Quatsino

[Kramer]

Heading to Quatsino Thursday for the weekend. Anybody been up there lately? We'll be staying in Port Alice and running out each day. Mainly a hali run for me this time but I heard from a friend in Port Alice last week that springs and coho are there for the taking right now.

 

[Kramer]

Went up to Port Alice last Thursday to fish Quatsino for the first time hoping to find some halis. Ran out Friday morning to Quatsino. Read about catching butts on the inside so we focused there for the first half of the day. Lots of structure and tons of lings and rockfish but no halis. Fished for about 6 hours before heading into Winter Harbour to talk to some of the locals about halibut spots. A couple of the guides told us that they are running offshore about 5 or 6 miles. By that time the wind was kicking up and my pops doesn't do well in the big water so we stayed in fairly close. Hooked one real good fish but never got it up close enough to get a peek. Fun stuff but not exactly what we were hoping for.

Question, is the halibut fishing up there an offshore thing mostly? From the sounds of things, you can catch butts inside but it seems like they are more incidental than anything. Just curious to learn more about that area. Next summer we are renting a condo for two months and I have a couple more trips planned later this summer.

 

[mikevv]

Yes, a outside thing, most of the guides go a long way (15-20) miles, you can catch chickens 5-6 miles offshore but the days of catching big fish close to the harbour are few and far between.
How was the salmon fishing?? Where did you fish??
Thanks
Mike

 

[Kramer]

To be honest we only spent about an hour salmon fishing. Fished Cliff point with two takedowns, one fish in the boat. Not huge but about a 10 pound spring for the BBQ.

The guides in Winter Harbour were telling us that when they are running out to that 5-6 mile range for butts they would finish up and drop the riggers for their salmon. Getting fish in the 20's pretty consistently from what they said and quite a few coho mixed in too.