Lets talk fishin holes.

[id. painter]

Ive just returned from two weeks of fishing Northern Vancouver Island.

I have only been able to fish and vacation on the north island twice. It is awsome.The entire northern half of the island has less than 30,000 people on it.
My father lives about 10 K south of Port McNiel on the east side of the island.If you go east it is not open ocean and the water is calmer no swells . the fishing is great and the views are beautyful.
This year i spent most of my days going to the west side of the island and taking the boat out the Quatsino(sp) inlet.
Let me try to describe the scene.
Each morning i had to drive from my fathers house to Coal Harbor. I was driving slowly(50mph) ,so as to not hurt my boat canopy.I would get on the road each morning around 5:00 A.M. and it took about one hour to get to the boat ramp.Each morning i would pass (see) a couple other cars , maybe.
At the boat ramp, I had to wait for another boat to launch (one) and they were with me.
The launching fee was 5$ Canadian, and about every third day the owner would ask for what i owed him.
At take out i had to wait for another boat(one),once.
I also had to wait while the owner used the big fork-lift to lift a float plane out of the water and onto the dock.
The fishing and boating was undescribeable.
The Quatsino inlet runs about 25miles to the open sea. The entrie run each morning was in glass. No wind , no swell no wakes. No towns. There are a couple fish farms and some natives who live along the shores, but very few.
Where the inlet meets the sea there is a bay or harbor that stays protected from the open ocean.
If the ocean looked at all rough we stayed inside and fished a place called Cliff Point.
At cliff point you could fish for Coho(clipped or non-clipped) pinks, and chinooks. The limit was 4 salmon per day. You could only have two nooks and two coho, to make up a limit.
If it wasnt rough and thins looked good we went out 10-12 miles for Halibut and ling.
the Halibut we landed were not very big (15-25 lbs), but we limited each day, (two fish each).
The salmon were thick out in the Hali hole so after fishing deep each morning for bottom fish, we would break out the salmon gear and catch a limit.
I took my son and his best friend (age11) and i cant tell you how much pleasure i got from letting those two little men have time of thier lives . I dont think i landed very many fish ,,it was way more fun helping and watching the boys.
On the run back each day we would stop and check the Prawn traps and the Crab traps . The prawns were anywhere from 50 -100 # each day and the crabs are thick.
If any of you are interested in a trip up to that country,, it is awsome and well worth seeing.
I also took a two day tour by boat(my boat) thru islands and coves that are endless. We spent the night at Echo Bay resort (my entire family).
P.S... I was running as much as 100 miles per day for 11 days and my boat gets 4 miles per gallon. My father couldnt believe the milage .
A family friend was running in a 21ft. Trophy with a 175hp. 2strk. Merc. and was getting less than half the mileage i was. id. painter.

[id. painter]

Ah,,, a nibble.
Now ill set the hook... Hi, Ho.
My parents do the trip several times each summer.
Echo Bay is about a 30 miles boat ride from my fathers home.
The country(landscape ) surrounding the water is endless vast, forests , with high peaks jutting up to glacial altitudes, right from sea level .
This year we went sight seeing from my fathers house all around thru islands, coves , inlets and the main land . The first day was 90 miles.
About noon oe so we stopped to ling fish in the Bartly sound (?) We were getting rock cod so fast wenever did get a good ling.
We also stopped at an island called Minstrel Is. The billboard was filled with photos of some of the Tyee(big chinook, over 30lbs) Lots of 60,70's , 80,s and even 90's caught there. These fish are here in April when the weather isnt too good.
Echo bay is famous for it Coho fishing but right now they have restricted the limits and this is hurting the resort business.
The resort was nice , mostly big boats,the 250,000 kind .When i was there i couldnt help but think of the Salty Dogs . The people mostly parked thier boats and hung out . They read books, puttered with the boats, RELAXED.
My wife and i both commented on how these boat people are so layed back and nice.
We ate at a floating restraunt called Pier's .The food was great . It was a group serving, with multi entrees. Very private and personal even though you didnt know everyone.
My boat was the urnal (so to speak),the smallest there. So, i rented a room for my family.Everyone mostly slept on thier boats.
The room was not fancy. Just a regular old room with kitchenette.
We saw Minkee, and Orca, White sidded Dolphin,Sea Otter ect...
Im a very serious fishaholic but after 7 days of 4:30 AM and all the salmon i could catch this family sight seeing run was a blast. It recharged my enough to go 4more early mornings.
If you target the gig fish in specific runs you will catch some really big Chinook. Rivers Inlet is 90 boat miles from my fathers home and 2-3-4 hour boat ride from Port Hardy.
On the ferry home i was talking with some guys that had fished Rivers inlet for several years.
They had 42-46-55 and were going back.
They were trolling a 6oz. weight, 5feet of leader and a whole Herring,,, 15-25 pulls behind the boat. Hi Ho.
There is much more water than land ,, Its a boat wonderland. id. painter.

[Mr. Fisherman]

So, when do we go?

[outdoor.spec.ops]

Great story, sounds like you had a ball.
Any pictures of this great fishing?

[The Bad Fish]

[ 08-27-2003, 08:27 PM: Message edited by: BUG_FLICKER ]

[Silver One]

Id Painter, Et all,
It's a small world after all! We too just got back from Quatsino sound. Except we didn't run the 25 miles from Coal Harbor. We drove 40 miles on a chuck-hole filled gravel road to the metropolis of Winter Harbor, year round population '8'. This used to be the commercial salmon troller summer port etc. so they have good fuel (diesel and gas), a small store, moorage, small campground (with power), several B&B's and cabins and several guide operations. The run from W/H to the ocean is 4 miles. We brought freezers which most other campers brought also. The fishing for us was pretty much the same as Id Painter says, except, on the last day two of us hit the mother load. Five lings (28-32lbs.), four halibut (32,40,50,110lbs.), one coho 14lbs, three yellow eye (10-21lbs.). We were anchored in one spot for the halibut and one of the lings and coho. It was flattttt as a pond and we had to keep pinching ourselves to tell us we weren't in a dream. Ray, give me a call you won't believe the beauty of this place.
Mike

[Mr. Fisherman]

It's a small world.
I have been wanting to put together a trip to Echo Bay Resort and have been trying to cooerce Pilar and Puffin to join me.
Maybe I could join you next year.
Tell me more I'm all ears...

[id. painter]

Thanks for the support.I think maybe there was a little doubt about my story.
You cant tell people what it is like , words cant describe all the wonderful details .
Im glad you had the same good time as myself.
I knew that Winter harbor was there, i saw the boats come and go each day and had already started planning a week of staying at Winter harbor in a trailer with a friend or two.
This will save me the $ on gas and help me stay caught up on sleep.
Im still planning on a 4 day fish at rivers inlet.
Did you guys get any good springs while you were there?
We got several over 20lbs. The best was about 30lbs and my son hooked one right off of Cliff Point that ran about 175yards in about 20seconds, into the Kelp after 20more minutes he broke the leader. I was running 30lb Mamima and broke three fish off. Next year im going to 50lb leader. id. painter

[Silver One]

Id. Painter,
We were in W/H August 8th-16th. No, the springs were a bit of a disapointment. We did catch several smaller ones the first couple days on the outside but then things went downhill on them. Most others reported the same results. We did do the 'Cliff point' show on the inside and managed a 27 and 30lber. and ofcourse coho everywhere.

Ling,ling, everywhere. Every rockpile yielded some. But generally everything under 75' produced 10-15lbers, 75'-150' a slightly better grade, and over 150' the best grade. Could be wrong about that but that was our experience. The best ling and yellow-eye fishing was on a 'hump'(couple miles long and a mile wide) 12 miles north of the light house and 4 or 5 from shore. It ranged from 150' to 190' and held many big ling.

Didn't see the green Sea-Runner. We were in 18.5' and 20' green and blue topped 'Silver Streaks' and one 19' Aluma-weld supper-vee boats.

There seems to be plenty of interest for next year on this end but we usually plan trips the first of the year around vacation times.

Mike

[id. painter]

Silver one!!! This is a question for you.Only answer if you feel confortable.
Where was your ling hole?
We fished in 300 to 350 ft. for hali, and found lots of them. But i didnt find a good ling hole on the west side.Were you fishing Aug 22 and before that . If you were there then you may have noticed my boat.Its a green Hewes Craft 200 sea runner with Nimpkish decals on the sides.
After the first day out I talked with a boat that had been out in the 350ft water, trolling a cut plug Herring at 150 ft. with no flasher. This guy was also talking about the size of ling they had gotten and how they had limited on springs (chinook under 30 lbs)in about 30 minutes that morning.After they had thier salmon they went after ling.
Im already planning next years trip. Will you be there again? Let me know.

[id. painter]

Thanks for the reply , Silver One.
I was fishing deeper most of the time . We were mostly in 300 feet.I didnt spend much time working the rock piles . Thanks for the tip.
We were getting lots of Halibut ,but not the big boys like you got the last day. Can you give me advice on that for next year? What Hali bait or lure were you using. How deep ? or maybe the lat. and long. for a Hali hole.
I have gotten the impression that the springs are very unpredictable. They come thru when they are there and it seems like several runs come thru each summer. You just have be get lucky and have your line in the water when they are there.
The only way to consistantly catch the big nooks is to target the big runs. Campbell river had a run of chinook going while i was there. Rivers Inlet, the Barkley sound (?).Also had big fish running in Aug. Have you started setting dates for next year . For me the it will be thru Aug again probably Aug 1 thru the 18th or 20th.
I would love to meet you and mabe hook up for some fishing next year... Hi Ho. id. painter.