2025 Sooke Reports

[Fishin]

Out at Otter Point yesterday morning for some catch and release. Lumpy coming out of the harbour, as expected but was able to get a good 3-4 hours in before the wind really came up. 10 springs to the boat. Pin popper in the first 5 minutes, beautiful high teens maybe 20 lb spring, released boat side, followed by numerous fish in the low teens a couple more pin poppers, but never got to see them. About 50/50 wild/hatch Great day overall. All fish caught on skinny G spoons for easy gaff release boat side in the water, no need to net them!

 

[luka7930]

How has the coho fishing been lately? Thinking about trying from shore this weekend.

 

[Original]

Have been itching to get outa town and back in sooke but weather gods haven’t been cooperating. Finally things looked promising so launch Monday at Esq 630 ,drop trap and head to the Head on the outgoing tide & Currents. Was very swelly so speed 23 mph. Dropped lines at 7:30 near the Head and 7:45 I’m rewarded with a strong 25 lber on my Peetz Vp special to make the day all worthwhile . 8;10 buddies rod goes off and an arm burning fight began. It was one of those dang he’s off then nope still there ziiinnnggggg…this one was close to 30. Neither were scaled. We had a great morning with a few doubled up and steady action. All released and the 2 early big ones were both wilds then 50/50 wilds and clipped. Trolled down past Aldrige into the triangle pretty quiet then a double of cohos ,1 wild the other spit the hook. Headed home on the flood was a smooth ride at 32mph. Crab traps have been sad since the carpet bombing. Lots of females. Even though no meat came home it was my favourite day so far this year. Can’t wait to get back there again soon.

 

[PatC]

Wow! That sounds like a lot of fun on the Catch & Release front! Any sign of pinks yet? Company's a comin'. Gotta get them into some fish!

 

[BCBill]

Out off Beechy last evening. Nothing in close so after an hour headed out to 400+ tide line for two coho. 60 and 80 ft on spoon and flash fly.

 

[PatC]

Out off Beechy yesterday morning with 3 newbie guests visiting from out of town. I hoped they would get a few fish since it was pretty much their first time fishing. Landed probably 20 plus fish. lots of unclipped chinook and coho. Lost about 10 fish 20 feet behind the boat. Ended up taking 3 pinks and 2 clipped coho. Spectacular day on the water!

 

[calmsea]

Still no pinks and almost no cohos around. If there are gonna be 30 million pinks coming through they'd better come soon. They can't just come all in 3 days. I am getting a bad feeling....
Apparently a few decent springs caught in Beecher Bay but I couldn't get myself to join the zoo in this little area.

 

[Fisherben3]

Still no pinks and almost no cohos around. If there are gonna be 30 million pinks coming through they'd better come soon. They can't just come all in 3 days. I am getting a bad feeling....
Apparently a few decent springs caught in Beecher Bay but I couldn't get myself to join the zoo in this little area.

I got a pink 2 days ago

 

[eroyd]

Out of Cheanuh this morning. $20 launch fee FYI. Passed through the many boats trolling the triangle and went out to the head with hopes of playing with some big chinooks. A dozen anchovies got quickly gobbled up by micro-springs so switched to spoons. Ended up with only one crazy 10 poundish Spring out there and a decent, but unclipped coho. Probed out into the strait with pink gear and was surprised with nothing.

One more unclipped adult Spring inside the bay on the way in.

Back at the marina. a little smattering of smaller chinooks, coho and a pink on the cleaning table.

 

[Grant_J]

Out of Cheanuh this morning. $20 launch fee FYI.

Wasn't it $10 last year, and $15 a couple of months ago? I get that inflation is hitting everything but damn this is now up there with the priciest places to launch on the lower third of the Island. At Brechin in Nanaimo you pay for parking, but it's typically $6 for the day. Ladysmith is free. Crofton is free. Cow Bay is free. Mill Bay is free (but no dock and too shallow at low tide.) I know those are all public facilities and Cheanuh has their costs - but damn. What other decent (public) launch options are there in Sooke?

 

[Eden Island]

Wasn't it $10 last year, and $15 a couple of months ago? I get that inflation is hitting everything but damn this is now up there with the priciest places to launch on the lower third of the Island. At Brechin in Nanaimo you pay for parking, but it's typically $6 for the day. Ladysmith is free. Crofton is free. Cow Bay is free. Mill Bay is free (but no dock and too shallow at low tide.) I know those are all public facilities and Cheanuh has their costs - but damn. What other decent (public) launch options are there in Sooke?

Pedder Bay is $15. Believe Esquimalt is now $20. Not sure about Sooke Harbour.

 

[profisher]

Prestige Hotel ramp is $10

 

[kingspring]

Has anyone hit pinks lately?

 

[Original]

Was out of Sooke Monday afternoon at Otter. Hit a beauty 25lb right away and had steady action of smaller springs. Then outa nowhere a nice 6lb hatch coho hit the deck. On our troll back to sooke harbour out in the 250ft area targeting coho around 65ft we ended our aft with 2 cohos and 3 pinks in the tub. Was a great day with great friends.

 

[Englishman]

After a prolonged absence from the water, a beautiful west coast day enticed us out to try for pinks and clipped coho (if we were lucky!).

Lines down at around 7:45am, with about 7 boats already off Secretary and a similar number visible off Beechey.

We got a small pink off the bat, lost another and had a few hits we missed. Then it went dead for a couple of hours with only shakers and two small 2lb chinook when we fished deeper.

Around 11am it woke up again and we had sporadic but consistent action till we left at 2:00pm. We ended the day with 5 pinks in the boat plus a small clipped coho. The pinks seemed bigger than 2 years ago and we had one of 6.5lb and one exactly 6lb. We also had two or three double headers but often lost one, or one would turn out to be an unclipped coho so back they went.

All of our fish were at 60’ using little pink hootchies and squirts and most hit in 400-450’ of water. Sure nice out there today!!

 

[profisher]

Went out a few times this past weekend. On Monday we brought home 3 decent clipped coho and one bigger pink. (first of the year) . 30-35 feet on spoons Lots of small springs around just like 2 years ago when between pinks and the small springs it wasn't fun fishing. Just constant up and down shaking small fish with very little gear down working to find a fish we could keep. Just about as bad as Mac attacks from years ago.

 

[Cataline]

Following along from Englishman, I headed out to the same waters today, but 'bankers hours' starting fishing at 9:30. Headed directly to Secretary and then south into 400' of water, and as scheduled within half an hour had two nice size Pinks, 5 or 6 lbs. and that was it. Then around 11:00 two more plus half a dozen strike and release, we got our 5th keeper Pink around 12:30 and that was it for landings. Pink glow head short skirt squirt on one side behind a Madi flasher, pink with white reverse koho killer on the other side behind an AP/Peetz smaller flasher. Fished in mainly 400 to 500ft water south of Secretary, gear from 35 to60 ft. The water was quite glassy and you could see tons of krill and pelagic shrimp. At the cleaning table found one sandlance but most of the guts were pretty empty.

 

[vicsurfer]

My daughter and I headed out of Cheanuh at 9am. We skipped the triangle and headed into the fog off the Head. In the first 2 hours we had 7 fish hit and gone. Then around 11 they started to stick. We got our limit of Pinks and released one wild Coho. At 12:30 it became impossible to keep rods in the water. 20-40ft seemed the best. The marina was very quiet. Probably due to the regs and the $20 launch fee. Time to fire up the canner and smoker.

 

[kingspring]

Nice work, nice size for canning.

 

[Mozart]

Fished from 11 to 2:30. Very choppy made it out to bay entrance and turned around trolled our way back into the triangle area. On the way in got into 4 fish but all popped off near boat. All on the 52' rigger rod. After trolling into triangle area lowered to 76' and 86' and got us a hatch spring. That was it for the trip.