Sooke 2014 Fishing Reports

I can't remember the cost, $500 or so, and you can spend another $1000 on accessories if you want.

They are a neat tool. Rated to 60m but I've had mine a bit deeper than that for a few hours and it didn't leak. 200 ft depth was a bit dark, and you'd need a bright day with clear water (winter conditions) to see much. 150ft seems to be light enough to see clearly, just depends on the day and water quality. I've only used it a few times but it has proven useful for understanding the bottom type and conditions down there, and for understanding what the presentation of my gear is like.

Attaching it to the vertical portion of the spreader bar seems to work best, pointing back towards the horizontal arm with the bait clipped to it. It gives a surprisingly clear picture. I use hay wire, but zap straps would probably work too (but hay wire is reusable and not plastic). There are numerous settings and I find the wide angle is best since clarity down there is a minimum and you want to capture as much as you can happening around you.

So far the footage I've collected has been of ratfish, little cod (can't tell if there are three or 2 dorsal fins (true cod or black cod)), and some sort of little flatfish like a sole. All of those have nibbled at the bait but the cod is the most aggressive. I've yet to even see a halibut.

I haven't rigged up anything so that I can troll with it, but I'll do that soon. I'm open to suggestions from those that have done this successfully. I'll probably glue together some abstract concoction of pvc to mount the camera in so it points backwards towards the flasher and lure. You can buy manufactured 'tow pros' and such, but I prefer to do things myself. I get satisfaction from doing things more expensively, time consuming, and flawed.

Edit: I collect between 5 and 15 gb of video, or 2-4 hours, at a time before the battery runs out. I have a 64gb memory card in it.
 
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played around in Whirl Bay this afternoon in a pack of 9 boats out enjoying the great weather. Managed 2 keepers, lost the biggest fish of the day and let go 3 undersize. All hits on green/white spoons.
 
There is still a bunch of fish around in Whirl Bay. We just could not find the big ones today. Probably had 5 or 6 barely legals to the boat. Found one about 5-6 pounds to bring home at least something. Another interesting thing was that we had 3 rather large copper rockfish in the mix; between 3 and 5 lbs. I don't think I ever had such large rockfish in that area and then 3 in one trip!? Hopefully positive signs of a comeback of this species. Luckily all three of them were in good shape when we released them because my son really struggled to bring them up and this slow ascent prevented any harm to them. Oh, another first time observation, I saw another boat bring up a small hali. I always wondered why I never had an incidental hali catch there but now know it does happen there too. And btw, Gary Coops had the recipe for the bigger ones today; he showed us 2 really nice fish when we came by. Maybe he will spill the secret here...!?
 
They were a couple decent fish.
 
Beecher bay from 8-12 today 1 spring about 13-15 saw another boat with 2 on board nice out there
 
Fished a couple hours this morning out front of Sooke, Secretary to Tin Shack. Hooked and released a couple small chinooks, under 4lbs.
 
Strange day today. First time out for two months. Not expecting much in view of mediocre reports. Went straight out from harbour to 130 feet of water and put first rod in about 8:30am. It was down only 5 minutes and I was still getting the other rod set up when we got a good hit. Two excellent runs later and we had a 12lb fish in the boat. I was astonished! Was this going to be an “ace” day?

We fished from then till 12:30pm out front and then down to trailer park and back without another touch even on the successful lure, except from tiny ling cod which kept lacerating the anchovy side, two of which made it to the boat. How strange is that?

The big surprise early fish hit a blue/white glow squirt at 125’.
 
2x 14#long lanky hatchjobs & a 9 between 9-10:30 at the shack. All on glow white hootchie 90-110. aggressive pin poppers pulling a good amount of line. Teen cookie cutters and a few others at the dock looking the same from what we saw. Few borderline shakers too that went back. Lots of bait hugging the floor and the odd ball mid column. Starting to feel like summer with the first BBQ burgers off the season off the transom. Porpoise show right off the back - swear that one smacked the flasher. Nice day out there. :cool:
 
Trolled Otter and Trailer park yesterday around noon in the hard ebb. No hits. Managed to get a hali earlier in the morning.
 
Went out from 7:00am till 12:30pm today. Thought we would give The Trap a go. After one hour got a decent hit off East Sooke at 125’ but after a few good pulls it became a long distance release. After another couple of hours with nothing but rock fish we gave up. Seems anything within 15 feet of the bottom there is hit by rockfish be it anchovy or plastic. Must have caught about 10, two of which had swim bladder issues and became eagle food. The first one was taken only 50’ from the boat. Must get one of those rockfish release devices but then the eagles would go hungry!

Came back to bluffs and fished for two hours with no hits. Then had a strange occurrence while checking the rods. Brought the first one in. Rockfish again!! Began to bring in second rod and got it halfway up and thought – better get first one down – (my downriggers are slow!). Put rod back in holder and turned to do this. When the first one was down I turned back and the second rod was off the clip and a fish was running!! Good fight and got it to the surface within 15 feet of boat and the hook popped out. Only justice since the rod fished itself and the fish hooked itself!

We had been fishing from 90-130’ close to bottom all morning. That fish must have hit at 70’ or less in 130’ of water as that is what the rigger read when I put the rod back in the holder. Soooo….either we were fishing underneath the fish all day, or that fished chased the lure all the way up. Fished much shallower for the last 90 minutes and got one hit at 80’ but missed it. 0 for 3 today….:)
 
Sometimes a change in speed and direction will trigger a strike...
I've had numerous fish hit on the way up to check gear.
 
Someone told me the other day that they don't get those kind of strikes while bringing up the gear since they made the upgrade to the high speed riggers. ( Or a lot fewer) Makes sense as the gear comes up to fast for fish to chase.
 
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