2024 Victoria and Oak Bay Reports

[King Crab]

We fished the flats for about an hour and picked up one around 7-8 lbs. Just wasn’t feeling it so went over to Clover Point . Dropped the line down and had a fish on within 10 seconds. My son landed a 77 cm chinook. No more bites for the next 90 min so packed it in.

What happened to summer? It was like winter out there

 

[Doug]

Back out fishing after a three day break and today out with two 18-year-olds and a dad. None had fished before.

Started at 615 and by 715 we had landed 2 fish (80, 67) and lost two at the boat when the fisherman locked up on the reel and a poor net job by me. Rookie mistake.
Then it went dead, but we still could see lots of nice size fish on the sonar but no takers. At 9 we landed a 76cm and back into the dock.
The 80 cm fish was a white and what a fight it put up

The Victoria waterfront had about 16 boats at 615 and 24 boats fishing at the peak.
All the fish were caught on XXL anchovies in white glow heads.
All the fish were caught at 70 ft on the DR.

Most of our action was two hours before the high flood tide at 920.

 

[scott craven]

A good day fishing OakBay and a quick limit for us this morning.
One red,one white and both mature males.
Bottom of the net broke open on the first and the second fish was expertly gaffed ( not by me)and into the tub.

 

[Randy M]

A good day fishing OakBay and a quick limit for us this morning.
One red,one white and both mature males.
Bottom of the net broke open on the first and the second fish was expertly gaffed ( not by me)and into the tub.

Thursday am, lost a big one at 830 that peeled line but had second bite at 1030 on OB Flats. friend landed his 11.5 lb hatchery spring.

 

[scott craven]

Went 2/4 today , lost a nice 15 (ish) lb. beside the boat

 

[Doug]

Lots of fish from Sooke to Oak Bay. Friends at Otter point are limiting out with-in a couple of hours and the same thing all the way to Oak Bay.

Today we had 5 fish on in the first hour and landed 3 fish . 67,72, 76 cm.
The two fish that were clipped were the small fish and their heads went into the Esq Angler bucket.
At 8am there were 24 boats out fish.

All fish caught on bait and at 70 ft on the DR. glow heads.

Every boat that came in while I was at Esq Angler had fish.

 

[scott craven]

There seems to be an abundance of 10-15lb Chinook this year similar to last August.
Not many over 80 cm.
Wonder why the big influx of catchable springs?

 

[Aces]

There seems to be an abundance of 10-15lb Chinook this year similar to last August.
Not many over 80 cm.
Wonder why the big influx of catchable springs?

Hatchery clones clipped and unclipped

 

[scott craven]

Hatchery clones clipped and unclipped

Makes sense, a lot are unclipped

 

[Doug]

So far this year we have caught more clipped fish in Victoria than ever before. Please submit your heads.
Like Aces said, clipped and not clipped clones. Cookie Cutter fish.
The Krill counter was at Esq Angler yesterday and recorded 71 springs. The same high counts of fish are also being record at other locations.

 

[Aces]

Makes sense, a lot are unclipped

BC has only been clipping about 15% of them up until 2-3 years ago. Not sure about now as we are receiving more mobile clipping stations

 

[SeaSaw]

Had a great day on the waterfront out of esquimalt today with the brother in law and nephew. Went 3/6 on chinook with the last being a double headder 65, 70 and 75cm with a couple unders in the mix. Then sniffed out some coho off clover point. Lots of nets out, early was better, but conisistent action till we finished at 10. Fished coho killers and skinny Gs with success. Tight lines all!

 

[SVIAC]

The Alpine Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament is coming up September 8, 2024, check out the details at the link below on SFBC, or directly on the Tournament Page! $20K first place prize, cash! Note as well that there is a Tournament Facebook page, including a draw for 2 free tickets, like the page and follow the instructions there to enter.

Derby Thread on SFBC

Alpine Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament Webpage

Admin approved.

 

[Slabbedout]

Very rarely report or even check the forum since all the updates and pop ups where added

FYI

Today was the rangers derby and all launches were a zoo. I purposely chose the waterfront / Esq anglers thinking it would be less busy. My buddy text me at 515 saying if I had not left the house to stay home because the line up was insane. I was determined and in line for 40 mins to launch.

Got 6 fish to the boat between 6-9am all cookie cutter 12 -14 lbs plus a few smaller that i did not count. Would have ended sooner but wanted to play and look for a 20 lb fish

Ended up bonking a 76 and a 79.

I stayed away from the crowds and went out to 200’ plus. Fishing was consistent all morning so can’t complain but may have been better closer in. From the breakwater to saxe pt was like Sooke bumper boats.

If the weather cooperates I will be back out tomorrow

 

[Irishwolf]

There was also the Victoria bike race that had closed off access to cattle point and James bay. Fun times. Never seen the ramp so busy both in and out.

Dropped the lines at 6:30, had our limit by 7:30, then tried for coho on the bank. Got a few to the boat, but all wilds. Beauty day out there!

Here are a couple of grabs from the aqua view. First one is from the flats last Thursday. Long line release. 2nd one is from this am just before he took the bait. Didn’t stick.

 

[Sam7]

Decided to head out today just after 10, called a buddy and he was in. We did some long circles in the fog dodging other boats and kelp for a few hours before we had our first hit. We both had a long line releases, missed a couple, and then finally about 2:30 we got our first fish in the boat. 78cm red female. Hung out for another hour and we were rewarded with our second fish in the boat. 72cm red male . Out of the 6 hits, 5 were on 66’. 55’ & 77’ did nothing, third rod had a nice hit at 29’. All spoon action today. Off the water by 3:30. Fished Breakwater and Macaulay, all hits were off Green can and Macaulay today.

 

[Randy M]

Decided to head out today just after 10, called a buddy and he was in. We did some long circles in the fog dodging other boats and kelp for a few hours before we had our first hit. We both had a long line releases, missed a couple, and then finally about 2:30 we got our first fish in the boat. 78cm red female. Hung out for another hour and we were rewarded with our second fish in the boat. 72cm red male . Out of the 6 hits, 5 were on 66’. 55’ & 77’ did nothing, third rod had a nice hit at 29’. All spoon action toady. Off the water by 3:30.

great story, wondering what area you were fishing.

 

[Sam7]

great story, wondering what area you were fishing.

Off Macaulay / Breakwater

 

[Ghostprof]

Out in Sooke a couple of days ago, fished a couple of hours without a hit. We saw some other boats with fish on, and a couple of nets out, but nothing doing on our side. So we pulled up and ran back to OB where we came from. On a whim we put down again just past Trial Island and within 15 minutes we had a nice 70 cm fish on board. Today we were out on the flats again and again picked up a lovely chinook at 78.5 cm after a short time. The next two hours were dead for us though we saw others catching. Between our coho fishing in July and these 'nookies, we noticed that all the fish came on the watermelon coho killer. 70' on the DR in varying depths of water.

 

[Sam7]

Decided last minute to head out on the water, called Bottomfeeder and he was in. We meet up at about 11:15 and made our way out to Macaulay. Dropped the lines down, I dropped mine down to 66’, bottom feeder dropped his down at the same time to 50’, I dropped the middle rod down, and just as I was setting the tension on the 3rd rod, rod #1 is going off. Fish on in under a minute. Landed a smaller 67cm red female. Got set up and started our tack & we had our 2nd fish on, a 77cm red female is in the boat. So we are limited out in about 20-25 minutes. Now we are playing catch and release on springs and trying for the clipped coho. About an hour later after the Princess cruise ship had gone through the fishing grounds, we were on again, we released about a 70-75 cm back down to the deep. We had another hit, that didn’t stick, and then we had another one on, but he turned out to be on parole and demanded a long line release. Wrapped it up and called it a day at 2:00 pm.

Mario Lemieux was 1/2, and the middle rod, Leon Draisaitl was 2/2, nothing on the mid rod at 50’. All caught on spoons today, bait was initially on the 50’, but changed up to a spoon when the spoons were being hammered.