats at the lighthouse -fished out bound with chovies and splatterback green hoochy -we managed 4 nice springs to 20 and kept 4 coho although we caught more. We could have caught more springs but I wanted to save my chovies for off-shore sat morn. so I kind of wanderd thru my tackle trying anything I had a mind to. My mistake. Sat 0500 i'm pounding up to lippy with water sheetihg over the windshield, 3 wipers going and wondering what happened to Swell Watch and their 3 foot or less seas. I made 2 downwind tacks past lippy and got nothing but it really wasn't effective fishing. Went and played tag with the pinnicles off the lighthouse looking for Coho -very rough but we found Springs were feeding on the bait fish hanging on those pinnicles-they would take watermelon coyotes fished at 42 feet and also chovies but bait stealers were a problem. We persisted and the day became sunny but windy. Called it quits that day with 4 springs to 20 lbs average plus another 4 respectable coho at 4 pm. Tried again for an evening bite but it was brutal off the lighthouse-boated a nice ling and decided it was unfishable. Sun was sunny with outflow-lines in the water off Lippy by 0500 started right at the point and worked out trying all the depths and all we could get were lots of undersized lings. Worked out to 280 and finally took an 18 lb spring on a chovie 200 ft of wire. Circled back-nada kept going out and south until we started taking fish consistantly with a chovie and hootchy. 4 nice springs in the 20-23 lb range and we kept 4 good sized coho. The fish were in 320 ft of water midway between lippy and the lighthouse and the depths that worked were 180 to 210 feet of wire. It is not hot fishing but if you are persistant there are some nice fish. Outside the light house from close inshore to a mile off-shore was probably the best but watch your depths-there are some real ball grabbers. Lippy was surprisingly quiet seeing as it was excellent for us 2 weeks ago-the highway was okay once you find the fish -Make sure to hit waypoint when you get a strike-gives you a reference to start again once you boat him. Be carefull-it was extremly rough for what looked to be a descent forecast. Crabs were excellent although I saw a crowd of sea otters(40-50) at the narrows-never seen so many so close to the crabbing spots-hopefully they don't go through. Prawns were poor-commies have been thorough!! So chovies and splatterback hootchies 3.5 watermellon coyotes We also got 5 nice lings but due to water conditions and since no hali wanted a free boat ride we didn't fish them.

 

[Highliner]

Fishing out of Port Hardy, wife and I have limited on springs, 16, 18, 20, 20, 21.5, 26.5, 28.5, 43.5.. All but two caught at Duval so easy on fuel bill. Will start on bottom fish for a while and then get some coho's when they come in. Retirement is great.

I would have to agree with you. That sounds like a great trip!