Queen Charlotte's Fishing!

BigBird007

BigBird007

Crew Member
Hi

Looking for recommendations for a trip of a lifetime to the Hida Gwaii!

My mom is sending my dad and I on the trip we have talked about doing for years but never really had the time or prepared to put the funds out to do so. Age is sneeking up on my dad fast so it's time to spend the money and make the time to make memories that will last forever.

Now it comes down to booking it we are not really sure what lodge to go with? We are looking for something self guided as both of us have many years experience on the water.

Getting into some fishing grounds that will have a possibility of catching a 50lb spring will defiantly make me loose a few nights sleep in the following months :)

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

BB
 
If you want self guided you should look into West Coast Fishing Club - North Island Lodge. If you really want to go for it and be pampered with a guide then the Clubhouse or Langara. You are fishing the exact same water at all three places. You can also self guide at Langara but the main difference is in terms of fishing style - no downriggers at Langara. They both catch big fish and lots of fish. They all encourage letting the monsters go...
 
Thank You... I forgot to mention I will be letting the big one go back to spawn. With today's technology a quick picture a few measurements and a replica can easily be made for my office!
 
If your dad is getting up there in age all other things being relatively equal I'd go with the lodge with the largest most comfortable boats. When your a little older that makes a huge difference in enjoying the experience. That's just my perspective. If you were talking about a couple of young bucks going then all I'd concern myself with is the best fishing location and trip timing.
 
If you want to self guide with some initial guidance available the west coast resorts might be a good bet. They have lodges on Hippa and Engelfield on the west coast of The islands. You will have less chance of a 40+ fish as the big rivers inlet and Skeena fish dont go that way, they are caught at Langara or outside Naden harbour (Queen Charlotte Lodge). However Numbers of fish seem to be higher there than Langara and there are some protected waters to fish if the weather gets nasty. They have nice facilities at QCL in Naden harbour Just south of Langara on the eastern side, but its gotten so big the fishing grounds can be a bit crowded, and they have moved to more guided fishing, but still have self guided. Langara isn't as crowded as it used to be with the Oak Bay operations gone. They used to be the discount operations with ship based lodges and all self guided, and used to discount the trips heavily, you could easily get them 50% off if you booked a month or so in advance. I kind of miss them as I had booked trips with them for as little as $1500 in the past on the MV Mirabell which were basic accommodations but were fine if you wanted to spend all day fishing and didn't really care about fancy lounges, spas and bars.
 
I have only been to Langara Fishing Lodge and it was an amazing 5 days all around. The boats are not equiped with downriggers (at least when I was there in 2010) but catching large chinook on cutplug 10 pulls behind the boat is 100x the fun IMO.
 
Go to Perrigren lodge and ask to fish with Jake. He only cutplugs in the kelp beds and gets the most big ones
 
I have been with both west coast fishing club & west coast resorts. Both use down riggers on all boats. Both offer 4 & 5 day trips. Standard west coast resort package is for a guide 50% of the fishing day. All the lodges I mentioned will let you self-guide, but at Langara they did not let the self-guided boats follow out guided boat the an offshore Halibut spot. West coast resorts also offer an upgrade to an enclosed 24ft boat. Standard boat at all resorts is a 18-22 ft open center console. Fishing day is 10 hours long. High temps will be in the 50's &wind/seas are common issues.
Langara is probably the preferable location; there are sheltered spots where the catching is actually good & most locations are within a 15 minute run. The only operation at Langara with down riggers is west coast resorts. The operate two resorts at Langara; North Island Lodge & The Clubhouse. I have only stayed at the NIL This lodge does not offer enclosed boats. Clubhouse does. NIL is more basic.

I was at Langara in 2015 & Hippa in 2016. 2016 was a bad year for Chinook & we caught more Chinook in one day at Langara that we did the whole trip at Hippa. At Langara we fished 50% of our days targeting large Chinook (w/o even a bite) but still caught over 10 Chinook a day 15-25lb. Time fished was early June. Hippa Chinook were similar sized & as we were there Aug 21 we also got Coho 13-16lb.

On our last full day at Hippa our guide wanted to make a statement & demanded we stay out for our 13 fish each all species limit. At Hippa they encourage only bringing home half the possession limit of Lings/rockfish & release Lings over 30lb.
Hippa also has DFO permission to vacuum package fish in 1lb bags (@ $1 per lb). At Langara we were told on arrival that they imposed a 50lb limit on take-home fish. I was later told by a long-time guest this was not enforced.

FYI the BC & Alaska commercial troll seasons open in the June 15-20ish timeframe. The lodge salesmen will tell you this is no big deal; I strongly disagree. They usually catch their quota within a week. There will openings for Coho a bit later.
The peak time at Langara for the big one's is late July.

Whatever your choice, be sure to ask specific question, especially if you want unguided. At Hippa one of the unguided boats ended-up 25 miles from the resort up a wrong inlet; unfamiliarity with navigation/GPS usage seemed to be the issue. Apptitude fishing & navigating are 2 different thing. How expert is your bait cutting & down rigger operating? Personally i think your crazy not to go fully guided.
 
I have never been up that way. If I ever go, it will be fully guided. I can fish, but what the heck, might as well have the full meal deal.
 
Hippa would be my first choice. Unless you are basing the trip solely around catching and releasing a monster Chinook, the volume of fish and the excellent diversity of Hippa Island is what keeps me going back.
 
BigBird007 said:
Hi

Looking for recommendations for a trip of a lifetime to the Hida Gwaii!

My mom is sending my dad and I on the trip we have talked about doing for years but never really had the time or prepared to put the funds out to do so. Age is sneeking up on my dad fast so it's time to spend the money and make the time to make memories that will last forever.

Now it comes down to booking it we are not really sure what lodge to go with? We are looking for something self guided as both of us have many years experience on the water.

Getting into some fishing grounds that will have a possibility of catching a 50lb spring will defiantly make me loose a few nights sleep in the following months :)

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

BB
Click to expand...

I actually just took my dad on a bucket list trip to Langara last June. We had been talking about it for 30 years since I was a kid and it was time to make it happen. We are very proficient salmon anglers so we decided to fish self guided out of North Island Lodge. Having a guide put a fish on our lines so we can reel it in just doesn't do it for me, I enjoy making the decisions and doing the work a guide would do even if it meant we might not catch as many as the guided boats. The fishing was subpar by Langara standards when we went but we still hooked plenty of fish, seemed to do as well or better than the rest of the fleet AND caught and released a tyee! Food and service was amazing! We had a blast - memories we will cherish forever.

Based on all the research I had done the best time to catch volume would be in June whereas mid July to early August is the peak time to hook into a 40+ tyee (although they are becoming more rare every year). Go with the expectation that it could very well be the best fishing experience of your life however don't expect a tyee. They just arent there in numbers anymore as they used to be 20-30 years ago. To put it in perspective, there were 24 guests at the lodge fishing fishing for 5 days (approx 35-40 hours on the water per person). 4 Tyees were caught during those 5 days at the lodge and we happened to be one of the lucky ones.

I made this vid which will give you an idea of the experience up there at Langara with NIL. If you have any other questions feel free to ask - I booked over a year in advance and put a lot of time and research into making my decision.

 
Awesome video! A great compilation of the experience! Any of the lodges provide an incredible experience, I think you should base your decision on the desired style of fishing. With downriggers you definitely land more fish, use of dummy flashers bring in more fish and the riggers hook up more fish. But, mooching provides a greater chance at catching one of those tyee sized fish. If you noticed in that video, both large fish were caught on the back, weighted rod. If you're more comfortable with downriggers, then NIL is probably your best option, but mooching is such an exciting way to catch fish, and you make the hook set, not the rigger. Much more pleasurable and simple way to fish.
 
For self guided I have heard from 4 buddies who went here and said it was great; they are experienced and fished a number of resorts up there.

http://westcoastfishingclub.com/properties/north-island-lodge/#section1

Also had some friends who did Queen Charlotte Lodge....they were largely self guided and had a great time but they didn't have too much to compare it to. They stayed on the Tug that they have, I think called the Driftwood? The did well on the fish as well although not being all that knowledgeable back in the day.
 
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