Fishing the Queen Charlotte Islands

Brace yourself. I have seen 107 in the Broughtons, don't remember what it was in C', but hot is hot, and on the water that is absolute hell.
 
what are the docks like? I did not see anything on their web site about a launch or dock. I do see that they have hispeed internet so I expect fishing reports Ken.
 
Ken,
I'm really happy to see that you're getting to the Queen Charlottes. You're taking enough time to find the fish. It's an interesting place. I look forward to your report when you get back. Which fishing buddy are you taking along?
Lyle
 
Chromer,
I am taking a small freezer-loaded in the back of the C-Dory. We have done this at Ucluelet for years and it works great. The rules allow you some latitude in how you process your catch, but generally we gut and head salmon and freeze whole. When we get home, if the fish is larger that 10-12lbs, we will use a sawzall with a large tooth pruning blade to cut into serving size chunks and then vac-pak. This sounds strange, but works quite well.

Tom,
We were not able to get dock space, so we plan to launch and retrieve each day. Will try to post full info on launch ramp, parking etc.

Lyle,
Mike and Lyndon are both going with me. Talk about cozy in a truck camper! Seriously though we are having a great time already and we are still on the road.

Today we made 351 miles and we are camped in Vanderhoof, BC. The wx is quite a bit cooler today-only 89 degrees.
 
We made it to the Queen Charlottes without any problems. Ferry trip was uneventful except for one little surprise. The ferry only has one door so I had to back the boat on down a long winding ramp. They have great helpers and it went very smoothly. We got set up in camp and had to wait two days for high winds to die down. First day out today we did very well. Caught and released 12-15 small pinks and coho. Kept one 17lb chinook and one 8lb coho. I expect we will eat most of those two in the next few days.

Anyone contemplating a trip here: Hidden Island Resort is a very nice place to set up. Very large private campsites with full hook-ups. The govt ramp is free but no dock. This would make it very difficult to launch alone, but with help it works out ok. There is a seaplane dock about 200 yards up the beach where you can pick up the driver after launching the boat. Truck and trailer parking is ok in a gravel parking lot.

Fishing areas are fairly close with 5-10mile runs out a very narrow inlet. You need to watch the tides because of very high currents on the ebb.

Great start for the trip.
 
Weather continues to be great here. No rain since we have been here. So far big salmon is 42lbs and big halibut is 41lbs. I have posted some pix in my album.
 
Sounds like a great trip Ken! I would love to go up to the QCI's to fish. Keep us posted and be sure to post some pics of your big fish.
 
We released several smaller coho today and kept a 36lb chinook. Lots of coho in this area but we still haven't found any of the large "northern" fish the locals talk about. Everyone says they should be here by now. I have posted pix in my album.
 
I just added pictures to my album. We had a great fishing trip. We didn’t catch large numbers of chinook but the few we did catch were huge. We had a 42 and a 36lb-the two largest chinook I have caught on the C-Dory. We also had the largest halibut I have caught at 68lb. The coho fishing was fast and furious with our largest at 12lb. We saw a few 15-18lbers at the cleaning table but we never connected with one. We had excellent bottom fishing in relatively shallow water-halibut, lingcod, truecod, many species of rockfish. Anyone contemplating a trip: it is a long drive-1200 miles from Spokane with a 6 hour ferry ride from Prince Rupert. Since we are retired we were able to take three days each way to drive, so not too bad. The RV park is very nice with large private campsites. Launching is easy, but recovery is difficult due to no dock and strong currents at the ramp unless you time the slack tide just right. We took a 7 cubic foot freezer so we were able to handle most of our own fish. We did take 3 large chinook to the local Sea-Pak to freeze and vac-pak. They are certified to handle your catch and cut into small sizes so you can stay legal with the regs-otherwise you must leave the filets intact so species and size can be determined. We found the locals to be very friendly and forthcoming with advice about local fishing techniques and areas. After fishing at Ucluelet for many years this was a refreshing change. From the dock it is about a 7nm run to the closest fishing area. Some charters run an additional 10-20nm to fish other areas. Water conditions were very nice with no swell and very few windy days. Fuel is available on the water-about $4.00 per US gallon at current exchange rates. Be prepared for rain-it rained at some point every day we were there and many days it rained non-stop although never very hard. There is a Coop grocery with a very nice selection of food items-much better than I anticipated. All in all a fantastic trip.
 
Ken, enjoyed the pics of your QC fishing adventure. It sounded like the locals were more friendly than Ucluelet. We went back again this year and did great on Kings and ok on halibut. Stayed 10 days. We like the oyster lease we've been staying at, so we don't interact much with the locals, except for the fuel needs. Didn't have any problems this year. Best regards, Ron
 
Lyle,
We fished out of Masset the whole time. We did cruise over the Langara Island one day. The southern end is loaded with high-end fishing resorts. We watched about 50 resort boats engaged in "combat fishing" off one Coho Point. If we do it again I will schedule half the time at Masset and half at Skidegate or Queen Charlotte City. It is a long run but you can access the west side through a narrow channel from Skidegate.

Ron,
Glad you had a good trip. I haven't heard any news about Island West Resort this summer. I would like to know if the campground is still in operation.
 
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