2018 Sooke Reports

Out last night for a few hours off Sooke. Quick double of sockeye out about 400ft. This morning we got out at 7 and caught the tail end of the bite 2 quick sockeye then it started to get pretty rough. Ducked into the trap for a few tacks where I finally hit a decent spring. 20 ft from the back of the boat the gd sea lion grabbed it an took off straight down 140 ft. Too late to cut it off so we chased it around until the main line snapped. Line is toast and I just put it on a month ago.
Oh ya brought out the second net for the socks and we somehow didn’t notice it slip out of the rocket launcher around secretary Incase it floats and someone picked it up...
 
Excellent tips Profisher! Was out there at 6 this morning and the sox were thick! Bite lasted for an hour and tapered off slowly after that. Found trebles are almost ineffective with the soft mouths of sockeye. Changed up too late but still managed to get one in the boat. Stacking rods solo is just not worth it!
Moved to deep water and found zilch. Now I'm getting depressed. One sox to show for a morning of mayhem. Tucked back in to Secretary looking for some sort of redemption. Amidst the persistent fog I got my break at 1:30. Played this baby for half an hour before she hit the net ( a stellar solo net job I might add :) ). 32 lb butterball on the scale. Called it a day after that as quite honestly my arms were threatening to go on strike after that overtime shift!
This is why we keep fishing!aug6 2018.jpg
 
Hoochiebob said:
Excellent tips Profisher! Was out there at 6 this morning and the sox were thick! Bite lasted for an hour and tapered off slowly after that. Found trebles are almost ineffective with the soft mouths of sockeye. Changed up too late but still managed to get one in the boat. Stacking rods solo is just not worth it!
Moved to deep water and found zilch. Now I'm getting depressed. One sox to show for a morning of mayhem. Tucked back in to Secretary looking for some sort of redemption. Amidst the persistent fog I got my break at 1:30. Played this baby for half an hour before she hit the net ( a stellar solo net job I might add :) ). 32 lb butterball on the scale. Called it a day after that as quite honestly my arms were threatening to go on strike after that overtime shift!
This is why we keep fishing!View attachment 39452
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Wow! That is one of the fattest beauties I’ve ever seen. I bet its the first tyee that barely made the legal length of 45cm
;)
Congratulations. How many tyees under your belt?
 
Heck of a fish, will probably be one of the nicer ones of the season for Sooke I bet. Congrats on that beauty Hootchiebob, even a better achievment to land it solo, I love it.
 
Beauty fish Hootchiebob!
Must say the sockeye this season are incredible . in my 50+ yrs of fishing sooke I cant remember larger male sockeye than we brought in today and so plentiful able to release females and limit out on males in 2 hrs
Gotta love it!
 
Fished 7:30am until 1:30pm today. Went out to join the fleet looking for sockeye to start but must have arrived a bit late. Had three hits in first 20 mins and got one in the boat and that was it. Trolled around in wide search patterns in fog for the next three hours (from 200’ of water out to 500’) but no more hits at all. By 11am most of the sockeye armada had disappeared so we joined a few boats at Possession/Harbour mouth and did some loop passes for the next 2 hours with nothing. Lots of kelp and eelgrass made the process difficult. Anyway decided to pack up and on last pass at 1:15pm got a great hit on anchovy at 66’ in just 71’ of water and my wife netted a beauty 18lb fish after a good run.

I put a photo up although I am a bit embarrassed after Hootchiebob’s incredible fish photo. Personally, I have not had a fish in the 20’s this year (nor last year either) but hey, as long as I get a few high teeners I am a happy old Englishman!!

PS site will not load any pics right now, so no embarrassing little 18lb fish to show
 
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Thanks gents! The pic actually makes it look shorter than it was (tall lanky guy holding it) Taped it at 98 cm Should have done girth though as that is by far the fattest fish I have ever caught!
As far as tyees I have caught Stizzla, It's my first from Sooke,and puts my grand total to five, although I cant really recall my first one other than it made the Esquimalt anglers leaderboard- I was 9 years old with a lot of help from my grandfather.
And as for you Englishman, get that pic up! If size was all that mattered, Most of us would still be single :) Seriously, that's the best fish I've caught in 7 years. Your Tyee is waiting out there for you!
Now back to reality as my holiday has come to an end. Sooke has been very generous to me these last two weeks! If any of you see a tall skinny guy in a vintage Bayliner Trophy hardtop out there, give me a wave and a big old "Hooch!"
 
fished from 6.30 to 2 today off the bluffs and sec. isl. landed 2 nice sox lost another one and kept a small spring, hooked into knuckle buster just when about to leave but experienced a long line release , very rough at times and foggy for a while...……...
 
Hi all. This is my very first post. Been reading for a many years now and not into the social media thing. However, that said, first time to sooke ever and watched my 13 year old son pull in a nice 16.5# by himself just before otter today. What a feeling for me. I have been coming out to the coast since 75 when my grandparents moved out here when I was 3. I have caught a lot of fish all around the island, but today was an awesome moment. See you all on the water tomorrow. Good luck all!!
 
Went to Otterpoint yesterday late afternoon. The water was way more choppy then I expected. Anyhow I stayed. Started fishing east of Otterpoint close to shore as the waves were less choppy there. Caught a lot of shakers. At about 7 pm I felt confident to fish right at the point. That was also the time when I started seeing some better fish to be caught by other boats. So between 7pm and 7:45pm I eventually got my two fish (12 and 14lbs) right at the point with the downrigger down at 60-65'.
I didn't see much debris in the water so the waves and the fish were all to fight with.
 
IMG_0497.JPG First report from me in a while.Headed south to Beacher Bay yesterday morning and was on the water by 8:00AM.Got one line down off Aldridge Point and while getting the second rod baited up,wham,the first rod goes.It starts peeling line and I know it's a real good one so I passed the rod off to my new friend and neighbour John.After some
seriously dusted knuckles,several long peeling runs and some coaching from me we landed it after about a good 20 min. battle. Hot Spot purple/glow one side flasher and bloody nose teaser head on a 7 ft. leader did the trick.It weighed just over 30 lbs. on my cheap spring scale on the boat but weighed only 28 lbs. on the Cheanna digital scales.It was 97 cm long and had a 64 cm girth,which by the one formula online girth x girth x length divided by 775 also put it just over 30 lbs.A nice fish anyway and beat his
old best fish of 24 lbs. by quite a bit.Trolled up to Secretary and back but only hooked one other around 15 lbs. that threw the hook beside the boat.Great day on the water and great memories with my new friend.Cant wait to get back out and give it another go.FF
 
Quick trip for sox this morning.
Left the dock at 5:30 back at 8:00 with limit for 3 of us.
Lost a few fish and the front end of our net because it was not locked into place when I went to net first fish.
So if you happened to come across half a net off between Secretary and Otter, I'd love to get it back. Right now I just have a handle.

15-50 ft in 300-400ft of water. Closer to Secretary was better and trolling west was best.
 
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Got up earlier this morning, planning to give ourselves a better chance at the sockeye. (Don’t know why this run of sockeye are only early biters; 8 years ago they were out there biting all day. Four years ago they all went thru’ Johnstone Strait and it was a bust out there; but I digress). Anyway it was not to be because we got to Sunny Shores and found the winch cable had snapped and the boat was hanging by the safety chain. Struggled for 45 minutes trying to relieve the tension on the safety chain and launch the boat. Eventually, with assistance from Andy at Sunny Shores we managed to get the boat launched and left the trailer and cable in Andy’s care.

So after the big delay, same deal as yesterday, four or five hits before it all stopped and only one sockeye in the boat. Came in to Possession and Harbour mouth for last two hours but this time nada. Cannot expect to get a Chinook on last pass two days running!

Back at Sunny Shores, Andy had crimped on a new hook eye on what was left of usable cable and we were able to get the boat out. Big shout out and thank you to Andy of Sunny Shores for great service for an old Englishmen in need!!

Finally got yesterday's pic to load.

Ro 2.JPG
 
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First attempt for Sockeye out of Sooke this am. Joined the pack off harbour mouth at 6:30. Only a couple of Chinook shakers until 7:30.. then an hour of action for us and those around us, landed 5 of 6, and as others have said, great average size. Then dead at 8:30, headed in (and to work) just after 9. Fish at 40 to 55 feet except one at 20 feet when we pulled the gear up for finners. Fishing 3 rods and 2 dummies. So is it just early timing? or does tide also play a part? Seemed very slow for that first hour, but maybe we were just in the wrong place.
 
Englishman said:
Fished 7:30am until 1:30pm today. Went out to join the fleet looking for sockeye to start but must have arrived a bit late. Had three hits in first 20 mins and got one in the boat and that was it. Trolled around in wide search patterns in fog for the next three hours (from 200’ of water out to 500’) but no more hits at all. By 11am most of the sockeye armada had disappeared so we joined a few boats at Possession/Harbour mouth and did some loop passes for the next 2 hours with nothing. Lots of kelp and eelgrass made the process difficult. Anyway decided to pack up and on last pass at 1:15pm got a great hit on anchovy at 66’ in just 71’ of water and my wife netted a beauty 18lb fish after a good run.

I put a photo up although I am a bit embarrassed after Hootchiebob’s incredible fish photo. Personally, I have not had a fish in the 20’s this year (nor last year either) but hey, as long as I get a few high teeners I am a happy old Englishman!!

PS site will not load any pics right now, so no embarrassing little 18lb fish to show
Click to expand...
Forget cable and for that matter seat belt webbing, go and get Kevlar/Spectra rope, the 1/4 inch had about 5000# breaking load and it doesn't rust or kink or develop those nice meat hooks. You can get it at Trotac. The grey hollow core material is easy to splice, just like the cheap polypropolene just make sure that you have a long splice as the material is quite slippery. I have been using it for a couple of years; it is a great improvement over the alternatives.
 
Yesterday afternoon at about the half way point to Otter my main engine began to labour and having been through it before I knew it was beginning to seize. Sure enough it was done. Finished that trip on the kicker and managed to get a nice 19 pound spring at Possession. This morning on the kicker again so left at 5:30 so we would be fishing by 6am. It wouldn't be a sockeye trip as that would just take more time to get out there...so stayed close and fished springs. Sometimes it works out. We went 6 for 11 with some nice fish up to 25 pounds. For the first 2 hrs we had the spot with just one other boat as everyone was chasing soxs. I was quickly reminded why I don't like fishing this spot as MR seal got one of a double header and also caused us to loose the other one. Saw MR seal get 3 other fish from other boats. Greedy *******!!! Spent all afternoon a SG Power doing an engine swap. A big thanks to the service dept and Doug the mechanic for staying late (6:30) and helping me get back up and running....a long long day!!!
 
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Cataline said:
Forget cable and for that matter seat belt webbing, go and get Kevlar/Spectra rope, the 1/4 inch had about 5000# breaking load and it doesn't rust or kink or develop those nice meat hooks. You can get it at Trotac. The grey hollow core material is easy to splice, just like the cheap polypropolene just make sure that you have a long splice as the material is quite slippery. I have been using it for a couple of years; it is a great improvement over the alternatives.
Click to expand...
I use this too and it’s great!!! No metal slivers like cable and doesn’t twist like webbing
 
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