Sooke 2013 Fishing Reports

[Swingin Dick]

That is great advice. We usually don't have to wait more then an hour to catch a Hally, so were never tempted to leave. We don't have a secret spot and there was just too many boats everywhere we went. I have this mathematical theory about your odds of catching a hally in a group of boats. The more boats there are, the less your chances are. Cause theres only so many of them out there. We started fishing hally last season and immediately were killing it every time. But this year there seems to be more then double the boats out there.

 

[Statler]

Had an awesome day. Trolled for the first few hours around the trap shack and got a couple of nice salmon nothing huge but will be good on the bbq tonight. Waited till a good tide window opened up for halibut. Didn't get any but there is always next time.

 

[sudsy]

Beauty day on the water, headed west to just passed sheringham point, tried for halibut for 3 hours, had my first strike halibut fishing, I think I was too aggressive as I didn't let the fish take the bait and I popped it out of its mouth, no other action Hali fishing, decided to troll back to otter and got a 8lb winter just before the point at 105 in 140' water, got it on a glow cuttlefish hootchie, fish had large herring in its belly

 

[Englishman]

Inauspicious Start to the Season!!

Well finally got back out there today after two whole months out of town. Judging from the meagre posts on this thread for the last two months we did not expect to catch anything, but the weather is so great we thought we would take the run down to Sheringham and give the boat a work out.
Flat calm, throttle wide open we hit 37.5 Knots, a record! Arriving at Sheringham, problem! Throttle binnacle backed off OK but would not go into neutral. Struggle, struggle, heave ho, then wham it banged right through neutral into reverse and stalled the engine! We restarted and managed to get the binnacle to move into forward/neutral, just about, so we thought OK might work but we can troll back on the kicker anyway. Switched on Lowrance sounder and another problem – strange readout. Went to back of the boat to check transducer and found a wire trailing in the water. Pulled it out and in the air sparks were leaping from the broken end. Uh oh!! Sounder switched off and disconnected right away!! Had to fish “blind” all day.
Did some loops around Sheringham then trolled all the way back past Otter and trailer park. 6 hours in total with not a touch – but as I say not unexpected. Threw the usual array of anchovies, hootchies, spoons and squirts at them to no avail.
Boat “in dock” now for two weeks to fix all the problems. I guess it did not like being tarped up for two months! And the fish gods were angry too.
Great day on the water though and did catch a nice sun tan. LOL

 

[TelStar26]

Wow! thats hauling!! were you out in the morning? It looked pretty rough out there in the afternoon?

 

[Englishman]

Wow! thats hauling!! were you out in the morning? It looked pretty rough out there in the afternoon?

Yep, on the water at about 6:45 am. Totally flat water. Wind got up around 2:00 pm.
Anyway, probably opening it up like that stretched the binnacle/throttle cable, so won't do that again!!

 

[Englishman]

You are in the in between time.....Another week some of the big guys should be starting to stack up ( some have already)...Usually mother's day on week after.... Some catch and release for many this year.....I will be doing as lot of it I am afraid in next few months..

Don't think I am going fish Sheringham much...Should be a zoo.

If you get out end of week cruise out to Constance instead...Seems to be where the US fish are right now... Good Luck

High Five

Thx HF.
Dunno when I am going to get out next. Got to get that damn binnacle/throttle and transducer wiring fixed and Sherwood is backed up like crazy with everyone else getting their boat ready. Thought I was smart getting all my engine servicing done last winter, but something always pulls a "gotcha" with boats!

I have never been to Constance, but I know where it is from the maps on the Web. Will give it a try some time, I assume launching from Esquimault Anglers. It's bit of along run from Sunny Shores!!!

E-man

 

[Fins -n- Skins]

Call Marc from Runabout Marine 250-744-9720 Mobile marine repair, he might be busy but fit you in. Alot cheaper than a big shop.

 

[boomer]

The fish will be in wirldbay on the ebb not to far for you (enghlishman) fish the 150 bottom line to windmill when you get the boat fix Goodluck boomer

 

[Hoochiebob]

Throttle binnacle backed off OK but would not go into neutral. Struggle, struggle, heave ho, then wham it banged right through neutral into reverse and stalled the engine!

Had a similar problem with my control box. A screw inside of it had backed off ,preventing the throttle mechanism from sliding into neutral. Forward and reverse throttle worked fine, but I had to really slam the control to get it into neutral. Took 10 minutes to disassemble,retighten screw and reassemble .
Might be worth a look

 

[Karma-Kazi]

Headed out this am for the Maiden Voyage of the year! Dropped the lines in Beecher and trolled for a few hours. Got wind from a buddy things were heating up out east. Grabbed the gear and ran that way.

Around 1 oclock the first fish of the year popped the pin. Oh and not just an ordinary fish. This was a 25 pound dark gold brown chinook with a massive head. Hmmm... dont even have to bother looking for an Adipose. Released to live another day.

-KK P.S. When I let him go he was headed in the direction of the Fraser! LOL

 

[TelStar26]

Went out late this morning around 9:30. Took a few passes past possesion point this morning with no hits. 75 and 95 feet both choves.
dropped to 120 and trolled to otter, one large rockcod who swam away and missed 2 which im pretty sure were salmon. The rain came later on and kept us in the cabin, Making it harder to keep an eye on the rods. Very wet day.

 

[Karma-Kazi]

Just squeezed lemon juice on todays catch. A nice 12 pound hatchery. Kept one let 2 more swim. A 10 and another 12. Lost another. Was a good morning but no 25 pounders!

-KK

 

[profisher]

Went way up west on Wed and managed 3 chickens for the day. Had to spend a lot of time waiting in between fish so not much quantity there. Not a single dog which was nice.

 

[sudsy]

Fished from 1pm -4:30, headed east from posession all the way towards beechy head, not a bite, beautiful afternoon on the water though, heading out in the morning for halibut out west, keeping my fingers crossed! Will post back tomorrow night.

Sudsy

 

[sudsy]

Headed out to muir this morning around 7 to try for some halibut. Finally broke my halibut curse and landed these 2 chickens, felt good to finally get some action out there. Trolled around for some salmon from muir to the trailer park, nothing to report there....

 

[Englishman]

Got the boat back Friday so a chance to check out the new transducer today. Fished 7:15am until 11:45am. Bit choppy and breezy so decided to fish harbour mouth and bluffs down as far as tin shack. Lots of "echos" showing very shallow - 25-50 feet in 75-100 feet of water so tried one anchovy at 40 feet and one on the bottom but did not get a single hit. Saw a few boats fishing hali but there were one or two trolling like us. No idea if they got anything. Dilemma now is whether to wait until something finally shows off Sooke or haul the boat all the way to Victoria to try Oak Bay or Constance......?

 

[Olde School]

Fished Church area for 5 hours yesterday morning, in a pack of about 15 boats.
Not much action. 2 other boats indicated that they had 1 small one each.
Nice day, great company, no mess to clean up!

 

[mikeyman]

How is the fishing around the first week of July in Sooke? Have a week off and was thinking of heading over from the mainland. Was going to take my boat over. Also wanted to try halibut one day. Can anybody recommend a guide to use?

 

[profisher]

I've been guiding the Sooke area for 27 years and started fishing here back in the mid 60's. My largest Sooke spring went 52 pounds and was taken July 4th, 2001. The last week of June and first week of July are prime for big springs.