2023 Sooke Reports

[Cataline]

Launched from Sooke (Prestige) at 8:45 on Friday, smooth glassy water in the harbour and out to the fising boundary, however the easterly was blowing at all of 15 knots against the flood tide which resulted in a serious chop. Fished the waters south of the 'bluffs' from 9:00 to Noon, the results were consistently spotty: lots of action for 15 minutes then nothing for half an hour. The chop was probably affecting fishing lure action as well as comfort my buddy and me. By Noon we had 4 keepers, 2 hatchery and 2 wilds between us. Of course released at least a half dozen wilds and an equal number of shakers. The action for us was in 350 to 500 ft water but lures at 39' seemed to be the sweetspot. Went down as far as 50' but only got shakers. Clear and white squirts or hoochies were the producing lures. The chop also made landing fish tricky with the fish poping out of the waves as well as the pitching of the boat. Probably my last day's fishing Sooke this year.

 

[eroyd]

Fished Beechy head area 9 until noon. About a dozen wilds and only one clipped coho. Too many shakers. Spoons from surface to 30 ft. Deeper seemed less productive. Nothing over 8 lbs. I guess those 15lb+ coho go into hiding when the scales come out.

 

[Butter Fingers]

Marcel makes the best halibut bait and keeps on bleeding oily fluid for hours.
Works great in crab traps too.

 

[Kasiks]

Fished Beachy head at 50 feet on the DR from first light till noon, 2 hatchery and a wild, Found that the farther out (deeper) I went the less of the small outbound salmon i was catching.

I heard lots of chatter on the radio about the mackerel, but either I am doing it wrong or right......but never saw a one......was kinda wishing for one to try smoking it. I was using Hootchies but i suspect they are being caught on everything.

 

[gone fishin]

Fished Beachy head at 50 feet on the DR from first light till noon, 2 hatchery and a wild, Found that the farther out (deeper) I went the less of the small outbound salmon i was catching.

I heard lots of chatter on the radio about the mackerel, but either I am doing it wrong or right......but never saw a one......was kinda wishing for one to try smoking it. I was using Hootchies but i suspect they are being caught on everything.

The mackerel love Anchovies!

 

[Kasiks]

The mackerel love Anchovies!

Ah, so thats the secret, i may drag a few around next time just to give them a try....thanks

 

[Mozart]

Fished from noon to 6:30. Trolled in 520' to 100' diagonally from bay entrance towards secretary island. DR 20' to 90'. Nada. Not a sniff. Trolled from shore towards 530'. about 3/4 way to no fishing zone got into a few coho. I landed my. Son lost his as line was rubbing against DR cable. Taught him if that happens next time past the rod under the DR boom, don't try to yank the fish back too much tension on the line will just get the fish panicking and you'll just lose control of the fish. One new lesson learnt. Ended up keeping 2 #9 coho and that's probably it for the season.

 

[Kinetic]

Fished yesterday from 1:30 - 5:30 out deep off of Beechy Head, absolutely beautiful afternoon but super slow fishing for us. Kept 2 Coho around 5lbs, kept the biggest Mackerel I've ever seen at 54cm, missed a couple of pin poppers and close to 10 shakers.
Boat goes away now till Halibut opens in 2024.
Been a long season of fishing since February!

 

[BCBill]

Fished out in 450 ft of water from Aldirige to Secretary and back yesterday from 7am to 11. Some action early on wilds so released a couple of small ones. It slowed down so we ended up with three wild and three hatch nothing over 7 pounds. Hootchies at 45 to 65 feet were effective. Also a couple of very large mackerel that I hope to feed to the dogfish when halibut season opens again, Nice morning on the water but as some have said above, may be my last trip for now.

 

[Whole in the Water]

Fished off Secretary and Sooke Harbour mouth in 300-500 ft of water. From 8-2pm Hooked 12+ coho, kept our limit. Lost a few nice ones too. Had nice wild and large clipped 10+lbs in the mix. Also got some shakers and 4 large mackerel. Using white hootchies and green flash fly in 50-72 ft. After 1.5 hrs was beautiful and calm. Great fall weather!

 

[profisher]

Lots of Mackerel out there this morning. Kept 7. My customer used to work at the Sooke Harbour House and said he will be barbecuing them and knows they are great. Has caught them in Mexico before.

 

[Tips Up]

The mackerel fishing was great today. Coho fishing was ok. Kept 2 wild. Released a half dozen more. Kept 1 mackerel because me kid wants to try it.
Took 2 top loins out of it. The rest is crab bait. Not sure how to cook it.

 

[eroyd]

Say if you wanted to catch these mackeral, how would you target them? I think the oily meat would be great for my old dog. Allowed 100 of them. Fished Saturday shallow (-40') and did well for coho, but no mackeral.
Also, released a good sized coho that had a partially clipped adipose. Wasn't 100% sure on whether that was legal or not?

 

[Kasiks]

So yesterday I couldn't catch a mackeral but caught coho no problem...today, same gear same place, same time same speeds, and the exact opposite.... we just ate some seared mackeral loins with fried tomato slices, and will not be releasing any of them in the future...

 

[Kasiks]

Say if you wanted to catch these mackeral, how would you target them? I think the oily meat would be great for my old dog. Allowed 100 of them. Fished Saturday shallow (-40') and did well for coho, but no mackeral.
Also, released a good sized coho that had a partially clipped adipose. Wasn't 100% sure on whether that was legal or not?

We were getting them on hootchies, and spoons, with a bit of herring scent, no problem but tried jigging with a anchovy sized salmon jig.....that was good entertainment....

 

[submerged]

Fished Beachy yesterday 7:30-11. Probably the most laborious trip this year, but got our limit of coho. Between them, the shakers, and the mackerel, we never went more than about 5 minutes without reeling in a line. More hatchery than wild for us, and strangely the hatchery were larger. Nothing huge though. No big hooked nosed northerns.

 

[Fishin]

Fished the head Saturday fairly slow compared to last week 3 hatch for us 35-60’ spoons and hootchies. How long do these mackerel stick around for? Put the boat away but thinking about heading out again next weekend weather permitting would be nice to get some mackerel couldn’t catch one to save my life Saturday.

 

[vicsurfer]

Fished noon to 3pm today off the Head. 3 wilds and 2 mackerel. The top 40ft seemed the best. There were a ton of humpbacks. One whale launched clean out of the water 50ft behind some guy's boat. The weather was perfect to finish off a spectacular season.

 

[profisher]

The Mackerel are definitely in schools and if you are in the school they will bite anything. Yesterday it was one after another from where I dropped the lines...began to think it was never going to stop. Then they were gone or we got away from them and never hit another for the next 3 hours. Got our 3 wild Coho and one runt hatch but all others were wild.

 

[NOOMA]

What a fun couple of hours yesterday. Took the big boat ( Meridian 490 ) out solo to put some heat in the iron and catch some Coho. Started mid Beecher Bay and quartered back and forth with the current to Christoper 150 to 450 ft. Nothing. Turned and headed into the current, picked up 3 small wilds. Kept a bleeder. All on a green and chrome 5 inch. Apex at 35 ft. A glow squirt behind a chrome Betsy at 45 to. 50 ft nothing. Trolled at 3.5 knots, 800 rpm, one motor. Hoped to get a big hooked nosed northern but no, maybe next weekend. Cheers.