2022 Sooke Reports

[wildmanyeah]

Will be worse in the next couple of years when we get into the Covid coho that we’re not clip for Covid reasons

 

[Cut Plug]

We went 2 clipped out of a dozen or more Coho and 3 or 4 chinook shakers off the Head on the flood, 400' of water. Nothing big for us, 5 - 6 pounds
Two Coho was enough for my buddy so we quit early. Hootchy out fished the spoon. Not sure where all these Coho are going, but sure wish more could be clippled
When you run into these large schools of clone size Coho you gota figure they are all from the same hatchery.

I’d describe it as slow but steady for our 10 am to 3pm session today off Secretary. We went 2 clipped fish for about a dozen fish hooked. Downriggers at 50 and 60. Bait, white and purple haze hoochies and a green and white coho killer all got fish. The cool thing was one of the hatcheries was an awesome 12lb buck that hit a bucktail! We got several more hits on the bucktail that was skipping along in the prop wash about 15 pulls back. Definitely worth a shot for the 3rd rod. So calm at mid day today it was unreal.

 

[Trophy 2000]

I’d describe it as slow but steady for our 10 am to 3pm session today off Secretary. We went 2 clipped fish for about a dozen fish hooked. Downriggers at 50 and 60. Bait, white and purple haze hoochies and a green and white coho killer all got fish. The cool thing was one of the hatcheries was an awesome 12lb buck that hit a bucktail! We got several more hits on the bucktail that was skipping along in the prop wash about 15 pulls back. Definitely worth a shot for the 3rd rod. So calm at mid day today it was unreal.

Great to hear that you fish with bucktails as become a loss art of fishing . I have been running as a 3rd rod a 9 ft trophy bucktail rod with the small Trophy fly reel . Purchased a bunch of old Ricks polar bear hair bucktails which was a good score and almost do not want to use them

 

[Ringoyam]

Went out from 8-10 in front of otter, 400' of water 40-60' on the rigger. Got a couple double headers using white hoochie on one side and a gibbs light green spoon on the other. Managed to get 16 coho to the boat, 6 of which were hatchery so got our limit pretty quick...seems like a better hatchery to wild ratio lately which is nice....anybody else noticing more hatchery fish?

 

[Doug]

Fished today out of Sooke from 7 to 1030. Had lots of action while the fog was in and then things slowed down at around 930 when the fog lifted. Most of the fish were caught at 50 ft on the DR and on Squirts. Ended up with 4 clipped Coho and released about 20 un-clipped. Also got two springs today in the mix of Coho fishing
I counted 70 boats fishing off of Secretary Island, trap shack area during our ride back into the marina.

 

[Englishman]

Fished from 7:45am till 2:00pm today. After an hour, out of nowhere, we got a double header at 50’ and the only half we brought in was a beauty 8lb hatchery fish. Fished on for the rest of the morning varying between 200’ and 500’ of water and got sporadic random single hits which had no pattern. However, it was rather slow and every single one of the 5 or 6 we brought in was unclipped. So I thought we were heading for a repeat of Monday with a hatch to start and then only unclipped.

We were kept amused by the humpbacks which appeared to be everywhere. Some out in the ship channel, some in close among the many boats. One time a small one surfaced only 25 yards from us!! Also did get a little 5lb chinook which turned out to be a white.

After lunch we were beginning to head in when all of a sudden in 350-400’ of water off Possession/Secretary it went nuts. We got hit after hit at 70-80’ on hootchies, with several double headers. We could not leave it down more than 5 minutes and it would be hit. I had two hits as I was tightening the line after lowering to depth. Sadly, every fish, except one, was again unclipped. The hatchery was only 4lb but the unclipped ones were 8-10lb estimated.

At 2:00pm we called it. Only two hatchery in 6 hours is pretty poor odds and endless catch and release palls after a while. LOL

Edit: Eroyd below has reminded me, I did not mention lures. Used pink stripe/UV hootchie one side and mint tulip glo hootchie the other. Both fished on 28" leaders behind dodgers, not flashers.

 

[eroyd]

Similar report. Whales everywhere! All around boats fishing and if one steered away there would be another. Fishing improved for some reason while they were around. Early on was good and then after lunch, when the whales reappeared off Secretary it was hot. Lost count after 20. Ended up with 4 clipped coho and a 8# Spring. Dummy flashers 6' behind ball with 4" Trapshack spoon clipped 3' above flasher. 50'

 

[Adler]

Another similar report, whales everywhere and one humpback putting on a heck of a show with many breaches and fin slaps near Secretarty and then again further out front. A couple orcas even came by. And I can say that we got lucky again with a good ratio of hatchery, with one double header where both were hatchery and into the boat. Brought home 6 coho. We found the nicer ones deeper, 100-120 on the rigger, AP spoons and white hoochies.

 

[profisher]

We fished from 6:30 to 2:30 and kept 7 hatch coho to 9 pounds and released maybe 30 more but nothing over 10 pounds. All on hootchies from 30 to 70 ft. right in front of the harbour.

I’d like to see it, how about a picture …..please and thanks

Here it is...posting because the glow hootchie with the yellow and green stripe I can't find anywhere and don't know the brand or the number...maybe someone will see some and let me know where...the inner hootchie is just for sparkle effect and unlike the floss stuff doesn't end up in a rats nest after each fish.

 

[kingspring]

We fished from 6:30 to 2:30 and kept 7 hatch coho to 9 pounds and released maybe 30 more but nothing over 10 pounds. All on hootchies from 30 to 70 ft. right in front of the harbour.

Here it is...posting because the glow hootchie with the yellow and green stripe I can't find anywhere and don't know the brand or the number...maybe someone will see some and let me know where...the inner hootchie is just for sparkle effect and unlike the floss stuff doesn't end up in a rats nest after each fish.

That’s a great share, thank you.

 

[mbowers]

Similar report. Whales everywhere! All around boats fishing and if one steered away there would be another. Fishing improved for some reason while they were around. Early on was good and then after lunch, when the whales reappeared off Secretary it was hot. Lost count after 20. Ended up with 4 clipped coho and a 8# Spring. Dummy flashers 6' behind ball with 4" Trapshack spoon clipped 3' above flasher. 50'

Generally the same here. I'm guessing the whales were leaving dead or wounded herring in the water while feeding and that was chumming up the salmon..

 

[Sliver09]

We fished from 6:30 to 2:30 and kept 7 hatch coho to 9 pounds and released maybe 30 more but nothing over 10 pounds. All on hootchies from 30 to 70 ft. right in front of the harbour.

Here it is...posting because the glow hootchie with the yellow and green stripe I can't find anywhere and don't know the brand or the number...maybe someone will see some and let me know where...the inner hootchie is just for sparkle effect and unlike the floss stuff doesn't end up in a rats nest after each fish.

I purchased a large pack of mixed squirts from Amazon, and these glow yellows were in there.

 

[Doug]

Fished 7 to 11 out of Sooke. flat calm and sunny. Fishing was slower for us today on catching clipped fish. Released 16 Coho, kept two clipped Coho and one small winter springs. Fish today were deeper at 90 ft on the DR, and we used squirts. We fished 50 ft on the DR for the first 2 hours with a hit here and there, so I guess the sunshine drove the fish deeper.

 

[Adler]

Every day is different. Beautiful one today, got out only for a few hours mid-day, tried off whirl bay down to the head. I think we only hooked 5 fish, one small hatch spring released, the others all wild coho. One was very nice, definitely over 10lbs, maybe 12-14. No fish to clean today for us.

 

[profisher]

Another awesome day with lots of action with only a 40 minute lull just before the current started to flood hard. Managed our 6 hatch up to 9 pounds and released over 20 up to 12 pounds. Finished off in 110 fr of water off the west end of the Bluffs in the hard flood looking for a late Chinook. It payed off with a nice 13-14 pound chrome wild female...red and eggs were still quite small. Took the 2 hootchie setup I've been using for Coho. Lots of Humpback around us all morning putting on a great show at times. The last 2 days the crabbing has also been good for us, 7 keepers yesterday and 5 today..all heavy and hard shells.

 

[eroyd]

This afternoon was a bumpy ride with the wind blowing against the tide. Fishing was slow except for shakers and small springs but at 3:00 things picked up for a little while with 6 wild coho and one super scrappy 11 lb immature spring which I kept. It took a Trap Shack spoon, 55', no flasher.

 

[cby]

Incredible two days of fishing in Sooke Sat and Sun. Have not seen that many humpback whales in one spot ever. Saturday fishing was good. So many wild coho, biggest 10lbs, was hard to find the hatchery. Sunday was crazy. Big hits on hoochies. had about 20 coho, 6 ended of been hatchery. Landed a big coho 15 lbs big hooked nose. Was a beauty of a fish. Had another one on similar size but jump way out and got off. Had 1 small spring released.

 

[King O' The Kelp]

Sunday was a fine day on the water with my stepfather. Landed close to 20 coho, but only 2 clipped (but better than last week, I suppose, where we only got to keep 1). White hoochies were the ticket below 90' (but rigger lines were often trailing out back a ways in the current). Fished outside the Harbour to about 500' and around Secretary. Only downer on the day was the hit-and-run on my trailer at the Sooke launch. Thanks for that, whoever you are (or is it that anything beyond the yellow line is fair game? )

 

[habberdasher]

Sunday was a fine day on the water with my stepfather. Landed close to 20 coho, but only 2 clipped (but better than last week, I suppose, where we only got to keep 1). White hoochies were the ticket below 90' (but rigger lines were often trailing out back a ways in the current). Fished outside the Harbour to about 500' and around Secretary. Only downer on the day was the hit-and-run on my trailer at the Sooke launch. Thanks for that, whoever you are (or is it that anything beyond the yellow line is fair game? )

Karma will have damaged their vehicle pretty well

 

[ThatswhatSeasaid]

We fished from 6:30 to 2:30 and kept 7 hatch coho to 9 pounds and released maybe 30 more but nothing over 10 pounds. All on hootchies from 30 to 70 ft. right in front of the harbour.

Here it is...posting because the glow hootchie with the yellow and green stripe I can't find anywhere and don't know the brand or the number...maybe someone will see some and let me know where...the inner hootchie is just for sparkle effect and unlike the floss stuff doesn't end up in a rats nest after each fish.

Just one hook on that rig???