2017 Winter Harbour Reports

Firelight, Jake, and I are heading up tomorrow morning early. Unfortunately the weather looks less than stellar. Tuna is off the agenda this trip. We are going to bring some traps and mess around on the inside this time. Always looking forward to the annual WH trip! It going to be fun and nice to get some R&R :).


Any reports? Thinking of making a end of August trip.
Thanks in advance.
 
Firelight, Jake, and I are heading up tomorrow morning early. Unfortunately the weather looks less than stellar. Tuna is off the agenda this trip. We are going to bring some traps and mess around on the inside this time. Always looking forward to the annual WH trip! It going to be fun and nice to get some R&R :).

Where or where is the fabulous Sculpin report that we all wait for ??
 
Not a lot to report and only took a few pictures.

The whole purpose of the trip was a fishing vacation with down time. The fishing was only part of it. We caught more z's than fish and I finished the book I was reading lol. We caught a few lings and nice rock fish on the first day and tried for salmon as well but with no keepers. Second day we slept in and then headed way up above top knot and got a couple of halibut and some nice yellow eye. Didn't fish salmon on the second day. Third morning (last morning) we fished the gap and caught some coho on bucktails in 25' of water right next to the kelp. Nice way to end the trip. No crabs and we learned a lesson about prawning up there lol. We will try around Drake Island on the way out next time. No bearing issues on the way home. All in all a nice trip. We saw lot's of people cleaning fish at the docks, talked to a couple of nice neighbors, saw lot's of nice boats, got some rest, and caught some fish. Funny as it sounds, a highlight for me was watching all the Swallows (never seen that many up there before) smashing flying termites mid air right in front of our porch. It was like our own private Redbull air race ha ha.

Now just waiting for tuna water off Ucluelet or Tofino!!!
 
Heading to WH on Monday-anything new?? any reports of coho above Cliffe.. Looking for any reports good or bad thanks!
 
Heading to WH on Monday-anything new?? any reports of coho above Cliffe.. Looking for any reports good or bad thanks!


fished cliffe, koskimo, both ends of the narrows today
1 small spring 1 small coho at the quatsino end of the narrows
many boats first thing this morning than they all disapered
 
I came out Saturday and could find nothing off-shore--good fishing at cliffe point 35 to 70 on the riggers -smaller baits and lures in the 3.5 range. Coyotes and such, Ccar, irish cream; grand slam bucktail, jughead needle fish, AP needle fish. Look for jumpers on the way down--coho should be in any day. Good luck
thank you for the info Spring Fever
running my boat down the outside next week and hope Springs are still around !!!!!
 
Late report - we fished up at Winter Harbor August 4-12. Mostly tough fishing, only caught 2 coho, both outside and wild so no keeper coho. On the plus side, we did ok on Chinook, at least a couple nice 20+ fish a day and a couple smaller ones. Best weather we have ever had, covered the water from the RCA all the way down to Brooks Peninsula, but nothing ever got "hot". Spent almost every morning early at Cliff point and caught a nice fish each day over there before we wandered out. Lost a nice one and all my terminal gear to a seal. Best lure was a long (5"? hootchie) in motor oil color, followed by green and glo coyote and cop car coho killer. Bait didn't do too much.

It was a weird year, normally we have two boats and crew but this year only one. Harder to prospect and figure things out.

Jim, do you have your big boat up there?

Good luck to all.
 
I would really appreciate that as I have to make a decision.
Not a problem. If they are there and you do come up. Pop down the inlet. I'll be in the 14ft lifetimer with the yammi. I'll even be nice enough to throw a couple of my secret weapons you're way. I make the's lures that those tight lipped river bound coho can't resist. Be sure to bring a light rod preferably loaded with 15-20lb braid as they are light and the braid casts about 50% farther than mono equivalent.
 
Not a problem. If they are there and you do come up. Pop down the inlet. I'll be in the 14ft lifetimer with the yammi. I'll even be nice enough to throw a couple of my secret weapons you're way. I make the's lures that those tight lipped river bound coho can't resist. Be sure to bring a light rod preferably loaded with 15-20lb braid as they are light and the braid casts about 50% farther than mono equivalent.
I'd like that!! My rods already loaded with braid and am trying some of those Shimano flat fall jigs for a start. Are you hearing stephens creek fish are in or all the way to the Mahatta?
 
I highly doubt Stephen ck are in yet. They're usually 1st week of sept. I may run out that way tomorrow to take a look.
 
Late report - we fished up at Winter Harbor August 4-12. Mostly tough fishing, only caught 2 coho, both outside and wild so no keeper coho. On the plus side, we did ok on Chinook, at least a couple nice 20+ fish a day and a couple smaller ones. Best weather we have ever had, covered the water from the RCA all the way down to Brooks Peninsula, but nothing ever got "hot". Spent almost every morning early at Cliff point and caught a nice fish each day over there before we wandered out. Lost a nice one and all my terminal gear to a seal. Best lure was a long (5"? hootchie) in motor oil color, followed by green and glo coyote and cop car coho killer. Bait didn't do too much.

It was a weird year, normally we have two boats and crew but this year only one. Harder to prospect and figure things out.

Jim, do you have your big boat up there?

Good luck to all.
yep moored at Port Hardy till they kick me out and I start meandering home...thought I recognized your boat !!!! good on ya for getting up there - sure has been a great boat for you.
any intel appreciated
been a long time since i fished WH
but the rust scales seem to flake off in sheets..
 
Fished Friday to Monday morning. Lippy to Brooks peninsula. Two coho, and four chinook up to 34lbs. Four halis, and the usual bottomfish.

We found that the purple haze hootchies/flashers worked best for the springs, fished shallow (40-50 ft), fairly close to shore, at dawn. Coho on white hootchy.

Halis on salmon scraps in 150+ of water.

The other bottomfish we just catch by accident. If they can't swim back down, we keep them.

The pinnacles I fished last time I was up there, 3 years ago, didn't produce any halis at all. Checking out the guides' fish cleaning stations, it's clear that they're still catching a lot, but just in different places. The inshore pinnacles must be fished out.

The big lings we caught had some bad worms. One of them had brown worms throughout the lower half of the fillets. The smaller lings had perfect flesh.

After hearing some great reports of the large LED squids, I bought three from Berry's Tackle. We all tried them, whether it was trolling slow along the bottom or using with a spreader bar, caught only one ling. The non-LED hali hootchies outfished the LEDs by far. Now they're just sitting in my boat continually blinking away even though they're dry. A waste of $30.

Had a great time up there!
 
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