2016 Winter Harbour Reports

Launching is ok on a low tide -recovery can be a bear due to a sharp lip. Depends on how low a tide you are talking about. I'm mindful of the tide but seldom worry about it-If you have 3 or so feet your ok. The ramp is good for the most part but there is no floating dock beside it.
 
That sounds better than I expected. Maybe we'll go to Coal Harbour. I've got a CC so not having a dock is no big deal. It's an easy board over the bow.

Thanks everyone.

Any fishing reports or tips?
 
Brian Reiber said:
That sounds better than I expected. Maybe we'll go to Coal Harbour. I've got a CC so not having a dock is no big deal. It's an easy board over the bow.

Thanks everyone.

Any fishing reports or tips?
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Kramer has a good point, as long as you launch on a 3ft tide or higher it is just fine. You can pull up to the dock right next to the launch to pick up you driver.
We were out there two weeks ago and did very well on all species, coho to 12lb, springs to 25lb, and got all our halies and lings! Larger fish were off shore.
 
bigbruce said:
I'm not very familiar with the area - how long a run is it from Coal Harbour to the fishing grounds?
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If fishing offshore I'd say your looking at minimum 1.5hrs in your rig to get out...a bit longer if you want to go further out to "hyway"
Depending on time of yr and what your targeting you can literally fish minutes from launch
 
Brian Reiber said:
Kramer,
I have considered Coal Harbour. I believe it is the preferred choice by most. I'm thinking port Alice because it has a better launch. I don't remember coal harbours launch but I am launching with an suv and I know I won't have any problems in port Alice.

Has anyone had problems at a low tide in Coal Harbour?
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The ramp at Cole Harbour was a WW2 RCAF ramp used by their sea planes, Cansoes I believe,
so the ramp is not very steep. I have bunks on my trailer, so to launch and recover I have to get my
wheels wet.
 
Brian Reiber said:
Kramer,
I have considered Coal Harbour. I believe it is the preferred choice by most. I'm thinking port Alice because it has a better launch. I don't remember coal harbours launch but I am launching with an suv and I know I won't have any problems in port Alice.

Has anyone had problems at a low tide in Coal Harbour?
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Low tide at coal harbor is unlaunchable. On a good tide you need to back your truck tires into the water a bit to launch/retrieve.
On the fishing side I just got back on Wed. from W.H. ( guys 3 boats). We did about half as well as normal, We had a few good mornings in Grants bay and the fish were all chocked full of squid. Went to Brooks one day for bottom fish, did well at Solander for lings, but on that day there was a great bite at Grants. The final day we went to the 300 ft. line and caught several chickens and one of our boats trolled and did well for springs before we were blown off. There were a few being caught at the light house.
Good luck, I'm sure the next surge is flowing in now.
 
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WH wed by 2pm-water was pretty flat decided to work off Lippy working out to the hiway in order to find the fish location for our first full day thurs. Worked out bound using chovies and a lighthouse GLO green and white alternating to a cop car. Good hit at 190 ft-definite Spring but didn't stick-seemed slow-finally at about 220ft got a good one to stick-nice quality fish about 18lbs. Very slow-decided to go back into Grants bay for the evening and skip supper . Did some good if not slow work on Springs. Best was 22 lbs. For this time of year it was slow and no Coho. Went to our anchorage for a very late supper and plan for the morning. Into grants at 0445-bait was much less than the night before-Nada and then the cavalry arrived-obviously they had had a good morning bite the day before because everybody showed up. Hung in there for an hour and didn't see a net-headed out and around the corner and the GLO green and white scored on a feisty 18lber still it was slow-then I took a terrific strike and a blistering run from a Spring with real shoulders-3 more long runs and now the boat is all cleaned up and into a sulking -slogging match. 15 min in and I felt the hook pull-out-best fish I've had on in 3 years-not a happy camper, only excitement for an hour, Worked out to 400 feet-dead -dead-decided to go back to where the only Springs we had touched were. Put on my very large hootchy with a LED light inside which I had written about a couple of weeks ago. It resembles an opal squid which was in the bellies of the fish we had cleaned the night before. Terrific strike-200 ft depth 210 ft of wire- 1 really good run and then I realized we had a large Hali-This is not going to be quick or easy-since I only have 3/0 hooks 30 lb test and 101/2 ft rod-1/2 hour later we boated a 118cm hali. Cut to the chase-salmon fishing was slow by WH standards for this time of year-most fish were around Grants and Lippy-a little behind Kains mostly coho. Cliffe produced a few this morning because that was the only place the fleet could fish. The highway was dead for us but we never fished south. Crabbing was decent. If you are planning on anchoring out-know what you are about because we fished late thurs night-the weather had turned very nasty-I put us into a very safe anchorage and man did it howl through the night-no going seaward today so we came home a day early-looks pretty snotty for the next few days. Good Luck DSC00900.JPG DSC00892.JPG DSC00893.JPG DSC00895.JPG
 
Spring fever, you are my long lost father and I demand you take me on all future fishing excursions.;)
 
RB I have always been afraid that someday someone would show-up with words like that!! Reminds me of the lines from an old newfie song
"sure that's not possible I'm not the boys Dad!----BUT that doesn't mean he's not a fine lad" LOL . Keep in touch-my crew are older than me and they are starting to find it tough-some of them might want to sit out the odd trip!
 
I keep hearing over the radio guys talking about ling alley. Can someone point out to me where this is located in the winter harbour area. PM me if you don't want to post openly. Thanks for the help.
We fished Sunday morning and it was slow and had to cut the trip short because of sea sickness with my wife and three kids.
 
Great report Mike! Thanks for sharing. Firelight is up there right now with some buddys. Hopefully he'll post up when he gets back.

We're heading up 2nd week of August again this year. Can't wait.
 
Bugleemup-haven't heard that specific term but I don't know what it is with guys up there and all the codes, depths and BS wire etc etc. If you want lings take a chart and look south towards lawn point , look for pinnacles of a decent size where there is a good drop in depth-say 100 down to 180-then fish the edge and the drop. Also I look for places where contour lines come very close together indicating a steep drop. There are many such places to the south and beyond lawn point-depends how far you want to go. If I don't get something on in 5 minutes and I'm not anchored I move to the next spot. I use good bait such as herring and/or sal. belly,octo. etc. They are there -a little easier to get early in the season rather than later. An hour or so with the chart or your plotter before you go will be well rewarded. If you find a spot keep it to yourself-lings are territorial -a spot can get fished out if hit too often.
 
spring fever said:
Bugleemup-haven't heard that specific term but I don't know what it is with guys up there and all the codes, depths and BS wire etc etc. If you want lings take a chart and look south towards lawn point , look for pinnacles of a decent size where there is a good drop in depth-say 100 down to 180-then fish the edge and the drop. Also I look for places where contour lines come very close together indicating a steep drop. There are many such places to the south and beyond lawn point-depends how far you want to go. If I don't get something on in 5 minutes and I'm not anchored I move to the next spot. I use good bait such as herring and/or sal. belly,octo. etc. They are there -a little easier to get early in the season rather than later. An hour or so with the chart or your plotter before you go will be well rewarded. If you find a spot keep it to yourself-lings are territorial -a spot can get fished out if hit too often.
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So true, very good info. Most guys will not post up ling spots for good reason. They are resident and easily susceptible to over fishing. Unless you like chewy and tough meat, better to release the big females for propagation of the species. Good luck finding your lings up there. Finding them is half the fun. Way more rewarding knowing you scouted out your own locations.

Spring Fever (and others), thanks for the great reports. Hopefully the big springs will be showing soon.
 
Captain PartyMarty said:
Let's hope so we are in winter in 10 days can't wait
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Let's not jump the gun. It's not quite winter yet. But it could be fall by the time this predicted "record" run of springs shows up at the rate they're taking.

Just kidn around. Hope you get to party hearty up in Winter Harbour, with double headers of Tyees from dawn till dusk.
 
Anything happening in WH? I was hoping to read something how the fishing is.
We are going to be there in 1 week, getting hard to focus on anything other than our fishing trip.
 
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