Fished from 8:30 am until 1:00 pm today. Flat calm and no rain despite inclement forecast. Tried harbour mouth and made a troll down to the trailer park and back. Absolutely nothing the whole session. Not even a hit. Tried the same herring that was successful earlier this winter and various hootchies. Fished mainly 130-145’ and went to 165’ in desperation for the last hour.
So either all the winters have departed now the herring spawn is over, or angler “Finally” has caught them all judging by his great reports from last week! LOL
That's fantastic!! This happened to my friend up in Haida Gwaii, but in 40' of water a 50lb hali popped the pin and the fight of a lifetime was on!! Congrats!!Fished the Trailer Park,, 8:30- 10:30, hubby picked up a bbq winter, dragging bottom in 130ft, bloody nose/chrome anchovy, purple onion flasher. Then the rod popped! that's not a salmon!! 25lb halibut tick that off the bucket list!! Xena
Yes, that was us. We passed you going East when we were going West around the point and then again as we came back East and you were heading back to the point. We saw you hook something when you were past us, about 200 metres past the point but since we had just trolled thru' there without a touch we continued East back to the harbour, Should'a stayed around Otter maybe??Ya the blue tinny that had no business being out in that slop? T'was I. Are you the trophy?
Chris, we are definitely not over rocky areas as we would have lost cannonballs!! We do the Sooke thing around the harbour mouth, along the bluffs to trailer park just like everyone else. I don't know about the Victoria spots you quote since I never trailer my boat all the way down there. We have towed to Becher and fished Whirl Bay before, but I am sure if I was "bottom bouncing" I would still get rockfish. Case in point, the Bluffs, which you quote, is one of the very worst areas for rockfish. These are small guys from 1-2lbs, probably not big enough to "claim" a territory in the rocks (rockfish are very sedentary and territorial) and no doubt hang out over the gravel off the Bluffs eating needlefish just like the salmon. The only way I have found to avoid them is 10' above bottom. If you bottom bounce there you will catch one every 30 minutes or so - pretty much guaranteed........If you get lots of bottomfish then you must be in areas with rocky structure. That's dangerous when fishing on the bottom and plus you have to deal with bycatch. I avoid such areas completely in the winter and focus on areas with gravel/sand that most often hold needlefish and seem to do ok there without any bycatch. Try infront of the bluffs, Becher Bay, Whirl Bay, the can in Pedder, Constance, Vic Waterfront, OB Flats; all easy to fish bottom due to soft ground. Constance is the only area that sometimes has a baby ling invasion.
Yeah, you are right SV I should give Whirl a try now and again, but not for the reasons Chris says (see my response above). Just further to tow the boat and I am lazy since I live 5 mins from Sunny Shores. LOLI jeep saying Em why not once an a while go and fish the east around whirl bay etc. Chris73 is right be careful if your bouncing balls near rocks. Not good on bad weather days.