Sooke 2014 Fishing Reports

[donnie d]

Unfortunately much of the best fishing at PNP is covered with a huge mine field of commercial crab floats that goes way out and especially in a strong current if you get anywhere near them you will lose your fishing/rigger gear.

Rockfish - are they all completely submerged? In other words, if you're new to the area, is having a catastrophe the only way to find em?

I stayed at PNP last summer with the wife...great relaxing place for a getaway, but most of the time I couldn't help but thinking about dropping lines out there.

 

[Seagirt]

I fished the last 4 or 5 days from Secretary to Sheringham. Everyday we picked up a couple sockeye, coho, and chinook (under 15 lbs) but we fished hard for them using all the common techniques. Doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to areas/times/conditions but maybe that says something about my ability to recognize patterns... Lots of bait showing on the sounder west of Sooke, especially yesterday, and easy to see jumping at the surface thanks to calm conditions. I've been finding 6'' herring in the coho and even found herring in one mature ~7lb chinook. Found a squid in one of the stomachs also, cant remember the species.

Random wildlife encounters include the two humpbacks that have been hanging around, a sealion eating a large octopus (at one point he looked like he had dreads, with the octopus draped over his head), and the sea otter floated alongside us while we were trolling the tack west of Possession. The sea otter was in the current on the other side of the tide line from us, floating faster than we were trolling as he laid on his back lazily watching us.

Donnie D - At Pnp most of the commercial traps seem to be readily visible and common sense will keep you clear of them, just resist the urge to fish amongst the myriad of buoys. There are always some surprises but that happens everywhere.

 

[DVL U Know]

Donnie D - At Pnp most of the commercial traps seem to be readily visible and common sense will keep you clear of them, just resist the urge to fish amongst the myriad of buoys. There are always some surprises but that happens everywhere.

Ran into a crab trap at muir a couple of weeks ago...it is hard on your downrigger to get slammed that hard...seems that muir has an assload of traps around it too...the one we hit was about three feet underwater.

 

[Englishman]

Fished from 7:30am until 3:00pm today. Spent three fruitless hours trolling Sheringham and Muir and did not see a single net go out. Late morning we headed out from Muir to 450’ of water trolling pink hootchies at 56’. We began to get quite a few, albeit sporadic hits, some of them quite savage, for the rest of the day. Missed a few, lost a few and ended with three clipped coho and a sockeye, the first of the year!, in the boat. Overall a nice day although the ESE wind came up mid-morning which was not on the BWD forecast last night or early this morning. I see he has now updated to show 15K from 8-10am. Good job we did not see that or we may not have gone out. LOL Also there were some massive rolling swells coming from the west, which made it feel like Fall coho fishing……

 

[markustyson]

Fished Beechy Head and Aldridge from 12-3 with only one bite. Put in for a short time at the Shack however the rollers and tide came in which forced us back. Saw three humpback whales fairly close, which was the only "fish" action we saw. Overall nice day on the water though.

 

[profisher]

It turned on today guys. Hit 12 springs for the day and limited with our 6, all 15-20 pounds. It went gonzo in the afternoon with multiple doubles. Also got my guys their sockeye after we limited on springs. Found the sockeye off the the Island in the rip off the reef. It sounded like the rest of the guys at Otter and Muir were getting into them an hour after we had our best action. Hopefully they are here for awhile now....and whales stay away!

 

[zeke]

Fished Muir from 12 - 3:30. Landed a 32 and a 16 and one sockeye. There was tons of bait showing on the sounder and jumping at the surface. Both springs at 50 feet. Sockeye at 33. Smaller spring on anchovies, bloody nose teaser with a gold Betsy flasher. Big spring on the "sockeye" line. Small pink squirt, short leader with a dummy flasher and a gold Betsy. Sockeye on the "spring" line, anchovy, purple chrome teaser and purple onion flasher.

It was an awesome day!

 

[Englishman]

Well I guess the last two posts mean we left Sheringham/Muir too early and should have stuck it out till the afternoon. However, we were not the only ones and from where we were we could see most of the boats who were at Sheringham early on had left by noon. I guess that is why he is called "Profisher"; he knows exactly when to be where! Ah well....next time....

 

[Tips Up]

Nice work Profisher. Must have been a happy crew.
Great fish Zeke. 32 is a great fish!

It's gonna turn on and we'll quickly forget this slow stint.
Just in time for Bite Me Derby.

Tips

 

[chris73]

Found some fish between the Head and Secretary yesterday too; 23, 12, 10 and two decent clipped coho. Never saw a sockeye though. Heard in Renfrew they are ON so let's hope they come down here very soon!

 

[sparkyew]

Fished otter 430 -730 last night. Got these two 19 and 14 right on tight 40 feet down in 60 feet of water. Got a nice sockeye there too. Green was the color.

 

[profisher]

Well is off again!! Lol back to the tough grind again today. Managed one spring about 18 pounds and a couple other hits. No big bite today up until 3:30 when we pulled the pin.

 

[TobyDexter]

Ya exactly the same for me. Hit a 20 pounder off secretary at about 10 am or so. Tried for another couple hours and headed out for some coho / sockeye action but only got 2 wilds to the boat and released. I was stoked on the 20 but I fished from 6 to 330 so it was pretty slow going.

 

[kayladog]

fished 8:30 - 2:00 today starting at Bedfords and picked up a pink right away then moved to Aldridge where missed a good hit then to the Trap where between 1 & 1:30 picked up a 23 & 13, on bloody nose betsy combo @90'. Saw a few other fish being caught, so not completely dead out there.

 

[zeke]

Fished Muir from 11:30 -4:30 on Tuesday. Landed 4 springs between 14 and 22. 3 on anchovies, 1 on the chartreuse coho killer. All between 40 and 60 feet. Caught them spread out throughout the day. Betsy flashers.

 

[C-J]

Fished Otter Pt last afternoon from 3:30-6:30 to catch high slack. Washed the Sitka spoon and Coyote #4 in cop car. Depths of 40-70 feet in 50-105 ft of water.

Again, not a bite...the skunk streak goes back to June 30th and totals 18 now. I may have to revisit my approach!

On the plus side, seemed like a few more fish were being caught that usual...I saw 8 boated in those 3 hours.

 

[hambone]

What is the new boat launch in Sooke like? Is it ok at a 4-5ft tide? Appreciate any comments.

Thinking of launching solo there tomorrow.

 

[Lipripper]

You'll be fine

 

[c.askin]

What is the new boat launch in Sooke like? Is it ok at a 4-5ft tide? Appreciate any comments.

Thinking of launching solo there tomorrow.

I think you would be ok I've got a 16 ft. double eagle and have never ever had any problem at low tide.......hope this helps... C.A.

 

[walleyes]

Still slugging away, kind of had a slower couple day on the 11th and 12th with only 1 spring on each day and yesterday we landed a decent 18 and 2 nice clipped hoe's. This morning I took out my niece that lives in Victoria it was her first time salmon fishing. We dropped the balls in at first light off of Otter and had a smash on the first tack. She fought it like a pro right up to the boat but it was not to be,, I swear I have the worst net in the world it has to go it's just to heavy and long for my boat. The fish hit the net but I was to anxious to net it and was stretched out and couldn't get the net up out of the water and it jumped the net and when it did the front treble hook, hooked in the net and it busted off.. I felt quite bad for her. After a bit a few more boats showed up and there were a couple more caught so of course the chatter started and before long it was down town around there. So we spooled up and got away from the gong show and hit Shearingham for the tide change. Just after change we smashed 2 back to back right off the rock pile. A 14 and a 21. Fished till 2 and spooled er up. Nicky played all 3 fish today and she played them like a pro. And oh yah,, I put the big net away and just used my smaller net for the rest of the day.

So slowly we are getting the count up, we are working for them but we are going home with a nice freezer of salmon for the winter,, it's all good.