2018 Sooke Reports

[Englishman]

Just came back from 4 days of trolling around Sooke for Coho..... I have to say.. in the last 9 years of fishing for Coho there... this was the slowest ever. I have always waited for the Oct 1 opening of the wilds... but I think I will have to revisit that decision and go a bit earlier.
We did have fantastic seas for the four days.... saw both Killer and Humpback whales.... huge pods of porpoises (dolphins?), and saw massive amounts of what appeared to be Chum boiling on the surface.... but had real trouble getting Coho to bite.
Trolled thru schools of fish anywhere from 30 to 150 feet deep. Trolled different speeds, different depths, different flashers, Anchovies, Herring, spoons, and hootchies.... all to no avail.
Trolled against the tides, with the tides, fished the ebb tide, the flood tide... and slack tides.... fished from as shallow as 45 feet... all the way out to 600. Travelled all the way from Race Passage... down as far as Sheringham....
Fished from before light... till dark. Lots of hours... only a few filets to show.
It is called fishing.... not catching... but thought a report would be good.
We will be back....
Have a great winter out there to all those Sooke residents!
Till next year!
RJ

This has been mostly our experience too. A few posts back I postulated that most of the coho had gone through in September. We had several hatch fish back then and let quite a few wilds go too. Many on here did a lot better than us and reported returning many wilds in the double figures. But I was shot down and told they were still coming! However, I still think I am right and the opportunity was missed because many people wait for Oct 1st to target coho. Like you say, lesson for next year...fish coho in September!!

 

[Rad Gumbo]

There's a line in the Jack Gaunt Hootchies and Bucktails book that says a DFO or Wash. State study showed that catch rates for finicky late season cohoes went up when the hoochie is draped over a piece of bait. I wouldn't know, my boat is always in storage in the fall.

Back in the old days (60"s) it was common practice to put a hootch over a herring or minnow teaser. But coho were around in much bigger numbers.

 

[fishinforever]

Siwash hooks come with an open eye, simply slide the end of the bead chain into the eye of the hook and pinch with a pair of pliers. I'll see if I can find a pic for you

Still raises the problem of how do you attach the hook to the bead chain? My problem this year with the hootchie was on an old set up I had not modified. Back when I did not know anything (many say I still don't! LOL) I experimented with swivels and split rings to space the hook where I wanted it in the hootchie legs. As described split rings are a disaster. Now I use plastic beads. Lots of advantages. Much lighter than bead chain; you can put any number on the line above the directly tied hook to get the hook to be where you want it to be in the hootchie legs; you can use different colours or glow beads if you wish; latter look cool inside those transparent hootchies.

 

[Mako 22]

5/0 Mustad Siwash 9510XX. Barrel swivel. Gumpucky. When the gumpucky is pullet in the head of the hoochie the hook is at the correct position. Note the beak in the hook and no barb.

Do not need a bead chain or split ring.

 

[Cataline]

Just came back from 4 days of trolling around Sooke for Coho..... I have to say.. in the last 9 years of fishing for Coho there... this was the slowest ever. I have always waited for the Oct 1 opening of the wilds... but I think I will have to revisit that decision and go a bit earlier.
We did have fantastic seas for the four days.... saw both Killer and Humpback whales.... huge pods of porpoises (dolphins?), and saw massive amounts of what appeared to be Chum boiling on the surface.... but had real trouble getting Coho to bite.
Trolled thru schools of fish anywhere from 30 to 150 feet deep. Trolled different speeds, different depths, different flashers, Anchovies, Herring, spoons, and hootchies.... all to no avail.
Trolled against the tides, with the tides, fished the ebb tide, the flood tide... and slack tides.... fished from as shallow as 45 feet... all the way out to 600. Travelled all the way from Race Passage... down as far as Sheringham....
Fished from before light... till dark. Lots of hours... only a few filets to show.
It is called fishing.... not catching... but thought a report would be good.
We will be back....
Have a great winter out there to all those Sooke residents!
Till next year!
RJ

I think that there are a couple of factors that have made this year's Coho season a little different. The cool wet weather in early September may have been enough to signal the fish that they could go for the rivers, my understanding is that they 'smell' the fresh rainwater which signals that there is water in their spawning stream. I have also noticed that the water temperature at the surface is a couple of degrees C higher than in recent years, I think that the cooler water has been deeper and the fish have been staying in that cold water, and out of the more usual range that most folks troll at. Finally I have been noticing a lot of "wild coho" at the grocery stores and while that could be Alaska fish, there could also have been a significant bicatch when the seiners were working on the Sockeye.
Out on Wednesday, 2 wilds,, 530 ft of water due south of Sooke, one on a white translucent squirt behind a Madi the other on a greenish spoon behind a lemon lime flasher, both around 110 ' on the downrigger. Both caught around 9:30 on the ebb. At the ramp the Fisheries rep said that two boats had no fish, one had one and we and another had the two, nobody had more.

 

[Stizzla]

5/0 Mustad Siwash 9510XX. Barrel swivel. Gumpucky. When the gumpucky is pullet in the head of the hoochie the hook is at the correct position. Note the beak in the hook and no barb.

Do not need a bead chain or split ring.

Deadly combo!

 

[Mako 22]

Deadly combo!

Yep, standard commercial salmon trolling setup for decades. If it works, don't mess with it.

I was taught hardware fishing by a commercial troller off the Washington coast in the 1970's. The photo was his standard hoochie setup. Paid his bills! I spent 5 days out of Neah Bay on his boat, learned an incredible amount of techniques, including how to fish Tomics, how to rig a whole herring behind a flasher ( a real killer), how to fish spoons and how to set up the bottom spread for halibut. All still works today.

 

[Englishman]

I think that there are a couple of factors that have made this year's Coho season a little different. The cool wet weather in early September may have been enough to signal the fish that they could go for the rivers, my understanding is that they 'smell' the fresh rainwater which signals that there is water in their spawning stream. I have also noticed that the water temperature at the surface is a couple of degrees C higher than in recent years, I think that the cooler water has been deeper and the fish have been staying in that cold water, and out of the more usual range that most folks troll at. Finally I have been noticing a lot of "wild coho" at the grocery stores and while that could be Alaska fish, there could also have been a significant bicatch when the seiners were working on the Sockeye.
Out on Wednesday, 2 wilds,, 530 ft of water due south of Sooke, one on a white translucent squirt behind a Madi the other on a greenish spoon behind a lemon lime flasher, both around 110 ' on the downrigger. Both caught around 9:30 on the ebb. At the ramp the Fisheries rep said that two boats had no fish, one had one and we and another had the two, nobody had more.

Agreed. The water temperature will increasingly make a difference to the fishing depth, especially in the future. And we sure had a lot of rain in September as we were camping near Comox from the 7th to the 21st and it never stopped raining!!
We caught our two wilds on Wednesday too, but nuttin' on Thursday (see earlier reports above) and those were or only two unclipped fish we kept this season, though we did lose a couple on an earlier October trip. Lots of hatch fish around in September though.

 

[dhfishtales]

Post your 2018 fishing reports here!

Hooked 3 nice fish last night at 300-400 off the bluffs last night boated an eight but lost a twenty lb buck got the hooks in the net . I’ve hooked two this morning a real nice 15 lb spit the hooks right beside the boat. Fish are nice quality but real deep 150’ on the down riggers

 

[casper5280]

Fished 7-12 today one hatch right off the bat 100ft on a SkinnyG 350ft of water. Then trolled out into 550ft and stayed out there for awhile, but nothing happening out there except one boat that just had to troll all the way out there to be 20ft off our side. Then stops and troll right across the back of us. There was only about a dozen of us out there, I just don't get it. Lol. Trolled into the shack as my buddy wanted to see if we could scratch up a spring, but nothing from the trap to Aldridge. Beauty day out there though. For some reason I can't upload pictures.

 

[PatC]

Out today from 7 till 2. Two beauty hatchery coho (in the 10 & 12 lb. range), one 8 lb. chum, and then one more 5 lb. hatchery coho just as we were pulling in our gear! Good weather, good water, good day all around. That's it for the season now. Maybe some hali now and then put the boat away.

 

[dhfishtales]

I would like to take a shot at some halibut fishing Saturday does anyone have any hot tips? Areas near Sooke, type of bait, depth of water? Also does anyone ever drift mooch as I would rather not achor

 

[Fisherben3]

I would like to take a shot at some halibut fishing Saturday does anyone have any hot tips? Areas near Sooke, type of bait, depth of water? Also does anyone ever drift mooch as I would rather not achor

go to the bluffs in 225 feet of water

 

[dhfishtales]

Also does anyone know how long they will be open?

 

[dhfishtales]

go the bluffs in 225 feet of water

Thanks much

 

[Mozart]

Is bluff just west of otter point?

 

[Fisherben3]

Is bluff just west of otter point?

Just before otter point

 

[Mozart]

Thank you

 

[Fisherperson]

Evening low was good for Hali today off bluffs. 2 chickens @ 250’ in 30 mins. Small salmon heads w scent injection! Had to wait couple hrs for it.

 

[dhfishtales]

I drove all the way to Shearwater to purchase $200 worth of raffle tix to support the new hatchery net pen production in Sooke so I challenge all Sooke fishing people to match $100 worth of tix. Please post if they are available elsewhere