2023 Sooke Reports

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Was out yesterday at Otter we release a 90cm female Chinook and managed to find a couple under 80cm in the fog.
The sealions have been working the shore line and I always hate hooking up around them.
We managed to net a nice sample of sausage rolls from the wolf .
Tight lines 🎣🎣
Really nice/clean boat set up…beautiful photo.
 
Well out again after 6 days off, mainly due to the howling winds and rainstorms.

I bit late but lines down at just after 7:30am. Not quite as many boats as I expected for 1st Sept.

Decided once again not to run toMuir but adopted the same tactics as last Saturday. Gibbs spoon one side and AP herring spoon the other trolling west off the Bluffs with riggers at 45’ as before. Got as far as the tin shack with only a hatchery coho, plus one unclipped coho released to show for it.

Turned back east against the slowing ebb and around 8:45am in the harbour mouth had a big hit on the AP spoon. The fish ran very hard , with some shorter runs after so he gave a good account of himself for the 12lb fish we finally netted.

Spoons back down after the “gear clearing” policy we always follow with fish on. Got another smallish hatch coho on the AP spoon and debated whether to keep it but we released it. The gods must have smiled upon us for that release because just 3 minutes after the coho the AP spoon went off again. Yet another exciting fish that ran away hard then rushed back to the boat. Eventually we boated a beauty of 16 lbs (78cm).

Gear down again and trolled around in the same area and got another nice hit yet again on the AP spoon. This one stayed down shaking and did not run but messed about under the boat. When he came up he was just 10lb, but still great and it was only 10am.

The Gibbs did nothing all this time so we swopped it out for an AP sandlance for a while, then tried little herring in t.h. on that side. Only got a couple of very small coho on that which went back.

However, with end of the ebb and the start of the flood it all went dead and even the AP spoon ceased catching. So just before noon, as the ESE wind got up, we called it a day.

All in all, yet another great morning off Sooke!!
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Fantastic Roland!
 
Yesterday, my son and I rented a boat out of Pedder, and while it was harder to work than our old boat, we would do it again.
We didn't see many rods being worked out there yesterday, only saw 2 or 3 nets pulled out, and everyone seemed to be searching as nobody repeated a tack. Given that, we were happy to get sporadic undersized springs, wild Cohos, shakers (and gulls) that kept hitting our bait on the surface as we were getting ready to set, and ultimately 3 small-ish keeper Springs (8, 10, 12). Our best luck was between Bedford and Church isles in 200+' at 60'-80'.
***Important note to self or whoever*** Found out the hard way that the rod holders were loose in their mounts(and one of those was loose on the boat), and easily popped out. Losing us a rod and the holder as I was setting.
 
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Where did you rent from?
Pedder Bay resort & marina. They don't take reservations so during busy season, get there before they open (8am). We got there at 7:30 and were the 5th in line, but it sounds like some busy days you need to get there between 6 and 6:30. Also, check the weather because they will restrict where you can go if it doesn't look good (for in-experienced boaters).
 
Set out for the last summer trip today. BWD predicted low winds and it turned into a beautiful sunny flat calm morning.

Trolled spoons again for the first two hours, with nothing to show but one released unclipped coho. Twice we went right by a large concentration of gulls and murres milling about and I hoped for action in their vicinity, but no dice.

Switched to little herring in a t.h. on one side and almost right away got a pink, even though we were in tight in 65’ of water. Wouldn’t you know it, as I was dealing with the pink, the trusty AP herring spoon went off on the other side. This one was a chinook but I knew he was small and soon we boated a little fat deep bodied 8lb fish.

That was it really, apart for one more retained pink. We spent the rest of the sunny morning releasing very small pinks (on the herring/t.h.) or very small shaker chinook which managed to get on the spoons.

So we called it at 1:30pm, after a lunch afloat uninterrupted by any hits! :D

Typical September really although we could not expect another great day like Friday was anyway.

On the beach now till October. Tight lines to those with the patience to push through September, although judging from where many boats ended up waaay out there today, folks may be targeting coho already.

Today's little catch……

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Set out for the last summer trip today. BWD predicted low winds and it turned into a beautiful sunny flat calm morning.

Trolled spoons again for the first two hours, with nothing to show but one released unclipped coho. Twice we went right by a large concentration of gulls and murres milling about and I hoped for action in their vicinity, but no dice.

Switched to little herring in a t.h. on one side and almost right away got a pink, even though we were in tight in 65’ of water. Wouldn’t you know it, as I was dealing with the pink, the trusty AP herring spoon went off on the other side. This one was a chinook but I knew he was small and soon we boated a little fat deep bodied 8lb fish.

That was it really, apart for one more retained pink. We spent the rest of the sunny morning releasing very small pinks (on the herring/t.h.) or very small shaker chinook which managed to get on the spoons.

So we called it at 1:30pm, after a lunch afloat uninterrupted by any hits! :D

Typical September really although we could not expect another great day like Friday was anyway.

On the beach now till October. Tight lines to those with the patience to push through September, although judging from where many boats ended up waaay out there today, folks may be targeting coho already.

Today's little catch……

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Nice work but that sure looks like a wild coho in the middle.
 
Nice work but that sure looks like a wild coho in the middle.
Well if it is a whoops on my part, I apologise. Sure fought like a chinook, did not jump, and the tongue was black, and the gums look greyish to me. But I bow to superior knowledge on here. What do I know??!
 
Fished from 11:30 to 4:00 trolled for two hours at possession and secretary island. Only a quick strike on cut herring didn’t stick and that was it. As current was starting to change we trolled towards the trap. Got nothing but small springs. They refused to invite their older sibling to meal so didn’t get to keep any salmon. Decided to jig for rockfish. Came home with three rockfish.
 
Kind of nice fishing the old turf today. Fishing up island has been so good I haven't fished Sooke much this year. All I could say was wow again. I really do miss it.

We were out first light at Otter and fished further out west until around 3.

Was good out west today. Morning was a bit slow but really turned on in mid afternoon. We limited out. Cool one of them was hatchery that went into head recovery box and also released 5 marked Jack springs. These have to be netpen fish.

These springs today are stuffed with really small bait. Really small spoons did trick today.


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I tried fishing out of the kayak yesterday morning from first light to 11:30 at Otter but it seemed real slow. Someone mentioned it didn’t get going until after 11 the previous day. I couldn’t even get a bite of sausage roll from Wolf when I asked him! Lol. Nevertheless it was a beautiful morning to be on the water. Next time!
 
Not a report per say but Sooke has sure been on my mind this summer and lately. Do miss it there for sure. Darn I wish they would just open the retention back up. Even just the possession limit would be good. The west side is just getting crazy expensive, they are taking full advantage of the situation for sure and well can’t say as I blame them really.

My brother that has also been fishing the area for well over 25 years now was out in mid Aug. Said he had the best chinook fishing he has ever seen out there in all the years and by the looks of it they averaged bigger fish than we did on the west side.

Anyways just babbling, back to reports.
 
I coated it and fried it in Avocado oil and then put it on a hamburger bun with a slice of smoked chedder and some tartar sauce. My version of a Fillet of Fish. It was extremely tasty.
Yes caught one on Sat. Had read your post. Cooked it up amazing. Like really really good. I was surprised. Thanks for the tip. Will be keeping more in the future as we don't want them in our waters anyway.
 
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