2020 Sooke Reports

[Reel_Restorations]

Cruised out for a quick fish this morning from Pedder Bay. Ended up hooking up with my first keeper of the season, just over 70cm. Skinny G did the trick, down about 90ft in 15oft of water out front of Church. Seemed to be tons of bait between Whirl Bay and Bedford island area. Slot or no Slot, was happy to get a keeper and spend some time on the water!

 

[Englishman]

Well after last Friday’s amazing day, we should have gone out with the week-end Armada while the fish were still there. Judging by Profisher’s Sunday report and lack of reports since it seems the fish have departed for the time being at least. Fished from 7:00am until 11:30am at Muir again and did not have a touch. At least 40 boats there, including a bunch of Sooke guides; Vancouver Island Lodge, Spencer’s, Crab Shack and Wolf charters and in all that time we only saw two fish caught. Most boats had left by 10:30am, to pastures new or home maybe? We trolled back with the tide around Otter until 12:30pm, and there was only 4 or 5 boats left at Otter, so I think the day was a bust for many besides us. Oh well, that’s fishing and we will give it another go later in the week.

 

[Jama]

Out 6-11 today. Scraped up a just under 80cm and released a few wild coho and smaller springs. Seemed pretty quiet out there...

 

[23Hourston]

6 till 2ish today. Pretty quiet..Had to let go a High teen maybe 20’s spring at 10 am ..at Aldridge. 2 other bites played for 20 seconds Probably Coho. Nice water blew up about 2 as Expected via the apps dead flat till then.
Otter tomorrow fog willing

 

[Original]

Put in a full day from sun up to 3pm at otter to Muir with the swarm of boats Of all sizes. Looked for springs but only caught cohos of which only one was a hatch. Beauty day on the water and I got to meet Wolf at the dock as well as on the water doing his thing working the gear. Also got to watch Englishman doing his thing clearning kelp hehe. We all battled that crapy eel grass and bull kelp that hides just under the surface today. I’ll be up early again tomorrow hoping for a better results

 

[Strait shooter]

Fished Otter Point yesterday. Bite came on around 8. Double header a75 cm kept and released a 82 cm. Two more around 25# released, no need to measure them.

 

[wolf]

There is fish out there just tough some days it seems every 3 days is a good day?? weird ...yesterday was a tough one WEEDS everywhere and missed fish, today I could have used chovies backwards with a rusting commercial hook ... had to let 2 over go which really %%@#$ off but oh well .... I am betting tomorrow meh?? who knows.
And colors are making a difference green is ok but not great red and blues doing it...

Good to meet you too original and nice fish you guys caught today!!!!!

Good luck Wolf

 

[silver spring]

I was out fishing with Rockfish and one of his friends today at Possession. We fished from 8:45 til 12:30. As we arrived, it looked like a bite was on and there were a few people hooking up. Rockfish's hot white hootchie was at 60ft in 80ft of water and we hooked a beauty spring. It put up a great fight and as we feared, it was over slot at 86cm. We released it and cursed the regs! A couple of hours later we had a deeper tack and hooked another nice spring at 85ft in 100ft of water on the white hootchie. Out came the tape measure and as we held our breath, it was slightly under 80cm. It weighed in just under 18lbs. We also lost a smaller spring at the back of the boat on the skinny G side and had a couple big hits that didn't stick.

 

[Original]

Fished day 2 out of sooke on Wed. Started at Otter with good hit that stole the bait while my spoon was untouched. Lots of kelp & weeds made us move up to Muir. Fished again from 6am-3pm and watched lots of boats hooking up on the morning bite and at 8 the bait rod went off with a scream. Great fight brought a fat over 90cm (measured with pool noodle while in the net in the water)released sadly. These are always followed with curse words and DFO hehe. We continued through the day with little to no success while watching other boats getting fish released and some retained under the 80cm. Another solid bite came on from 1pm with everyone’s rods bending but ours. Wind picked up at 2 and boats were heading back in but we thought give it another hr and at 2;45 bait Side goes off and yeehaw 80cm in the tub. Quickly dropped my untouched no bananas spoon and before the deck was cleared my rod went off and a 75 cm was soon in the boat. I guess that’s just how it goes some days. Thanks CM for taking me out for a couple of fun days.

 

[23Hourston]

Fished Muir otter Wednesday 6 am to one. Good bit at Muir. Probably 30 boats fighting for the contour line. Got one just before otter Another at muir and on the way home another one we threw back at Alldredge. Go back to the dock and someone seen us with the 2 fish and said oh you guys had a great day I kind of snickered under my breath pretty sad that this is a great day 2 16 pounders. Is what it is I guess. Funny story we Could only catch fish when I went to go check my bait by pulling the rod off the clip..and then the other rod Would go off it happened three times

 

[Englishman]

Well after Tuesday’s big bust, normal service was resumed at Muir today. Lines in the water at 6:15am and for the first hour we were kept interested by curious tapping bites, which I now think were just little guys, since we later caught four shakers during the day and several times had the bait come back shredded or with the tail half missing. However, around 7:30am we got a huge, rod bouncing hit, struck and felt a good one for 10 seconds and then he was gone. Damn! Probably too big anyway! LOL

Around 9:00am the fog rolled over everyone from across the Strait but visibility remained at 200 metres or so. At around 9:15am I was tending one rod trolling east with no other boats in view and my wife saw the other one bouncing hard again. She struck and this time he stayed on and we played him in the fog and netted a beauty at exactly 80cm and scaling at 16lb. By 10:30am the fog had all burnt off and it became pretty hot. We found the other boats again and trolled west with them and at 10:45am had another nodding hit on the same rod after I had raised the rigger a little and we played a decent 12lb fish to the boat. In both cases the fish seemed to be led like dogs on a leash close to the surface at first, about 60’ back of the boat. Then they would suddenly wake up and take off like crazy. The 16lb’der did a 80 yard run at least.

Little 4.5” herring in a tiger stripe t.h. did the damage once again, fished at 66’ in water 70 to 85’ deep.

We did not stay for C&R, but pulled the gear had a coffee and muffin in the hot sun and came in at 11:15am. A good morning for us.

 

[Doug]

Crazy fishing in Sooke area for the last 4 days.
Got the boat limit every day before 9 am. Yesterday had 10 springs on and got our three fish and back at the dock before 8. I've also released 8 over size fish in the last 4 days and three of those fish were over 90 cm. I heard a 30lb was released at Otter point today. With these high tides Otter should be great fishing. We had a person who worked at Scotty with us yesterday and he has fished all over the place and he (and me) were blown away by all the fish action.

Great time to get out and have some fun fishing.

Just remember, right rod closes to shore and then no one get's in anyone's way and everyone get's a pass through the hit zone. Just watch the flow of the boat traffic. Also put in those hatchery fish heads,

 

[cby]

Awesome day today 7 for 9. Biggest 23 lbs. Kept a 10 lber and a nice Hatchery coho. Had another good one on lost, had many in the 8-12 lb range. Had another coho at the boat lost. Split my time between Otter and Muir both were good.

 

[Admin]

Had a couple new to ocean fishing rod managers out from 7 to noon at the trap. Had 5 on but, alas, only one made it to the boat and it was a 90 cm beauty that put up a great scrap. Used a combo of Anchovie and medium size Herring, which the landed one took, with hits split pretty evenly on both. Even though they didn't get to take a Salmon home, both participants couldn't stop commenting on what a great day they had and what a beautiful place we live in. Hard to argue on a sunny day in August!

 

[Allbay]

Two day report.

Out Thursday and Friday from 5ish to noon. Fished Otter for the first time till around 8 on Thursday, but it was pretty slow for us. Headed to Possession & Secretary where we quickly got a 7 lb spring at 80' in 100' of water followed a couple of hours later by a 16 lb, 78 cm spring at 48' in 200' in water that took some big runs. Missed three or four that either didn't stick or I stumbled over kids leaping to the rod.

Friday, things heated up for us at back at Secretary. Got triplet 12s and a 6 lb to limit out. Released two small 3-4 lb springs. First fish in the boat before 6 and then intermittent action until 11 or so when the bite came on I couldn't bait the lines quickly enough. Missed a similar number Friday, and had one freight train slam an anchovy and break the stinger single trailing hook.

We gave spoons and hoochies a try, but all our action was on anchovies. Great couple of days on the water and stunning weather yesterday.

I know the fishing has been good when I'm still finding the odd fish scale glued onto my hands or forearms the next day.

 

[Stosh]

I gotta say - I have to describe what’s going on around Sooke more like “Catching” than fishing!
Last Tuesday and Thursday was the best catching I’ve experienced in many years !
I’m sure a high percentage of the fish caught/released are from the Sooke Net Pen program.
Many Thanks to everyone, including sponsors and volunteers that support the net pen project.
Stosh

 

[silver spring]

I went out yesterday with Rockfish and 2Xeagle16. We fished Possession point and Secretary because we had a good bite there a couple days ago. The fog rolled in in the morning and we hooked up on a heavy fish that went on a nice run. It suddenly turned around and charged the boat. I tried to catch up with it and got to it briefly before it did a head shake and spit the hook. We also hooked a beauty 11-12lb coho just like the other day that we had to release. It is nice to see some nice big coho around. We released 4-5 smaller springs including the one in the photo below. This was a battle with a 700lb sea lion that had ripped the bottom part of the spring. I water skied it in after it briefly lost it's grip. This massive beast gave us the worst stink eye at the back of the boat for stealing his fish!

 

[cby]

Another incredible day at Otter. Went 11 for 13 on springs. Biggest 22 lbs. Kept a 12 lber and rest were 10-17 lbs. Lost another nice one. 2 x double headers, one other that was close to double header but already had other fish in boat and other rod went off. It was an exhausting day finished by 9:30am.

 

[Original]

Man cby you’re really doing something I’m clearly not. Care to share? I’m trying depths from 32-78 chovies and spoons but just watching you (possibly) hooking up every 20 mins.

 

[profisher]

Next year will be the first return of 4 year old Chinook from the 500,000 Sooke Net Pen out planting. This year are the 4 year old fish from 250,000 DFO limited us to as a first year new crew to salmon enhancement. So starting next year it just keeps getting better. We are pushing for 1 million by 2022. Combined with the new Sooke Enhancement facility it looks promising for whales and anglers looking for Chinook in Sooke waters. Please support both these groups. The net pen has lost most of its funding sources because of Covid and is in a rather large deficit for this fiscal year which the board would like to cover sooner than later.