2016 Winter Harbour Reports

[Sculpin]

Sunday was the go anywhere day. It was so nice out there offshore. The wind was down and the swell wasn't bad at all. We decided to head up way above the Top Knot RCA and fish some contours just Northwest of San Joseph Bay. We never made it up to this area last year and it was really cool to experience it. The ride up was great and we averaged 22 mph the whole way.

The first spot we tried was like a yellow eye farm. It was unreal. We ended up moving after releasing 3 with the seaqualizer. We did keep one from that spot.

Firelight playing with pumpkins and it's not even October yet .



Our main goal for the area was halibut. After moving away from the rockfish factory. We ended up just away from the edge of it on the prairie and we had hit the high slack pretty good. We let out the spreader bars with whole hog herring on them and just let them do their thing bouncing on bottom. It did take some time to get our hali's but we all had a turn at it.

Firelight with one on.



Jake with one on.



Both of those fish were nice 15-20 lb. chickens. I was just enjoying a nice Gatorade and a snack when my line went off. It didn't hit hard but after I waited a few seconds and reeled hard to set the hook it came to life lol.



Turned out to be a nice one at 47 inches long.



Firelight was the gaff man on this one and managed to pull it over the rail where it then went ape ***** lol. It broke all three hooks on the treble during the thrashing.



We ran back in the fog of all things and stopped right at Lippy Point to try some more trolling as we were marking some great looking stuff on the sounder.



Nada again for us. We didn't really put the old college try towards the salmon as we were mostly after halibut. We did end up with our 6 for the trip. 5 chickens and one nice larger model. These put a smile on our faces big time. From all the reports we heard on the dock and on the radio you really had to put the time in to narrow down the salmon. People were catching some for sure. We had a great time again and it was like a holiday for us with shorter days on the water and just trying to relax a bit. We will be back for sure.

Firelight had brought some Saltspring Island lamb for us on the last night. We put it in the crock pot I brought (won it at the Loggers Derby this year). It was fantastic with a nice bottle of red wine.

The last supper. We all had a great time.



Last evening in the Harbour. Sky's were pretty cool again. Wispy clouds above the Sculpin.



Thanks for all the tips and help folks. Till next time.

Cheers,
Sculpin

 

[TheBigGuy]

Awesome report Sculpin.

 

[After Hours IV]

Sunday was the go anywhere day. It was so nice out there offshore. The wind was down and the swell wasn't bad at all. We decided to head up way above the Top Knot RCA and fish some contours just Northwest of San Joseph Bay. We never made it up to this area last year and it was really cool to experience it. The ride up was great and we averaged 22 mph the whole way.

The first spot we tried was like a yellow eye farm. It was unreal. We ended up moving after releasing 3 with the seaqualizer. We did keep one from that spot.

Firelight playing with pumpkins and it's not even October yet .



Our main goal for the area was halibut. After moving away from the rockfish factory. We ended up just away from the edge of it on the prairie and we had hit the high slack pretty good. We let out the spreader bars with whole hog herring on them and just let them do their thing bouncing on bottom. It did take some time to get our hali's but we all had a turn at it.

Firelight with one on.



Jake with one on.



Both of those fish were nice 15-20 lb. chickens. I was just enjoying a nice Gatorade and a snack when my line went off. It didn't hit hard but after I waited a few seconds and reeled hard to set the hook it came to life lol.



Turned out to be a nice one at 47 inches long.



Firelight was the gaff man on this one and managed to pull it over the rail where it then went ape ***** lol. It broke all three hooks on the treble during the thrashing.



We ran back in the fog of all things and stopped right at Lippy Point to try some more trolling as we were marking some great looking stuff on the sounder.



Nada again for us. We didn't really put the old college try towards the salmon as we were mostly after halibut. We did end up with our 6 for the trip. 5 chickens and one nice larger model. These put a smile on our faces big time. From all the reports we heard on the dock and on the radio you really had to put the time in to narrow down the salmon. People were catching some for sure. We had a great time again and it was like a holiday for us with shorter days on the water and just trying to relax a bit. We will be back for sure.

Firelight had brought some Saltspring Island lamb for us on the last night. We put it in the crock pot I brought (won it at the Loggers Derby this year). It was fantastic with a nice bottle of red wine.

The last supper. We all had a great time.



Last evening in the Harbour. Sky's were pretty cool again. Wispy clouds above the Sculpin.



Thanks for all the tips and help folks. Till next time.

Cheers,
Sculpin

Always great to hear your detailed reports Sculpin! Glad you had a great trip, was there many Coho around up there? We are heading up on the 2nd of September for 7 days.

 

[Kramer]

Very nice report, thank you!

 

[Sculpin]

Always great to hear your detailed reports Sculpin! Glad you had a great trip, was there many Coho around up there? We are heading up on the 2nd of September for 7 days.

Coho are everywhere up there. We came back to Coal Harbour and there were a couple of young guys in a small zodiac casting and one guy in an aluminum solo fishing. They were across from the boat launch and all of them were playing fish and fish were jumping all around them. It was a nice thing to see .

 

[spring fever]

Just back from WH last night. Unlike Sculpin I was as usual chasing salmon. I had been warned by fishy boy 99-- Qualicum Rivers that Springs were tough to find and that was a fact. We never found any concentration of them anywhere and I was all the way to top Knot outside the RCA. That doesn't mean we didn't get any but rather I was picking them off here and there usually off the top of Pinnacles in clouds of bait. Nothing out deep with the commercial trollers-talked to 1 commie he had 18 springs for 3 days fishing and from the tone I gathered this wasn't good!! Most salmon are around the lighthouse and I got 1- 26lber off Lippy really tight to the rocks-again off a pinnacle. There are some really nice size coho off the lighthouse and on the right tide off cliffe. The river and stream mouths are not producing well yet but the one area across from the boat ramp is. There is a little self -help hatchery there and it usually produces well for the buzz bomb crowd but they tend to be smaller fish. The coho weren't hitting like the week previously but they were great fighters and big. I too don't quite understand the negative bottom fish reports as we kept 3 nice ling and 2 small over hali's on the troll with chovies. All in all a wonderful trip-beautiful weather-some nice fish-the salmon are definitely well below what I am accustomed to from WH but every year is different and you have to adjust. By the way- decent crab but I'm setting well below 200 feet-again adjusting to the sea Otters-they aren't going away. Be interesting to get hatchery and river escapement numbers after the smoke and dust settle.

 

[Dbastock]

Great report Sculpin as always. Love to read and see the pics, gets me excited for the Sept 02 trip with After Hours! OFYB!!!!

Tight Lines

 

[7Deuce]

Hey Spring Fever. Nice report. Which boat launch has the stream or river that's producing? Is that right in Coal Harbour?

 

[spring fever]

Hey Spring Fever. Nice report. Which boat launch has the stream or river that's producing? Is that right in Coal Harbour?

Yes it is-but it's a funny set-up-I think the locals net-pen release smolts and so they come back to where the net pens were(don't quote me on this) but that is why they appear on that point of land and the flats surrounding it across from the boat launch in Coal Harbour. There is a bit of a creek in coal harbour but there is some reason they can't go up it a spawn naturally

 

[oilslick]

Got back from WH on Sunday after a week long trip.
Three boats 7 guys, fishing was definitely not like we have been accustomed too over the last 11 seasons but we had to manage.
After the first 3.5 days we had 3 springs and 12 coho, few ling and a nice Halibut, we definitely thought this was going to be a real slow trip.....
The reports at the docks were actually quite scary as the DFO girls were reporting 4 - 5 springs coming in sometimes 2 - 3 per day from approx 30 - 40 boats
The next day we hit Cliff very hard and found springs across from the beach and we just kept hammering the area with chovies and that's all we used. After the 7 day trip we ended up with 23 springs, 2o of them at Cliff in the last 3.5 days, biggest being 26, smallest around 13. We ended up with 23 coho as well and some nice size to them.
Very few boats at Cliff as the rumour was Cliff was dead, everyone thought they needed to go to either Solander or topknot or hammer Kains but not us.
Weather was ok the last 3 days but very cool the first 4.
Until next year tight lines...

 

[Heavyc]

Fished Koskimo Bay from 830-1 today. Tonnes of boats there today (over 20 at one point). Lost a few beauty Ho's. Several undersized fish in the beginning, but we managed 2 beauty coho. On chovie at 37 on the wire. Should be back next week.

 

[Jambo]

Fished Koskimo Bay from 830-1 today. Tonnes of boats there today (over 20 at one point). Lost a few beauty Ho's. Several undersized fish in the beginning, but we managed 2 beauty coho. On chovie at 37 on the wire. Should be back next week.

Was at Koskimo Bay Friday and Saturday. Some nice coho but lost a few. Raining today a bit and it might stir things up.

 

[Fish Camp]

Area 27-10 keykuyzed creek Sunday 6am 602 tuby 5" red nail polish shovel, 30 pulls 4 oz weight another 45 pulls .Rain wind and after 5 min fishing in 60 feet of water 28 lb chrome spring brought to the side of the tinny and released .To find out once I sat at the armchair that i may have been able to keep the fish for it might meet size requirements for the first time that i can remember.Stopped fishing springs once i accomplished my bucket list goal and went back to spinning for coho.ammazing fishing this year.

 

[Dbastock]

Looks like this thread has gone a bit cold... Has fishing gotten that bad up there boys? Heading up in 3 days 22 hrs and 34 minutes eh After Hours? I understand the road is out of commission for the week due to a couple different construction areas. Has anyone been in yet on the alternate route from Coal Harbour to Holberg? Wondering what kind of shape the road is in and how well marked it is?

 

[Heavyc]

Looks like this thread has gone a bit cold... Has fishing gotten that bad up there boys? Heading up in 3 days 22 hrs and 34 minutes eh After Hours? I understand the road is out of commission for the week due to a couple different construction areas. Has anyone been in yet on the alternate route from Coal Harbour to Holberg? Wondering what kind of shape the road is in and how well marked it is?

Drive to Coal Harbour and run the inlet to WH. Its around 25 miles.

As far as fishing goes, I hope to report back firsthand info Thursday &/or Friday evening. As long as the forecast holds.

 

[spring fever]

Drive to Coal Harbour and run the inlet to WH. Its around 25 miles.

As far as fishing goes, I hope to report back firsthand info Thursday &/or Friday evening. As long as the forecast holds.

Might see you there heading up fri if the forecast holds. SF

 

[Dbastock]

Sounds good SF. Where are you staying? We'll be at Phil and Pat's (WH cottages).

 

[spring fever]

Sounds good SF. Where are you staying? We'll be at Phil and Pat's (WH cottages).

Staying on the hook-as close to the fishing as I am able-probably dropping in to Qualicum rivers for a coffee one pm. So may be behind the hunt Islets or perhaps in Quatsino sound itself-all depends what's happening and where the fish are. I'm in a green and white Orca -monitor ch 6-I share info.

 

[Dbastock]

Roger that. We'll be in a 26' pursuit and will monitor channel 6. A friend of mine just got back from 3 days there last week and never got offshore. Only managed a few coho inshore.

 

[spring fever]

Roger that. We'll be in a 26' pursuit and will monitor channel 6. A friend of mine just got back from 3 days there last week and never got offshore. Only managed a few coho inshore.

We should get off-shore sat.- I am not expecting a lot-it has been brutal up there this year- so I am just going to enjoy the last trip of the season-do the best we can- with the cards we are dealt! The rains may change things up a bit coho -wise but Springs are going to be very tough!! Good Luck!