Sooke Reports - Spring and Summer 2012

Boy oh boy. What a fabulous contrast to yesterday!! Howling east wind yesterday and big chop. Today was a like a lily pond out there. Except there was a big humpback in the “pond” again and my wife got a good video clip as he blew and sounded, fluke to the sky.
Anyway fished from 8 till noon. Got a few hits in the first two hours and boated two wildies of 6lb each and one hatch of 7lb. Released another small wildy. Then it went right off and we got no more hits till right at the end, when a couple of clip poppers hit so fast you could not react. No preliminary bounce or nod, just bang and gone!
Silver spoons and glo hootchies at 85-100 feet in 500-530 feet of water worked for us. Did not want to come in but social booking had to be honoured….:(
(Once again the Lowrance showed hundreds of fish echoes at 290-350 feet. Still would like to know what they all are….)
 
Fish between beachy and secratary today 590 ft keeped 3 wilds 10 to 15 lbs got 3 hatchery all shallow 37 and 44 blue seemed to be the colour of choice today used a new hootchie from supertakle 'tyee' nice weather for my last day this year enjoy the rest boys& girls see ya in january
 
Humpbacks dont eat salmon so no worries about effecting fishing and they sure are nice to see wait to you see them breach the nosie is pretty cool.

wolf
 
fished from 7 till 2pm today , beautiful day on the brine ended up with 3 wilds 6- 7 lbs. 2 hatchery about the same and 2 smaller springs 4-5 lbs. saw the hump back and got a few pics white hoochies done it for us no luck with the anchovies 55-80 ft.
 
Sunny weather,calm seas, Humpback whales and fresh Coho salmon .. pinch me!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
:)
 
Best thanksgiving day , EVER... great weather, nice whale show, and the Coho are still around in good numbers. We got into them from Church rock to P.P , hit the fish pretty deep, 80 to 100 ft. they most productive lure was the green white coho killer.

Cheers
Rich
 
Yep, this fall has been stellar. Just hope the rains don't come too late as it looks grim on some streams already. Tahsis River is completely dry in places and everything has died. Not good on an already poor cycle year. 4 of these around all morning today.

hump.jpg
 
Nice........
 
Saw those 2 whales off Beechy around 3pm. Yes it was a beauty day again on the left coast. Got 2 wilds to 10lbs, 3 hatchery, and 1 small white spring. All fish from 80-100 ft. Ventured from Beechy out to the border, found it spotty but must have had 20 hits all day. Bait worked best for us.
 
Yep was quite the day, and may have matched my best coho day I had last year. Started first light for amazing sunrise.... Must have let 30+ wilds go it was just stupid.... closer in they were 8-10 lbs...Farther out they got bigger? Got into some hefty 12lbs and up. Kept one wild 12lb and two hatcheries 10 lbs. Not as many on top in 50 feet and above. Most productive deep on down rigger 125 feet 135 feet. It was awesome basically circled same area all morning ( school) they didn't move around much....All fish from 500 feet to 550 feet off of secretary. No bait just green hootchies as usual. Total blast playing fish to some Led Zeppelin/Metallica tunes on glass calm morning...

So there is your ratio for me anyways say today 30 wilds, and only found two hatchery. That at percentage wilds/hatchery really sucks I am finding... I am not buying the claims there are more hatchery this year there are definitely less. Awesome had a blast seeing the whales today. If coho ends I am happy that makes the season for me. Wicked day.

High Five,

You obviously have the skills and knowledge to get big Coho. However, the price you are paying for that is low numbers of hatchery.

In all of our trips since July when the Coho started to appear in huge numbers we have never caught one larger than 7lbs, and yesterday was no exception. However, we have found the hatch ratio very high compared to last year. We only boated four fish yesterday and one was a hatch. In July my daughter hooked three hatch fish in a row! We have never had the hatch (clipped) ratio less than 25%, but then all our fish have been small compared to the experts like you guys!!;):)
 
Fished from 7 - noon today, Kept 3 wild and 3 hatchery and the biggest fish kept was 13lb. But after we had our three wild we had to release 4 fish all over 12lb.
Overall it was great fishing from 830 to 1130 and in total we released 8 wild at the boat and 14 lost after a minute+- of play.
We used bait and plastics and most fish were caught at 80 feet deep.
It appears that there are allot more bigger fish showing up these last few days

In regards to hatchery VS wild fish, it's a crap shot, my first two days out I had 25 fish to the boat and only one was a hatchery, on my third day out my first 5 fish were hatchery and by the end of our 6 hr trip we had 4 wild and 9 hatchery. Then the next day out only 2 hatchery.
 
Fished from 7 - noon today, Kept 3 wild and 3 hatchery and the biggest fish kept was 13lb. But after we had our three wild we had to release 4 fish all over 12lb.
Overall it was great fishing from 830 to 1130 and in total we released 8 wild at the boat and 14 lost after a minute+- of play.
We used bait and plastics and most fish were caught at 80 feet deep.
It appears that there are allot more bigger fish showing up these last few days

In regards to hatchery VS wild fish, it's a crap shot, my first two days out I had 25 fish to the boat and only one was a hatchery, on my third day out my first 5 fish were hatchery and by the end of our 6 hr trip we had 4 wild and 9 hatchery. Then the next day out only 2 hatchery.


In addition to what realfast says, I have heard from others as well that there are lots of hatchery running out by the border, and shallow (some just using 16 oz weights)....it isn't that far in the grand scheme of things if there is no fog around. Decent size as well.
 
That was one of greater humpy shows I have seen today.
 
I agree, can't say I've ever seen that out there before. More bait and birds than I've ever seen as well. Fished from 7am to 3pm off Possession, some very nice coho taken. Both wild and hatchery up to 14lbs.
 
Fished thurs , Fri , Sat and Mon what a weekend little windy some days but Monday was epic caught. lots of coup each day. biggest were 12 and 14. lost a real nice one on Monday great whale show i brought my son out Monday he caught and reeled in all 12 fish lol he was exhausted and sore the next day i said seecfishing is hard all on bait 65 and 75 magic depth all in closer 150-300 ft cool site coming in huge school of fish forthcoming the surface and jumping all over the place awesome
 
Went out twice this past weekend, once on Sunday where we kept a 13.5 lber and an 8. Glow hoochies and anchovie. Went out again on Monday,on my own had lots of action, three double headers. In the end I released 6 lost about 6 and kept a 11.5 lber. Did not catch a single hatchery over both days. Just outside of the sooke harbour in about 400-500 feet of water 65 to 85 ft deep
 
I believe Deewar 25 is correct about the hatchery fish being far off shore. In my last three trips (15 hrs) we have boated 15 hatchery fish and 10 wild. Most days I see one or two boats moving more off shore but usually they don't make it and turn around and get back into the pack of boat off Secretary and out front of the harbour. I even saw Chris 73 coming towards me today and then he turned around and back to the pack.
Today we fished from 1030 to 1230 and our first three fish were hatchery, three days ago our first 5 fish in the boat were hatchery.

Try off shore in 500'+ of water at 80 feet deep for hatchery. It's been working for us.
 
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