sooke fishing

[newfisherman]

hello all i am new to fishing this year. bought first boat ever. I got a 1851 seaswirl I have been fishing Sidney area all year. I want to fish sooke but ever time I look at the weather it always says strong or gale winds. is it that bad out there do u all have any tips or suggestions for me need help. sick of Sidney area. thanks all

 

[juandesooka]

Sooke has fun salmon fishing all winter, just have to duck the storms.

Weather links on one page: http://www.fishingsooke.ca/weather.html
For wind forecasts, look at BigWaveDave and Washington Marine Forecast "Central Strait" report; personally I don't rely much on the Canadian weather reports....they are too conservative, seem to forecast gale force pretty much every day from October to April, no matter what!

Some info on locations, with maps (winter fishing mostly from Sooke Bluffs to Trailer park):
http://www.fishingsooke.ca/fishing.html

Have fun and be safe. Good luck!

 

[profisher]

I agree bigwavedave is a great site to get an hour by hour usually accurate wind speed forecast. Coast Guard radio seldom drops a small craft warning from its minimum prediction. To a novice it would appear that it is never safe to fish on the west coast.

 

[newfisherman]

thks all for the reply if anyone is willing to go out show me the ropes in sooke would be great can take my boat need more experiance first year with boat ever and first year on ocean just want to be safe.

 

[juandesooka]

Sooke winter spring fishing is pretty easy ... 120-150 feet deep, with your gear 10 feet off the bottom. Use glow or purple haze hootchies and squirts. That's pretty much it. Summer is where it gets trickier.

Safety ... just pick days with low wind calls, and you're pretty much ok. Nice thing about fishing winter is there's no fog usually and you are generally close to the harbour.

Safe boating, that's another thread, but a few things: a kicker motor you can trust! A VHF wired in and a handheld VHF for redundancy, with batteries charged, and new spare batteries kept aboard. Your cell phone with the coast guard # ready to go, ensure you have roaming access for when you bounce to USA signal. One of those portable battery jump starters is gold when you need it, best $50 I've spent maybe. All the required safety gear of course, fire extinguisher, etc. Wear a pfd or floater jacket, especially if fishing solo. GPS and compass (saw a buddy's smart phone ... has a chart plotter app that was amazing). With that, you should be getting home. Oh yeah, don't forget to put the drain plug in! ;-)

 

[profisher]

To add, always let someone know when you expect to be off the water. Don't want it to be after dark when the family finally calls someone to try and find you.

 

[rook 2]

i would suggest to maybe fish beecher bay in the winter,,you don't have to leaver the bay,,and if you do want to venture out of the bay then you have whirl bay to the left outside the bay and you have beechy head and the trap shack to the right side just out of the bay,,pretty safe i think,,good fishing,,

 

[Karma-Kazi]

I have fished beecher bay with no problems in the winter Id day there are very few days the weather does not permit you to fishing the trench outside the marina. You can leave the dock on your kicker and come home on it to if you want. Ive done it lots of times. Its one of my favorite types of fishing and once out boat with cabin is complete I will love it even more!

-STeve

 

[AJS]

Hi newfisherman,
I fish Sidney quite often. How was your success there this summer? I had a few good days at Coal Island and some success at Fairfax. We had one day at Coal Island where it was non-stop fish. I also read about the chap that caught a 40 lb fish near the Swartz Bay Ferry - wow. Have you had luck at Powder Wharf, Hamley Pt, or Darcy Shoals? I was skunked this year at those locations. I would love to hear your report. thanks

 

[Jockey]

Hi Newfisherman I think you know my sisters boyfriend Eric G?

I took him out a few weeks ago for some coho off sooke. I would go out with you sometime to show you around and get your comfortable if you like. You can fish sooke most days, I suggest ensuring you have a working gps especially during the summer months because the fog can come and go quite quickly. In the winter it is not as big of a concern.

Once you get comfortable and figure out how to fish the sooke waters you will be back time and time again. Sidney can have good fishing but sooke is more consistant. As others have said check big wave dave, sooke is fishable most days and that website will alert you on days it is not.

If you want to set something up send me a PM.