2023 Victoria and Oak Bay Reports

[Original]

Got out Wed aft 3pm in the ripping current. Out by the freighters heading west but sitting in one spot with lines way back produced nothing. Pulled gear headed over to Pedder where currents were better but nothing biting And no shortage of kelp on the gear. Pulled up headed back to the freighters at 6 and trolled back towards our crab trap At Sax point. Almost there when the starboard rod was getting a nibble, grabbed it and it was off the clip but felt small until…. Zziiinggg big run and a 10 min fight brought about a 15 lb spring to the side of the boat for release. A couple of keepers in the trap got the itch scratched.

 

[Slack-tider]

Helped a guy move a 44' from Sidney to Vic. He had an excellent map app showing current direction. You could zoom right in. Not tide levels. I don't recall the name. Sure would be nice to have. Anyone using something like this.
Thanks

 

[Seattled]

Helped a guy move a 44' from Sidney to Vic. He had an excellent map app showing current direction. You could zoom right in. Not tide levels. I don't recall the name. Sure would be nice to have. Anyone using something like this.
Thanks

Deepzoom
.com

 

[Salish Osprey]

Helped a guy move a 44' from Sidney to Vic. He had an excellent map app showing current direction. You could zoom right in. Not tide levels. I don't recall the name. Sure would be nice to have. Anyone using something like this.
Thanks

Recently I have been enjoying using the app “PNW Current Atlas”, which is a graphical solution based on the Current Atlas (Juan de Fuca Strait). Solutions appear consistent with Murray’s Tables, although there is no strict adherence to an hourly step. Note that there is a one-time subscription fee of $31.35 after a short trial period.

The app saves a lot of tedium synchronizing Murray’s Tables (or Current atlas tables by borsboom) with specific pages of the Current Atlas. However, be aware that although the current charts appear very detailed, there is a great deal of uncertainty for any specific location. (The Canadian Hydrographic Service relied upon algorithms to complete the current charts, and the degree of certainty for each value shown is unknown.)

 

[Slack-tider]

Thanks, I'll check them both out. I'm heading out tomorrow morning. Thinking Pedder or Constance, but there has been very little reports. Targeting Coho and Pinks. Looks like there are a few a few around the point towards Beechy Head. It will be weather defendant. Will follow up.

 

[Randy M]

Was fishing at Sooke Harbour yesterday and had good luck, one hatchery coho and 4 pinks. lost equal number fish. Beechy Head had lots of traffic so there are likely pinks there. Pinks should head east soon. I did see one charter guy's report who said there were a few pinks at Constance. Hopefully, a reader will fish there and confirm presence of pinks. Tight lines.

 

[Original]

Got out Thursday am 6:30 with some friends from out of town so our plan was to fish the waterfront. Didn’t take long and we were getting some shakers which got them excited. Things were slow through what I thought would be a good morning bite. So much kelp had me working hard clearing line I decided to go out near the freighter which turned out to be a good decision. The double headers started and we were into some nice fish including Springs, Pinks and Coho’s. Had to wrap things up at noon but marked a lot of bait and fish. Crab trap had only a few keepers and lots of females.

 

[Rayvon]

I found the flood tide to be better on Wednesday afternoon.Had 2 long running springs that shook their hooks ,about a 10 lber that a seal snatched away and kept a small coho that was tasty.All on skinny G spoons.Looking forward to August.

 

[Sam7]

out for some halibut this morning, left Esquilmalt at 6:45, dropped the trap, headed out to the mud flats.

dogs were thick today, had a salmon head on one side, herring on the other, went through 8 herring before I landed a 77cm. several more dogs on the herring, no action on the salmon head today Off the water at 3:00 as the rains came in.

back to the crab trap, trap was loaded, BUT only one keeper which was a bit soft, so he lived to see another day

 

[vicsurfer]

We decided to give halibut a try today after the last few days of crazy pink and coho action off Sooke. We dropped anchor north of Race at 6am and conditions were perfect. Within minutes, salmon were jumping all around the boat. Our hali lines were down so we decided to jig while we waited. It turned out they were pinks and we hooked up quickly. Kept 2 and lost 3 at the boat. At 11am the hali rod buried but no fight. As expected we hooked up a skate. No hali, but fun morning.

 

[silver spring]

I was got a call to go hali fishing with my cousin yesterday. Even though we had some showers, it was nice to get some calm weather amongst the countless windy days that we have had this season. We laid out a variety of baits including octopus, salmon and herring. We hooked a couple dogfish before I hooked on to a nice 120cm hali. It put up a great fight and took a couple runs when i had it half way up. We were concerned it may have been over slot with the way it fought but we measured it a couple times to make sure it was under slot before we harpooned it. We also noticed all of the marks of schools of fish under the boat but cursed that we didn't have a jigging rod to try for them. Nice bonus having a humpback whale in the vicinity surfacing near our boat on occasion to provide some entertainment.

 

[Sam7]

I had a half day of work today, so I took the morning half to go have some fun.

trolled the waterfront for a couple of hours, didn’t see much bait, but I had 1 hit just on the other side of the breakwater bend, and a managed to land a pink in the boat.

at 8, I decided to head out to the mud hole for a chance at some halibut, but first I had to return to the Esquilmalt Anglers to grab some more bait, because the dogs were horrible on Monday.

got myself set up around 9, caught 2 dogs in about 40 minutes, and as I was prepping the bait to send it back down, the other rod with a salmon head on a circle hook, starts going off. Several minutes later, 109cm is in the boat.

All wrapped up before 10 am

 

[porcupine]

First two trips of the summer and got limits on Thursday and Friday. 3 pinks and a hatch coho on Thursday and 4 pinks on Friday. Fishing 100-200 feet off the waterfront. On Friday, the pinks were deeper, 80 on the downrigger.

 

[Hot-Streak]

Just went out this morning. Took 4 newbies (wife and mother-in-law) included hoping to get them on a fish or two.... well ... we sure did.
Surprisingly instead of a few bites here and there we were on the fish almost as soon as I dropped the first line. I think we had about 8 double headers (with people who don't know how to handle double headers), lots of action. All pinks

I did some gymnastics netting, driving and stopping them from constantly trying to cross lines/run fish into the propeller/untangle gear from the downrigger. Bit of a sh*t show to be honest but my family and friends had a fun time.

Limited out in under 1 hour 45 min with 20 fish boated... yes 20 our limit.

Pinks were loving the squirts 45 - 68 on the rigger. Anywhere along the waterfront pretty much.

 

[Ldub]

Just went out this morning. Took 4 newbies (wife and mother-in-law) included hoping to get them on a fish or two.... well ... we sure did.
Surprisingly instead of a few bites here and there we were on the fish almost as soon as I dropped the first line. I think we had about 8 double headers (with people who don't know how to handle double headers), lots of action. All pinks

I did some gymnastics netting, driving and stopping them from constantly trying to cross lines/run fish into the propeller/untangle gear from the downrigger. Bit of a sh*t show to be honest but my family and friends had a fun time.

Limited out in under 1 hour 45 min with 20 fish boated... yes 20 our limit.

Pinks were loving the squirts 45 - 68 on the rigger. Anywhere along the waterfront pretty much.

Jeesh! Nice work! I tried to launch out of Esquimalt at about 8:30 this morning but the damn tide was way too low to launch. Ended up driving to Cheanuh and fighting the wind for a few hours. Kept 5 pinks and also got 1 clipped Chinook inside Becher bay.

 

[Sam7]

Just went out this morning. Took 4 newbies (wife and mother-in-law) included hoping to get them on a fish or two.... well ... we sure did.
Surprisingly instead of a few bites here and there we were on the fish almost as soon as I dropped the first line. I think we had about 8 double headers (with people who don't know how to handle double headers), lots of action. All pinks

I did some gymnastics netting, driving and stopping them from constantly trying to cross lines/run fish into the propeller/untangle gear from the downrigger. Bit of a sh*t show to be honest but my family and friends had a fun time.

Limited out in under 1 hour 45 min with 20 fish boated... yes 20 our limit.

Pinks were loving the squirts 45 - 68 on the rigger. Anywhere along the waterfront pretty much.

Right out front or were you in deeper water, or 2nd tide line

 

[Rayvon]

They were spread out all over,lots right at the green can bouy.I was using spoons trying to see if there were any springs around for the opening.No spring action,lots of pinks.

 

[cby]

Anyone fished the flats for springs in the last week or so. The Chinook have to be there as Sooke was on Fire 3 weeks ago for springs? I assume they are in Oak Bay now?

 

[scott craven]

Anyone fished the flats for springs in the last week or so. The Chinook have to be there as Sooke was on Fire 3 weeks ago for springs? I assume they are in Oak Bay now?

In my experience those Sooke springs don't neccessarily move through Oak bay.
Going out this morning, will see what happens....

 

[cby]

In my experience those Sooke springs don't neccessarily move through Oak bay.
Going out this morning, will see what happens....

Well usually they do, depending on how long they stay around for. They have to be somewhere as there was a ton in Sooke 3 weeks ago. I was in Sidney on Weekend and they weren't there lol. So I assume they are in Oak Bay.