Duval Point Lodge-Port Hardy Fishing

[Positrac]

Heading out in the morning for Port Hardy and 5 days of self-guided fishing out of Duval Point lodge.

I had a buddy who figured a morning out in Campbell River would be a good warm-up so he offered to take me out for first light. We were off the water for lunch with 9 Springs between 8 and 20 pounds brought to the boat. We actually fished light gear in the shallows off the south end of Quadra for the first 3 hours and while we did land a couple Springs in the teens we missed the best part of the bite out off Wiliby Shoals. From 9-noon we landed the other 7 Springs. There’s a slot size here right now based on length so it’s 1 fish per day in a weight range basically from 8-17 pounds or so. I can’t remember exactly the length needed but my partner had the size marked off on the gunnel of the boat.

Not a bad warm-up for the trip ahead…

https://i.postimg.cc/XYt3y8PR/3379707-F-6-F1-E-456-A-AF48-8-D0-C49-E9-F6-FE.jpg (https://postimg.cc/180bkpsB)

https://i.postimg.cc/y8Dsd5Lh/E1301-B8-C-6-A58-4275-A30-B-628-A649190-C3.jpg (https://postimg.cc/Bjfd7h9t)

[Positrac]

Made it to Port Hardy! It’s been 12 years but it’s just as I remember it.:)

https://i.postimg.cc/kXvvGJj8/E9-EF0-F64-FD26-4-C65-95-A3-8-EB9-BF43-D1-AE.jpg (https://postimg.cc/Lnh10pF6)

[Ken07AOVette]

https://i.postimg.cc/bJQ35Rpc/like.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

edit- this is for the first pics, not the guy laying in the dirt

[58thecat]

Nice fish….keep the thread going with pics….miss the island


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SNAPFisher]

Good luck in Hardy. Hope to see some more pics. I'm curious about how the whole self-guided works for you there.

[OL_JR]

So how did this trip end up going?

[Marty S]

Wow! You just pounding them! Hopefully the river isn't full of fricking nets and some fish can make it to spawn.
Good luck in Hardy

[Positrac]

Sorry, I posted up a follow-up but no idea where it went too. Fishing was pretty good. The weather was pretty wet and not exactly warm but we didn’t have very much in the way of wind to deal with.

Quite a few boats around but we saw zero legal-sized Springs caught on the inside while we were there. The area in front of Duval was just covered with immature springs and a mid-water variety of Rock Fish so it was impossible to get your line down for any length of time without catching one.

We tried a few spots relatively close to Duval with not a lot of luck. Lots of big Lings on the inside waters though so we got our limit of them quite easily.

The small 16’ aluminum boat we were in was too small to go to the north end of the Island where we heard fishing was red-hot and all the guide boats were congregating. You need to hit open water for a bit to get there and the owner of the place said it was off limits to us. We did however go down to the north end of the Gordon group of Islands and fish the area 12/11 boundary. I wouldn’t recommend that either in these small boats unless a guy had spent a lot of time on the water before and had some additional safety gear. We had brought a couple hand-held gps’s and a hand-held vhf radio, so we felt comfortable making the trip.

We had the place to ourselves down there. A few other boats passed by heading out to the halibut grounds but for the most part there was no one else around. We kept an eye on the weather channel for any wind warnings and for the 2 days we spent out there it was pretty much flat calm.

As for the fishing, the Chinook and Coho were there and while not what I’d call red-hot it was pretty consistent with a Salmon of some sorts every half hour or so. There were also a ton of Otters, a bunch of Humpback Whales and a couple Orcas passing through. It was a great couple days out there but again, I wouldn’t recommend a guy renting a boat from Duval and heading out there by themselves. The owner has now placed this area as off-limits in his boats too so if you stay at Duval you’ll have to go fully guided at $1,000+ additional cost per day and in a bigger boat if you want to head out there. It’s a good hour to hour and 20 minute ride in these small boats and without a vhf and monitoring of the weather channel a guy could get himself in trouble pretty quick and most people renting a boat probably don’t have the experience to pull it off safely. That’s one of the downsides to renting a boat from Duval though. If we had just stayed on the inside waters there is a good chance we never would have seen a legal Spring because they were just not there in numbers. Other years, it’s the place to be but not this year for the few days we were there. The bait robbers were also so bad on the inside that it forced a guy to go to a big plug just to keep them off and then you weren’t matching the bait…

In the end we landed a dozen Springs between 14 and 23 pounds. A few good sized Coho and we did luck out with a mid-sixties Halibut. That was a bit of crap-show because measuring a big Halibut that is getting close to the maximum slot size of 133cm when it is still alive is lot easy. We marked out the 133cm mark with a sharpy on a paddle and did our best to measure it each time it came along side the boat. We figured after a few tries it was about 4cm short of the maximum size. After realizing we could keep it we managed to get a rope around the tail and kill it outside the boat. The rope then went up through the Gill plate and we could hog tie it. It was bled and after a while we safely brought it in the boat. Once layed out it was actually a couple cm bigger than we thought but still under the legal limit. It all worked out but again, despite our best efforts to measure it in the water it was bigger than we thought it was so it shows how careful a guy has to be when you get a Halibut close to that legal limit. You can’t just bring one in while it is live and quickly measure it like you can a Spring. They can do a lot of damage as anyone who has seen one flip around in a boat can attest to.

My partner is camera-shy but here’s a few pics of me to show our success.

https://i.postimg.cc/bN2GdgLn/14-AB2-AA0-5-D18-46-DC-9-AC5-A7-A10-DA73-D45.jpg (https://postimg.cc/QHhNyp2N)

https://i.postimg.cc/KzqK3sdP/198-AB309-B87-D-443-B-B9-FE-2-D44-EBB9-BE41.jpg (https://postimg.cc/dkCQznQ3)

https://i.postimg.cc/bwGgQsHS/CF5-C1866-80-F1-44-B3-A805-1174940269-C7.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://i.postimg.cc/RCY6My19/B7-D97637-FA9-A-42-D8-A6-BC-D8-ABDCA4695-E.jpg (https://postimg.cc/Z0rKHfDD)

[SNAPFisher]

Nice fish for sure! Congrats. That hali is awesome for sure but they are all look nice.

When you say out to 12/11 boundary. Meaning on the Northern side of the islands? If so, yes, that is quite a way to go in a 16 footer.

[Positrac]

Nice fish for sure! Congrats. That hali is awesome for sure but they are all look nice.

When you say out to 12/11 boundary. Meaning on the Northern side of the islands? If so, yes, that is quite a way to go in a 16 footer.

That’s right. The area 11 boundary is right on the tip of the most northern island. It’s a ways to go but having fished other areas like Nootka I’m used to traveling a good distance. While the boats are no speed demons they are quite sea worthy. I actually had one of the same Hulls back in the late 90’s so I’m pretty comfortable with what it could handle. I wouldn’t do it though unless I was pretty certain the weather warranted it.

[58thecat]

The skies look like they want to dump a lot of water on you.....at least you managed to tie into a few....very well done!

[Positrac]

The skies look like they want to dump a lot of water on you.....at least you managed to tie into a few....very well done!

It was beautiful the afternoon/evening of the day we arrived. That was the last of the sun that we saw that trip. I don’t mind a bit of rain though. With nice weather you usually get the daily winds so in a small boat I’d take calm and cloudy if I had a choice.

[sns2]

Really good thread. Thanks, Positrac!

[SNAPFisher]

That’s right. The area 11 boundary is right on the tip of the most northern island. It’s a ways to go but having fished other areas like Nootka I’m used to traveling a good distance. While the boats are no speed demons they are quite sea worthy. I actually had one of the same Hulls back in the late 90’s so I’m pretty comfortable with what it could handle. I wouldn’t do it though unless I was pretty certain the weather warranted it.

Nice! I might have it ask you about Nootka. Thinking about that area next year but have learn more about it first before making a decision.

[Positrac]

Nice! I might have it ask you about Nootka. Thinking about that area next year but have learn more about it first before making a decision.

I’ve spent hundreds of days over the last 30+ years fishing Nootka. But in the last 10 since moving to Alberta it’s just been the one trip a year. Still, nothing really changes other than the size of fish has been steadily getting smaller. Typical for a hatchery run. Ask away though and I’ll tell you what I know about the place. I do miss the time I used to spend in Nootka. We first started fishing Bajo reef off the west coast of Nootka back in around 1990 in a 14’ Lund with one motor, no vhf and no gps. You would be the only boat out there all day. I look back now and man, where we ever foolish…and lucky…lol.

[OL_JR]

Thanks for the report, I've never been to the coast but would like to give it a shot someday. Sounds like there are some limitations to the setup there although looks like you guys caught enough to make it fun. Seeing some whales would probably make the whole trip for my wife :).

[Positrac]

Thanks for the report, I've never been to the coast but would like to give it a shot someday. Sounds like there are some limitations to the setup there although looks like you guys caught enough to make it fun. Seeing some whales would probably make the whole trip for my wife :).

If you haven’t been to the coast and out on the water before you really don’t know what you are missing. It’s an awesome experience. Going the self-guided route like we did this past trip would not be the way to do it though for anyone unless you have some prior experience and a lot of it. I’d suggest spending the extra bucks and going fully guided with a reputable outfit like Serengeti Charters if Port Hardy was your destination. They would ensure you had a great trip and your safety would never be a worry. You would also be into more fish than you could handle and be pampered the whole way.

You probably can’t point to a spot along the coast without being close to a quality lodge so the options really are limitless and while none of them are cheap it really is an experience everyone should try once in their life if they can swing it.