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Chinook are still out there - early yesterday got a 20 plus and a nice 8 pounder - C&R of course - outside of Beechy - There were quite a few boats fishing Hali
 
Fed the dogs yesterday off Pedder. Soaked from 830-1230, no Hali luv for me. Counted 35 ish boats on anchor out that way. Couldn’t keep line down for dogfish then switched to half a salmon head from last fall and nothing else. Packed it in when current kept pulling my little tin sideways into waves and got tired of sideways rocking. Tried for ling in closer but settled for big copper rockfish. Trip home was delayed 3 hours waiting for malahat to reopen, although think some unFortunate person didn’t make it home so count my blessings.
 
Out today off the Sooke Flats, looking for a Halibut....sure can tell it is June. Also fed the dogfish today, no butts. Moved around and also drifted a couple of time. The dogfish were all over.
 
Bopped around all over today - Pedder, Beecher, Secretary and Otter - not a sniff -worked from 80 feet to 200. DR 50 - 100. 2km - 5km all over the map. Hootchies, spoons, plugs. Before and after the tides. Couldn't catch a cold. LOL.
But what a great day out there. Lots of bait balls around the mouth at Sooke but never saw anything breeching.
Very enjoyable with no wind gusts.
 
Try less spots if your marking bait they generally show up when you do get on em record what the tide is doing go back to that spot on similar tides
 
I really wanted to get some crab today so plan was to drop traps in Sooke basin then go trolling out west for a while. wet and crappy out when I got up so opted for late start and fish from cheanuh instead because it is closer and easier for me.
dropped gear at Aldridge and did not find fish or bait until we got to the head. Released 2 springs and lost one there then it went quiet so we trolled to the trap. Lots of bait there but no bites so trolled back. Released 2 more springs and lost 1 again at the head. All 12-20lb range.
Called it a day at 1:00.
Sadly tons of female crabs and only one male keeper. Crabs is why I went. Lol. great morning. Was nice to dust off the trolling gear.
 
Fed dogfish of Muir today so only put in 3 hours and had enough...trolled around Muir and released 2 smaller springs and a nice 4 pound wild coho...finished off at Otter and released a mid teen Chinook there. Probably missed so of the salmon bite while on the anchor. So much bait around and many many schools of coho aggressively feeding on the surface...they just came in waves on the flood. Then at Otter it came alive with what looked like small 8 inch salmon feeding on 1-2 inch herring. They were chasing the small bait balls on the surface, jumping, rolling everywhere you looked. I was hoping they were our net pen releases.
 
What a day. It was beautiful out there all day. Put in a 10 hr shift. First 4.5 hours was dreadful not a touch. Between Aldridge, beechy and Trap. At 9:30am made the run to Otter. Great decision. 1st spring in 10 minutes 8lbs released, then went quite again for an hour, then got a 20lber released, then 10 lber released. Then Coho central! Got 9 coho (7 Wild and 2 hatchery) Kept Hatchery for BBQ. They were all 4-6 lbs. Went back to the Trap to finish day and troll back to marina. Nothing at trap, another 10lber at beechy and end the day last rod in the water before quitting time, rod goes off at Aldridge another scrappy 20 lber. I went 14 for 14, 14 hits, 14 fish never lost one fish. Amazing. I am glad I put in the 10 hrs, otherwise would have been a bust.

Nice to see all the coho so early. There was so many, jumping, schooling and aggressively feeding. Springs are definitely around. Really need to work for them. All fish caught on lures. Bait never had a touch all day.
Bait in the water from what I could see is really small currently.
 
What a day. It was beautiful out there all day. Put in a 10 hr shift. First 4.5 hours was dreadful not a touch. Between Aldridge, beechy and Trap. At 9:30am made the run to Otter. Great decision. 1st spring in 10 minutes 8lbs released, then went quite again for an hour, then got a 20lber released, then 10 lber released. Then Coho central! Got 9 coho (7 Wild and 2 hatchery) Kept Hatchery for BBQ. They were all 4-6 lbs. Went back to the Trap to finish day and troll back to marina. Nothing at trap, another 10lber at beechy and end the day last rod in the water before quitting time, rod goes off at Aldridge another scrappy 20 lber. I went 14 for 14, 14 hits, 14 fish never lost one fish. Amazing. I am glad I put in the 10 hrs, otherwise would have been a bust.

Nice to see all the coho so early. There was so many, jumping, schooling and aggressively feeding. Springs are definitely around. Really need to work for them. All fish caught on lures. Bait never had a touch all day.
Bait in the water from what I could see is really small currently.

I followed some eagles friday as they were diving and fishing on bait on the surface, you are very right the bait is very small but there is a lot of it.
 
Got out Monday from Pedder and went to Beechy head looking for some coho. Found the springs up higher than expected and not one coho. Springs 6/8 were a mix of wild and hatch ranging from our smallest 15lb to one that was getting close to a Tyee, most were around 20-25lbs. We trolled back through Race passage and hit a couple more 12 & 20 as we approached Pedder in the narly current. Spoons were getting it done, no bleeders and made for quick easy releases. One spring had a big healed patch on one side so makes me feel they can survive a C&R that may loose a few scales. We found Our missing trap From 3 weeks ago that we set off Albert head at Race Wedged into the rock but was happy to find it and get it freed. :-)
 
BWD promised no wind today, so it was finally time to give it a try after 3 months of pandemic mandated isolation. Checked the boat, gear and engines two days before of course.

Woke to no wind but heavy fog and so did not leave the dock till 8:30am with enough visibility to get out of the harbour. Out at Possession and Bluffs it was another story. Visibility only 100 metres but it was flat calm.

Tried this area for an hour or more but tons of floating weed and logs right off Possession made it pretty impossible. So headed with ebb through the fog out to Otter and Muir. Headed SW so crossed water of 230’ and here we hit a few little Coho at 55’. Some bites missed, a couple lost near the boat and one released as it was small so did not bother to check if hatchery or not. Mostly on a small spoon.

Eventually made it to Otter but trolled round the point without a touch as usual and headed for the much more productive Muir. Switched to my favourite small herring in green/gold and tiger striped t. heads.

At Muir we began to hit small Coho again at 55’ in 90-100’ of water. Kept two 3lb hatchery fish and released one unclipped and missed a few hits. Wind got up a little by the afternoon but most of the fog cleared from the area.

Finally at 1:30pm had a very nice hit on the gold/green t.h. and herring set up and after one good run and a lot of tugging and plunging near the boat netted and released a good chinook of about 18lbs. Fish hit at 55’ in about 90’ of water.

Back around the fishless Otter with the flood after that and then headed home at 2:30pm.

Saw one boat at Possession and three at Otter, so not many out.
 
Saw one boat at Possession and three at Otter, so not many out.

This is true went right out front of bluffs at 8 am saw coho jumping everywhere after 2 hours had a limit of some really nice hatch coho AP spoon was the ticket. I will tell you roland possesion on that big ebb sucks bad for weeds as you get the flow from the basin and the ebb from the strait so its a washing machine of crap...

In all the years of fishing sooke the coho numbers this early is impressive SAD like English said 3 boats there is a grand total of 23 boats at the marina thats it in a 150 berth marina ... if you get a chance get the kids out for coho action...went for springs after hit 2 maybe biggest was about 15 ish flipped of perfecting by letting some slack and off it went...
 
Great day out in Sooke. Fished the head from 8:30-1:30. Lots of coho around. Most were small and wild. But managed to get 4 hatcheries. Biggest where in 500ft and 60-90 on the rigger using spoons. 5 keeper dungies before pulling the boat out.
 
Question for the sooke anglers. In the past what percentage of Chinook you have caught in August were under 80cms?
 
Beauty day for sure, parking lot was full of trailers today. Took the kids out and got into the schools of coho, found 4 hatchery worth keeping, several more hatch and wild released easily. Kids had fun reeling them in, and lots jumping out there. Almost like a good pink season out there.
 
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