I can tell you as of today the Coho are here. It was wall to wall Coho out off the Sooke harbour. We played 16 Coho to the boat and released 15 unclipped ones without netting. We kept the one clipped Coho which weighed in at 17 lbs. We stacked 4 rods and at one point we had a triple header and a couple of double headers. The real heart breaker was a real monster Coho which was not clipped but must have weighed well into the twenties. It was huge and dwarfed the 17 lber we kept and we are thinking 22 or 23lbs. No feeders today but for Coho the waters off Sooke are loaded and they are large. Can’t wait for next Friday, I could have put the monster on the wall. We were getting them deep and they seem to prefer the large anchovies, but glow spoons also worked somewhat. They are everywhere but the most are out and the monster was in 360 feet of water. Some on the radio were getting them as far out as 700 feet of water. Normally you do not have to go through so many to find one clipped.
SOOKE REPORTS spring/summer 2010
- Thread starter Gypseas
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kayladog
Active Member
Definately a beauty day out there Sat. Nothing all morning trooled Secrettary to Otter. Back to Secretary at noon,like Doug said it was good for coho there. Too bad you can't keep a wild one yet. Let go a couple around 15 lbs, and 2 others. Keep one hatchery, lost a couple more. There was no lure of preference. Hit bait, spoons & squirts. All 70-90'.
wolf
Well-Known Member
STILL WAITING ive collected 1 so far LOL LOL
WE need fish fly to get out there as he is the coho king...LOL LOL
Wolf
Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com
WE need fish fly to get out there as he is the coho king...LOL LOL
Wolf
Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com
Tailspin
Active Member
We got our Hali to start, but those Coho sure topped off the day. All Wilds, backs stiff from tailing them from my boat. We got ours in 450-550 off Becher, Pretty cool! Sick Weather
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Good to hear some numbers have arrived. DFO still has the coho fishery backwards. They need to fix the Thompson issue and get us keeping them. The earlier Coho (before Oct) are typically from bigger systems and bigger fish, ie Fraser and Puget Sound. They, once restored to decent numbers can withstand a fishery. After Oct I find the size goes down and about 12 to 14 pounds is as big as they get. These are Coho from our more local smaller streams, ie Kirby, Tugwell, D'maniel, Colquitz and Goldstream to name a few. These streams have Coho populations from a few dozen to a mating pair or two. Those wild fish should be left alone. I would like to see us allowed to keep a wild Coho before Oct 1st and hatchery only afterwards.
sammyslabber
Active Member
maybe 2 coho period hatchery or not then get on to winter springs people talk about about multiple wild coho hook ups sounds like sports fishing no ! just sounds like people beating the crap out of the poor fish.all in all so much damage to the fish doesn't make to much sense.catch a few go home eat em
Deewar25
Well-Known Member
exactly - always been my belief as well - especially up in Renfrew you often hear of sifting through 30 coho just to find their hatchery. Make it 2 regardless and move on, we all know damn well much of these so called 'wilds' are hatchery anyway. I don't believe people should be targeting them right now when its 5 to 1 wild to hatch or worse. Wait until the 1st then roll out for that fishery. Probably only 20% of fishers out there can release a coho without doing much damage .
We (consultant's derby committee) made a proposal to DFO in hopes to improve the clipping program (my thoughts are coho specifically, but obviously becoming more an issue with springs as well in early season). Sounds like they are willing to discuss at the next SFAB, but hopefully that can be a step in the right direction to do more good than harm for the true wild stocks, but I am not holding my breath as it will involve a commitment from them as well if our pilot project proves successful.
sammyslabber
Active Member
glad to see we read from the same deewar i hope more can come on side maybe someone can slip dfo a mickey at the next then they may agree to anything that makes sense. keep up the good work deewar im glad we have some rational people working towards a better fishery.
sammyslabber
Active Member
sorry thats work from the same page and the next spf meeting. i'm sure you can fill in the blanks anyways. cheers sammy
sammyslabber
Active Member
profisher it's all about policing ourselves and making the right choices even when there is little or no enforcement.
scott craven
Well-Known Member
Yup, in a kill fishery that would work just fine...
Deewar25
Well-Known Member
We do it for the most part with spring, why not coho? Sure, when they are around, action is more plentiful providing the desire to sift through and I would understand throw back if you caught a 5-6 pounder just like if you caught a 5-6 pound spring. I think this would be much improved for the guides though - you have 3 or 4 in the boat, there is likely a much better chance you just take the first 6 or 8 and then move on vs you as a guide having to sift through 20 or 30 to find those clipped fish.
Put it this way, no system is perfect, but I guarantee this would be far better for the stocks and would mean a smaller fuel bill for you guides as well and way less work!
Charter Tofino
Well-Known Member
Small hooks and a gaff release has pretty low mortality.
I was going to expand on my last post but will now as you bring up guides being able to get them quick and save gas etc. You forget that if you make a big effort to go somewhere to fish..or if you hire a guide to fish once or twice a year, or both...your not into a short trip. You want to stay out and enjoy the time you have...all of it. I can see for the guy who slips out for a short trip early in the morning before work...getting them quick is the ticket. Otherwise it is about enjoying the day and the action.
Its higher than you would think 90 to 95%...and that is with non-skilled anglers used in the testing. This right from DFO scientists and researchers. We were told they observed some very rough handling and still had high survival...the key seems to be bleeding from the gills. If the gills are not involved then survival is high. I believe this as I've seen some very battered up fish with partially healed up wounds from killer whale or sea lion attacks. Some of these fish had monster open wounds and still were alive. I've caught fish with hook a damaged eye, or missing portion of the jaw etc. Not sure how they fair making it all the way up river to successful spawning.
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