Signs of life at the trap today
couple 10 ish pounders
No banana spoon
48 inch leader
Green/silver Betsy
70 80 feet deep
10 ish am
Lots of bait in the water
Notice about half dozen or so other with fish aswell
 
Picked up a 4lb wild and a 16lb hatchery just off the navy can buoy at Pedder Bay on saturday.. Right off the bottom 110ft of water.. Saw a couple of other boats get one but appeared to be slow for the number of boats out there. 10am for the 16lb and 1pm for the 5lb. Both on green hootchie..
 
Four fish this afternoon 1 pm to 5 pm at Otter. 1 wild at 66cm and 3 clipped at 68, 60 & 58cm. 70-75 feet worked best all on bait. Got 3 of them in about 30 mins beginning at about 2:15
 
I didn't weigh any of them but my guess would be 10-11 pounds
 
Would have had a decent day if the hooks had of stuck a few more times. Out on 2 trips today and fished 6-noon, lost 2 springs and kept a hatch coho. Went out again from 1-5pm and lost 2 more springs and landed a clipped one that went 14 pounds. All the ones that got off did so soon after popping of the rigger, burying the rod then gone. hit fish at 60, 70 and 85 feet. Most action was at Otter but did loose one at Muir too.
 
Fished Beachy Head tonight . arrived about 6 pm just as the killer whale went by. There was another couple of boats playing fish so I stayed and dropped a line had my first wild 69 cm fish on the plug with in five minutes. I forget the number but it is one of RP series. The second 87cm wild fish came shortly after on a Lurecharge Glo green splatter back hootchie and a Super Betsy flasher . The big fish took off like a freight train. must have peeled line for almost a full minute. Sorry for the picture of the fish in the net. I was solo and it was a little bumpy, so I needed the net to get a look at whether they were wild or not. Gotta love those regs!
Plug was at 88 ft and the hootchie was at 70

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Out to Muir this morning, flat calm from 6-noon and then the wind was coming fast. Landed 3 springs, let one wild at 72cm go and kept 2 wild at 67cm and one smaller. Lots of bait around, enough to have all the riggers shaking as the lines passed through the schools. One of the fish had a 6 inch herring in the gut. 70, 80 and 85 ft all on anchovy.

 
My 13 year old son went 2 for 6 today and my wife went 1 for 1. Early in the season still my son has time to get better. 16,12,8 lbs all hatchery. Rods at 55 and 69 ft. Silver betsy and a 4 inch no bananas spoon. No bananas flasher and a 4 inch army truck spoon on the other side. Nice day.
 
First trip of the year for me. Went on a buddy's boat and lost the first one took about half my line then spit the hook. Then 2 nice hatchery's and and one more, all before 9 am. Lot's of shakers and crap in the water. All fish were at 120 ft on green Coho Killer. Beauty day out there today.
 
No springs for me yesterday between trap and the head. Lots of little coho around that grab just about anything. Unfortunately none of them was bigger than 2-3 lbs. Becher Bay looked like boiling, as far as you could see there were 3-5" bait fish feeding on smaller stuff right on the surface. Incredible sight. I tried to net some to figure out whether they were herring - no luck, too fast. Never seen so much bait fish in one place. I bet that will draw salmon right in front of Cheanuh.
 
Went out for a couple hours in the evening Friday and Sunday, huge amount of bait in the water. Friday the Trap was absolutely loaded with it and by Sunday it looked like it had moved deep into becher bay. The marina was boiling with bait. Got one oversize wild both days,55' on the rigger. AP spoon Friday at trap and small chovy at the head Sunday. Finally caught something without dragging balls on bottom, both fish around 15lb
 
We saw those big schools of bait. We caught 3 on Saturday morning off the the Head and the Trap.
Out this morning at Aldridge for 2, 1 of which was over the slot so released. AP needle fish spoon outfished bait for us both days.
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So, here is the story: a huge school of krill got pushed into the JDF and is responsible for the coho mania and the huge accumulation of bait fish in East Sooke right now. I remember we had the same a few years back - might have been 2011 - and we had an incredible coho fishery all summer long. Here is to hoping!

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Very cool. Has anyone seen what the bait are? Presumably herring... how big are they? Just another plug for the stomach sampling program we are running. If anyone is interested in participating fire me a PM and I will send you some info.

http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum...ational-salmon-diet-monitoring-program.64885/

and check out

http://www.theardentangler.com/index.php/stomach-contents-survey/

These sort of events are exactly the kind of thing that we can start to understand better with more data. We are interested in lining up some folks who fish year round in the Sooke area
 
I was wondering if they actually were herring, I was off Beechy on Sunday (Buddy's boat). I though they may be juvinile salmon, because the schools were very loose (Bait fish are usually an ordered school, these guys were everywhere), and they were such a light green on the back (Baitfish are usually black). Needless to say we got out very late and the salmon gods didn't give me anything to autopsy to find out, and I didn't have a herring jig to throw out either.
 
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