Melville Island

Melville Island sits in the waters off Prince Rupert, British Columbia, offering structured habitat in depths from 40 to 150 feet that holds bottomfish and passing salmon. Pacific Halibut move through from April to August, Chinook Salmon show in two windows spanning February to April and April to July, and Coho Salmon fill in from May to September. Anglers work the deeper edges with drift jigging using leadhead jigs and heavy metal jigs for halibut, switching to bait fishing on anchor with whole herring or salmon heads when the drift slows. Chinook respond to downrigger trolling with anchovy in teaser heads and hootchies behind flashers along the contour breaks, while cut-plug herring on the mooching gear works the mid-column. Coho stay higher in the water, taking trolling spoons and plastic squids behind the downriggers or bucktail flies skimmed across the surface.