2018 Sooke Reports

Well after a month off the water decided to give it a shot today. Fished from 7:00am until 2:30pm.

Surprisingly cold with intermittent ESE winds and no sun.

One hit. One 10lb fish. This came at 8:00am in the Trap area on previously frozen herring in anchovy teaser at 66’.

Did several more passes of East Sooke park end-to-end but no dice. Finished going around Secretary, where the flood tide created a bit of a cauldron necessitating use of the main motor to get out of there and then trolled along the Bluffs. (Tried spoons and switched out flasher for a dodger just to vary things a bit as well.)

Still one fish is better than zero which is all early May yielded. Another good thing is my frozen herring stock is going to last a very long time as I am using very few per trip right now!! LOL:)
 
First Sooke sammy of the year for me last night. Out off Aldridge nice 15lb for the BBQ today! Was a bit of a **** show with line getting wrapped on downrigger after he had a look at the net and bolted straight for the bottom wrapping around the cable in the process. Anchovy in a chrome bloody nose head Betsy flasher 60'.
 
Fished Whirl Bay with my wife and daugher from 10 till 2. Picked up two, one about 8lbs and the other about 12 lbs. It was the only two strikes we had all day. Both right in front of Church Rock, 90 feet on the rigger and on a green Skinny G spoon. Saw one other one caught, not much going on with that many boats out there. Talked to another boat that had fished Pedder Bay and had been skunked, said he never saw a fish caught in the bay all day.
 
No fish. 10-2.
No action.
A tone of bait in pedder bay. Was boiling with it.

Sounder showed arches all over the place.

Didn’t feel to bad. No one else had anything at the cleaning table.
 
Gave it another try today. Fished 7:00am until 1:30pm in the brilliant sun. Now that we can’t go West decided to go East as far as Becher. Don’t know a lot about that area so time to learn. Did multiple passes of the Trap, Beechy Head, Aldridge Point at several depths and tried anchovies, herrings, various spoons and even a hootchie on a dodger. Must have been 40 or more boats all along there but only saw one fish about 7lb landed all day.

Just like Mudshark’s post above, we did not have not a single touch for the entire session either. Back at Sunny shore spoke with a local veteran and he said he did two 5 hour trips with his brother the previous week and did not get a touch either. There are very, very few fish around Sooke right now and we will just have to wait.:(
 
Englishman said:
Gave it another try today. Fished 7:00am until 1:30pm in the brilliant sun. Now that we can’t go West decided to go East as far as Becher. Don’t know a lot about that area so time to learn. Did multiple passes of the Trap, Beechy Head, Aldridge Point at several depths and tried anchovies, herrings, various spoons and even a hootchie on a dodger. Must have been 40 or more boats all along there but only saw one fish about 7lb landed all day.

Just like Mudshark’s post above, we did not have not a single touch for the entire session either. Back at Sunny shore spoke with a local veteran and he said he did two 5 hour trips with his brother the previous week and did not get a touch either. There are very, very few fish around Sooke right now and we will just have to wait.:(
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Why wouldn't you just wait at one spot instead of moving around? Look at currents Roland. There are fish there just need to find the bait. These strong tides will push into nooks and crannies but you have ti hunt for them. Btw I would have gone a little farther east.
 
Fished Otter yesterday afternoon from 2 till 6. Landed one almost right away about 15 pounds. Only 1 other hit which was a small spring we released. Nice tide and water and frustrating looking up at 2nd and 3rd rocks wondering.
 
Fished all day on sunday and it was hard graft but we picked up a nice 9lb hatch at whirl bay.
Came out of esq. anglers and made the trip to sooke since it's cheaper and faster with the boat than my V8 truck from where I live :)
Saw two other boats pick one up within 10 minutes of ours in whirl but nothing at all besides that.
Fish table in Esquimalt was bone dry.
Saw a close call at the ramp where a guy forgot the plug but managed to get the boat out and dried out enough to get back at it.
 
profisher said:
Fished Otter yesterday afternoon from 2 till 6. Landed one almost right away about 15 pounds. Only 1 other hit which was a small spring we released. Nice tide and water and frustrating looking up at 2nd and 3rd rocks wondering.
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Otter point is closed to all fin fish
 
Out this morning in a stiff breeze (was reporting 39 mph at the Race and 29 at Sheringham when I checked first thing) Headed to Otter and it was quiet for the first 3 hours then released one about 18 pounds. In the last hour we released 2 more that would have been just under and just over 20 pounds. Lost another heavier fish that we couldn't slow down. A few smaller fish hitting the gear at that time too so the bite was on and we were the only boat there! Finished off by releasing the over 20 pound fish right at noon and headed in.
 
profisher said:
Out this morning in a stiff breeze (was reporting 39 mph at the Race and 29 at Sheringham when I checked first thing) Headed to Otter and it was quiet for the first 3 hours then released one about 18 pounds. In the last hour we released 2 more that would have been just under and just over 20 pounds. Lost another heavier fish that we couldn't slow down. A few smaller fish hitting the gear at that time too so the bite was on and we were the only boat there! Finished off by releasing the over 20 pound fish right at noon and headed in.
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See any whales??
would be interesting if you could have an audit on how many hours during the closure period the whales are actually on site.
Renfrew to Sheringham is of little or of no consequence.
My experience is they go thru Sheringham to Otter in about 10 minutes and come thru twice a week, sometimes less and occasionally more in July and August.
Profisher fishes out that way regularly...how often to you see the whales??
 
It takes longer for them to go from Otter to the light or vice versa. I would say 35-40 mins on average. Sometime longer if they are resting and not in a hurry and sometimes less if they are not fishing and motoring along to get from point A to B. How often really depends year to year. When the fish are there they can go by daily for 4 or 5 days in a row. Then not be there for a week. Often they are absent for 2-3 weeks even when fish are around...they obviously found even more some where else. In 2017 I saw them once. This year so far I have seen them once but know they have been around a few times this past week. I'm not out every day or all day long. There have been way more transient days for sure. I saw about 20 whales on Tuesday morning off Otter...they were heading west but they turned out to be transients....I changed to VHF 79 to listen in on the whale watchers to find out what they were...they were ID'ed as either T32's or T36's can't remember which. But yeh...many hundred times more hours with no whales in the forage zones than with whales. The guys I had out today went whale watching yesterday and most of J's and a few L's were off west San Juan which is their most frequent hangout and is in US waters.
 
Many times they are transiting way out in the shipping lanes where the fishing fleet may not be aware of their presence. Would likewise be interesting to see how quickly they vacate the area when WH is closed for gunnery practice.
 
They like noise! Why else would they visit Victoria’s inner harbour ?

We got it all wrong. Our 9.9’s - 15’s are like a rave under water. Along with all the toxins in there blood.
Makes for a party....

Oh wait. Am I talking about the homeless population of Victoria or the SRKW?!?...
 
Good again today and got into 4... landing and keeping 3 all hatchery today. I ran my GPS today to see where the actual boundary is at Otter. Do you guys know what a prick the Fisheries minister is? The 123.49.3 boundary is east of Otter behind the reef and therefor you can't legally cast off the rocks in the Otter Point park..... the only place where those who don't own a boat have road access to a place they can cast a lure. I guess he figures any lure called a buzz BOMB must be bad for whales.
 
profisher said:
Good again today and got into 4... landing and keeping 3 all hatchery today. I ran my GPS today to see where the actual boundary is at Otter. Do you guys know what a prick the Fisheries minister is? The 123.49.3 boundary is east of Otter behind the reef and therefor you can't legally cast off the rocks in the Otter Point park..... the only place where those who don't own a boat have road access to a place they can cast a lure. I guess he figures any lure called a buzz BOMB must be bad for whales.
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Probably David Suzuki’s idea
 
Great bite for an hour this morning in Sooke. Landed 3 hatchery 7-12lbs and released a nice wild. Lost a couple of others. 50/50 on bait and Coho Killers.
 
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