That's where all the "creel" surveyors are! Down with the "krill" and probably hake.
Couldn't Resist.
2017 Sooke Reports
- Thread starter SFBC
- Start date
That's where all the "creel" surveyors are! Down with the "krill" and probably hake.
Couldn't Resist.
scott craven
Well-Known Member
Wondered why I hadn't seen Hugo in a while ....
I think it is hake you are seeing. The draggers used to work it quite hard, came by a huge school of them floating when a net broke. Loaded up 150 pounds of hake, and the halibut wouldn't touch it...
Tsquared
Well-Known Member
That's because halibut have better sense than to eat hake. LOL the hake schools move up the water column as it gets dark. When I was commercial trolling I would get tempted by a dusk bite of salmon as we were pulling in the gear for the night and tell my deckhand to put the gear back in the water. Then I'd have to endure my deckhand giving me a hard time as we pulled hake after hake in the pitch dark while going past the sensible trollers anchored up and relaxing.
T2
Xena
Active Member
Fished 9-12, 500ft from Harbour Mouth back to Beecher Bay. Various depths, speed, lures. One strike, on anchovy. Not the nicest day, windy,cold, saw one fish being caught. Guess the coho are done for the year.. only caught three in two trips. (We only tried after Oct 1st. )
DFO Xena
DFO Xena
Slower right now for sure...just 2 coho today -8 pounds and a feeder big enough to keep. A few ball ups in closer and scooped a bit of bait at the end of our trip. 4-4.5 inch stuff. Got 6-7 trays from the bit I kept. Out again tomorrow and will try the fresh bait to see if it helps.
One of the slowest Coho days for us in a long time. Not many hits and the few we did get up to the boat were small, not clipped and not worth keeping.
In the mid afternoon we moved on to the flats off the Inlet and it was like the salmon were taunting us. Salmon were jumping everywhere and many were a very good size. I have heard they can do this to loosen up the eggs and milt for spawning. By late afternoon we were seeing large numbers fining and swirling on the surface just off Sooke Inlet but not much jumping. A bit after that they started a new behaviour, Various schools of salmon were porpoising on the surface, all going in the same direction, some going into the inlet and some going west. Looked like smaller versions of what you see the small brown Harbour Porpoise doing. We had all three lines shallow and threw everything at them with no hits. Tried everything but buck-tailing since we did not have any. One wonders if all the recent heavy rain has them in full spawning mode.
In the mid afternoon we moved on to the flats off the Inlet and it was like the salmon were taunting us. Salmon were jumping everywhere and many were a very good size. I have heard they can do this to loosen up the eggs and milt for spawning. By late afternoon we were seeing large numbers fining and swirling on the surface just off Sooke Inlet but not much jumping. A bit after that they started a new behaviour, Various schools of salmon were porpoising on the surface, all going in the same direction, some going into the inlet and some going west. Looked like smaller versions of what you see the small brown Harbour Porpoise doing. We had all three lines shallow and threw everything at them with no hits. Tried everything but buck-tailing since we did not have any. One wonders if all the recent heavy rain has them in full spawning mode.
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Original
Well-Known Member
I was out with Bagjaun & one of his buds today off of Sooke in the 550 ft depths from 8-4pm for the day. After a slow morning things slightly improved and we managed to pull out a great day with 2 springs & 3 Coho in the afternoon. We fished with anchovies 80-100 ft and the captain seemed to find em zig zagging near the tide lines. Nothing we caught released itself which was nice and only a few shakers and twice the bait showed teeth marks so those ones were bigger lol.
The big spring was a shiny female red hatch at 9 lbs and biggest hatch Coho was 7 1/2. There was great weather, calm seas and Humpbacks to top it off. Thanks for a fun day Bag!
The big spring was a shiny female red hatch at 9 lbs and biggest hatch Coho was 7 1/2. There was great weather, calm seas and Humpbacks to top it off. Thanks for a fun day Bag!
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We noticed some chum salmon swimming in schools like this last few days on the east side of southern island and the coho have become less frequent.
Thanks Carmanah. We were wondering if they were Chum rather than Coho, especially given the large size of some of them, but were not sure. Chum are the Pacific Salmon species I am the least familiar with off Sooke. We have caught a few over the years while targeting Coho by going slower in Sept and Oct.
Assuming they were Chums, there were sure a lot of them massing in front of Sooke Inlet. Any suggestions on the best way to target them when they are on the surface like that not far from the river, assuming they are all going to Sooke? By late afternoon there were not many boats still out fishing when they were doing the fining and porpoising.
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habberdasher
Well-Known Member
This the time of year when I would go to the Sooke river and flyfish with heavy rod 7-9 wt and a flashy fly. big purple wooly bugger worked well last year . It's a total blast most casts into a school get a chum in the Teens and every once in a while your line will straighten out fast and you know you have a Coho. I usually access the river from near the entrance to SunRiver on Phelps road. It's catch and release but by now everyone's freezer is full anyway.
Tight lines Tom
habberdasher
Well-Known Member
Sorry Phillips road not phelps!
Englishman
Well-Known Member
Went out for one last shot at the coho from 8:30am until 2:30pm today. Based on yesterday’s reports I was not expecting much action and so it proved. Started by heading waay out with everyone else and spent a couple of hours in 550-570' of water with not a single hit. Tried many depths with the trusty pink/UV hootch on one side and herring in teaser head on the other.
Headed back in and halfway back to Secretary but still in 500' of water I lowered the hootch to 130' in desperation and got a solid hit in 10 minutes. Felt it pull hard down, and away for about 10 seconds and he was gone. Judging from that brief rush it may have been a chum but I will never know!
Close to Secretary a herring ball formed around lunchtime and we scooped a nice net full at the second pass through the swarm of gulls. They were not big, maybe 4 inches. Put these on a tiny teaser and we trolled around the end of Secretary and back out to 500’ of water near where we had the hit and back in again, two or three times, but other than a couple of small knocks on the herring, which I am sure were shakers, we had no further action.
Probably should have pulled the plug before 2:30pm but it was so nice out there – like a late summer’s day – we stayed. Back at the dock a guy had two decent wilds which he said they got by “staying out in 580' of water all day”. Should have stayed out there too maybe, but then would never have had a shot at whatever it was that took that hootch!!
Headed back in and halfway back to Secretary but still in 500' of water I lowered the hootch to 130' in desperation and got a solid hit in 10 minutes. Felt it pull hard down, and away for about 10 seconds and he was gone. Judging from that brief rush it may have been a chum but I will never know!
Close to Secretary a herring ball formed around lunchtime and we scooped a nice net full at the second pass through the swarm of gulls. They were not big, maybe 4 inches. Put these on a tiny teaser and we trolled around the end of Secretary and back out to 500’ of water near where we had the hit and back in again, two or three times, but other than a couple of small knocks on the herring, which I am sure were shakers, we had no further action.
Probably should have pulled the plug before 2:30pm but it was so nice out there – like a late summer’s day – we stayed. Back at the dock a guy had two decent wilds which he said they got by “staying out in 580' of water all day”. Should have stayed out there too maybe, but then would never have had a shot at whatever it was that took that hootch!!
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Went out for one last shot at the coho from 8:30am until 2:30pm today. Based on yesterday’s reports I was not expecting much action and so it proved. Started by heading waay out with everyone else and spent a couple of hours in 550-570’ of water with not a single hit. Tried many depths with the trusty pink/UV hootch on one side and herring in teaser head on the other.
Headed back in and halfway back to Secretary but still in 500’ of water I lowered the hootch to 130’ in desperation and got a solid hit in 10 minutes. Felt it pull hard down, and away for about 10 seconds and he was gone. Judging from that brief rush it may have been a chum but I will never know!
Close to Secretary a herring ball formed around lunchtime and we scooped a nice net full at the second pass through the swarm of gulls. They were not big, maybe 4 inches. Put these on a tiny teaser and we trolled around the end of Secretary and back out to 500’ of water near where we had the hit and back in again, two or three times, but other than a couple of small knocks on the herring, which I am sure were shakers, we had no further action.
Probably should have pulled the plug before 2:30pm but it was so nice out there – like a late summer’s day – we stayed. Back at the dock a guy had two decent wilds which he said that got by “staying out in 580’ of water all day”. Should have stayed out there too maybe, but then would never have at a shot at whatever it was that took that hootch!!
My buddies and I boxed bright chum salmon coming out from Secretary Island shallow on a few trips in the past in the falltime. Most on hardware lures.
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
Pretty slow but honestly who cares it was one of the most nicest days out there. Picked up a wild and hatchery coho in close again around secretary. Lost another. I went far out when it got slow at the island for a few hours and didn't get anything. I did though get some feeders which was bizarre as I was 500 feet plus out there. If another coho run doesn't show after the rains predicted next few days I would say it's done. Been a great Summer and Fall and looking forward to some winter fishing. Moving on to some prawning and local fishing up here for a bit.
bottom feeder
Active Member
lotsa rain coming the next two days lol stay dry my friends
Lots of wind also ( gusts to 60k). We pulled our boat today to prevent damage/loss and so did a lot of other. By noon the marina was almost empty.
Rain is on the way.
