Sockeye on the way

[california]

They are a boring fish to catch, most time I just skate them on the surface. Extra rods and gear add to the kayoss and fun.
I prefer to catch them fast and get back to the launch before 9am. My best has been 8 fish in 1 hour 3 minutes. Trying to beat that this year.lol oh and now I have a GoPro and want to land a quad. On film . Lol . I’ve landed a few triples solo. That’s the stuff that makes sockeye fun.
I’m itching to get out. Saturday can come fast anough.

They are a pretty compliant fish, they just follow the line to the boat and then maybe do a few jumps. Good for the kids, which is why I don't use dummy flashers or too much gear. When they are in thick two rods is enough and then you can stop the boat so the kids can feel the fish a bit and not just skate them in as you mention. It is a total meat fishery, not too much sport except maybe for a triple solo!

 

[Canso]

Kind of a contradiction...oh they are boring to catch...but I cant wait. Haha.

I guess I worded it wrong, they have very little fight, as others have said “it’s a meat fishery”. But the kayoss is a blast.

 

[Che]

If you use a big stiff meat stick that can wrangle a smiley to the boat with ease, you ain't going to get much sport out of a sockeye. A big sockeye is what, ten pounds? Most are six? Gear down to a lighter rod and the sport increases. It's the same thing for coho.

 

[Salmon Seeker]

Anyone ever try a hoochie with no flasher in line, maybe use one of those jugheads for action. still run a bunch of dummies for the attraction. it would be nice to play them without a flasher

 

[iFish]

Anyone ever try a hoochie with no flasher in line, maybe use one of those jugheads for action. still run a bunch of dummies for the attraction. it would be nice to play them without a flasher

I was thinking something similar... Apex Hot Spot size A1 or A2 in #78 Red/Pearl

 

[Killeraye]

Anyone ever try a hoochie with no flasher in line, maybe use one of those jugheads for action. still run a bunch of dummies for the attraction. it would be nice to play them without a flasher

I haven’t but I will unless someone says they have and it didn’t work!

What about casting a little pink buzz bomb or jig at sockeye on the surface? Like pink fishing.
Anyone?

 

[tburns]

Anyone ever try a hoochie with no flasher in line, maybe use one of those jugheads for action. still run a bunch of dummies for the attraction. it would be nice to play them without a flasher

We'll be doing that with at least one rod Matthias!!!

 

[tincan]

Hey @Aphros here's how I set up my MB squirts. Sounds like you are doing it the same way. Just make sure that you close the eye of your Siwash hooks by crimping them with pliers as shown in one of the pics here.

After all your squirts have hooks just tie on leaders (I prefer 40lb test and usually around 24" in length) and put a swivel on so you can connect to a flasher.

Hope that helps. Good luck out there. Should be some fun fishing ahead over the next couple months.

Hoping someone would be will to share a photo of their Michael Bait set up. I want to make sure I am rigged right. The hooks I was going to use seem big and I’m not positive I’ve attached them to the hootchies properly. I’ve used open ended hooks and attached them to the metal eye of the hootchie but I’m hoping for an experienced sockeye person to confirm..much appreciated!!

Hoping someone would be will to share a photo of their Michael Bait set up. I want to make sure I am rigged right. The hooks I was going to use seem big and I’m not positive I’ve attached them to the hootchies properly. I’ve used open ended hooks and attached them to the metal eye of the hootchie but I’m hoping for an experienced sockeye person to confirm..much appreciated!!

Hoping someone would be will to share a photo of their Michael Bait set up. I want to make sure I am rigged right. The hooks I was going to use seem big and I’m not positive I’ve attached them to the hootchies properly. I’ve used open ended hooks and attached them to the metal eye of the hootchie but I’m hoping for an experienced sockeye person to confirm..much appreciated!!

 

[nicnat]

Anyone ever try a hoochie with no flasher in line, maybe use one of those jugheads for action. still run a bunch of dummies for the attraction. it would be nice to play them without a flasher

at times I use my 8wt fly rods with the quick release dodger using the usual sockeye hoochies. it works and you get a decent fight but does not work as well as your usual set up for sockeye. I will try the jughead this year but from what I've seen so far from using them on springs and hoes you need to troll fairly fast to get good action so I doubt they will be that great for socks.

 

[Che]

Anyone ever try a hoochie with no flasher in line, maybe use one of those jugheads for action. still run a bunch of dummies for the attraction. it would be nice to play them without a flasher

Dummy up you.... don't be givin' people ideas about jugheads and hootchies.

 

[SteelyDan]

Dummy up you.... don't be givin' people ideas about jugheads and hootchies.

My boss followed me to thrasher and outfished us 2 to 1 and he was fishing hoochies with no flasher lol. Wtf!

 

[banger17]

Dummy up you.... don't be givin' people ideas about jugheads and hootchies.

Che, gotta say... you are on most threads and you spout more trash than actual truth.
You Dummy up!

 

[Che]

Who's talking about jugheads? Not me! I don't know nuffin' about jugheads!

The only Jughead I know is from Archie Comics. Now, if you ask me, Betty Cooper was the TradHot, a solid 7/10. Archie was always chasing the archetype THOT, Veronica. Probably because she wears mylar skirts. I bet she gets thousands of likes on Instagram from a bunch of thirsty beta orbiters. Reggie however, is a solid Chad.

 

[Killeraye]

Yup, total troll. Hijacks much, contributes little. Didn't that camel rock thread just get shut down cause of his comments?

I “liked” his post cuz I thought it was funny.
I guess he must be high

 

[Rain City]

Well I'm officially calling it a year for Sockeye. I have to say it really did live up to the hype. I had a slow start early season only landing 2 of about 12 hits in 4 trips. Pissed and moaned a bit then decided to do a wholesale switch on my gear. Went from green kone zones with two 6' dummies 6' apart above that and then three stacked rods with a mix of green and red flashers on everything. Had 32" 40 lb leader with bead chains on them and glow head squirts with half the tentacles ripped off. Switched everything to blue flashers, got rid of the kone zones, got rid of the bead chains and shortened my leaders to 22". I also stacked everything closer together, 2 4' dummies spaced 5' apart and only two rods above those spaced 6' apart clipping the line about 5' from the flasher. So all that combined with the fact that they had actually arrived in numbers let me finish with 32 sockeye in 5 trips. My freezer and pantry are full with this delicious fish and all my friends and family like me a little more... for now. Can't wait for 2022, hopefully we can all still fish by then. What I'm most excited for though is to find out what color flasher the boys at Pacific Angler convince me to buy next time .

 

[Teja]

I had a slow start early season ... Pissed and moaned a bit then decided to ...

I also had a moment of truth this sockeye season after a few slow trips this year but I changed this things up in s slightly different way. I was confident my gear and technique was as I was doing same thing as I had done the past few sockeye cycles but it just wasn't happening. I stopped automatically dropping the gear near the pack and decided to do a 10 mph cruise outside the pack and let the technology (new electronics since last sockeye cycle) dictate when to drop the gear based on when we started to see fish. Whether it was coincidental or not, we had 4 trips in a row with quick limits after doing that. Not sure why I didn't start out doing that in the first place.

We similarly are thrilled to have a freezer full of sockeye to feast on for a while but as good as it was, I am happy to leave "catching" season and am really looking forward to my favourite fishing season ... looking right past the fall spring season (did take a run to Cap yesterday a.m. and released a mid teens boot just outside the pack ... was it me, or did the Cap look like a used Grady White lot yesterday) and looking very forward to catching the first winter spring of the year. For my money, it will be the best tasting fish of the year.

 

[Rain City]

I also had a moment of truth this sockeye season after a few slow trips this year but I changed this things up in s slightly different way. I was confident my gear and technique was as I was doing same thing as I had done the past few sockeye cycles but it just wasn't happening. I stopped automatically dropping the gear near the pack and decided to do a 10 mph cruise outside the pack and let the technology (new electronics since last sockeye cycle) dictate when to drop the gear based on when we started to see fish. Whether it was coincidental or not, we had 4 trips in a row with quick limits after doing that. Not sure why I didn't start out doing that in the first place.

We similarly are thrilled to have a freezer full of sockeye to feast on for a while but as good as it was, I am happy to leave "catching" season and am really looking forward to my favourite fishing season ... looking right past the fall spring season (did take a run to Cap yesterday a.m. and released a mid teens boot just outside the pack ... was it me, or did the Cap look like a used Grady White lot yesterday) and looking very forward to catching the first winter spring of the year. For my money, it will be the best tasting fish of the year.

I'm still doing this without electronics lol.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Cap look like a used Grady White lot yesterday)

Its looked like that all august, easy limits for coho all august for the guides, It's why they were rarely seen at sandhead or the north arm. That and generally spotty sockeye fishing for most of august.

Anyways me and my dad took home 12 sockeye this year, Over all it was pretty frustrating. went 1,1,1,2,5,2. The highlight was definitely the few 20# plus chinooks caught while out sockeye fishing. We never really committed all in to sockeye fishing running 3 rods at most times only running dummies on one side with chinook gear on the other. A few 30-40# lings from a trip up to port hardy already had the freezer pretty full along with chinook and some nice 15 pound northern coho. A few trips over to the gulf island where we got our 4 chinook in 45 mins was probably the highlight of the year. The surprise for this year was 2 weeks of amazing coho fishing off south bowen.

Its funny the mind set that sockeye puts you in, I have had better days getting skunked for chinook then bringing home a few sockeye. For some reason it seems unless you limit you feel like a total failure, maybe its social media pressure not sure...

It's possible we may see a sockeye opening next year and i'm sure that will bring out the same hero's that limit in 30 mins and the losers that spend all day and get skunked. Next year is 4 years after the legendary 2015 chinook year so there's lots to look forward too.

It seems the best sockeye fishing this year was probably the last 15 days here when the adams were sitting in massive numbers but I was already feeling done for this year so did not fish this september. Other then that it seems if you could find the school you were the hero if not you were the loser lol.

 

[A-a-Ron]

. Other then that it seems if you could find the school you were the hero if not you were the loser lol.

Funny I’ve also gone from zero to hero pretty quick this year. 0,2,0,0,3,4,8. Guess I finally got it dialed in. One last trip tomorrow.

It’s amazing how quickly I’ve gone from one salmon in the boat being a great day, to a couple delicious sockeye in 4 hours fishing and thinking what the hell is wrong with me! Lol. Distorted expectations as they say. My wife will be happy when this is all over (little does she know, that’s really never

Sock season was fun while it lasted. Hopefully a couple more in store for my one last kick at the can.