2021 Sooke Reports

[Englishman]

Despite the September record rains we headed out today looking for coho, under the October 1st regs.

Fog and tide meant we did not get out there until 9:00am by which time it was obvious dozens of other boats believed the fish might be still there too!. Dropped lines to 65’ and 70’ in 150’ of water and headed out to 450’ of water. We were amazed to see enormous Pacific groundswells out there. We have seen them at this time of year before but these were gigantic, broad, flat topped things such that boats 50 metres away completely vanished in the troughs!

Got a hit on the McKnight spoon right away but he was a small unclipped so back he went. We then had a series of hits on the UV/pink striped hootchie. We kept a 7lb unclipped, then a smaller hatchery, then another 7lb unclipped all on the same lure. Released an even bigger unclipped after that (would’nt cha know it!!) also on this hootchie and then it was 10:30am and it all went dead for 90 minutes.

We trolled around and then back in to 150’ of water were we had found coho 9 days ago, but nada, so headed out to 500’ again. Suddenly at noon we began to get hits out there again and we released 5 more unclipped and kept another hatchery. This time the hits were divided between the McNight and the hootchie. Both lures were behind dodgers not flashers.

At 1:15pm we call it a day and planed back in flat calm sunny conditions. A pretty good morning all round.

 

[TomMac]

Despite the September record rains we headed out today looking for coho, under the October 1st regs.

Fog and tide meant we did not get out there until 9:00am by which time it was obvious dozens of other boats believed the fish might be still there too!. Dropped lines to 65’ and 70’ in 150’ of water and headed out to 450’ of water. We were amazed to see enormous Pacific groundswells out there. We have seen them at this time of year before but these were gigantic, broad, flat topped things such that boats 50 metres away completely vanished in the troughs!

Got a hit on the McKnight spoon right away but he was a small unclipped so back he went. We then had a series of hits on the UV/pink striped hootchie. We kept a 7lb unclipped, then a smaller hatchery, then another 7lb unclipped all on the same lure. Released an even bigger unclipped after that (would’nt cha know it!!) also on this hootchie and then it was 10:30am and it all went dead for 90 minutes.

We trolled around and then back in to 150’ of water were we had found coho 9 days ago, but nada, so headed out to 500’ again. Suddenly at noon we began to get hits out there again and we released 5 more unclipped and kept another hatchery. This time the hits were divided between the McNight and the hootchie. Both lures were behind dodgers not flashers.

At 1:15pm we call it a day and planed back in flat calm sunny conditions. A pretty good morning all round.

Am I wrong, can't we retain one un-clipped as of today, October 1st?

 

[Fisherben3]

Am I wrong, can't we retain one un-clipped as of today, October 1st?

U are allowed one wild and 3 hatchery coho's

 

[Kinetic]

Fished out front Beecher Bay from 7:30 - 1pm today. As mentioned above, it was the biggest swell I've seen around the South Island.
Fishing seemed spotty today after the killer reports all week. We managed 2 hatchery, and 3 wild coho, all between 5-8lbs.
Tried several hoochies and spoons. Glow white and cop car pattern seemed the most productive.
Going to give it another try tomorrow.

 

[cby]

What a crazy day! Started at 7am, Started at 200 ft off harbour Mouth, trolled towards Otter Point in a diagonal fashion doing twists and turns, trolling fast and slow. Got out to 600 ft. Nothing for 2 hours back and forth. Then all hell broke loose!!!. Started with a triple header, got one hatchery 8lbs, lines back down, bam Double header both hatchery, cookie cutter 7lbs, drop gear back down, bam double header, got one hatchery 6lbs lost the other, lines go down BAM another double header, 10lb Wild Coho, lost the other, got lines back down, Bam Winter Spring 6 lbs, Lines back down BAM Winter Spring 8 lbs, Lines back down BAM double header, lost one right way, other side is much larger, peeling line in rigger. Fighting fish for a bit, line snaps, Grr, Bad eyelet on rod grrr? That rod goes to Island outfitters! Lol, Then goes quiet for about 1 hours. Geez finally I can have some lunch!!, Then the Chaos starts again. No more doubles but fish after fish. It was catch and release at this point. 17 fish in total to the boat. 2 Winter Springs, 5 hatchery coho, 10 Wild coho. Biggest we will never know. I assume a good size coho over 12 lbs. 4.5 hrs on water, first 2 hours a bust, last 2.5 crazy with an hour break. During the mayhem I called my buddy over as I was by myself. He was getting nothing for 2 hours. Came over and got 2 quick ones. He ended with 5 on the day. THose first 2 hours really tested my patience!!.

Biggest ground swell I have ever seen off of Sooke. Geez I assume the surfing at Sombrio was epic. That was some crazy stuff. Those swells must have been 10-15ft rollers. 2nd biggest i have seen or been in except when I was on the Bank in Swiftsure those were massive.

Amazing day! Weather was great!.

 

[Stizzla]

Agreed it was very strange to have hills coming towards you then 10’ drop off. They were spaced out so it was pretty smooth out there though.

I made the trip with a buddy boat @Gham all the way from Sidney. He was running late so I dropped a line in Sidney (coal island) and actually got one one right away. Lost it, but my guess was a 10lb spring.

then we made the trek. Pretty decent water for the most part. 30mph cruise. A little under 1.5 hours, with a juice stop for his kids.

heavy fog bank when entering sooke. Low vis but we got to a nice out of the way place and dropped lines 350-400’ but it was very slow. We heard some were caught in deeper water so we ran out to 550’ and it was much more of the same. Sloooow. Some funny texting and one hatchery coho for him got us through it. I made a request to try Beechy head but before I pulled up the gear it went off and I got a nice wild to the boat. 7ish lbs.

that was about it. Easy cruise back… from oak bay on was glass!

my boat’s first ever action shot:

 

[Original]

Your boat looks to be riding a bit high, perhaps you should add a 250lb dude

 

[Newf]

Out yesterday from 7:30 to 3pm. Lots to the boat. First 4 were keepers. 1unclipped coho 2 clipped Coho and 1 clipped spring. Had several doubles. The doubles came with a white hoochie at 105 ft on my side and a cop car at 45ft on my buddy’s side. (Quite the range). My buddy likes to fish shallow and I like to be deeper so it worked out great except my buddy must have flicked off 20 little shakers.
Also caught a few on skinny G and weeG. Kept 7 in total,,,all in the 5-7lb range. Best spot for us was out from the head running in and out from 420-480ft.

 

[Allbay]

Fished straight out of the harbour mouth yesterday from 10-2 and Oct 1, didn't disappoint! We had 23 fish on, 18 to the boat, kept 10 (4 wild, 5 hatch and a winter spring). Most fish for us came from 500-530' and we fished 55 & 75' on the riggers with colourful 2.5-3" spoons. My 6 & 9 years olds got pretty tapped out in the afternoon when the the bite was on. Good times.

 

[Kinetic]

Went out front Sooke this morning from 8 till 1pm.
Absolutely beautiful day on the water. Lot's of coho action and a cool Humpback whale show.
We kept 2 hatchery, 3 wild coho and a feeder spring. Released 3 other wilds hoping that we'd run into some bigger fish.
Two of the Coho I cleaned had 6 inch juvenile salmon in their bellies.
May give it 1 last go next weekend.

 

[eroyd]

Out in front of Sooke from 7 until 2. Sure knew when I found a school. Double headers almost always. Had to pick which rod bent the most. Lost lots but landed about 12. Only one hatchery. Gear didn't matter. Depth 55-80 ft. Out beyond those messy tidelines. Hard to stay on top of the schools. Slowed down after noon.
The Humpbacks breached and then dove within a couple of hundred yards. I pulled the gear and shut the motor off. Thought I was going to get a close up but ever saw them again.

 

[RogersonCrusoe]

Couldn't get out until 12:30, so launched at pedder and motored out to past Race and got the gear down.
Then silence.
And more silence.
Kicker is flooding itself, so onto the main motor for trolling.
Hope! The bayliner next to us gets a decent coho.
Continued silence. Gear change and stealthy pursuit of said bayliner.

WHAM. fish on. Bit of a gong show but into the net it came and one 9.5lb coho in the box. First proper fish of the new boat!

Mark the spot on the map and two more fish come out of the same square foot on the next pass, much smaller.

Back to silence. Snag a kelp, almost snap the DR braid.
Pack up and head home by 4:30.

Winning combo is the illustrious 3.25" Left Coast Lures Cop Car holy roller and matching flasher.

That's it for my season. Time to focus on winters!

 

[profisher]

Out for a short 4 hour morning and had to bounce our way out to the 500ft mark in the crap ebb slop and sw wind. The fish cooperated and we quickly got 4 hatch coho to start things off, followed by 3 decent winter springs. 7 fish in the boat and none are wild coho. By 11am we had 15 fish on board, giving me 3 to take home and the 3 guests their limits. 55-80 ft all on rubber. Nothing bigger than 9 pounds.

 

[eroyd]

Went out there yesterday with my wife. Left Cheanuh at noon. Yuck! It was sloppy out there but my better half was enjoying the real ocean experience. Seemed better when we got further out. Kept the third unclipped fish to the boat, a buck about 9lbs. Pretzelled my new soon. They don't make them like they use to. Fished for about an hour total and then went for a boat ride down to Race Rocks. Rough ride back to Cheanuh. Surprised to see boats going out.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Got out in the bumpy water for about 4 hours yesterday. Fishing solo so handling the first three double headers in the chop was a pain, lost 3 near the boat and 3 to the chop. One was a nice winter spring, looked about a 5 pounder. Another 4 double headers and a bunch of singles put one nice 9lb wild coho in the locker but couldn't find, or perhaps better said I couldn't get a hatchery in the boat. Stellar fishing either way on a crappy water day. Hootchies from 50-90 in 400-500ft. The whale show is always a bonus.

 

[Englishman]

Absolutely beauty sunny day on the water today, with no wind, unlike the sloppy chop folks had to suffer yesterday. There was still a large groundswell coming from the west, but nowhere near the size of the “tidal waves” we saw on Friday. Not as many boats out today but still a decent number. Saw two humpback in the distance, closer to shore.

Dropped the lines at 7:45am in 200’ of water and headed out. This time I had a glo hootchie at 95’ instead of the McKnight spoon. The other side had the trusty UV pink stripe at 65’, same as Friday. Out in 550’ pf water had a huge hit on the glo side and he felt very good. Unfortunately after a minute or so he got loose. A bit later got another hit on the same deeper glo side but he was a quite small unclipped so back he went. Nothing then happened for the rest of the ebb, so we headed back in across the tide to about 300’ of water with still nothing. Turned back out again and back in 550’ of water finally got a hit on the UV/Pink stripe and it was a hatch fish, so good start. Gave up on the deep glo hootchie and returned to the McKnight at 70’. From about 10:30am till we finished at 12:15pm we continued to get sporadic single hits on both sides, all in 530-560’ of water. First another hatch, then two unclipped, biggest 8lbs went into the fish well. We did not get any double headers until right at the end and by then we had released about 7 unclipped, so we decided to call it a day as endless catch and release is not so good for the fish.

That's it for the season and resting the boat for now. May go out for winters, but we shall see……

 

[pelican]

Out after work to the Head. Beauty eve with the clouds coming in. Trolled out with glow green hootch at 160, peanut butter at 100 and white at 60. At 530, lots of birds, and a double header for an 8 and 6 chinook. Both hatch, but let the smaller one swim away. Fished in with the setting sun. I’m not done, yet, with family coming to the island this weekend.

 

[Fins -n- Skins]

Out yesterday around Noon. Trolled out to 500-550 off Sec. Nothing for the first hour then right before the top of the flood couldn't keep them off. Lots of hatch yesterday and some had some size to them around 6-7 lbs. Netted a nice 11-12lb that broke someone off and was dragging a green flasher pink hootchie combo all barbed up if someone wants there gear back ? Fish went back to the swim !!

 

[N2013]

Out yesterday around Noon. Trolled out to 500-550 off Sec. Nothing for the first hour then right before the top of the flood couldn't keep them off. Lots of hatch yesterday and some had some size to them around 6-7 lbs. Netted a nice 11-12lb that broke someone off and was dragging a green flasher pink hootchie combo all barbed up if someone wants there gear back ? Fish went back to the swim !!

Barbed up? I’d say it’s yours. They don’t deserve to get their gear back.

 

[profisher]

Out this morning with a couple who I met through my Fire Extinguisher business. Things started quickly with a nice 8-9 pound hatch Coho and a winter spring. Then a couple of nice wild coho again about 9 pounds. We were supposed to fish 6 hours and quit at 1pm ...but by 11 am we had 2 more hatch coho and then just as strong wind quickly blew in we hit a double and both were hatch. The perfect time to limit out and get the hell out there. Topped it off with 7 nice crab. 55-70 ft and all on rubber again.