2022 Victoria and Oak Bay Reports

[ziggy]

Fished Constance bank today from 0800-1300. Very quiet, not even a dog fish.

 

[kaelc]

What a day Saturday. I finally hit the quadruple crown. Halibut 35lbs, Ling Cod 10lbs, huge rock cod 7lbs, and 12 huge Dungeness, kept 4 rock solid 2.5 lb each Grade A. Beautiful day! Finally.

Sick! Solo mission? Mine wasn't the west coast hat trick I was looking for but it was alright Ling, Rock Cod and 2 Dungees and 2 Red Rock. No bites for Hali for us out at Zero rock. 35lbs is nice! I've only had 20lbers this year.

 

[Sam7]

Dropped the traps off at Sax just after 8:00, headed out to my halibut spot, fishing by 8:45, fish landed at 10:30. 89 cm caught on mackerel. About 1.5 hours later, another fish on, but this one didn‘t stick. (Herring on that one) Ended up with 2 Rat fish as well, but no dogs today.
wrapped thing up by 3, and on my way back in to retrieve my traps, I saw a large black & white thing bobbing in the water. Turned around to check it out, and it was a Dall porpoise. (made some calls to DFO and sent pictures to identify it) I then went and grabbed the traps. Two traps, first trap, 1 undersized, second trap, 6 keepers and 2 undersized. Kept 4.

 

[Irishwolf]

Dropped the traps off at Sax just after 8:00, headed out to my halibut spot, fishing by 8:45, fish landed at 10:30. 89 cm caught on mackerel. About 1.5 hours later, another fish on, but this one didn‘t stick. (Herring on that one) Ended up with 2 Rat fish as well, but no dogs today.
wrapped thing up by 3, and on my way back in to retrieve my traps, I saw a large black & white thing bobbing in the water. Turned around to check it out, and it was a Dall porpoise. (made some calls to DFO and sent pictures to identify it) I then went and grabbed the traps. Two traps, first trap, 1 undersized, second trap, 6 keepers and 2 undersized. Kept 4.

Dall porpoise!? That guy is far from home. Looks in good shape to have drifted so far south. Hope the DFO picked it up.

 

[Sam7]

1 - 20lb chicken out at boarder. Had multiple smashes with runs that didn’t stick. Salmon belly was too thick and covered the barbs, is the only explanation. Great morning on the water

One of the things I do is wrap cotton thread (better for the environment) around my bait so the barbs are better exposed and it keeps the bait on longer and performs under water better. This also prevents the dogs from coming by and doing the ol snatch and grab while you’re not looking and fishing without bait issue. I find this works for me, with most baits except for salmon heads (for obvious reasons) many times after a hit when I’m checking my bait, I’ll see the 1/2 moon bite mark were a dog has come and tried to grab it on the side. Unfortunately with this method, it tends to hook up more dogs as well……..

 

[Sam7]

Late post:

went out (Wednesday) on the water by 8:00, set traps, out to the halibut grounds and fishing by 8:45. Yesterdays spot was a little fast, and I was having an issue keeping the weight on the bottom not to mention it was absolutely glassy out there with minimum bounce. When things slowed down, and the wind picked up a bit, the bounce was back and I was able to pull one up from the depths Just after 1:00. Due to my dance card was filling up, and this was on the smaller size, he was returned the deep. (you know what they say, didn’t happen if there wasn’t a picture) packed up just after 2:30, wind was starting to gust. 2 traps, 1 tosser in the first one, 2nd one had 10, 7 keepers, so I kept my 4 and a large red rock.

 

[cby]

Sick! Solo mission? Mine wasn't the west coast hat trick I was looking for but it was alright Ling, Rock Cod and 2 Dungees and 2 Red Rock. No bites for Hali for us out at Zero rock. 35lbs is nice! I've only had 20lbers this year.

Yes always Solo

 

[Sam7]

Well, today was the day that I finally got Bottom-Feeder on the boat. This was long overdue. A little background… he is a friend who shared a halibut setup with me, and a very good reason for the start of my consistent halibut fishing success starting last year. We both have made tweaks to the presentation, but the original started me off with 5 successful trips in a row last year.

We meet at the launch about 7:45, dropped the traps off in front on SAX headed out to the halibut grounds and we were fishing about 8:30-8:45, just as the tide was changing. I had my modified setup on, he was trying another new setup on his side, about 1/2 hour into it, I had a taker, unfortunately he spit the hook after about 15 seconds. Went through a fast flood, where the weight kept on floating up and hard to stay on the bottom but we stayed with it. As the tide was slowing down and wanting to ebb again, about 2:30 I had another step up to the herring that was presented. I had the guest on board & I kept on offering the rod, but he refused to take it, so I brought that baby up to the surface. I/we were rewarded with 118cm.

Packed up at 4, back to the traps, total of 9, 4 keepers.

 

[kaelc]

Well, today was the day that I finally got Bottom-Feeder on the boat. This was long overdue. A little background… he is a friend who shared a halibut setup with me, and a very good reason for the start of my consistent halibut fishing success starting last year. We both have made tweaks to the presentation, but the original started me off with 5 successful trips in a row last year.

We meet at the launch about 7:45, dropped the traps off in front on SAX headed out to the halibut grounds and we were fishing about 8:30-8:45, just as the tide was changing. I had my modified setup on, he was trying another new setup on his side, about 1/2 hour into it, I had a taker, unfortunately he spit the hook after about 15 seconds. Went through a fast flood, where the weight kept on floating up and hard to stay on the bottom but we stayed with it. As the tide was slowing down and wanting to ebb again, about 2:30 I had another step up to the herring that was presented. I had the guest on board & I kept on offering the rod, but he refused to take it, so I brought that baby up to the surface. I/we were rewarded with 118cm.

Packed up at 4, back to the traps, total of 9, 4 keepers.

Nice fish! Thanks for keeping the home field hope alive. I’ve been close to heading to Renfrew or Bamfield for a big one!

 

[Roberth]

One of the things I do is wrap cotton thread (better for the environment) around my bait so the barbs are better exposed and it keeps the bait on longer and performs under water better. This also prevents the dogs from coming by and doing the ol snatch and grab while you’re not looking and fishing without bait issue. I find this works for me, with most baits except for salmon heads (for obvious reasons) many times after a hit when I’m checking my bait, I’ll see the 1/2 moon bite mark were a dog has come and tried to grab it on the side. Unfortunately with this method, it tends to hook up more dogs as well…….

i use magic thread to do the same thing. It’s elastic and very thin

 

[Hot-Streak]

Well, today was the day that I finally got Bottom-Feeder on the boat. This was long overdue. A little background… he is a friend who shared a halibut setup with me, and a very good reason for the start of my consistent halibut fishing success starting last year. We both have made tweaks to the presentation, but the original started me off with 5 successful trips in a row last year.

We meet at the launch about 7:45, dropped the traps off in front on SAX headed out to the halibut grounds and we were fishing about 8:30-8:45, just as the tide was changing. I had my modified setup on, he was trying another new setup on his side, about 1/2 hour into it, I had a taker, unfortunately he spit the hook after about 15 seconds. Went through a fast flood, where the weight kept on floating up and hard to stay on the bottom but we stayed with it. As the tide was slowing down and wanting to ebb again, about 2:30 I had another step up to the herring that was presented. I had the guest on board & I kept on offering the rod, but he refused to take it, so I brought that baby up to the surface. I/we were rewarded with 118cm.

Packed up at 4, back to the traps, total of 9, 4 keepers.

Very nice! you seem to put in the time/work so good to see it paying off.

 

[eroyd]

Well going by observations, the resident killer whales are going starve if they rely on Oak bay chinook. Gave the flats two hours and not a touch, arch or bait ball on the sounder. Fished a couple of favourite reefs, a few rockfish but lots of small lings. Fyi. Crabs have no interest in lamb and rice dog food, unless somebody raised my trap. Ha ha.

 

[MikePA]

Well going by observations, the resident killer whales are going starve if they rely on Oak bay chinook. Gave the flats two hours and not a touch, arch or bait ball on the sounder. Fished a couple of favourite reefs, a few rockfish but lots of small lings. Fyi. Crabs have no interest in lamb and rice dog food, unless somebody raised my trap. Ha ha.

Sounds like a good day

 

[eroyd]

Sounds like a good day

I was out in my boat so it was a good day. To be honest, tides weren't my choice but we can't pick our days. Good time to experiment. ie. Rejected dog food for crabs. . . Nope, but have had some great crabbing, and bigger crabs when having some pork scraps in the bait.

I slow trolled/mooched some of those large mackerel you can get from the grocery store. They worked great last time out for bigger lings. 9/o hooks seem to keep a lot of the little rockfish away. Saturday the tide was a little quick, lost my two rigs and resorted to jigging in shallower water. I found the lingcod nursery.

Chinook fishing, was a blank on the flats. There were a few areas where the sounder indicated patches of bait and fish up shallow. Dunno? Reports I've been hearing suggest it might be better further east or Sidney ways. Not a lot of guys out for obvious reasons. I still like to fish though and see how stocks are doing.

 

[Fisherben3]

I was out in my boat so it was a good day. To be honest, tides weren't my choice but we can't pick our days. Good time to experiment. ie. Rejected dog food for crabs. . . Nope, but have had some great crabbing, and bigger crabs when having some pork scraps in the bait.

I slow trolled/mooched some of those large mackerel you can get from the grocery store. They worked great last time out for bigger lings. 9/o hooks seem to keep a lot of the little rockfish away. Saturday the tide was a little quick, lost my two rigs and resorted to jigging in shallower water. I found the lingcod nursery.

Chinook fishing, was a blank on the flats. There were a few areas where the sounder indicated patches of bait and fish up shallow. Dunno? Reports I've been hearing suggest it might be better further east or Sidney ways. Not a lot of guys out for obvious reasons. I still like to fish though and see how stocks are doing.

I went to sidney two weeks ago . No keeper lings

 

[Slack-tider]

Now that DFO is teasing us with an open season on COHO (hatchery), when do you think we will start seeing them in our waters? Fun to catch and release chinook but the freezer is looking a little empty.

 

[scott craven]

Not too many coho around locally until September.
Further west sooke and beyond they will show earlier

 

[Irishwolf]

If DFO are so concerned for fish health, they’d give us 1 coho regardless of markings. Finding a marked hatch in a haystack full of wild and unmarked hatch just puts unnecessary risk to all stocks period.

Tea party this weekend so cattlepoint launch will be tough to get to. Do not think the air show is happening however.

 

[Slack-tider]

Thanks Scott, I guess it's Ling, Hali or Safeway to fix the freezer issue. With my luck on the last couple Hali attempts, I may need to go to the store. Still being on the water is better than being at work.

 

[Fisherben3]

Now that DFO is teasing us with an open season on COHO (hatchery), when do you think we will start seeing them in our waters? Fun to catch and release chinook but the freezer is looking a little empty.

I usually find coho's in June and july