About Steep Island

Steep Island sits off Campbell River in DFO subarea 13-3, a mixed-bottom drop-off where depths fall from around 330 feet to more than 1,300 feet along mid-exposure water. Chinook Salmon peak here from June through August, with Coho Salmon holding from May into September and Lingcod strongest in May and June and again from August through September. Anglers work the Chinook with trolling using anchovy, herring, spoons, and hootchies, and switch to mooching cut-plug herring or jigging metal jigs when fish sit deeper along the slope. Coho respond to trolled spoons, hootchies, and flashers over the same edge, while bucktailing takes fish holding higher in the water. Lingcod come off the structure on metal jigs and leadhead jigs with swimbaits, backed by bait fishing whole herring or live greenling on the mixed bottom. Canary Rockfish, Darkblotched Rockfish, and Pacific Cod also hold along the drop-off.