Angling in Sooke - August

[Big Green Machine]

Yeh righttttt. Joe blow 5 day worker gets ramped up for the weekend. Buys his bait, gases up the boat and the truck, gets up at 4am to hit the ramp early...pays to launch get his gear in the water 15 minutes later at the Trap and hits a nice 17 pound spring. He is going to pack up and go home and hang out with the wife getting those chores done...ouch just hit my head falling off that turnip truck.

I always laugh at guys who fish Kokanee in the Interior freshwater lakes. They say ‘ got my limit by 8:30’ and I say great day of recreational activities, you’re home by 9:00, did you Load up your boat, go home and pick weeds for the rest of the day? I never understood that mentality. If I go fishing, it’s for the whole day minimum. You can always explore, try for different species, Have a nice lunch.

 

[searun]

Interesting. We complain when there are no opportunities to retain a fish so we can take one home and experience a family meal. Part of our food security, social and cultural well being we argue. Important for local opportunity and contribution to the economy of small coastal communities, we say to anyone who will listen. We can craft science-based data supported fishing opportunities that manage the risk of encountering at risk Fraser stocks of concern we argue. Just give us a chance we plead.

When we get an opportunity to retain a fish, we are thankful for the opportunity? Or do we still complain because there is an 80cm slot limit to help pass larger spawning female chinook through the fishery? In other words, a science based selective fishery just like we asked for.

Why would any politician want to listen to us, and help?

 

[wildmanyeah]

Last year dfo implemented the 80 cm slot because they said that big fish were making it past the slide.

My understanding is that last year a lot of the Fraser 5-2 actually were under the 80cm and part of the reason why there was not higher then expected exploitation in the rec fishery. Then someone I know said they talked to dfo and by mid August 90% of the Fraser 5-2 are in the river. So what is the point of the slot? That would mean that 90% of the run is past sooke around the start of August.

Well this year I was listening to a presentation by dfo and they said it was again for the slide but also to reduce exploitation on Harrison 4-1s.

Here is the kicker tho a good portion of the Harrison run is still in the ocean out front the Fraser from sept 1 into mid October. There is no slot during that time.

So rec guys in Campbell River will have to release big Harrison fish but not rec guys in Vancouver. That said the Vancouver fishery has been completely annihilated so maybe it’s fair.

Keep in mind this considering there won’t be sockeye and pink opportunity. What happens when there is a commercial pinks and sockeye fishery. It’s going to be real comical seeing 700 fn gillnets in the river and another 4oo commercial gillnets out when we can’t keep a chinook or have a slot fishery.

Or are they not
Going to allow commercial sockeye and pink opportunity because of chinook concerns I’d hazard a guess that if there is pink and sockeye TAC they will be fishing.

 

[Last Chance]

There is no science behind the decision. It's to pacify a certain user group that is currently held in much higher esteem by Ottawa then the average Canadian.

I suspect our data is being used against us. In Area 20 that time of year, that bulk of fish are over 80CM.. No hatchery fish has no scientific backing behind it either.

 

[Atef Youssef]

Just a note on the c&r aspect, I’d suggest everyone gets a measuring tape, one of the ones you roll up. If you have a good catch and release net, there nothing wrong with leaving the bag in the water and leaning over to measure it in the net. From there you can make your decision without doing much damage to the fish. If you can get a good eyeball for what 80cm is then you should be fine. Another trick would be to take your gaff and mark 80cm on that. Lay it down next to the fish in the water and you can get a pretty decent estimate on how close to 80 it is without bagging or touching the fish. If it’s a hog just let it go, gaff release by the side of the boat.

 

[BigBoat]

Just a note on the c&r aspect, I’d suggest everyone gets a measuring tape, one of the ones you roll up. If you have a good catch and release net, there nothing wrong with leaving the bag in the water and leaning over to measure it in the net. From there you can make your decision without doing much damage to the fish. If you can get a good eyeball for what 80cm is then you should be fine. Another trick would be to take your gaff and mark 80cm on that. Lay it down next to the fish in the water and you can get a pretty decent estimate on how close to 80 it is without bagging or touching the fish. If it’s a hog just let it go, gaff release by the side of the boat.

That is what I do. I take some blue tape and mark my boat hook. If there is a slot size I mark the upper and lower limits and quickly can see in the water if a fish is a keeper. The long handle helps.