2020 Sooke Reports

[kingspring]

Started first light Sunday morning at Otter with my son, after 10 minutes rod explodes and after an amazing big fish fight a fat and fiesty 80cm spring is in the box. We fish away from the growing crowd towards Muir and soon both rods light up ! It quickly becomes one fish on which makes things simpler, and soon a quality 75 cm spring is also in the box.

Short but very sweet trip,lunch, and coffee untouched. Fish on bait.

 

[MongooseX]

Fished secretary sunday 630am till 9. Landed 2 around 10lb and lost a mid teen at the boat. Saw one other guy get a fish. Slow day.

 

[Old Seadog]

Out at Otter this morning... the bite was on early. Let a 92 cm fish go, great fight. Turned around and nailed a 74 cm fish. All on bait and at 65 ft on DR.

 

[Slabbedout]

Out solo yesterday from 6-11 slow for the first hour then hooked a solid what I would guess was low 20’s fish that got off at the boat as I was trying to get a good measure on it. 1/2 hour later got mid teens/ 78cm fish. Headed out to the deep for some coho but not a sniff.

90-100’ of water 77’ on the rigger with AP 4” anchovie spoon sans flasher
Trap shack

Also trying to get a consensus as to how guys troll. Do you try to follow a certain depth contour or try to run straight / parallel to the beach trolling across holes, humps and different depths ? I try to stay at one depth contour but that means moving in and out along the beach. I like to set up and follow a certain depth contour.

Just seems like there is guys everywhere going every which way and that guys fishing tight to the beach at times may need to steer out to follow the depth they are fishing.

I know that no one guy fishes the same way but I would think most guys are trying to follow the contour at a certain depth

 

[chris73]

That's the lazy way. I find you will usually get rewarded if you zig zag over reefs and humps or go deep into bays just in front of kelp beds. A lot more work but on those slow days with only a few sluggish fish around it can make your day. If a large school of fresh and hungry fish moves in on the flood you are better off staying in the path you know they are travelling and you can pick them off one after another in same depth and location.

 

[Slabbedout]

That's the lazy way. I find you will usually get rewarded if you zig zag over reefs and humps or go deep into bays just in front of kelp beds. A lot more work but on those slow days with only a few sluggish fish around it can make your day. If a large school of fresh and hungry fish moves in on the flood you are better off staying in the path you know they are travelling and you can pick them off one after another in same depth and location.

Sorry, I should say when fishing a area with a significant amount of other boats around and near the beach, I like to just try and work depths and areas I know should have fish. In the winter or out deep with few other boats around I will be doing the crazy Ivan and mixing the speed around.

I find when it’s busy and everyone wants to be scraping the beach it’s just easier for me to just get in tight and jig the kelp than try and jockey for position and get pushed into the beach.

I was marking a good amount of small bait on structure from Beechy head to past the trap. I was just finding it hard to stay on it.

 

[pelican]

Out last eve, at the head. As soon as I got a rod in the water a great hit on bait green/gold Chrome. Ran away from and back to the boat as the boat was being push onto the rocks in the big swell. Shook the hook looking at me. I didn't have the net ready anyway. So that's 2 for 11 fish over the past three days. I'm not sure if it's the barbless hooks or user error.

 

[RogersonCrusoe]

Out yesterday from 5:30-7:30pm. Started at the head and immediately got a 65cm hatch coho. During the ensuing kerfuffle, the tide pushed us way far out into the middle of the bay mouth. Decided to do a burning-hell troll on the main motor back towards the head and got an absolute smash hit going about 5knts at 77' with a 77 degree on the DR . Didn't stick, but it was funny thinking about how fast the flasher was rotating / bait spinning at that speed.

Nothing else for an hour or so and the tide started to throw a bunch of gunk at us, so we trolled to Aldridge and back to Cheanuh. Had a great hit and peel, but didn't stick.

Winning combo was Black-Glo flasher and Cop Car Teaser head. 77' on the rigger. Spectacular evening though!

 

[Deewar25]

Out yesterday from 5:30-7:30pm. Started at the head and immediately got a 65cm hatch coho. During the ensuing kerfuffle, the tide pushed us way far out into the middle of the bay mouth. Decided to do a burning-hell troll on the main motor back towards the head and got an absolute smash hit going about 5knts at 77' with a 77 degree on the DR . Didn't stick, but it was funny thinking about how fast the flasher was rotating / bait spinning at that speed.

Nothing else for an hour or so and the tide started to throw a bunch of gunk at us, so we trolled to Aldridge and back to Cheanuh. Had a great hit and peel, but didn't stick.

Winning combo was Black-Glo flasher and Cop Car Teaser head. 77' on the rigger. Spectacular evening though!

my bigggest coho to date was when i had it cranked probably 5 knots to get past a fishing trawler heading right at me. Doesn't surprise!

 

[profisher]

Out this morning and another beauty day. 4 springs, kept our 3 and released another under 80cm also kept 2 nice hatch coho. Quite a few fish still being taken, no big bite just one hear one there. Had my 2nd fish this week that hit the rigger hard and the reel was screaming before I could do anything...had to loosen off the drag while the rod was still in the holder. The 1st one this week ran until it got cut off by another 2 boats....I told my clients that it wasn't necessarily a big fish but more likely a foul hooked one. The 2nd one this morning was hooked on the top of the body close to the head and went maybe 15 pounds. I said to the guys this morning while they were playing it probably foul hooked....goes to prove that most of the monster hits where the rod is buried in the water quickly are often very average fish that are hooked in a way that gives them the ability to pull harder.

 

[Englishman]

A totally weird day today, which included a very embarrassing and stupid event by me.

We were down at Muir and the day started OK. We had a hit at around 8:15 and brought in a small 7lb fish.

Two hours later we were trolling in the opposite direction and I had a big hit and the rod sprang up straight. I jumped to respond and nothing there. Strange. The new teaser head showed teeth scratch marks so it looked as though it had been a decent fish. While I was sorting that out the other rod gave a bouncing hit and my wife struck that one and nothing there again. Funny.

Down went both refreshed herrings and 30 minutes later the original rod did a stand up straight act again. I struck and this time he was there. At first he just stayed deep and head shook, then while my wife was clearing the other gear he began to run….and run… and run. The proverbial freight train!! I was beginning to think I had better hold this guy harder and maybe get my wife to turn back towards him, and tried to do that, when I heard the sickening “stwack” and the hiss of the line going through the rings. I looked down at the reel and it was empty and I had been spooled!! The line had snapped or the reel knot had exploded I don’t know. Now I may have only had about 150 metres of line on the reel as I had lost some line in an altercation with a crab trap two weeks before. Nevertheless I paid the price for not paying attention. I could have kept a few loops of line on the reel and held on. I could have asked my wife to turn the boat right away. But I was so blown away by the heaviest running fish I have ever felt my mind did not think quickly enough . So dumb!! The only consolation was he would have been waaay over the slot and I would have had to release it anyway. Would love to have seen him though.

Nothing more for the next 2 hours then around noon we began to get those bang, rod straight up hits again but once more we just could not hit them. So weird and frustrating. I think we had four more hits like that. At 2:30pm we called it and I had one rod packed up and I was untangling some leaders when the rod still out started to bounce hard. This time the fish had hooked itself and we boated a consolation 11lb fish to end the day.

So one fish at the start, one right at the end, a total of 7 good hits that weirdly we could not contact, and my first ever spooling, thanks to my very slow thinking!! A day to remember though….

 

[Doubleheader]

Sounds like an exciting day! I don’t find this time of year that springs pound it off the clip as hard as early season. But maybe I troll slower and run tighter clips. Coho definitely pound it off the clip harder in my experience, but even the 10-15 Chinook days I’ve had of late maybe one a day pop the clip. The downside of the slow troll is it’s more difficult to see the takes and get to em before they spit it. But I’ll take the higher rate of bites, works for me at the end of the day...

 

[wishtofish]

Out this morning. Strange bite time for us as picked up three in a row between 10 - 11 at possession after not hitting anything all morning at otter. Two overs and a 78 white. What colors springs are people picking up?

 

[Tips Up]

A totally weird day today, which included a very embarrassing and stupid event by me.

We were down at Muir and the day started OK. We had a hit at around 8:15 and brought in a small 7lb fish.

Two hours later we were trolling in the opposite direction and I had a big hit and the rod sprang up straight. I jumped to respond and nothing there. Strange. The new teaser head showed teeth scratch marks so it looked as though it had been a decent fish. While I was sorting that out the other rod gave a bouncing hit and my wife struck that one and nothing there again. Funny.

Down went both refreshed herrings and 30 minutes later the original rod did a stand up straight act again. I struck and this time he was there. At first he just stayed deep and head shook, then while my wife was clearing the other gear he began to run….and run… and run. The proverbial freight train!! I was beginning to think I had better hold this guy harder and maybe get my wife to turn back towards him, and tried to do that, when I heard the sickening “stwack” and the hiss of the line going through the rings. I looked down at the reel and it was empty and I had been spooled!! The line had snapped or the reel knot had exploded I don’t know. Now I may have only had about 150 metres of line on the reel as I had lost some line in an altercation with a crab trap two weeks before. Nevertheless I paid the price for not paying attention. I could have kept a few loops of line on the reel and held on. I could have asked my wife to turn the boat right away. But I was so blown away by the heaviest running fish I have ever felt my mind did not think quickly enough . So dumb!! The only consolation was he would have been waaay over the slot and I would have had to release it anyway. Would love to have seen him though.

Nothing more for the next 2 hours then around noon we began to get those bang, rod straight up again hits again but once more we just could not hit them. So weird and frustrating. I think we had four more hits like that. At 2:30pm we called it and I had one rod packed up and I was untangling some leaders when the rod still out started to bounce hard. This time the fish had hooked itself and we boated a consolation 11lb fish to end the day.

So one fish at the start, one right at the end, a total of 7 good hits that weirdly we could not contact, and my first ever spooling, thanks to my very slow thinking!! A day to remember though….

Sounds like a good day!
For those popping the pin but not hooking up you may want to try better and longer rods reeled down tight in the rigger. If you are not reeled down tight there is a lot of slack given to the fish when it pops off the rigger.
As for getting spooled ... that’s on you for not having enough line on the reel. Lol.
sounds like you enjoyed your day and that’s what matters.

 

[Doubleheader]

Sounds like a good day!
For those popping the pin but not hooking up you may want to try better and longer rods reeled down tight in the rigger. If you are not reeled down tight there is a lot of slack given to the fish when it pops off the rigger.
As for getting spooled ... that’s on you for not having enough line on the reel. Lol.
sounds like you enjoyed your day and that’s what matters.

I prefer to not even let em trip the clip, I find if I bury them and hit em hard before they pop it I have better hook ups. Trouble is many people just end up fighting a 15# cannonball as the fish shakes the bait and swims away.

 

[Doubleheader]

And personally if the rod is bouncing hard I feel I’ve missed the best opportunity to hook em up. A bouncing rod is a fish that knows the gig is up and trying to spit it. The original take is subtle, but once the eye is trained to it then hooks can be buried before they realize the bait is tainted...

 

[profisher]

Late summer males that are not hitting to feed they are hitting out of territorial aggression...often they grab at the head end and drive the teaser down hard towards the hooks. I've tried everything over the years but haven't found the magic solution. If they soft bite I turn the rigger on and drag them up without releasing them from the rigger....I usually only get a maximum of 20ft of cable in and they don't like being dragged up and pull hard of the clip...which most of the time sets the hook...the trick is to keep up to the rigger with the reel so when they do pop off they get no slack.

 

[Doubleheader]

I have better luck pinning the trolling motor and reeling out the clip straight to the fish. If I have a good hook setting deckhand I’ll drop the ball while they’re on the reel. We do ok this way, trailer hooks really help thus time of year with the soft bites, and the freight training males hitting from the front of bait often wear that trailer somewhere quite often not in the lips HA

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

A totally weird day today, which included a very embarrassing and stupid event by me.

We were down at Muir and the day started OK. We had a hit at around 8:15 and brought in a small 7lb fish.

Two hours later we were trolling in the opposite direction and I had a big hit and the rod sprang up straight. I jumped to respond and nothing there. Strange. The new teaser head showed teeth scratch marks so it looked as though it had been a decent fish. While I was sorting that out the other rod gave a bouncing hit and my wife struck that one and nothing there again. Funny.

Down went both refreshed herrings and 30 minutes later the original rod did a stand up straight act again. I struck and this time he was there. At first he just stayed deep and head shook, then while my wife was clearing the other gear he began to run….and run… and run. The proverbial freight train!! I was beginning to think I had better hold this guy harder and maybe get my wife to turn back towards him, and tried to do that, when I heard the sickening “stwack” and the hiss of the line going through the rings. I looked down at the reel and it was empty and I had been spooled!! The line had snapped or the reel knot had exploded I don’t know. Now I may have only had about 150 metres of line on the reel as I had lost some line in an altercation with a crab trap two weeks before. Nevertheless I paid the price for not paying attention. I could have kept a few loops of line on the reel and held on. I could have asked my wife to turn the boat right away. But I was so blown away by the heaviest running fish I have ever felt my mind did not think quickly enough . So dumb!! The only consolation was he would have been waaay over the slot and I would have had to release it anyway. Would love to have seen him though.

Nothing more for the next 2 hours then around noon we began to get those bang, rod straight up hits again but once more we just could not hit them. So weird and frustrating. I think we had four more hits like that. At 2:30pm we called it and I had one rod packed up and I was untangling some leaders when the rod still out started to bounce hard. This time the fish had hooked itself and we boated a consolation 11lb fish to end the day.

So one fish at the start, one right at the end, a total of 7 good hits that weirdly we could not contact, and my first ever spooling, thanks to my very slow thinking!! A day to remember though….

Soft hits, short strikes, etc... put a trailer hook further back than the tail of the bait. Like a full inch behind the tail. Drop a hook size or two and sharpen them well even the lead hook, drop a size or two as well. If you're not using scent that's the time to add some. This time of year there's also a chance Pinks could be some of those soft hits and short strikes you are getting as well as juvenile Springs.

 

[Doubleheader]

Yup let that trailer dangle behind the tail, it works...