Fishing for Black Cod Around Victoria-Sooke

[Whole in the Water]

Read the article on fishing for black cod in the Sooke area in the latest Island Fisherman magazine. Anyone on the forum here done this with any success?

How deep do you go? What general areas?

The JDF strait is only about 600-800 ft. deep in most cases (e.g. the shipping lanes close to the US border). Do you have to go this deep for black cod?

I heard that they fish the deep canyons (1000+ ft) off the west coast of VI and Haida Gwaii for these fish.

 

[kaelc]

Got one at hali depth off the west coast.

 

[Sailfish25]

Read the article on fishing for black cod in the Sooke area in the latest Island Fisherman magazine. Anyone on the forum here done this with any success?

How deep do you go? What general areas?

The JDF strait is only about 600-800 ft. deep in most cases (e.g. the shipping lanes close to the US border). Do you have to go this deep for black cod?

I heard that they fish the deep canyons (1000+ ft) off the west coast of VI and Haida Gwaii for these fish.

Another member posted this illustration a while back showing the same

 

[Whole in the Water]

What about catching them recreationally in the Sooke area like the article talks about?

 

[Srthomas75]

I haven’t tried it myself but have been told to aim for 600’ or so around sooke/ Jordan River

 

[Whole in the Water]

What about pacific cod then??

 

[Whole in the Water]

Bueller??

 

[Hardy Guy]

I have caught blk cod at 600 feet in several locations. This seems to be about the shallowest I have consistently caught ones that are not juveniles. I would also note that the larger ones I have caught have been deeper.

Should be P cod around . I've caught them 250 feet to 500 .

 

[agentaqua]

Read the article on fishing for black cod in the Sooke area in the latest Island Fisherman magazine. Anyone on the forum here done this with any success?

How deep do you go? What general areas?

The JDF strait is only about 600-800 ft. deep in most cases (e.g. the shipping lanes close to the US border). Do you have to go this deep for black cod?

I heard that they fish the deep canyons (1000+ ft) off the west coast of VI and Haida Gwaii for these fish.

Adult sablefish are typically found 450-900m deep; and spawn in very deep water (~1,000 m) offshore from January to March. Juvies can be be found much shallower; as they migrate/drift inshore as pelagic juveniles less than 20 cm, and then spend the winter and following summer in inshore waters before they return to the deep.

Sablefish

Sablefish

www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

 

[searun]

Caught plenty of them in 200 - 470 feet. Typically smaller size, anywhere from 3 pounds up to 12 pounds. The key is to look for areas where there are lots of krill. Another issue is they spin like a top and get off the line easily. So if you use conventional gear they will often spin up your leader so badly that they create massive tangles and/or its spun so bad the line breaks. One trick to overcome this is dual swivels and short leaders. I personally find better success using 14/0 circle hooks. "J" hooks work, however the loss ratio is very high.

 

[Macdeep]

Krill eh - so how does a fella find a spot that has lots of krill?

 

[Whole in the Water]

Caught plenty of them in 200 - 470 feet. Typically smaller size, anywhere from 3 pounds up to 12 pounds. The key is to look for areas where there are lots of krill. Another issue is they spin like a top and get off the line easily. So if you use conventional gear they will often spin up your leader so badly that they create massive tangles and/or its spun so bad the line breaks. One trick to overcome this is dual swivels and short leaders. I personally find better success using 14/0 circle hooks. "J" hooks work, however the loss ratio is very high.

Where have you caught them - Bamfield area? How do you find krill?

 

[agentaqua]

Where have you caught them - Bamfield area? How do you find krill?

I think hake are more correlated with krill abundance - black cod less so. But here's krill densities,

 

[saanauk]

Caught plenty of them in 200 - 470 feet. Typically smaller size, anywhere from 3 pounds up to 12 pounds. The key is to look for areas where there are lots of krill. Another issue is they spin like a top and get off the line easily. So if you use conventional gear they will often spin up your leader so badly that they create massive tangles and/or its spun so bad the line breaks. One trick to overcome this is dual swivels and short leaders. I personally find better success using 14/0 circle hooks. "J" hooks work, however the loss ratio is very high.

This is the setup I use in Ak. It is tuna cord with a swivel at the top and a large snap swivel at the bottom. The ti a cord has tigon tubing over it for the hooks to clip on to. The hooks are “tube gear” style that is used in commercial fishing. Larger tigon tubing with hog rings holding the hooks and long line snaps.
No leader to get bound up. Black cod don’t give much of a fight. I did catch a very large short raker on this setup and it held up fine.

Also nice to know my gear won’t be twisted or hung up on itself when defending to 600-800’.

 

[Rain City]

View attachment 122605

This is the setup I use in Ak. It is tuna cord with a swivel at the top and a large snap swivel at the bottom. The ti a cord has tigon tubing over it for the hooks to clip on to. The hooks are “tube gear” style that is used in commercial fishing. Larger tigon tubing with hog rings holding the hooks and long line snaps.
No leader to get bound up. Black cod don’t give much of a fight. I did catch a very large short raker on this setup and it held up fine.

Also nice to know my gear won’t be twisted or hung up on itself when defending to 600-800’.

I think you can only use multiple hooks (intended to catch multiple fish) for bait fish in Canada. Unless you're part of the 5% that can do whatever they want.

 

[kaelc]

I think you can only use multiple hooks (intended to catch multiple fish) for bait fish in Canada. Unless you're part of the 5% that can do whatever they want.

Or the other 5% who do what ever they want.

 

[searun]

Yes, that would buy a guy a ticket. We are restricted to one bait. That rig is clearly designed for multiple baits and isn't legal for use in BC. But the concept is a good approach.

 

[saanauk]

I think you can only use multiple hooks (intended to catch multiple fish) for bait fish in Canada. Unless you're part of the 5% that can do whatever they want.

Yep sorry I should have specified that you would have to use a single hook in bc with this type of setup. Concept would be the same though.