Osoyoos sockeye 2016

Spent the Sat and Sun mornings working Osoyoos Lake, had a great time. On Sat the energy was palpable, started at 4:15 am when I pulled into Timmies on Penticton to pick up my crew and there were two other fish boat rigs there, we all laughed how nutty we were but agreeed that beating the crowd and the heat made the early start worthwhile. Got to the ramp, not too busy because the serious early birds were already in the water - parking lot full at 5:15 am! Fortunately there is a large overflow lot 200 m up from the ramp.

Out on the water, there were about 40 boats working all the way from right off the marina to the north end of the lake. We elected to troll right away too, left the ramp on the 9.9, got the gear down and worked our way north. Took us an hour or so to sort location, flasher vs hootchie and leader length and then things moved quickly. We got our limit by 8:30. The following day we started an hour later and ran directly to what we had observed to be the most productive area and had our fish inside 90 minutes. For my boat, the winning combination proved to be:
  • red Gibbs flasher
  • pink 3" hootchie with 16" leader
  • red 4/0 sickle hook
  • 6 red beads to push hook partly outside of hootchie skirt
  • flasher 30 ft back from clip
  • troll speed 1.5 mph +/-
  • 66 ft on downrigger in 100+ ft water
As the morning moved on and the sun came up, more boats arrived, but at the same time the early birds were limiting out and heading in. Despite this fishery having the potential for combat fishing, I have never seen it get nasty. The pool of >100 ft water is reasonably large, roughly 3 km x 1 km, and with low troll speeds boats rarely get too close to each other. It's actually quite congenial, everyone on the dock was wishing each other good luck and it was not uncommon to hear people cheer and applaud when a nearby boat successfully landed a fish. It's a fun atmosphere with everyone loving the novelty and joy of catching salmon in the dry Okanagan, but of course you see a lot of people who have little experience catching salmon. We saw every kind of boat having a shot at the sockeye, literally everything from canoes to cruisers. People dragging a bucket because they didn't have a kicker, swiping at fish with the net like they were chasing butterflies, etc. The fish aren't pure chrome anymore, just darkening a little. The flesh is firm and deeply coloured, a pleasure to eat fresh and not 'only worth smoking' as some seem to think. Incredibly good condition when you consider they're over a thousand km from open ocean.

Hope everyone has a fun time and catches fish. The formula is quite precise but once you've got it dialled, the fishing is busy. The short leader length is critical, those hootchies need a lot of action to trigger a strike at the low troll speeds.
 
Great info thanks for the post, one day I will give it a go.
Are you using a rotating flasher or a dodger?
 
Nice report brother. Was mulling over heading there during the weak to maybe avoid some of the crowd. What were the sizes of these fish on average?
 
Canso said:
Great info thanks for the post, one day I will give it a go.
Are you using a rotating flasher or a dodger?
Click to expand...
Started off with dodger and mini flasher, but the full size rotating flasher was more productive.

The crowd that I saw wasn't really a problem. Plenty of room out there and people mostly very relaxed, they know there's lots of fish for everyone. There isn't a tide or a bite that you're going to miss and the fish are there until water cools off in mid September. Main reason for early start was beat the heat and the long weekend ramp crowds.
 
Amazing how good that meat looks given how far those fish have to swim! 16-20" fish there, which equates to 1.5 to 2.5 lbs - thats a lot more consistent with my memory of the average sized Osoyoos sockeye than the 3-5lbs suggested by someone earlier.

Thanks for posting the pics, enjoy your sockeye!!

Cheers!

Ukee
 
The ones we caught last sunday were 3 1/4 pounds dressed head on
 
Opening is still on. No update yet on possible limit increase, still 2 a day.
 
I went out this morning for about 2.5 hours but we got skunked. Played around from 40-75'. Tried different leader lengths. Saw two boats land fish. Will try again tomorrow....
 
Was out today also, we got our limit in a couple of hours.
We used 13" leaders at 60' and that seemed to be the magic number today.
It was a good day!
 
Yep it's a very specific formula and leader length is key. They ignore fast trolled lures (conserving energy?) but you need tons of action on that lure to goad them into striking so hence the very short leader. Seems wrong but it works.
 
Thanks I'll try shortening up my leader. I was using a 8 and 10 pound ball. There lines go basically straight down instead of dragging back behind the boat. Are you guys using lighter balls to get the gear behind the boat?
 
If you want your gear further behind the boat, just let out more line before clipping to the rigger. It is important for accurate trolling depth to have the ball straight down. Then you know the exact depth you are fishing at.

In addition to shortening your leader length, using a stiff (high lb test)leader will give you more action on your squirt. Or whatever you are dragging.
 
Thanks guys. We got a late start today at 11. But one fish in the boat!

Pretty windy out here. I feel like I'm fishing the hump.
 
I just stick with the usual 15 lb balls. Sure seems like overkill but the second gen Scotty riggers barely let out line with less than 15 lb lead.
 
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