Sooke Reports - Fall and Winter 2011/2012

[Englishman]

Went out again today and fished from 8:30am till 2:30pm. Trolled from Harbour mouth to Trailer park and back sticking between 100 and 120 feet deep as suggested. Often had rigger bouncing on bottom. Got just two hits in the entire 6 hours, one on coyote spoon and one on anchovy which did not stick. Lucky enough to get the one on the spoon into the boat but only 6lb. Tried several kinds of hootchie too, but not a touch on those. IMHO there are very, very few fish out there. Spoke with someone at Sunny Shores and he went out yesterday for only one fish too.
Splendid sunny day on the calm water for all that, and my wife was able to doze off in the camp chair as no annoying fish to disturb our lazy reverie!! LOL

 

[Doug]

We fished from out front of the harbour to the trailer park. Lots of action but most of the fish were 17+-". My clients kept four fish 6-8 lb and lost the biggest fish at the boat to a seal, along with my gear.

Fish are still on bottom in 120' to 140' of water. Bait worked best today in glow heads.

Also got 4 nice size crab today.

Englishman
Which boat were you?

 

[Englishman]

Hi Doug, I thought I saw you down by the trailer park, where all that flotsam and weed was floating. I think your clients waved to us. We were in the Trophy with the bimini top. Lucky for you I did not see you catch any otherwise I would have dogged you all day. LOL

If you were getting lots of action, I guess that is why you are a guide and I'm not! I don't know what is wrong at the moment but I guess you know some tricks we don't. Funny we did OK back in late November, and maxed out with four on one day, just using hootchies. But the fish are not where we caught them then and are behaving much harder to get now........at least for us they are!! LOL

 

[boomer]

Do you have purplehaze hoochie with a pink strip always good.

 

[Doug]

Try a purple stripe glow squire, 28" leader and glow flasher or a glow teaser head, smaller bait and 6' leader and troll a little faster.

You must keep a few feet off bottom.

 

[Lipripper]

Eman I'm back in town!..perhaps I could be of service? P/M me...
Cheers..sammy

Did you have a good trip man?

 

[Englishman]

Do you have purplehaze hoochie with a pink strip always good.

Yep I have those and have caught fish on them in October/November. But that one and half a dozen other hootchies fished on Saturday and yesterday could not muster one hit between them. The fish are definitely behaving differently or are much more finicky now........

 

[Englishman]

Try a purple stripe glow squire, 28" leader and glow flasher or a glow teaser head, smaller bait and 6' leader and troll a little faster.

You must keep a few feet off bottom.

Thx Doug, I will give those combos a try except I don't know what a "squire" is, unless it is a squirt? I used a glow flasher with a glo squirt on one side and a purple haze teaser head with Betsy metallic green/yellow flasher on other. I went to the purple haze teaser head 'cos it works in the summer and the green glo head we tried on Saturday did not work. (6-7' leaders in both cases). Was also on or very close to bottom. Maybe I am not trolling fast enough, I dunno......

 

[Doug]

Most people I saw out fishing yesterday were going slower than I am.

Also some days it's just not your turn to catch fish. It happens to everyone sooner or later.

 

[sammyslabber]

Yes Buddy the trip was re-bien.We covered a lot of ground,had a good time smoozing with La familia.On the local fishing scene got out today with friend & fellow forum member Rob H.It was a little scratchy today!..nevertheless we raised a 1/2 doz takers kept 1 -10 lber.

 

[Doug]

We fished today out front of the Sooke harbour in 120 to 140 feet of water from 8 to 1:30.
Lot of smaller fish 16" and kept three fish around 25"
The fish are close to bottom and glow heads with bait worked best.

 

[Karma-Kazi]

Let 2 7 pounders. Had one rip the hook off my leader using bait. and lost 6 others. Somtimes hard to keep pressure on them at 190' on the rigger. White Hootchies and Bait pretty equal!


-Steve

 

[Karma-Kazi]

Oh yeah Whirl bay and lamb island both places were producing hits!

 

[Englishman]

Let 2 7 pounders. Had one rip the hook off my leader using bait. and lost 6 others. Somtimes hard to keep pressure on them at 190' on the rigger. White Hootchies and Bait pretty equal!


-Steve

Hey Steve. so you were fishing at 190' on the rigger? Wow, that is deep and a lot deeper than folks (e.g. Doug the charter guy) are fishing off Sooke according to the posts above. Have to give that a try as that is maybe why they appear to be very scarce in the 100-140' range !!

 

[Karma-Kazi]

Englishman remember that when my rigger is out 190 ft im only in 140-150 ft of water! The rest of the line is to compensate for the angle of the rigger. Alot of the time I just drop my gear until it hits bottom and leave it there. As the boat trolls it pulls it up off bottom a few feet and you are in the winter zone!

-Steve

 

[Labman2]

Englishman remember that when my rigger is out 190 ft im only in 140-150 ft of water! The rest of the line is to compensate for the angle of the rigger. Alot of the time I just drop my gear until it hits bottom and leave it there. As the boat trolls it pulls it up off bottom a few feet and you are in the winter zone!

-Steve

What weight balls, downrigger cable or braid, boat speed, weight of terminal gear?
These all seem to be factors in how much drag you would have, and how much blowback you would have at depth, correct?

 

[Englishman]

Englishman remember that when my rigger is out 190 ft im only in 140-150 ft of water! The rest of the line is to compensate for the angle of the rigger. Alot of the time I just drop my gear until it hits bottom and leave it there. As the boat trolls it pulls it up off bottom a few feet and you are in the winter zone!

-Steve

Agreed. Thx Steve. There are some blowback charts you can find on the Net which I refer to, but I realise there are many variables. With a 12 lb ball I find I only need about 160' of braid out to hit bottom at 140'. Slightly less on the cable side than the braid for some reason. Of course I may not be trolling as fast as you and that may be my problem. So many variables in all this!!.......

 

[Seafever]

If you are trolling against or at an angle to the current you will get more blowback than going with the current IMO.

 

[TheRock]

FN0128-RECREATIONAL - Salmon - Fraser River Chinook - Areas 19 and 20 - Recreational Management Actions

The Department is implementing management measures designed to reduce fishery
exploitation rates on Fraser River Spring 4-2 chinook in commercial,
recreational and First Nations fisheries. These Fraser River chinook stocks
begin returning through the Victoria Area in March. Management measures for
the recreational fishery in portions of Areas 19 and 20 are outlined below.
Sport Fishing Advisory Board (SFAB) members have been consulted on these
measures.

Effective March 1 until 23:59 hours Friday June 15, 2012, additional
recreational fishery restrictions on chinook salmon will be in effect in
Subareas 19-1 to 19-4 and Subarea 20-5 (those waters near Victoria between
Cadboro Pt to Sheringham Pt.). During this time period and in this area the
daily limit is two (2) chinook salmon per day which may be wild or hatchery
marked between the size limit of 45 cm and 67 cm or hatchery marked only
chinook over 67 cm in length.

Consultations with the SFAB are ongoing.

Notes:

Barbless hooks are required when fishing for salmon in tidal and non-tidal
waters of British Columbia.

Anglers are requested to release any hatchery marked sockeye. These fish are
hatchery raised sockeye and part of a recovery program designed to increase the
numbers of Cultus Lake sockeye.

The term "hatchery marked" means a fish that has a healed scar in place of the
adipose fin.

Sport anglers are encouraged to participate in the voluntary Salmon Sport Head
Recovery program by labelling and submitting heads from adipose fin-clipped
chinook and coho salmon. Recovery of coded-wire tags provides critical
information for coast-wide stock assessment. Contact the Salmon Sport Head
Recovery Program at (866) 483-9994 for further information.

Rockfish Conservation Areas that are currently in effect and are closed to all
fin fishing. Descriptions of these closures, and other recreational fishing
information, can be found on the Internet at:

www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/recfish

Did you witness suspicious fishing activity or a violation? If so, please call
the Fisheries and Ocean Canada 24-hour toll free Observe, Record, Report line
at (800) 465-4336.

For the 24 hour recorded opening and closure line, call toll free at
1-(866)431-FISH (3474) or at 604-666-2828.


Variation order 2012-77.

For more information contact Brad Beaith (250) 756-7190.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada Operations Center - FN0128
Sent February 24, 2012 at 15:12
Visit us on the Web at http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

 

[Englishman]

Fished in the sun today from 11:00am till 2:30pm. Trolled harbour mouth to trailer park and back and mostly in depths from 100-140'. Nothing at all once again, except for two undersized fish. Used anchovy in green head on one side and various hootchies and coyote spoon on the other. And yep, was bouncing bottom quite a bit.
Think we are gonna try Whirl Bay next time as we are having no luck off Sooke these days.