So the long awaited trip has come and gone. We headed up to Port Hardy after my shift on Sunday. Caught the 8:15PM Ferry and arrived in Port hardy around 3:30AM after a slow drive thru experience at McD's in Nanaimo. Got unpacked and hit the sack around 4am. Of course I couldn't sleep well and before 8 am while the house slept I was out in the boat setting the rigger up and pulling out the nets, rods and gear for the week. Shortly after the family started to rouse and pop out of bed. Somehow we left the rental by 10 am and headed over to Bear Cove Marina where we launched the boat and found a very empty parking lot. With the boarder closed and late season the place was a ghost town compared to usual. We were able to get a spot on the dock at the Bait Shack for a week which was really nice. Saves on launching and loading time with the family. It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to head out to Taylor Bank. Right before Taylor we saw a good tide rip and a few coho jumped so we dropped the gear and did a troll. Had one good hit that came off before we could grab it. So we moved on to Taylor. It was our first time so we tried trolling the bottom for halis. Came up with a couple rockfish. So we pulled out the jigging sticks and bait on some mudrakers and started jigging. It didn't take too long before I pulled up a decent chicken probably a little under 20 pounds. Unfortunately the wind picked up with the currents we were drifting too fast so we took off. Went and caught some taco meat near shore before heading in.
Day #2 we headed out to the Gordon's first and trolle the south end. We found it to be loaded with coho. The first one to the boat was a 39cm clipped coho so decided better keep are first legal salmon for dinner. Turns out that was the only clipped fish we got all week. Then we proceeded to catch and lose a combined total of probably 15 coho, the rest that came near the boat for release were all unclipped fish and released. So we moved to Castle Rock and Same thing, double header wild cohos and no Chinook in sight even in tight. So we moved on to some bottom structure and jigged up a couple nice lings and some rockfish. Also a couple big Yelloweye that we released with the fish descending device. Last stop was some near shore fishing for some taco meat. The kids love this last stop of the day, they call it "fun fishing" because they can cast and catch the fish themselves and it is pretty fast action. Once we get a few rockfish, greenling or perch for tacos we headed in.
Day #3 we headed to Castle early am for a trial at the chinook and came up empty. Just more Unclipped Coho. Kind of frustrating. So only wasted an hour there and took off for the bottom. After coming up with three quick yellow eyes in a row we gave up on the bottom because the descending fish is a pain and I'd rather not catch them in the first place if we can't keep them. They are all over that area though and quite an easy incidental catch for us. So we moved to Ghost island for a halibut drift, but no takers. So moved back out the Taylor bank and drifted three different spots. Third spot was a charm and we hooked up on three smaller halibut. We were stoked since I had never caught a halibut before in my trips to Port Hardy (never having tried much) and now we already had 4 to take home. Once again stopped in for some taco meat near shore and found a big greenling hot spot. The kids nailed a few in short order and we went in with our taco meat in hand.
Day# 4 the forecast was for light wind all day. I took the chance and got everyone to the dock by 630 and leaving the dock at 633 am somehome. We headed up Goletus channel on a glass calm sea, it was excellent. No other boats were running up though. We thought there might be some guide boats headed out. Crossed Nahwitti Bar without incident on a flood tide with no wind. Headed out to Cape Sutil. One troll didn't see any bait, no birds, no boats, no life, no salmon. So moved to Shuttleworth and same thing trolled around from 50 to 90 feet deep and absolutely no life. No boats at all. A few guides had told me area 11 was dead, but had to go check it out for myself. Also it was such perfect conditions I figured it was a great day to just go experience it and learn the area for the first time. So after a wile headed out about 7 miles to a location on cook bank and started drifiting. Drifted for about and hour before we started getting bites. Ended up pulling in three halibut and losing a few. Biggest was 36 pounds. Also two smaller yellow eye that we sent back down with the descender on the downrigger. Decided to head back in towards Pine island. Tried a few humps out there and nothing home. Tried and couple other spots and on the first drop for dad his jig stopped but it wasn't the bottom. It was big lingcod 32 pounds. While fishing this hump we could hear whales coming up for air around the islands but couldn't see the spray. Then all of a sudden we hear this impact like the biggest belly flop and new instantly what was happening. We looked up and saw another whale breaching and a huge slpash. They did this about 5 or 6 more times. So we went over a little closer but kept our distance cause we wanted them to keep on doing it. My brother sent his drone up and over them and got some cool shots of them swimming around. I believe they were a small group of Minke Whales. We actually saw this same group of whales in the area almost every day. Then we went in and saw some sealions on another rock. There were hundreds of them on the rock. We also stopped for a pass at Castle Rock without any hits. It seemed the coho had moved on by Thursday. There was only one other boat out there and it didn't look like they had any action either. So we headed in for some near shore "Fun Fishing" for the kids and some taco meat. Yes we ate fresh fish tacos 4 epic nights in a row!!! On top of whatever else my wife and mom had planned for dinner.
Day#5 was checkout day. So my dad and I hit the dock at 6 am, forgot the tackle bag and license so went back and ended up leaving dock at 630am. Headed to Duval for some last ditch Chinook effort. Caught a couple shakers and that was it. Several other guys out there but no salmon caught that we saw. So headed in for 9 am to help pack up and check out. My dad and I were ready to pack it in since it was raining and windy in am, but when we got back to the dock with the family it was beautiful again and everyone wanted to go back out. So we headed to Gordon and trolled around. There was absolutely nothing. The salmon were gone. So after a couple hours we decided to catch a few more fish for tacos and "Fun fishing" for the kids. Then we packed it in and loaded up to hit an earlier ferry then expected. Got back and made it on the 100% full Ferry in standby both my truck and boat and my dad in his vehicle. Made it home safe and sound.
Was a great trip, but my first Island adventure ever coming home without a single salmon. Spoke with some guides on the dock and apparently they had some torrential down pours the week before and the salmon bolted. As always though there are plenty other fish in the sea to enjoy on a fishing trip. The wild life up there and scenary on these super clear days is second to none as well! I love it up there. I'll post some pictures from my phone below.
If you guys want to explore this area I highly recommend the sponsors on this page Serenegeti Fishing Charters. I've interacted with many happy clients on the dock in Port Hardy and facebook. I am also greatful for David's feedback and situation report when I head up. Very helpful even though I'm just getting out myself.
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Port Hardy Adventure Report
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