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Fished out of Cheanuh today from 10 to 1. Beautiful day out there but salmon where not cooperating. Tried Whirl Bay for a few tacks in 100 to 120 feet bouncing or very close to bottom with sppons. Just managed one out of season, undersized linger. Then tried beside James Is for a few tacks and nothing. Gonna give it a try out of Sooke on Wednesday, maybe out from Bluffs, will report back.
 
Well, we put to sea today for the first time in over 4 months. Checked everything out yesterday but for some reason had problems with the throttle control binnacle and it would not go back into neutral after running out to the harbour mouth. Struggled a bit then it clanked into position and seemed to be more or less OK after that. Intermittent problems are the worst kind! :(

I have been saddened to see that there has been but one post on this Sooke thread since January. A decade ago there would have been several posts from the Bluffs, Beecher Bay, the Bedford and Whirl Bay by now. In 2020 it is silence, so either no one is going out any more, or they are not catching, or they are and are not saying!! LOL;)

Anyway we only fished from 8:30am until 11am when the calm start was swept away by a 12K wind from the WSW. Not predicted by BWD! So we pulled the gear in a nasty chop and headed in. The only other boat out there followed us in and since he came out after us he fished even less time.

And no, we did not have a single touch on glo hootchies or my favourite little herring. Unless I see any more posts for Sooke we won’t be heading out again anytime soon. The silence on this thread is instructive methinks! :)
 
Well, we put to sea today for the first time in over 4 months. Checked everything out yesterday but for some reason had problems with the throttle control binnacle and it would not go back into neutral after running out to the harbour mouth. Struggled a bit then it clanked into position and seemed to be more or less OK after that. Intermittent problems are the worst kind! :(

I have been saddened to see that there has been but one post on this Sooke thread since January. A decade ago there would have been several posts from the Bluffs, Beecher Bay, the Bedford and Whirl Bay by now. In 2020 it is silence, so either no one is going out any more, or they are not catching, or they are and are not saying!! LOL;)

Anyway we only fished from 8:30am until 11am when the calm start was swept away by a 12K wind from the WSW. Not predicted by BWD! So we pulled the gear in a nasty chop and headed in. The only other boat out there followed us in and since he came out after us he fished even less time.

And no, we did not have a single touch on glo hootchies or my favourite little herring. Unless I see any more posts for Sooke we won’t be heading out again anytime soon. The silence on this thread is instructive methinks! :)

It's funny. I have been around this forum for a very, very long time. My experience is, when it goes quiet, it's go time. LOL Mostly people post when the fishing is ******, not when it's stellar. If you post stellar results, the next day your good spot is overrun with boats.

But the old saying is, the best time to go fishing is when you can.

Also, people text in groups now and maybe don't post here as much. I have a group of text buddies for live reports.
 
It's funny. I have been around this forum for a very, very long time. My experience is, when it goes quiet, it's go time. LOL Mostly people post when the fishing is ******, not when it's stellar. If you post stellar results, the next day your good spot is overrun with boats.

But the old saying is, the best time to go fishing is when you can.

Also, people text in groups now and maybe don't post here as much. I have a group of text buddies for live reports.

Well maybe all the folks that used to post have gone to private groups like you, or maybe they have all learnt the same lesson as you and do not post in case they are crowded out next time!

For me this lesson does not apply as I never catch enough to motivate or excite anyone!! LOL:)

P.S. (Seriously though my experience has been the opposite of yours. If catches are good people post; if they don't catch they don't post. Human nature rules, as egos and bragging rights are strong drivers. As for me I post catch or not (mostly not) as information about no fish is still information, even if it does not boost my ego!:D)
 
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Sad but the same thing on this side of the border. Say something about catching fish and the next time you are out the crowds are there. The East Coast Striped Bass Forum calls it "Spot Burning" and cautions their members to not give locations.

I used to fish on the East Coast and have a good collection of salt water lures. Often when I return to the dock after a successful day I will remove all gear from the rods and tie on a Striped Bass lure. When I am asked what I caught the fish on I just point to the rod.

9VxIjEY.jpg
 
I know a lot of guys limited out last summer and got their 10 Chinook or close too it.

You are right Englishmen even Facebook and other social media is quite.
 
Social media has decimated so many lakes in our part of the country. Anybody with any logic doesn’t post where they catch, they post their catches but never where. Unfortunately we have far too many YouTube hero’s that take their own ego over the betterment of others and the fishery and have to be internet stars and can’t keep their yaps quite and it’s having a terrible impact on our fisheries.
 
I know a lot of guys limited out last summer and got their 10 Chinook or close too it.

You are right Englishmen even Facebook and other social media is quite.

Never thought of that Wildmanyeah. You are right, I expect a lot of guys have hit their 10 chinook per/annum already. As I said we don't catch a lot so we are still well short of 10!! LOL:)

As to giving away too much information that other folks have posted about here, there is a huge difference between lake/freshwater fishing and the ocean off Sooke. The former is usually a very confined territory with a few hot spots. The coastline off Sooke is much larger, hosts migratory fish for short periods of time, is subject to a wide variety of factors such as current and tides, not to mention the weather. There are no narrowly confined hot spots (with the possible exception of Otter point), just general usually more productive broad areas or depth contours which everyone knows about anyway.

So the silence on this thread is not due to playing cards close to the chest. Local people are not fishing (having got their limit last summer) or not posting because not much is being caught off Sooke this winter. A sign of the times we are in, sadly.
 
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Sad but the same thing on this side of the border. Say something about catching fish and the next time you are out the crowds are there. The East Coast Striped Bass Forum calls it "Spot Burning" and cautions their members to not give locations.

I used to fish on the East Coast and have a good collection of salt water lures. Often when I return to the dock after a successful day I will remove all gear from the rods and tie on a Striped Bass lure. When I am asked what I caught the fish on I just point to the rod.

9VxIjEY.jpg
I do the same thing!
 
Never thought of that Wildmanyeah. You are right, I expect a lot of guys have hit their 10 chinook per/annum already. As I said we don't catch a lot so we are still well short of 10!! LOL:)

As to giving away too much information that other folks have posted about here, there is a huge difference between lake/freshwater fishing and the ocean off Sooke. The former is usually a very confined territory with a few hot spots. The coastline off Sooke is much larger, hosts migratory fish for short periods of time, is subject to a wide variety of factors such as current and tides, not to mention the weather. There are no narrowly confined hot spots (with the possible exception of Otter point), just general usually more productive broad areas or depth contours which everyone knows about anyway.

So the silence on this thread is not due to playing cards close to the chest. Local people are not fishing (having got their limit last summer) or not posting because not much is being caught off Sooke this winter. A sign of the times we are in, sadly.

I know we are getting off topic here,, but what the heck it’s not like we are taking away from fishing reports lol.

You are right fresh water and the chuck are two different things but still social media has an effect, not saying it’s negative in all cases just depends on what business your in I guess. But social media can effect saltwater fishing majorly. If all you read about is Nootka Sound it draws in hundreds of boats, if all you read about is Bamfield well again hundreds and hundreds of extra boats can show up in Bamfield. Now if your a business owner in one of these areas I suppose it can be your best friend and yes the fish are passing through and are migratory but,, it can severely effect your chances at those fish if there’s 100 other boats on every point and feeding spot all dragging 3 or 4 lines through the water.
It’s just the times we live in I guess we have no other choice but to accept it. I certainly use these forums for help and draw huge amounts of knowledge from them and I share as much as I can as well in order to help others but that’s not to say it’s not having an effect.
 
My license is full and has been since late last fall. So no point in going out until the new license year.
 
My license is full and has been since late last fall. So no point in going out until the new license year.
It was my honour reeling one of those in for you, sir! Again, I can’t express my gratitude enough for how much that day meant to us.
 
Was out in Whirl Bay and vicinity and noticed some sort of gear was set there in 120-140 ft contour. More than just noticed, I snapped off a hootchie and flasher and left it behind. 2 floats several hundred yards apart, looked commercial. What would that gear be in that depth, in that spot?
 
Was out in Whirl Bay and vicinity and noticed some sort of gear was set there in 120-140 ft contour. More than just noticed, I snapped off a hootchie and flasher and left it behind. 2 floats several hundred yards apart, looked commercial. What would that gear be in that depth, in that spot?
Commercial crab trap
 
Tried for halibut on Sunday morning just west of Constance on the edge of the shipping lane. 324 feet. No luck other than dogfish and that seemed to be the same for a half dozen others I checked with at Pedder. Its quiet out there, too quiet.
 
Was also out on Sunday...nice morning with the sun. Tried for Halibut, west of Sooke...NO LOVE for us also. Nice run for the boat.
 
Out off of Pedder bay for a solo trip this morning as my fishing buddy had other plans. Trolled for a few hours and released a couple each of clipped and unclipped. All 3-4 lb range. Right on the bottom and all on spools. Went straight out from Williams Head at 11:30 and drifted for Hali. Was ready to pull up at 1:30pm and call it a day when one hit. Had it close to the surface a couple of times but it took a couple of dives as I was having trouble with the a new reel with a lever drag which I had not used before. I need more practice I think. Finally got it to the surface and tried to do a measurement in the water as I knew it was close to limit. Best guess with my measuring stick was around 124cm so dragged it in the boat. On deck it measured just a tad over 125cm. Not a thick fish and weighed 46lbs on my little digital scale. I though it would have been more with that length but I'll take it.

Creel guy at the dock today. He didn't have a busy day as I saw only one other boat trolling. He said they will be doing a lot more surveillance this year.

All in all, a good day. (And no doggies)
 
Gave it another go today. Fished 8:30am until 1:30pm.

Just like the February trip, we got absolutely zero hits. Just one rockfish near Secretary and a ling cod off East Sooke, so we were fishing deep enough!!;) Tried all the contours between 105' and 160' around the bluffs and the harbour before venturing round Secretary to East Sooke in even deeper water.

Just two boats in the bay hali fishing and I could see two boats in the distance off Beechy. Otherwise we had all of the Sooke Coast to ourselves, which I guess you could call social distancing! I guess no one else was out there because there are no fish!:(

Still it was a beauty flat calm day and great warm sun once the marine cloud burnt off around 10am. Saw a nice pod of dolphins and an eagle close up as it tried, and failed, to grab the rockfish I released. The fish dived just in time!:)
 
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