2023 Sooke Reports

[Fishing?]

Interesting morning out with a couple buddies today got to posession just after 6am and the plan was to make a couple passes there and if no action head up to otter for the flood. Just setting up the gear and the whales show up both sides of the boat flipping an tail slapping , should have grabbed a video but was stressed thinking the action was over.
Decided to head out to 500' line an see if any hatch coho out there. No sooner did i get a couple white hoochies down an bang , into a screamer .
Ended another epic sooke trip before 8am with 2 77cm whites an 79cm red and 2 large humps

How do you tell the difference between white and red, look pretty similar to me. I know some posters say small head equals a white but those all look pretty much the same to me.

On a bit off topic, not hearing much about mackerel anywhere. Used to be a plague.

 

[tubber]

What is the seak?

Southeast Alaska commercial trollers lost a lawsuit brought by an Orca support group which limited their time on the water and the amount of BC, WA, OR Chinook caught. They'll come for the Englishman next.

 

[Mozart]

You can see the meat colour difference just underneath the gill plate. (If not intending on retaining the fish I don’t recommend using this method.)

 

[Tsquared]

What is the seak?

South east Alaska. The commercial troll fleet up there was not allowEd to fish during the first part of the season. Many of those fish they normally target are our local springs.

 

[pachito]

How do you tell the difference between white and red, look pretty similar to me. I know some posters say small head equals a white but those all look pretty much the same to me.

On a bit off topic, not hearing much about mackerel anywhere. Used to be a plague.

Lift the gill plate an look at the lower jaw , whites are much lighter in colour.
Works for me about 90%of the time.
Nice to know ahead of time when you have the best future smoked salmon.

 

[PHW]

Southeast Alaska commercial trollers lost a lawsuit brought by an Orca support group which limited their time on the water and the amount of BC, WA, OR Chinook caught. They'll come for the Englishman next.

He will fight to the death!

 

[PHW]

Sorry no pics today. Was busy with DR repair both ON WATER and at dock. (Remember the TV show MacGyver?) Worked Possesion hard today. Boated first clipped Spring (head in box) and got ANOTHER clipped Coho. Tag is punched except for a Coho named Casper…wil try hard tomorrow to pull out a full dance card. Lost one Spring on a long-line release as it leaped out of the water and tried to spit spoon—it was very successful in doing that and one at the boat. Drag too tight! Bait far all things not Chinook and 6-inch Tomic spoons for Springs. Cop car (with some simple modifications) and White/Chartreuse combo on the “bottom”aka 80 feet. Did I mention the part about the bottom? See you out there tomorrow!

 

[pachito]

Sorry no pics today. Was busy with DR repair both ON WATER and at dock. (Remember the TV show MacGyver?) Worked Possesion hard today. Boated first clipped Spring (head in box) and got ANOTHER clipped Coho. Tag is punched except for a Coho named Casper…wil try hard tomorrow to pull out a full dance card. Lost one Spring on a long-line release as it leaped out of the water and tried to spit spoon—it was very successful in doing that and one at the boat. Drag too tight! Bait far all things not Chinook and 6-inch Tomic spoons for Springs. Cop car (with some simple modifications) and White/Chartreuse combo on the “bottom”aka 80 feet. Did I mention the part about the bottom? See you out there tomorrow!

Curious as to what time the bite came on after the 6am whale show ?

 

[cby]

Lift the gill plate an look at the lower jaw , whites are much lighter in colour.
Works for me about 90%of the time.
Nice to know ahead of time when you have the best future smoked salmon.

Funny I find the smaller head size, squished nose will be red. Longer Jaw line and nose will likely be white. Also I find the big whites fight much harder and a ***** to get in.

 

[PHW]

Curious as to what time the bite came on after the 6am whale show ?

Around low ebb..,we missed the whales and fish were still there when we rolled in around 7 am

 

[PHW]

Leaving Sooke with a full dance card. We found silvers Friday off Secretary in 390-420 down 80-110. 8-1 wild to clipped and a few dinks to work thru. All released safely. White and green Silver Horde Ace Hi-Fly. Fun few hours. Best King spot was Becher Bay on the afternoon bite. Crazy ton of bait in there off of the little island in the middle of the bay. Could not understand people heading by to go out on the point (trap shack right there I guess but seemed pretty windy) and we’d have our net out scooping some slabs out of the wind and the crowds. 6 inch Tomic spoons best in there 75-90 ft. Until next year. Tight lines.

 

[zfish]

Southeast Alaska commercial trollers lost a lawsuit brought by an Orca support group which limited their time on the water and the amount of BC, WA, OR Chinook caught. They'll come for the Englishman next.

 

[Newf]

Holding a 76cm, 13lb fish to make it look like I caught a big one. Caught off of the trap in 120ft with 70 on the DR. Lots of pinks yesterday, hitting on everything. We released a couple of unclipped coho in the 6-7lb range and kept a smaller clipped one. Another great day to be fishing.

 

[pachito]

View attachment 96637Holding a 76cm, 13lb fish to make it look like I caught a big one. Caught off of the trap in 120ft with 70 on the DR. Lots of pinks yesterday, hitting on everything. We released a couple of unclipped coho in the 6-7lb range and kept a smaller clipped one. Another great day to be fishing.

Thats the new 40,s

 

[eroyd]

Constant action off Possession and Secretary this morning. Many small Springs and a few pinks punctuated with a few bigger fish. Biggest in the box today was a 79cm 13 lb. My scale is either off or honest. Spoons out fished bait by far. 40-60'. Herring aid Spirit Spoon from the bargain bin is a killer.

 

[Kinetic]

We struggled to find nice sized Chinook today. Fished from Beecher Bay all the way to Possession. Caught 50+ small fish (lots of juvenile Chinook), lost a half dozen pin poppers, went through 3.5 packs of bait, landed a 79cm Chinook and kept 6 Pinks. Flat calm and no fog once again.
On a side note, we watched a couple solo fishermen do donuts in the middle of the pack today while trying to run gear. Am I the only one that finds that frustrating?

 

[Mozart]

launched out of Cheanuh around 11. Started at the head. Sounder showing fish marks around 35-60’ and another small batch but bigger marker around 100’. Dropped 2 rods down to 106 and 86’ and 2 rods at 35 and 55’ in 250’ water. 5 min in got a pin popper, fish made 2 short run and I got it to boat side and kiddo did an awesome netting job. A nice 72cm spring in the well. In the next 2 hours. We trolled along shore side of first tideline. Got another spring lost at boat side. 2 large wild coho - released. 1 fat sockeye - released. ended up keeping a spring and 11 pinks. 6 in the brine now, will be doing cold smoke tomorrow. Spring was caught with the 106’ rod and the cohos were caught at 86’

 

[the force]

What radio channel y’all on for general chit chat? Out of beacher today only small springs so far and a nice wild coho that went back.

 

[Dave001]

What radio channel y’all on for general chit chat? Out of beacher today only small springs so far and a nice wild coho that went back.

68

 

[fishhook]

South east Alaska. The commercial troll fleet up there was not allowEd to fish during the first part of the season. Many of those fish they normally target are our local springs.

My understanding is that the SEAK fishery happened as usual as the US court of appeal overturned the original decision.

https://law.alaska.gov/pdf/press/230621-Order.pdf

More info: https://www.raincoast.org/2023/06/u...utheast-alaska-troll-fishery-us-appeal-court/