2020 Victoria and Oak Bay Reports

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Took advantage of the nice weather on Saturday and anchored up for a couple hours. Caught countless dog fish which was surprising to me for this time of year. Could not keep a line down for 5 min. Caught 2 dogs on 1 line a couple of times. No hali on this trip.
Lots of debris and logs in the water. A good whale show near by. 4 keepers in the crab trap.
Real nice day. I was happy to get some salt air in my lungs and my boat was happy to get out of the carport.
Venison Steak and Crab helped me to forget about not catching hali that day.
 
Old Goat said:
Saturday was a near perfect day on the water. Fished Constance and the Mudhole. There wasn't much going on at Constance, but there was lots of activity at the Mudhole.

I put the camera on to see what was there.

Mudhole at 290 ft.

Apologies for the really jerky video...bottom bouncing and video recording don't mix well. It's a bit tough to see, but there are halibut, flounder, rats and lots of crabs there at 290 ft. Everyone feasted on the salmon belly, but unfortunately, only the rat fish stayed on the hooks.
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That is really interesting video to take at 290 feet! I was curious about your camera set up--what sort of camera and what do you do for a light source? I'm a lousy halibut fisherman but I've alway wondered what was going on down there on days when there are no good halibut bites but something small seems to be nibbling at the bait.
 
sam_n_leo said:
That is really interesting video to take at 290 feet! I was curious about your camera set up--what sort of camera and what do you do for a light source? I'm a lousy halibut fisherman but I've alway wondered what was going on down there on days when there are no good halibut bites but something small seems to be nibbling at the bait.
Click to expand...
Rat fish
 
Tips Up said:
Rat fish
Click to expand...
Rat fish for sure.
I frequently use salmon bellies and Sea Lice will strip to flesh to the skin. Not mention crabs and prawns
Lot stuff down their looking for something to eat.
 
Old Goat said:
Saturday was a near perfect day on the water. Fished Constance and the Mudhole. There wasn't much going on at Constance, but there was lots of activity at the Mudhole.

I put the camera on to see what was there.

Mudhole at 290 ft.

Apologies for the really jerky video...bottom bouncing and video recording don't mix well. It's a bit tough to see, but there are halibut, flounder, rats and lots of crabs there at 290 ft. Everyone feasted on the salmon belly, but unfortunately, only the rat fish stayed on the hooks.
Click to expand...
Sure doesn’t take those critters long to find that food hey, they hone in on it pretty quick.
 
RiverBoy said:
i’m from CR but man after watching that video me thinks you boys should be grabbing your prawn ropes and sending down you crab traps.
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Most definitely. I often see traps in the area and I'm tempted to try it there. I'll have to add more weight to my crab traps because the currents are pretty strong there.
 
sam_n_leo said:
That is really interesting video to take at 290 feet! I was curious about your camera set up--what sort of camera and what do you do for a light source? I'm a lousy halibut fisherman but I've alway wondered what was going on down there on days when there are no good halibut bites but something small seems to be nibbling at the bait.
Click to expand...
The camera is called GoFish. It has a 'night vision' mode, which I think is just a bright green LED, but it seems to work. It's awfully dark at that depth, as you would expect, so the field of view is pretty narrow. It would be nice if there were a few more LEDs at different angles to widen it out.
 
Oak Bay. I've had a bit of good luck over the past few weeks but it is pretty clear that there is not a lot of Springs in the usual spots yet. I decided since the conditions were rough, I'd do something a little different.
When I was a kid back in the 70's, the needle fish use to stack in the eddies near Turkey Head and other points at times during the winter, and many Springs were taken from shore there.
Today I brought lighter gear, a 3 oz rudder weight and a large polar bucktail headed by and antique abalone spinner. I started trolling in about 50 ft of water and as I picked the edges of the drop off in about 30' my fly got slammed. The fish pounded for a moment and then took a long hard run for deep water, unfortunately going through a bunch of kelp. Unfortunately tangling and breaking of my valuable vintage fly. Definately not some rockfish. Spring? I'm not sure. Food for thought?
I continued fishing the same way for a bit with a smaller homemade artificial PB fly but couldn't get a repeat. Deep trolled the gap a bit but not a sniff. Crabbing was OK.
 
Out today and ran over to Albert Head. Between 1 and 2pm on my way back picked up these two . Only had a couple of shakers up to that point. Got them in 120ft of water and right off of the bottom. Flat calm today. First fish in 4 trips for me. Was getting tired of being skunked.
.IMG_7945.JPG
 
Yep, made it out Saturday for a quick late morning trip. Kept two feeder chinook bouncing bottom at around 150ft right off the breakwater using anchovy and the no bananas spoon. They each caught one. Nice morning...looked like there were quite a few boats out there and lots of people having luck
 
sam_n_leo said:
That is really interesting video to take at 290 feet! I was curious about your camera set up--what sort of camera and what do you do for a light source? I'm a lousy halibut fisherman but I've alway wondered what was going on down there on days when there are no good halibut bites but something small seems to be nibbling at the bait.
Click to expand...
was cool to see thanks for sharing
 
I did a bit of drift fishing on the slow ebb yesterday, between Albert Head and William Head. Landed a few flounder, but none of them were keepers. Still nice to see lots of fish around. Depth was about 225 ft.

Drift fishing: Albert Head - William Head

Then I moved over to Fleming before calling it quits. Lots of hungry flatties there...again, no keepers, but it was nice to be on the water this late in the year. Camera was at about 120 ft.

Flatfish at Fleming

Happy holidays folks.
 
Old Goat, those videos are great and after watching your first ones I was thinking that some of the Hali were hitting your camera which got me thinkin. I bought a lure online of a squid about 7 inches that has a strobe light in it. Now I just need to catch a ride out to see if it catches anything other than me.
 

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Old Goat, those videos are great and after watching your first ones I was thinking that some of the Hali were hitting your camera which got me thinkin. I bought a lure online of a squid about 7 inches that has a strobe light in it. Now I just need to catch a ride out to see if it catches anything other than me.
Click to expand...
Funny you mention that...I got myself a Lighthouse Lure today and am eager to try the same thing. Will try to get a video of it and see what the reaction is like.
 
Fellow Fisher people get your kids out fishing this holiday season some of the best winter fishing I have seen in alot of years. They aren't big but lots of 3 to 5 lovers with a few 8 to 12 mixed in, but you should get 15 or 20 fish in a 4 hour trip
 
oak bay master said:
Fellow Fisher people get your kids out fishing this holiday season some of the best winter fishing I have seen in alot of years. They aren't big but lots of 3 to 5 lovers with a few 8 to 12 mixed in, but you should get 15 or 20 fish in a 4 hour trip
Click to expand...
Oak bay master. Any info on when and where to fish the area? Im from duncan, have a 14ft mirro craft tin boat. Will it be enuf boat? Any info is much appreciated
 
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