I also had a moment of truth this sockeye season after a few slow trips this year but I changed this things up in s slightly different way. I was confident my gear and technique was as I was doing same thing as I had done the past few sockeye cycles but it just wasn't happening. I stopped automatically dropping the gear near the pack and decided to do a 10 mph cruise outside the pack and let the technology (new electronics since last sockeye cycle) dictate when to drop the gear based on when we started to see fish. Whether it was coincidental or not, we had 4 trips in a row with quick limits after doing that. Not sure why I didn't start out doing that in the first place.
We similarly are thrilled to have a freezer full of sockeye to feast on for a while but as good as it was, I am happy to leave "catching" season and am really looking forward to my favourite fishing season ... looking right past the fall spring season (did take a run to Cap yesterday a.m. and released a mid teens boot just outside the pack ... was it me, or did the Cap look like a used Grady White lot yesterday) and looking very forward to catching the first winter spring of the year. For my money, it will be the best tasting fish of the year.