Barnacle Bill
Well-Known Member
Good time to go! Be sure to bring some xlarge coolers. .............BB
Winter Harbour Report
- Thread starter 17 ft sea ranger
- Start date
LEFTY 338-06
Member
Inside Kains
Pippen
Well-Known Member
Greg is an old friend and his morning has 64f water in close with tuna only 5 miles out!!
https://mobile.twitter.com/OutpostWH/status/621815400616042499
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Halilogger
Active Member
Back From Winter Harbour, whether was very good, limit in Hali's A 51 and a 30 were the hi lights of the six, various other ground fish. We managed 6 springs couple in the 20's the rest were teeners, we had to work for them, had the most luck on the outside of Cane fishing at 80' in around 110' of water. Purple Haze hoochie was our hot hook, Anchovies always seem to produce. 5 Choho between 5 & 8lbs. Not the best fishing I've experienced up there but not bad. Reports from higher up towards Cook are great, so it sounds like the next wave is coming.
Halilogger
Active Member
So warm water is there, never seen water that colour, it's like a Aqua blue, and if you want to Tuna fish close to land I think you could, I heard some chatter on the radio about guys seeing some Tuna feeding.
spring fever
Well-Known Member
Glad the water laid down for you. Sounds like we should break out the clones-just in case.!!
Buckethead905
Well-Known Member
Fished WH Monday through Wednesday. Showed up late Monday for the night bite at Cliff and didn't manage anything, the boats we met up with said the bite had just died off and was hot prior.. They managed 6 springs in short order. Tried Kains on the inside Monday night as well with only one 10lb spring. Tuesday woke up early to make a run to Top Knot, decided to drop the gear at lippy on the way, managed another two small 10s and went in for lunch instead of going to top knot. Returned to lippy a couple hours later and limited out on 20lb+ springs with the biggest around 27-28 in just under 2 hours. Wednesday morning returned back to lippy, gear wasn't down 2 minutes and we hooked into a heavy heavy fish, unfortunately we were in a derby with 4 other boats and the guy on the rod had never reeled in a fish before... while handing the rod off, we lost the fish. Fished the afternoon at lippy as well and limited out on 18-27lb springs again, no real bite time, just steady action.. We threw back around 15-20 decent coho in the 6-9lb range and probably 8-10 springs in the 10-15lb range. Kept room in the boat hoping for one good tyee and we had our chance with a what looked to be around 35-38 pounder. After a long fight he was completely exhausted and almost sinking, which made netting a real challenge as he was bigger than the net and was submerged at a 45 degree angle. On the netting attempt the fish was 3/4 of the way in the net but his tail still submerged, only hooked by the single stinger hook that had been chaffed the whole fight. With one last breath he launched himself out of the net and broke off the stinger hook. Heartbreak for a little while but still managed to hold onto the lead and win $1200 bucks from out friendly derby with friends. All in all the fishing was exceptional for our boat and one of the boats we were with. Not so much can be said for the other two boats on our trip who only managed 1 spring between the two boats, and similar reports from the local guides in regards to an absense of any spring salmon for their clients.
TyeeSlayer
Member
We fished WH last Saturday through Wednesday. Spent lots of time hunting for springs, but only managed to boat one in the low teens. Fished Lippy, the highway, Brooks Bay, Cliffe Pt. and the Lighthouse inside and out, and found it very challenging compared to previous trips. A very humbling experience. We did find some small to medium sized coho and pinks, as well as the clear blue water. We noticed that when filleting fish, their bellies were empty. Could not even figure out what they were feeding on. Caught a blue shark and saw an ocean sunfish basking on the surface as well. We did not see much bait on our sonar, and did not notice a defined bite ... just a fish here and there. I must be losing my touch or else fished in all the wrong locations. Going back up the first week of August and hoping for better success.
fishyboy99
Active Member
Don't worry TyeeSlayer, you are not losing your touch
We had about 5 days of 63deg water at the lighthouse, about 7-8deg above normal temp, so the inshore springs disappeared during that time, as soon as the NW winds started back up, they were right back in the same spots as they were before the SE gales. I have been out on the water the the last couple of days, some very nice springs just outside of the light, all the way up to the RCA closure, some out in the deep off of Brooks Bay as well. Most of the springs have needle fish inside of them, some of the bottom caught springs have squid with the needle fish. Weather has finally calmed down, although they are calling for some 2-3m rollers tomorrow. Bottom fish weren't really affected by the blue water, we still managed to pick them up, just had to get out there early before the SE winds picked up. Looking like better weather for the upcoming week, good news for the wave of boats that showed up in the harbour the last couple of days.
Regards,
Fishyboy
We had about 5 days of 63deg water at the lighthouse, about 7-8deg above normal temp, so the inshore springs disappeared during that time, as soon as the NW winds started back up, they were right back in the same spots as they were before the SE gales. I have been out on the water the the last couple of days, some very nice springs just outside of the light, all the way up to the RCA closure, some out in the deep off of Brooks Bay as well. Most of the springs have needle fish inside of them, some of the bottom caught springs have squid with the needle fish. Weather has finally calmed down, although they are calling for some 2-3m rollers tomorrow. Bottom fish weren't really affected by the blue water, we still managed to pick them up, just had to get out there early before the SE winds picked up. Looking like better weather for the upcoming week, good news for the wave of boats that showed up in the harbour the last couple of days. Regards,
Fishyboy
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spring fever
Well-Known Member
The Spring Fever II flying circus and gong show will be off Kain island by 1400 tues-staying til late thurs-green and white Orca-listen on ch 6 - I share info
newfie boy
Active Member
Good luck guys. Hopefully get together when you return. Jarrod still waiting for a call.
spring fever
Well-Known Member
Just got back-not all good although you can work thru it. Inshore is poor at the moment-Kain isl; Cliffe point is a loss-Very little at Lippy and outbound-Few coho-small Springs to 14 lbs. Springs are very hard to come by according to the radio-found them and some reasonable fishing Straight out from the harbour mouth in 400 ft of water-180 to 220 ft of wire anchovy,602 hootchy, or fake strip. It rained-not sure whether it was torrential or biblical but this could bring the fish in Good luck guys-hardest limit I've ever worked for in 20 years fishing there.
TyeeSlayer
Member
Just back from Quatsino. Fished from the 1st to the 5th. We found chinook in the 13 to 18 lbs range straight out NW from the Lighthouse in 200 ft of water, right on the bottom - army truck hootchies worked well. Also managed to catch a few at 100 ft, also in 200 ft of water, on a cop car spoon. We lost a few larger fish, but they still seemed small to me for this time of year. Rounded out our catch with medium sized coho on Coho Killer spoons and splatter back hootchies. Purple Haze flasher/hootchie combination worked as well. Did not have any luck inside at the Lighthouse or Cains or Cliffe Pt. Maybe we showed up there at the wrong times? Only caught a few pinks outside, which is odd as this is a pink year.
Bobby
Active Member
We were up July 23rd to 31st , this was our 4th year fishing Winter Harbour, Quatsino. We had great weather and as always a beautiful place to fish.
I must admit fishing was very slow if i was to compare to past years, after talking with a few people in Winter harbour we were not the only ones experiencing
it. Visited all the usual haunts and it was not what we have experienced in the past thats for sure. We decided because we were based out of Port Mcnneil
we would fish the inside. Wow fishing was very good and the water was like glass every day. We ventured up to Hardy and fished that area for a day and was well worth the fuel. All in all it was a great trip, between the four of us we took our limits and discovered some new areas.
I must admit fishing was very slow if i was to compare to past years, after talking with a few people in Winter harbour we were not the only ones experiencing
it. Visited all the usual haunts and it was not what we have experienced in the past thats for sure. We decided because we were based out of Port Mcnneil
we would fish the inside. Wow fishing was very good and the water was like glass every day. We ventured up to Hardy and fished that area for a day and was well worth the fuel. All in all it was a great trip, between the four of us we took our limits and discovered some new areas.
spring fever
Well-Known Member
I got back friday
-there was very little close inshore-decent at 360 to 400 ft-180 to 220 ft of wire. It has rained a lot while I was there and when we left so they might have moved in. The water was much colder than say 3 weeks ago-out at 400ft it was 53 to 55F
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