2019 Winter Harbour Reports

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I just got back from 2 weeks in WH. Great Trip! The fishing was great and the people were friendly. We made lots of new friends. Springs and Coho at all the usual spots. Green flasher and white, white/green hootchies did the trick for us. We also caught a few on spoons, but the hootchies were more consistent for us. Biggest fish for us was around 25 lbs. Coho to about 9 lbs.

I dont know about the ice at Qualicum, but the Outpost had bagged ice every day that we were there. They also started staying open until 6 about a week and a half ago if I remember right. We stayed on the dock at the Outpost, great people and a great facility. We will be back
 
I just got back from 2 weeks in WH. Great Trip! The fishing was great and the people were friendly. We made lots of new friends. Springs and Coho at all the usual spots. Green flasher and white, white/green hootchies did the trick for us. We also caught a few on spoons, but the hootchies were more consistent for us. Biggest fish for us was around 25 lbs. Coho to about 9 lbs.

I dont know about the ice at Qualicum, but the Outpost had bagged ice every day that we were there. They also started staying open until 6 about a week and a half ago if I remember right. We stayed on the dock at the Outpost, great people and a great facility. We will be back
Lee.... are you the fella with the new 26' Duckworth.... cant tell by the photo... I was the guy with the red Hewescraft.... toured your boat.....
 
How late in the season is it possible to successfully target Hali out of winter, and how far do you typically have to go out?

Cheers,
 
Little mid trip report from us, just out fishing a Kains this morning. Day 1 (Tuesday) was mostly travel day for us but stopped a cliffe on the way through from port Alice for an hour and had no luck, ran to grants bay and and managed one ling but no salmon. Stopped at kains on the way back to the dock and picked up 2 springs 20.5lbs and 19lbs. Wednesday started a kains was rougher that day managed one chinook right off the bat then fishing died off as all the boats started to show up, so we ran up to grants and managed 4 coho and a lingcod. So far today we had a couple bites at kains that didn’t stick and I fought what I assume was a big chinook, for a good 15mins before he made a screaming run into the kelp bed and snapped me off. Will probably fish kains for abit this morning the if the weather allows to target hali. We’re staying at the outpost dock tomorrow night which is our last night, feel free to stop by and say hi. We’re in a 20foot podded double eagle with a 250 Suzuki and 9.9 kicker on the back
 
I've noticed people concerned about the Coal Harbour boat launch. The ramp is a shallow steady concrete slab slope. The gap between slabs has been filled in for years. Best bet is to shoot boat off trailer for unload. The only problem is tying up to the walkway at, or near, low tide. When water is low, when returning, I drive the boat onto the mud and hop out the bow, back trailer down the concrete and thrust the boat out by hand and to the back of the trailer, steering with bow rope. Hope this helps. G.T. in Coal Harbour
 
Well our trip to winter harbour is over and was a total success, Thursday we started at kains didn’t get anything in the morning so we went out and braved the rough seas and it paid off, anchored around 830 and got our 2 Hali’s and 4 lingcod, stopped at kains on the way in and got 1 chinook and a coho. This morning we fished kains and had our limit of 4 chinook finishing off our 8 chinook possession limit, and then got our last 2 lingcod to get our possession limit of lingcod. And back in port Alice just after 9am. Great trip especially with the weather was stormy each day besides today it’s calm and sunny! Will post some pics from the trip when we get back home
 
Got back home on saturday. Had fun in WH, we did Grant bay and came away with a 19.5 and a small coho. Ran south a little and picked up 4 more. Hit Cliff pt. a couple times and came away with 4 in the high teens. Got some lings off the pinnacles, the weather came up and made a mess for a few days and settled down. Picked up a few behind the light house and all in all we did pretty good for 3 days of fishing. Then my kicker showed its butt and ate the impeller. made it home late saturday and all things are fixed now and ready again for the next haul up this week. Here we go!
 
Heading up to WH for a few weeks, sounds like the fishing has been pretty consistent! Anyone up there heard of the regs changing as of August 1st? From my understanding anything (chinook) outside the surf line has to be between 45cm-80cm? Any updates on how the wind has been would be greatly appreciated! Cheers.
 
Heading up to Quatsino on August 2 for a few days of fishing. I'm hoping that fishing is as good as it was reported for earlier in July. I noticed that in FN0672 the Commercial fishery for chinook is opening offshore in Areas 123 to 127 on August 1. The FN0672 does not contain the 80cm size limit imposed on recreational fishers. Does that mean that DFO will remove that restriction for the recreational chinook fishery effective August 1?
 
Hi TyeeSlayer. I am hoping the same thing. We are headed up on the 1st. Good luck up there, early July sounded great!
 
How well stocked is the store for groceries these days? I'm coming in by boat with the family and prefer to pack light but I'll be in trouble if we're living off beer and candy bars for 4 days.
 
How well stocked is the store for groceries these days? I'm coming in by boat with the family and prefer to pack light but I'll be in trouble if we're living off beer and candy bars for 4 days.
Store has a reasonable amount of groceries, kinda like a small corner store has. The store hours are 1 pm - 6 pm, same hours as the fuel dock.
 
Anyone have an update as to how the fishing’s been? Get in tomorrow night for a couple weeks.
 
We came, we fished, we are exhausted!

Great few days up at WH over the long weekend.
WH was esxperiencing a heat wave over the long weekend, with locals complaining about the sun and 22^C weather!

Spring fishing was slow. VHF reports of two springs around 20# being caught would bring a bunch of boats roaring over.
We did not find any springs out deep. No wild coho retention on the outside and they were pretty thick.
It was common that people would give up fishing springs because of wild coho bycatch.

We (I?!) forgot our hali anchor setup, so we were doing the jig and drift.
Covered alot of ground this way and had fun.
@nvrquit hit a 2cm under max hali on the head with the spreader bar weight on a first drop.
That was fun.
Landed three hali on the first full day, two 'bigs' and one 'small'.
Could not entice another hali, big or small, for the next three days. Did pick up a beauty 25# ling and its smaller brother, during the hali hunt.
No bites on our salmon carcasses and heads, but the herring was demolished.

We stayed up the hill at the for sale cottage currently rented by Dick's last resort.
It was set up nicely for our style program.

The best salmon fishing we found was between 7 and 9 p.m. off the kelp at the south point of Kains.
And by best, I mean the only place we landed keepers, spring and/or coho.

We waited all year for this trip, the though alone got me through all the DFO assholery we are forced to suffer.
Already planning next year's trip.
 
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