The first Prince Rupert fishing trip of the 2013 fishing season brought back the full crew from the 2010 year. Ron Burgundy was back after 2 years off, stating that he could not allow a hat-trick of absense from the salmon filled waters surrounding Prince Rupert. Oak, Neal, and myself (Ryan) rounded out the crew. As with all the previous years we spent the winter planning for the trip, preparing updates and mods for the boat, tackle rigging, researching destinations and fishing spots, and other projects. When it finally came time for the first Prince Rupert fishing trip we were pumped and ready to take down some monster springs.
The Boat
For the Prince Rupert fishing trip this year I put together some modifications for the Striper that built on last years work. For the 2012 Prince Rupert fishing trip I added the fish kill bag on top of the engine cover. The fish bag cleared out the hardwall cooler that previously took up the back seat and a significant portion of deck space in the back of the boat. Moving to 2013 I built a cadillac HDPE plastic fish cleaning table that effectively added 2 functional feet of work area to the boat. This is a great boat mod for Prince Rupert fishing because the docks and cleaning stations can be crowded with all the boats. As we caught and piled fish on the table, and used it to store our frequently used gear like knives, bait scents, and the washdown hose, we found that this new addition was the best improvement ever constructed and seemingly worth its weight in gold.
Lingcod and Halibut
We made our return out to the “Linghole” and the “Halibut Spot” twice to bring in our 2x daily possession limit. The first day tide and wind movements were too much for successful ling fishing, so we targetted the halibut. This year purchase of a professional crimping tool set and 200lb leader was a great addition to the boat for making professional halibut circle hook rigs. Tipped with a small salmon head hooked through the nose, on a small spreader bar, injected with a few bait scents, and we had our limit of four in half an hour. On our second run offshore we spent more time at the lingcod hole and managed to bring 4 to the boat as well as a variety of colorful rockfish. Moving to the halibut hole it took us a bit longer to bring in the fish but with patience and after releasing a few smaller ones we had our four.
Salmon Fishing
The salmon runs this year were on right away as we got out to the Prince Rupert fishing grounds. We caught a good number of chinook every day and an additional surprise was an early run of coho. We caught more coho than springs and rounded out both our chinook and coho limits. Oak caught the big fish this year a 32lb chinook salmon caught on the herring teaser rig.
Fish Processing
With the new fish cleaning table on the boat we put our battery inverter to good use, bringing out our vacuum sealer on the boat. This allowed us to keep trolling while we processed the fish. It was a great move because it kept everything clean, easy to cleanup the fish processing mess with the washdown hose, and it kept us out the bugs that haunt the dockside cleaning stations back in Prince Rupert. At the end of the day all we had to do was freeze the packages. A key benefit of this was that we actually caught several fish while processing, having never stopped trolling. This would not have been possible had we been processing at the shore boat launch cleaning stations.
Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary
This year we took a day off from fishing and made a run north from Prince Rupert into the Portland Canal, where we headed further inland into the waters of the majestic Khutzeymateen Inlet. At the end of the inlet is a BC Parks property known as Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary. We stopped in at the Ranger station to learn about the area and the procedures for approaching the bears. Leaving the Ranger station, we toured around through the inlet and saw 8 grizzly bears that were pretty much just lazing around on the shoreline chowing back sedges and grasses. I will include a separate FishinBC.COM page on the Khutzeymateen, with more photos and videos, coming soon.
The Yachts
The Prince Rupert fishing fleet sees alot of sweet yachts as it is right in the middle of the trip from the continental US to Alaska. While we were fishing this year there were many great boats but two yachts in particular stood out. The first, “Seven D’s” this was quite the yacht it came powering across the Channel direct from Alaska on full plane at about a 25 knot clip. This yacht was built in 2005, sailing from Fort Lauderdale, and is a 72′ McKinna Yachtfisherman that recently sold for $1,095,000. Conserving fuel was not a concern! Everyone fishing was impressed as we heard some conversations on the VHF:
“Hey did you see that boat come in”
“Yah I let him borrow it for the day”
“Oh that’s nice I bet a boat like that has probably got an extra frying pan or two”
“Yup”
….lol listening to VHF talk out on the water is hilarious.
A few minutes later and the Seven D’s crew has got a couple of massive tuna rods in the rodholders as downriggers, with cannonballs attached, and is trolling herring from this 72′ superyacht amongst the rest of the Prince Rupert fishing fleet with the owner perched on the marlin fighting chair at the back ready for a big spring to bite! The second yacht to come across was even bigger, it was called “Zenith”. I looked this one up on the internet because I wanted to find some more details. It was built in 2012, sailing from Australia, 132′ long, luxury catamaran superyacht, max speed of 29knots. I don’t know the value it was not listed but $20M sounds pretty good. That was truly a beautiful yacht and we were fortunate to see it on our Prince Rupert fishing trip this year.
The Weather
Prince Rupert fishing trips are typically hammered with some of the rainiest weather in the world. This trip we were fortunate to have the best weather I have ever encountered in Prince Rupert. Barely a gust of wind for 7 days and likely only 3hrs of rain the entire trip. We didn’t even put the back canvas up on the boat it made for some outstanding fishing conditions.
Prince Rupert Fishing – The Prawn Story
This year I bought some prawn gear from the guys at Pacific Net and Twine in Prince Rupert, with the intent to try prawn fishing and see if we could get into some good prawns. My experience to date has been that of Forrest Gump prior to surviving the great storm, generally to catch a measly few prawns, a starfish, toilet seat, or an old boot. This year I picked up a new Scotty puller which I will say is a great product. It is small and easy to store, attaches to the same mounts as the downrigger, and plugs into the same plug. I would definitely recommend the Scotty puller to anyone looking for one. For the traps I picked up 4 stacking Kufa traps, and 450′ leadlines with 12″ floats. We set these out at various spots around the 200-300′ depth range. Our results were not ideal we caught about 50 prawns total so we will keep on working on the prawns and likely in the future we’ll be posting some more decent results. We also caught some cool snails, some baby crabs, and lots of baby shrimp about 1cm size. I talked with a friend from Campbell River for some prawn fishing tips and now we’ll be more tuned into the specific bait, trap placements and durations. I hope to dial the prawns in better on my next Prince Rupert fishing trip. If anyone has some good prawn techniques either in terms of bait, trap placements, depth, and duration, let me know.
The Barbeque
This year I picked up the stainless barbeque and this was a really nice bonus for out on the water. The first few days of the trip we were without propane but midway on our refuel day we picked up a bottle. The BBQ worked perfectly for smokies and we cooked up a nice barbeque peperoni pizza that was a great move. Our first pizza got a bit burned on the bottom so for the second one we used some sacrificial toast, 4 pieces of bread wrapped in foil, to go underneath and burn up saving the bottom of the pizza. For the next trip I am going to look at some kind of pizza tray because it is definitely an easy and tasty meal to cook on the grill. We did not barbeque up any fish or prawns this time but that will certainly be on the menu on our next trip.
The Burgundy Sweatervest Award
At FishinBC.COM we have alot of fun while we’re out fishing. As you know we’ve nicknamed angler Brian (recall the FishinBC.COM 2010 Prince Rupert Fishing Trip – he caught the 62lb chinook) “Ron Burgundy”. Ron always springs to action to set the anchor and is pretty good at it. He also caught the anchor once. And on this trip while drifting he had enough drifting and attempted to anchor the boat with his jig (3x!).
In honour of his dedication and contributions to the sport of anchoring we’ve acknowledged him with this years new award, the “Coveted Burgundy Sweatervest”. The award presentation ceremony is done in the similar fashion to the awarding of the green jacket to the Masters champion. The vest was procured from a local value village and being a size XXL conveniently fits overtop of a floatersuit so it can be safely worn while recovering the anchor. The burgundy sweatervest will be re-awarded to a recipient each trip for the best anchor recovery of the trip.
For those who do not know the story of Ron Burgundy you will have to rent the 2004 movie “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” with Will Ferrell, one day.
Galleries
Submitted below is a showcase videos from the 2013 Prince Rupert fishing season.
Tight lines … FishinBC
Spring Salmon fights like “The Champ” and defends like Kevin Bieska
After being faked out by a plate of spaghetti from The Champ and getting his knuckles dusted multiple times by KB3, Brian finally crushes this beauty spring salmon.
Neal gets Busted by the Censor Police
Chinook Salmon Peels out Line
Baby Grizzly Bear and Momma Grizzly Bear at Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary!
Fishing Fails – Tree Standing Upright in the Middle of the Ocean!
Captain Catches Lost Gear and Wins Keystone Smooth Move of the Trip Honors
Prince Rupert Fishing Trip Day 1 – Introducing the FishinBC.COM Crew
Fish Processing with the Vacuum Sealer at Sea Yields a Free Coho
Salmon Fishing and Breakfast Pizza on the Barbeque
Your Turn !
Now that you’ve read the whole article, and watched the videos, give me a shoutout – write in the comment box and let me know what you like about Prince Rupert fishing and what you’d like to know about Prince Rupert fishing. And if you enjoyed this article, be sure to tweet, like, and G+1 this page so other anglers can find it too, and join the official Fishin BC facebook page to stay in touch with our latest news. Tight lines…FishinBC.COM.