Originally published in 2013, this Prince Rupert fishing report was updated in September 2026 with refreshed photos, videos and presentation.
Our first Prince Rupert fishing trip of 2013 brought back the full crew from 2010. Ron Burgundy returned after two years away, declaring that he couldn’t allow a hat-trick of absences from the salmon-filled waters around Prince Rupert. Oak, Neal, and I (Ryan) rounded out the crew.
As in previous years, we spent the winter preparing for the trip—making improvements to the boat, rigging tackle, researching fishing spots, and planning where we wanted to go. By the time we finally headed north, we were pumped and ready to take on some monster springs.
The Boat
For our 2013 Prince Rupert fishing trip, I made a few more improvements to the Striper, building on the modifications from the previous year.
In 2012, I added a fish kill bag on top of the engine cover. This freed up the space previously occupied by a large hard-sided cooler that took up the back seat and a significant portion of the rear deck. I described that first upgrade in our Prince Rupert Fishing 2012 – Year of the Codfather trip report.
For 2013, I built a Cadillac of a fish-cleaning table out of HDPE plastic, effectively adding two feet of functional workspace to the boat. I cover the build in the FishinBC.COM article How to Build Your Own Fish Cleaning Table.
This turned out to be one of our best boat improvements. The docks and fish-cleaning stations in Prince Rupert can get crowded, so having our own cleaning table was a huge advantage. We could pile our catch on it, clean fish, and keep frequently used gear like knives, bait scents, and the washdown hose close at hand.
By the end of the trip, the table had proven itself worth its weight in gold.
Lingcod and Halibut
We made two trips offshore to our familiar spots, the “Linghole” and the “Halibut Spot,” with the goal of bringing home our two-day possession limits.
On the first trip, the combination of tide and wind made lingcod fishing difficult, so we switched our attention to halibut. I’d recently purchased a professional crimping tool and 200 lb leader material, which made it much easier to put together our own halibut circle-hook rigs.
We baited the hooks with small salmon heads, hooked through the nose, and fished them on short spreader bars with a few bait scents added for good measure. The halibut were cooperative, and we had our four fish in about half an hour.
On our second trip offshore, we spent more time at the Linghole and managed to bring four lingcod to the boat, along with a variety of colourful rockfish. We then moved over to the Halibut Spot, where the fishing was a little slower. After releasing a few smaller halibut and putting in some more time, we eventually brought in another four.
For more on the techniques and equipment we use, see the FishinBC.COM Complete Guide to Lingcod Fishing and Complete Guide to Halibut Fishing. Our articles Circle Hooks for Halibut: How to Rig and Fish Them and Best Halibut Baits: How to Rig, Scent and Fish Them cover the rigs and baits in more detail.
Salmon Fishing
The salmon fishing was excellent right from the start of our trip. We caught good numbers of Chinook every day, and an unexpected bonus was the early arrival of coho salmon.
We actually caught more coho than springs and managed to fill both our Chinook and coho limits. Oak landed the biggest salmon of the trip, a beautiful 32 lb Chinook caught on a herring teaser rig.
For more on the techniques we use, see the FishinBC.COM Complete Guide to Salmon Fishing. We also cover preparing and fishing herring in our Cut Plug Herring Rig: How to Rig Herring for Chinook Salmon article.
Fish Processing
With the new fish-cleaning table installed, we decided to put our battery inverter to good use and bring the vacuum sealer aboard.
This allowed us to clean, package, and vacuum-seal our catch while continuing to troll for salmon. The washdown hose made cleanup easy, and we avoided the bugs and crowds around the dockside fish-cleaning stations in Prince Rupert.
At the end of each day, all we had to do was put the packaged fish in the freezer.
One of the biggest advantages was that we never had to stop fishing to process our catch. In fact, we caught several more salmon while we were busy cleaning and packaging fish. That wouldn’t have happened if we’d been back at the dock using the cleaning stations.
For more on preparing your catch, see our article How to Fillet Your Salmon or Halibut with Less Waste.
Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary
This year we took a day off from fishing and headed north from Prince Rupert into Portland Inlet, then made our way through the spectacular scenery of Khutzeymateen Inlet.
At the head of the inlet is the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary, established in 1994 as Canada’s first protected area specifically created for grizzly bears and their habitat. We stopped at the ranger station to learn about the sanctuary and the procedures for viewing bears before continuing into the inlet.
We ended up seeing eight grizzly bears, most of them lounging along the shoreline and feeding on sedges and grasses. It was an incredible experience and a memorable break from fishing.
For more information about the sanctuary and current visitor requirements, see the BC Parks Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary page.
The Yachts
Prince Rupert sees some impressive yachts passing through on their way between the continental United States and Alaska. We saw plenty during this trip, but two in particular stood out.
The first was Seven D’s, a 72-foot McKinna Yachtfisherman built in 2005. It came powering across the channel from Alaska, up on plane and travelling at about 25 knots. I’d found that the yacht had recently sold for $1,095,000. Conserving fuel clearly wasn’t a concern!
Everyone fishing nearby seemed impressed, and we overheard a pretty funny conversation on the VHF:
“Hey, did you see that boat come in?”
“Yeah, 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.”
Listening to VHF conversations out on the water can be hilarious.
A few minutes later, the crew aboard Seven D’s had a couple of massive tuna rods rigged with cannonballs and were trolling herring from their 72-foot yacht alongside the rest of the Prince Rupert fishing fleet. The owner was perched in the marlin fighting chair at the stern, ready for a big spring to bite!
The second yacht was even bigger. It was called Zenith, a 132-foot luxury catamaran built in Australia in 2012. I looked it up afterward and found that it had a reported top speed of 29 knots. I couldn’t find a sale price, but I figured $20 million sounded about right!
It was a beautiful yacht and quite a sight to see during our Prince Rupert fishing trip.
The Weather
Prince Rupert is known for its rain, and we’ve certainly experienced our share of wet weather on previous fishing trips. But this year we were treated to the best weather I’ve ever encountered in Prince Rupert.
We barely had a gust of wind over seven days and probably only three hours of rain during the entire trip. We didn’t even need to put up the back canvas on the boat.
With calm seas and almost no rain, the conditions couldn’t have been much better for fishing.
Prince Rupert Fishing – The Prawn Story
This year I picked up some prawn-fishing gear from Pacific Net and Twine in Prince Rupert, determined to finally get into some decent prawns.
My previous prawn-fishing experience had been a bit like Forrest Gump before the great storm—generally catching a measly handful of prawns, a starfish, a toilet seat, or an old boot.
I bought a new Scotty trap puller, which turned out to be a great addition to the boat. It’s compact, easy to store, mounts in the same base as our Scotty downriggers, and uses the same electrical connection. I was impressed with how well it worked. For more details, see our Scotty Prawn Puller Review.
For the traps, I picked up four stacking Kufa traps, 450-foot leadlines, and 12-inch floats. We tried setting them in various locations at depths of around 200–300 feet.
Unfortunately, our results weren’t quite what we’d hoped for. We managed about 50 prawns in total, along with some interesting snails, baby crabs, and plenty of tiny shrimp about a centimetre long.
After the trip, I talked with a friend from Campbell River about improving our bait, trap placement, and soak times. Clearly, we still had some experimenting to do!
I’ve since put together the FishinBC.COM article Best Prawn Bait and Shrimp Bait, covering some of what I’ve learned about attracting prawns and shrimp.
Hopefully, we’ll have better results on our next Prince Rupert trip. If you’ve had success prawning around Prince Rupert, I’d be interested to hear what bait, depths, trap placements, and soak times have worked for you.
The Barbeque
This year I added a stainless steel barbecue to the boat, which turned out to be a great addition for cooking meals on the water.
We were without propane for the first few days, but picked up a bottle during our mid-trip refuelling stop. Once we got it going, the barbecue worked perfectly for cooking smokies, and we even decided to try making pepperoni pizza.
Our first pizza ended up a little burned on the bottom, so we improvised for the second one. We wrapped four slices of bread in foil and placed them underneath the pizza as a makeshift heat shield. The bread took the heat instead of the pizza crust, and the trick worked surprisingly well!
For the next trip, I figured I’d look into getting a proper pizza tray. Pizza turned out to be an easy and tasty meal to prepare on the boat.
We didn’t barbecue any fish or prawns this time, but those were definitely on the menu for a future trip.
The Burgundy Sweatervest Award
At FishinBC.COM, we have a lot of fun while we’re out fishing. Over the years, we’ve nicknamed our fishing buddy Brian “Ron Burgundy,” as mentioned in our Prince Rupert Fishing 2010 – 62lb Chinook report.
Ron has always been quick to spring into action whenever it’s time to set the anchor, and he’s become pretty good at it. He’s also managed to catch the anchor with his fishing gear once. On this trip, apparently fed up with drifting, he attempted to anchor the boat with his jig—not once, but three times!
In recognition of his outstanding dedication and contributions to the sport of anchoring, we introduced the Coveted Burgundy Sweatervest Award.
The presentation ceremony was modelled after the awarding of the green jacket to the Masters champion. We procured the prestigious garment from a local Value Village, and its generous XXL sizing meant it conveniently fit over a flotation suit, allowing the recipient to wear it while recovering the anchor.
The Burgundy Sweatervest would be awarded on each future trip to the crew member demonstrating the most outstanding anchor-recovery performance.
And for anyone unfamiliar with Ron Burgundy, you’ll have to watch the 2004 Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy to fully appreciate the inspiration behind the award.
Fishing Trip Videos
After getting faked out by a plate of spaghetti from The Champ and having his knuckles dusted multiple times by KB3, Brian finally lands this beauty spring salmon.
Your Turn: Prince Rupert Fishing
Prince Rupert has given us some memorable fishing trips over the years, and every trip seems to bring something different—whether it’s the salmon fishing, offshore halibut and lingcod, wildlife, weather, or simply the things that happen while spending a week on the boat.
Have you fished around Prince Rupert? Share your memorable catches, trip stories, or fishing tips in the comments below. If you’re planning your first trip, let me know what you’d like to know.