Very interesting day today. Calm but too foggy to run to the “far” west, so started trolling at the bluffs towards Otter. Picked up a couple of random pinks on the way. On the East side of Otter there was a big hole in the fog and guys were trolling there in the sunshine so we joined the dance up and down. Eventually got a good hit on anchovy at 62 feet and it turned out to be a 9lb Chinook. As we were half way down the east side between Otter and trailer Park, I don’t think this counts as an Otter point fish! LOL
Nothing much happened thereafter, other than a hit on a hootchie that was there for 10 seconds and then gone, so we trolled back east intending to head in. However wind eased and fog around Sooke cleared so we hung around Secretary for a while. My wife had a small white glow squirt on searching for more pinks. Mid-afternoon we were switching over to the main as the kicker was struggling in the heavy current. We were almost stationary in 300 of water and the cables were sinking to almost vertical when my wife got a hit at 50 feet on the glo squirt. She got a Chinook that looked to be in the low teens close to the boat but we lost it. About 30 minutes later were packing up and same thing happened. We were stationary in the water and cables straight up and down just gently bobbing with the waves when the glo squirt side went off again. Felt like the same size Chinook as the last one but this time we did not see it, before it was gone.
Lessons learned?
- Jigging may work for Chinook at right times.
- Slow to stop may well work for Chinook trolling
- I should try switching to a small treble instead of the single on the squirt and then maybe we would not lose so many (don’t get this problem of lost fish with anchovy on teaser head due to use of treble.)
first time anyone have any tips where to start dropping lines this weekend would be appriated
