The C-Dancer crew just returned from our grand fishing adventure to Winter Harbour with our gracious host Dwight (aka Chromer), skipper of Checkpoint II.
Caryn and I were joined by my cousin from California, Pat in search of Salmon, Lings, Halibut and assorted bottom fish. Winter Harbour is a long haul all the way to the northwest corner of Vancouver Island. It's in a very remote wilderness area and is very beautiful. There are several "inside" fishing spots, meaning not "outside" in open ocean but I was surprised that we first had to enter into the entrance of the ocean in order to get inside. This was C-Dancer's very first experience in open ocean and she handled like a champ. The water conditions were very nice except for our first full day which was pretty sloppy along with rainy weather. The rest of the week was nice. The wildlife and scenery was spectacular. We sighted sea otters, eagles, a black bear, a humpback whale, deer amongst others. Winter Harbour is really beautiful, rustic remote and scenic.
As for the fishing we were hoping for a big haul of big Chinook salmon, called "Springs" in Canada, which is to be expected in Winter Harbour but alas, we must have come a week or two too early as they were just not around, inside or out. Fisherman who have been returning to WH for years were equally dumbfounded and had to work very long and hard to scratch out a single Spring or two. As first me, I was able to catch a nice 9 lb coho but no Springs. We salvaged our trip by focusing on bottom fish the last day. We found an enticing looking pinnacle and we're lucky to catch 3 Lings including a cool looking blue ling caught by Pat, as well as 5 rockfish. Our total haul was 10 fish brought home, 1 pink salmon released and 1 coho lost. Not bad considering there were no salmon in sight. It was too bad about the salmon but as they say, "that's fishing".
Thanks Dwight for getting us out there, it was nice meeting your buddy Brandon and it was a grand adventure for the C-Dancer crew.
Caryn and I were joined by my cousin from California, Pat in search of Salmon, Lings, Halibut and assorted bottom fish. Winter Harbour is a long haul all the way to the northwest corner of Vancouver Island. It's in a very remote wilderness area and is very beautiful. There are several "inside" fishing spots, meaning not "outside" in open ocean but I was surprised that we first had to enter into the entrance of the ocean in order to get inside. This was C-Dancer's very first experience in open ocean and she handled like a champ. The water conditions were very nice except for our first full day which was pretty sloppy along with rainy weather. The rest of the week was nice. The wildlife and scenery was spectacular. We sighted sea otters, eagles, a black bear, a humpback whale, deer amongst others. Winter Harbour is really beautiful, rustic remote and scenic.
As for the fishing we were hoping for a big haul of big Chinook salmon, called "Springs" in Canada, which is to be expected in Winter Harbour but alas, we must have come a week or two too early as they were just not around, inside or out. Fisherman who have been returning to WH for years were equally dumbfounded and had to work very long and hard to scratch out a single Spring or two. As first me, I was able to catch a nice 9 lb coho but no Springs. We salvaged our trip by focusing on bottom fish the last day. We found an enticing looking pinnacle and we're lucky to catch 3 Lings including a cool looking blue ling caught by Pat, as well as 5 rockfish. Our total haul was 10 fish brought home, 1 pink salmon released and 1 coho lost. Not bad considering there were no salmon in sight. It was too bad about the salmon but as they say, "that's fishing".
Thanks Dwight for getting us out there, it was nice meeting your buddy Brandon and it was a grand adventure for the C-Dancer crew.
