spring fever
Well-Known Member
Hot damn!! Have a crew and reasonable promise of flattish water this weekend. Spring Fever will be off Kain Island by 2 Pm Fri leaving Sun around 2pm-will monitor ch 6-anyone else going?
Port Hardy / Winter Harbour / North Island Report - Spring and Summer 2011
- Thread starter MyEscape
- Start date
lordofthesprings
Well-Known Member
heading out at 5 am well be there till monday we'll have chan 6 on call bruce or mike
Ill be out there friday night until sunday afternoon on channel 6.
I love using plugs out there. 602 and 500 are my goto's. So nice to not have a flasher to fight. I havent done as well with spoons, but Ive rarely used them. Ive only got manual downriggers, so i really like to bury the line in the clip and drop a plug down near the bottom attempting to avoid the coho, looking for springs and hali's.
Good luck guys, maybe see ya out there
Yak
I love using plugs out there. 602 and 500 are my goto's. So nice to not have a flasher to fight. I havent done as well with spoons, but Ive rarely used them. Ive only got manual downriggers, so i really like to bury the line in the clip and drop a plug down near the bottom attempting to avoid the coho, looking for springs and hali's.
Good luck guys, maybe see ya out there
Yak
Barnacle Bill
Well-Known Member
Mike, what time are you leaving CV on Friday?
lordofthesprings
Well-Known Member
if your asking me-(mike)- we're leaving qualicum at 5;15 am black chev alum boat
spring fever
Well-Known Member
Hey BB leaving comox 0800 on the dot-will stop at River sports for chovies close to 0900. Mike
Deewar25
Well-Known Member
Out with chris73/vicboater for 2 days of heavy fishing Malcolm Island - was spotty for us, but still ended up with 26, 22, 20, 13, 11 and then 9.5, 7, 5 coho - lost another big one at Black Bluffs and a few coho during garbage time. Wind was a b*tch and relentless until Saturday, but we had to leave after a couple hours in the water. About an hour of hali fishing was all we could get in and notta. Most of the action in tight Donegal Head side of the slide 80-100' water, 50-60' down...bait with glow heads and coyotes were the weapons of choice. Hell of a whale show on Friday.
JAC
Well-Known Member
Great Report and pics Deewar I'm heading up there on Thursday and hope to find a few fish. Did you fish Flower Island or Cracroft pt? You said fishing was slow but it looks like you did pretty good is the fishing normally hotter then that this time of year? When you went out for the Hali was there a big swell or just wind waves?
Thanks
JAC
Thanks
JAC
Deewar25
Well-Known Member
Hey Jac...no, we just didn't get a chance to get to Flower and beyond (wanted to try Flower as well) - stayed tight to Malcolm the whole time - the NW wind was 20-30 knot for much of the trip and we couldn't even find shelter in Mitchell Bay as the waves were getting pushed in from the SW - weird wrap around effect. Hali, we couldn't get to the banks so just tried stubbs at high slack. Easy to stay on bottom but nothing in the time we were there. Saturday would have been a breeze for the banks as it was 0-10 the whole day, but the other guys grabbed first ferry so was out of luck. Fishing slow - seemed it to us as we probably put in about 30 hours and 2 of the big ones were off a double header....I know several of the regulars were also finding it scratchy and even the lodge boats had a few drier spells in the time we were there (looks like 1 really good day from the blog). I think its a little early for crazy action - 2 more weeks should be prime for springs and the coho would likely be getting thicker as well.
bigredsnapper
Well-Known Member
I'm heading up to Winter Harbour for 8 days starting Sat morning. I was hoping for a recent report I know there was a few of you there for the weekend. Probably lots of salmon around just wondering about the Hali. Thanks BRS
Striper Sniper
Well-Known Member
Hey BRS, check with Spring Fever, he would of gotten back around 12:00 today. Haven' t spoken to him yet so I don't know how it went. He would be fishing around Kains or Lippy Pt. and the Highway if the seas and weather allowed............
SS
Deewar25
Well-Known Member
so I ask this...are there white coho??? That middle fish in the top picture (white/marble meat) we wrote off immediately as a spring because of size, but then looking at the picture now, no evident spots on the tails! The head and the hue along the back though look too springish although the fork more like the coho above it. Any thoughts what that one is - sadly enough, can't quite tell although wouldn't have mattered here?
spring fever
Well-Known Member
Just got home from WH-great trip good weather!! limited on coho,springs hali and crabs.Salmon fishing is spotty. We had a good day off lippy Sat but dead Sunday. Highway for the third week has been very slow at least as far out as 400 feet. The main action has been off the lighthouse at Kain island and seaward for a mile or 2-Be brave and skim the pinnacle tops-have your finger on the "up" buttton. Got into some needle fish schools and had double-headers on lings but get this-double header on halibut-and I was after springs. Anchovie outfished everything-hands down however there were a lot of fish taken on blood and bones,harlequin(octupus) hoochies and a 3.5 cop car coyote. If i may suggest-since the predominant bait seems to be needle fish try needle fish hootchies in the above colours. Having fished there 3 times in the last month I think I would concentrate in the harbour approaches and wander south onto the lawn point shore. Got to be lots of hali's there guys-I'm not a Hali guy but we had to start releasing them as we had our 6 just from trolling for springs. Coho at Cliffe point-not much for springs yet-Might be worth an evening if you have an ebb tide and are running out of ideas or it's too rough. Good luck and tight lines-will post some pics tomorrow.
bigredsnapper
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the report Spring Fever, I love it up there and I am glad to hear the big slabs are waiting til I get there! Any size to hali you got trolling? BRS
Busterbrown
Active Member
I just got back from WH after 3 days of fishing. Weather was fantastic some sun and flat water. Fri was great spring fishing at Lippy. I managed to land 7 all about 20 lbs. Fished for coho at the lighthouse in the pm and kept two . One was about 10 lbs but the rest were all about 5 lbs. Called it a day at 1600 and went in to clean up.Sat am was flat calm so I headed down to Solander island to do some bottom bouncing. I immediatley got a ling that was 33 lbs. Then I proceeded to loose three sets of gear,spreader bar,wieghts included. Ended up with a limit of lings, yellow-eye, and Hali. Lings were all good size but hali were small. I left at approx 1100 and ran up to Lippy to fish for salmon, lots of coho but only one spring approx 22 lbs. One the way in I put the lines down at Kains to fish the rocks for a few passes. One the first pass I hooked a very nice spring fishing 15 feet deep, one hour later in the boat with a 38lb spring. Caught it on anchovie and no flasher. During the weekend anchovie out fished everything else. Good luck to anyone heading up
spring fever
Well-Known Member
BRS -all in the 20-30 lb range- most taken about 10-15 above bottom in water 200 to as little as 160 ft deep. I've fished here many years and have not caught this many Hali's fishing the way I do since before 2005. I believethat was the first time they long-lined commercially for hali close to shore in WH. Since this has happened on 2 trips this year I have to conclude there are more hali around WH this year.
spring fever
Well-Known Member
The hali's were taken in order-2 on anchovie 4 on blood and Bones hoochy( ivory colour with a bold red stripe) and the other 4 or 5 on a 3.5 cop car coyote. The key was the proximity to the bottom and bait. In all cases I was fishing close to the bottom(in real terms) not what my down rigger said. I bounced bottom to see what bottom actually was on the rigger gauge and then fished 10 ft above it and continued to apply the differential to the sounder reading. Pretty tough to do it in water deeper than 200 ft-I"m sure some folks do however I am predominantly a Spring fisherman who enjoys fish and chips. So all were caught on salmon gear and barbless hooks. Good Luck if you hit a 100 lber.
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