2023 Sooke Reports

[pachito]

Enjoyed a smokey flat calm morning trying our luck at posession and the bluffs.
Non stop shaker after shaker from 30' to 100' with the odd jack spring an pinks as well as 1 sockeye covered in sea lice head to tale.
No keepers today BUT after 50+ years of fishing sooke i finally broke my record of the smallest chinook 13cm

 

[Stizzla]

Enjoyed a smokey flat calm morning trying our luck at posession and the bluffs.
Non stop shaker after shaker from 30' to 100' with the odd jack spring an pinks as well as 1 sockeye covered in sea lice head to tale.
No keepers today BUT after 50+ years of fishing sooke i finally broke my record of the smallest chinook 13cm

That’s an ambitious mouthful for that little guy!

 

[Sam7]

Left Esquilmalt at 6:00, arrived at possession (just before the gap) 32 minutes later, within the first hour we had 7 hits, and a big one when we went through the gap to get to possession, but my fishing partner lost it. I guess when you haven’t fished in 7 years you have to reteach yourself. We hooked into another one, and this time he managed to let me net the fish and we were on the score sheet.

things went quiet for the big ones, and at times sporadic fishing for shakers. It was a double or wait an hour for the next one to bite. We were talking about heading back at 3:00 ish, and decided to stick it out “for a bit longer” we were rewarded for our patience 3:20 we were wrapped up and headed home. Managed 1 pink as well.

tons of crap in the water while we we fishing, and on the trip back there was huge swaths of crap everywhere.

 

[vicsurfer]

Took my cousin out today who was visiting. We started around 8am at the Head and trolled down to the Trap. Picked up a few pinks and a 6lb spring. We spent the morning at the Trap but never saw anything other than pinks. Packed up at noon with 6 pinks and the spring. Hopefully some bigger fish start moving through East Sooke.

 

[Englishman]

Got out again after 5 days off the water. Life got in the way plus the howling gale yesterday, which we gave a big miss!!

Joined the milling throng around the harbour mouth and Possession for a few hours but very little doing. Had t.h./herring one side and a big spoon the other. Couple of pinks and that was it.

Swopped the big spoon out for an AP herring spoon and went along the bluffs, where we released one unclipped coho and kept one hatchery clipped.

Later, back just west of Possession we had a nearly disastrous incident which I cannot explain. We were in 112’ of water with the deepest rigger set at 85’ and we hung up both cannonballs!! We went into neutral and moved back and forth a bit and one ball came loose easily but the other hung tight. I yanked on the cable manually a fair bit and felt what seemed like the cable moving on or through something. We swung gently in the light current (it was close to low slack) and finally the second ball reluctantly came loose. I thought we were going to lose gear for sure, but I don’t know what the hell was there as we have never hung up in that area before.

Later in the day we gave up the in tight trolling and went out to 120’ with the riggers at 100’. After 20 minutes we had a big hit on the AP spoon which from the fight at first I thought was a nice coho. Closer to the boat we saw it was a half decent chinook and we boated a fat looking 12lb fish.

So not an especially memorable day but still great to be able to boat three species of salmon on the same day.

 

[pachito]

Headed out about 10am today , lots of boats off posession so decided to drop gear at the bluffs an troll west. Shakers an more shakers for the first hour keeping us both flat out releasing an setting gear. Went 2 for 6 , 70 an 76cm and a hatch coho for the bbq. Beautiful warm flat calm day again.
Were living in paradise

 

[cby]

Got out again after 5 days off the water. Life got in the way plus the howling gale yesterday, which we gave a big miss!!

Joined the milling throng around the harbour mouth and Possession for a few hours but very little doing. Had t.h./herring one side and a big spoon the other. Couple of pinks and that was it.

Swopped the big spoon out for an AP herring spoon and went along the bluffs, where we released one unclipped coho and kept one hatchery clipped.

Later, back just west of Possession we had a nearly disastrous incident which I cannot explain. We were in 112’ of water with the deepest rigger set at 85’ and we hung up both cannonballs!! We went into neutral and moved back and forth a bit and one ball came loose easily but the other hung tight. I yanked on the cable manually a fair bit and felt what seemed like the cable moving on or through something. We swung gently in the light current (it was close to low slack) and finally the second ball reluctantly came loose. I thought we were going to lose gear for sure, but I don’t know what the hell was there as we have never hung up in that area before.

Later in the day we gave up the in tight trolling and went out to 120’ with the riggers at 100’. After 20 minutes we had a big hit on the AP spoon which from the fight at first I thought was a nice coho. Closer to the boat we saw it was a half decent chinook and we boated a fat looking 12lb fish.

So not an especially memorable day but still great to be able to boat three species of salmon on the same day.View attachment 96734

I assume it was a sunken Crab trap line that you can not see. The float was probably buried. If depth was 112ft and riggers at 85ft, which is more like 78ft with drag. Then has to be Sunken crab trap line. My Opinion. Unless there is a nasty little reef there with Kelp etc.

 

[tubber]

After a lull or perhaps test fishing weather and tide conditions, it looks like there is still a big herd of pinks coming your way. Get the kids out before school starts up. 69,000 in 6 sets is huge. I wish sockeyes were better.

 

[SpringVelocity]

69000 holy cap

 

[plunk]

After a lull or perhaps test fishing weather and tide conditions, it looks like there is still a big herd of pinks coming your way. Get the kids out before school starts up. 69,000 in 6 sets is huge. I wish sockeyes were better.View attachment 96826

This is interesting to me...are these test fishing results? Are you able to post a link of where I could go look at more of this?
Also...I smoked 4 pinks last week and it's so good I want more.

 

[tubber]

This is interesting to me...are these test fishing results? Are you able to post a link of where I could go look at more of this?
Also...I smoked 4 pinks last week and it's so good I want more.

Sorry if this a derail.

Test Fishing Results - Pacific Salmon Commission

Test Fishing Results The Commission’s Secretariat staff manage a number of test fishing programs in Fraser River Panel waters and coordinate with Fisheries and Oceans Canada on other test fisheries in the marine approaches off northern Vancouver Island. Additional information on the Commission’s...

www.psc.org

 

[N2013]

Wonder what sort of timing we’re looking at. That was the 23rd off Renfrew.

 

[Englishman]

Launched at 7:00am today so a bit late. BWD said the wind was going to be good and it was flat out there then so we ran to Muir. A big mistake!

Lines down with herring at 7:30am and immediately a double header of pinks. Gave that up and put on two spoons, one large and one AP herring spoon. Immediately a small pink on the AP so released that and put on a big spoon. Nothing for 45 minutes.

Then the ESE wind started and got stronger and stronger, till there was a 3 or 4’ chop! Did not want to face the nasty bone jarring, timber shivering ride back later so started trolling back right away. Rounded Otter and tried herring on one side and immediately got a pink. So the guys above who have posted about pinks are correct and there are more pinks out there now than ever this season!!

We trolled almost back to the tin shack with spoons but the waves there got even worse so we pulled the gear and chugged back to dock at 4 knots on the kicker to keep our aging bones from breaking on the wave smashes.

BWD says it is calm tomorrow. He was wrong today but if he is correct now we should have delayed a day. Ah well, maybe next week the pinks will have gone and we may find the chinook again!!

 

[wolf]

Then the ESE wind started and got stronger and stronger, till there was a 3 or 4’ chop! Did not want to face the nasty bone jarring, timber shivering ride back later so started trolling back right away.

YEAH WTF was with that I waved at ya bud. when SE winds come it realy sucks for fishing dont ask me why pressure change... yesterday was great today struggled got lots of pinks and hatch coho 1 small spring.

 

[pachito]

Was out this am bankers hours , gear down at the bluffs about 9 am planning to troll to otter again .
Fast action with pinks , then a screamer on the 40' gear which was about 90cm , released in the water .
Quickly followed by a slot size that spat the hook just as my buddy was netting it .
Gear down again and a double header both in the boat.
Wanted to head out an search for coho but the east wind sucked by 10 am so called it a day.
All the chinook caught on those flimzy overpriced coho killers ,sold with substandard hooks lol
Twin 78's

 

[Tsquared]

Not the best day for us either, nothing but wild coho, small springs and I even lost a ball! Haven’t done that for years. That’ll learn me!

 

[Reelin In The Years]

Not the best day for us either, nothing but wild coho, small springs and I even lost a ball! Haven’t done that for years. That’ll learn me!

Frigging cannonballs. They need to make ones that float. So when they break off, you just go around and scoop it up.

 

[Sam7]

Late post:

we came from Esquilmalt harbor, great ride out, arrived at the gap just before Secretary and we were fishing through the gap to possession by 6:30 ish. In the previous two encounters we hooked up on smaller fish and we always had a big one hooked up before arriving at possession. Not this time, we went through and started fishing possession for 1:45 without a sniff. We decided to head to Otter. We spent several hours there, and managed a few small small and a couple of small doubles, and by reading the reports, we were fortunate to land a 77cm. We started to head back to Victoria at about noon, and the ride was splendid……… The chop got a bit better by Secretary, and by Beachy it was in comparison a calm ride of 1-2’chop. Got to race rocks and it was smooth sailing . We stopped for halibut on the mud flats for a few hours, but only 1 dog for our effort.

 

[PHW]

Was out this am bankers hours , gear down at the bluffs about 9 am planning to troll to otter again .
Fast action with pinks , then a screamer on the 40' gear which was about 90cm , released in the water .
Quickly followed by a slot size that spat the hook just as my buddy was netting it .
Gear down again and a double header both in the boat.
Wanted to head out an search for coho but the east wind sucked by 10 am so called it a day.
All the chinook caught on those flimzy overpriced coho killers ,sold with substandard hooks lol
Twin 78's

You had twins! Congrats…

 

[Whole in the Water]

Out yesterday from 7-2pm. Fished Otter and Secretary with 2 friends. Kept 3 springs up to 80cm, 2 pinks and a hatchco. Bite was on between 8:30-9:30 am for us. Fished 40-70 feet. Lots of jack springs and pinks all over the place - too many!

Skinny G herring aid spoon once again worked. After we got our springs we moved Secretary and switched to a small pink hootchie to avoid springs, but it still caught springs and coho. Great day on the water!