2022 Sooke Reports

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Nice DFO is out protecting our fish.
Be even nicer if they took similar measures on the Fraser, and closer to home in the RCA near Sesanas Island on Saanich Inlet.
 
Well as I write this I will say the spring fishing is almost done I had great fishing up until 3 days ago ,if you do your time in like one of my fellow guides yesterday he got 4 and some beauty's. IT HAS been a great summer for springs biggest have come in sept and mid july (c&r). only sad thing is I have to admit is people have moved on from fishing sooke it appears and fishing up island and beyond.
Worst I saw was aug 5th when there was 7 boats at otter on a nice calm day

As for today I cant believe how many nice coho already some monsters for sure, today we got our 8 in about 3 hours as I tried one last time for springs for the first part of morning.
I was anywhere from 33 to 70 feet didnt matter big white hoochie was great along with the AP spoons. again great time to take a kid fishing as its good action...

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Started at 8am this morning and went straight out to fish for Coho and by 10am we had sorted through a bunch and got our 6 hatchery. All on hootchies from 30-45 ft. Came back in to try for springs and had one on right away but it slipped off quickly and nothing after that. Nice flat calm overcast day.
 
Fished 6:30-11:00. Started at the trap and got a small pink right off the bat, then a nice Spring both on a SkinnyG Green Herring Aid spoon. Then it was dead for quite a while, we drifted back to the Head and picked up a nice Hatchery Coho. Couple shakers and wild Coho and that was it. Seemed fairly slow from what we saw.
 
Started off secretary but fishing was really slow so I worked outward. At about 10:00 the fish gods flicked the switch and it turned on. Double headers were the norm. Coho were even grabbing the spoon at the side of the boat. Heading in, trolled back to Possession pt. and got fish all the way in. Weird how the area had seemed void of salmon an hour earlier. High ratio of clipped, near 50/50. 5 to 7 lbs. 40ft on the d.r. seemed a good compromise. Anything green.

I'd be out tomorrow but unfortunately Trudeau is not my boss. :P
 
Fished 8-12 off the Head. Caught nothing but shakers for the first hour, then picked up a hatch coho. At about 10, we had 3 double headers in 20 minutes. Nice big coho up to 9lbs. Kept 3 hatchery. It was much slower than yesterday but 4/8 fish hatchery was much better. Gibbs Trailhead and Trap Shack spoons at 60ft.
 
Not quite as hot fishing today but did keep 5 hatch for the day and caught my largest wild Coho in awhile..estimated it at 17 pounds. Hooked it on my hootchie setup which it took fairly deep in the mouth so brought it on board and got the hooks out with no major bleeding and he swam off strong. Guests had phone ready for a quick picture before I put him back. 16 year old guest did the rod work to get him in.
 

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One of my favourite fisheries! Light rods with just 5” spoons is my fall coho go to.

Started at 10 in 400 feet of water and just started zig zagging towards Secretary never went 20 minutes without a fish. Multiple double headers till the whale show started. 60-90’ feet deep. When the whales showed up we went closer to shore and my 6 year old landed a 11lb spring solo. She went to bed tonight talking about how her hand cramped up reeling in the fish ❤️
 
profisher said:
Last year I got onto a hootchie combination for Coho that outfished anything else I tried so I had one on each downrigger for most of the fall. I'm running 2 hootchies one shoved up inside the other....one is for colour the other for sparkle so to speak. If you saw it you would understand this. What I like about this setup is that I can run short leaders, go like hell for a troll speed and the hootchie isn't going to crazy for action but does dart around nicely. A spoon at the same speed would become less effective as they dart around less once they go beyond their ideal trolled speed.
Click to expand...
I’d like to see it, how about a picture 🤷‍♂️…..please and thanks
 
Lines in the water just after 7:30am and headed out from harbour into 450’ of water. Nothing for the first hour, so headed back in and got a hit in 200’ of water. Nice 6lb hatchery, so good start I thought.:)

For the next 2 hours got sporadic but steady hits and brought about 9 fish to the boat, everyone one of them unclipped. :(Biggest maybe 8lbs. Came to hootchies behind dodgers at 45-60’.

By 10:00 a strong ESE wind came up making it very bumpy. By then it had all gone quiet, until we were about to pack up, when we got a couple more hits, both unclipped and lost a couple more. Called it a day just before noon, as we could find no more hatchery fish.

Contrast between cold windy Strait and warm Sooke Inner Basin, was startling!
 
Fished 9-12 near the Head. Between the west swell, east wind and flood tide it was a little rough. Had a few double headers early but then it slowed down. Couldn't catch anything but wild coho.
 
Fished out of Sooke harbor 7 to 1030 and luckily, we got our 4 clipped fish by 1030 because it did get choppy. First 1.5 hours we tried for springs but no luck for us. We switched, over to fish Coho at 830. Fished 50 ft on the DR and used plastics.
We went through a lot of gear letting go 16 wild Coho to get our four clipped. Lots of action but the fish were smaller than on Sat.
 
Got on the water late today. Had 16 coho to the boat. 6 double headers which was a bit tricky in the wind and chop of Beechy Head. Fished spoon and hootchy in 60-90 ft of water. Kept 2 hatchcos. Wife had a big 15+lb buck that fought like mad, 4 nice runs and tail walking!
 
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Out today from 7-10:30. Had 22 cohos to the boat. Quickly got our limit of hatch then tried a bit longer, hoping for a chinook that lost all its friends. Nothing but wilds after so gave up and headed back. The wind made it a bit choppy. I had some left over brined bait and used that with a spoon on one side. Bait out fished gear 3 to 1. Biggest wild was about 10lbs and hatch was 5-6 lbs. 400-500ft off secretary. Traps were filled with females. We had two red rock and two dungies to take home.
 
Late start. Wife wanted another study day so called my dad and asked if he wanted to go for coho, he did but had to go to an appointment first. Waited for him till near lunch and headed out after. Got to church rock around 1330 dropped lines and got one hit that didn't stick. Up gear and moved to beachy head out to 500ft. Trolled around with no hits, seas were choppy and action was slow. Then someone on the radio announced they had lots of action closer in. I then started heading back closer in and on the way hit a double header with one clipped.
Trolled around some more and got a few hits mostly wild then as we were down to our last 30 min winds died down and we started getting more bites. Landed another 2 clipped among the wilds and had to leave as it was getting late. Didn't limit out but my dad had a fun time playing most of the fish. Best lure was 3" AP spoon in lemon/lime at 40-70 on the rigger.
 
We went 2 clipped out of a dozen or more Coho and 3 or 4 chinook shakers off the Head on the flood, 400' of water. Nothing big for us, 5 - 6 pounds
Two Coho was enough for my buddy so we quit early. Hootchy out fished the spoon. Not sure where all these Coho are going, but sure wish more could be clippled
When you run into these large schools of clone size Coho you gota figure they are all from the same hatchery.
 
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