Over the years I have seen smaller trollers running lines fishing commercially off Sooke, which I assumed were some sort of test fishery but this is the first I have seen a large drum net boat run a set right off the mouth of the inlet. Now I assume this area continues to not be open to commercial fishing so was this some sort of test fishery and if so what were they fishing for? This seem to me to be a great spot to run a large net if you wanted to catch late Sooke River System Chinook or Coho and possibly some Chums. If so why are they running a test fishery on Sooke River fish? If they were looking for say Fraser fish, why would they not do it a little farther east and out a little farther where they would likely catch more of them or at least the Fraser Coho and be much less likely to catch Sooke fish.
This boat came from the west slowly going in and around Sooke Bay and across the Sooke bluffs before stopping in front of Sooke inlet and running out the net. The picture was taken after they had hauled in the net and were about to pull the tender up on the stern before going into Sooke Harbour. I don’t know all that much about commercial fishing or what DFO approves as test fishing in JDF but this was certainly something I did not expect to see at the mouth of Sooke Inlet. I assume they were looking to test for Coho or Chums?
PS we did keep a couple of clipped hatchery Coho we caught, one around 7 lbs and one that was 8.8 lbs.
This boat came from the west slowly going in and around Sooke Bay and across the Sooke bluffs before stopping in front of Sooke inlet and running out the net. The picture was taken after they had hauled in the net and were about to pull the tender up on the stern before going into Sooke Harbour. I don’t know all that much about commercial fishing or what DFO approves as test fishing in JDF but this was certainly something I did not expect to see at the mouth of Sooke Inlet. I assume they were looking to test for Coho or Chums?
PS we did keep a couple of clipped hatchery Coho we caught, one around 7 lbs and one that was 8.8 lbs.
