Winter Chinooks off the Waterfront

[RVN10]

Hey, I usually fish for salmon in the summer only but we just fixed something on the boat and wanna try it out so we plan on heading out on the waterfront saturday, what i dont know is how to catch winter chinooks, is it the same as summer? i understand hootchies and spoons work better, what spoons and what colour hootchies work and what locations on the waterfront work the best? and any other information would help alot,
Thanks
Todd

 

[MrSmiley]

This reply comes straight outta the Island Outfitters website:

http://www.fishingvictoria.com/reports.asp

Most anglers are fishing close to the bottom, from 160 to 200 feet on the downrigger, or fishing the tops of pinnacles. Constance Bank was impossible to fish most of the week, but a few fish up to 10 lbs were taken there. Anchovy and Strip are the best natural baits and Glow or Purple Haze are the best teaser head colors to use. Purple Haze and Jellyfish hootchies and squirts fished behind Glow in the dark or Purple Haze flashers have been working well too. If you use spoons, use Green/Glow, Black/Glow or Army Truck color combinations with 4” Coyotes, Gypsies and Titans, The 3.5” Tomic #402 spoon continues to catch salmon too.
Hope this helps.

C'ya on the water.

 

[scott craven]

have had reasonable success this winter fishing between
trial and clover point fairly deep, 150-200' using spoons.
try anything purple.... also glo/green.
suggest you run a flasher on one side to start, which ever side
you get bites on first, change the other side accordingly.

Constance bank has also been good at times.
fish the east end at 140', right on the bottom.

scotty

 

[goalie]

Spent 6 hrs on Vic waterfront today... it was like the Dead Sea...! A boat joined in from Constance Bank... nuthin' doin' there either! Unless you wanna catch a few seals... there's a whole arnmy of them out there... from Trial to Esquimalt. No bites on either 'chovies or spoons and tried all depths... Good news is we saw a lot of bait balls...!
Cheers.

 

[totally tyee]

The Herring is stock piling before heading up the Gorge, I've seen a couple guys on the bridge already

 

[saltydawg]

Quiet at Constance Bank Tuesday. One boat had a 8# and lost two to seals.
I lost 2 cannon balls at south east corner. I don't know what kind of crap I run over?? cables?? Never had a problem before out there.
On way back BIG gaggle of diving birds feeding one mile out from clover point but I had no more lead to drop anything.

 

[scott craven]

if the herring is there, the harbour mouth is a good
bet in the coming weeks.
At least the weather has been good for a boat ride !

scotty

 

[RVN10]

What is the best time to fish for winters? besides sunrise

 

[scott craven]

tide changes,although they will feed more often than
mature fish.
they are also not so fussy about baits vs. lures etc.

scotty

 

[RVN10]

How do i get to the Gravel Pit? and how will i know im there? any landmarks or something on the Sonor that will tell me im there?

 

[Yote]

Launch at Esquimalt Anglers (Flemming Beach). You'll know you are there when you are fishing and are in front of a big gravel pit to the right when you get out of the launch. It's pretty hard to miss.

 

[RVN10]

that makes sence, thanks alot

 

[fishhawk8]

Just curious here.

With the herring stacking up at the entrance to the harbour, are the fisherman switching to pulling extra large herring to mimic the available food source? How far into the harbour will the springs follow, ie. just hang out near the breakwater and pick 'em off as the bait goes by, or would they follow the schools up / through the Bay St. brdige?

Seems to me, that I have never heard of the fishing getting that much better (the springs stacking up) off the mouth of harbour when the herring are running. Almost the opposite really, which contradicts what we normally think about the fish following the bait.


Seafood, it eat, then catch more.

 

[totally tyee]

The salnon at this time of year in the area are "residents" Fishhawk. The runs in the summer are migratory and are more prone to follow the bait on their migratory paths

 

[fishhawk8]

TT: Granted that these are resident springs wintering in the area, but, on nearly all the websites they say, when fishing for winter springs, find the bait and you'll find the fish. So doesn't it fit that as the herring migrate through the straight, heading for the Gorge that the springs are going to follow. Do the winter springs lay off the extra large bait migrating through. Some of the herring you can catch would barely fit into the yap of a 5-6 lb. spring yet a fish in the teens or larger probably wouldn't hesitate.

During summer, I'm always on the lookout for bait / bird activity to find fish. Normally I fish the Sooke area and I'm a cutplugger so fishing tight into shore / kelpbeds / any other structure I can locate, etc. is the normal pattern for me but also enjoy firing a stingsilda or whatever around a baitball to see if anythings happening. Ya' just never know, and have picked up many species of fish (and birds, haha) chasing bait balls.

Seafood, it eat, then catch more.

 

[scott craven]

i agree, find the bait and birds and the fish won't be
far away.
fish hawk, do you fish your cutplug off a down rigger and if
so what kind of depths are you at in the summer ?

scotty

 

[Yote]

I know for a fact that people catch good sized salmon right up to the train trestle at least by the gorge legion as I have seen the evidence being carried by the happy fellow right past my work window. Also heard of a couple nice ones off Laural Point as well. They do follow up but I am not sure how far, I would assume that they are more hesitant to go too far up however because the seals go up and with the shallow water, the salmon have less of an escape route from those little b@stards.

 

[fishhawk8]

R.S.C.: I don't fish cutplugs off the downrigger 'cause I don't have any stinkin' downriggers on my little 14 ft fiberglass tub. <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
hahaha. But that's not to say I never will.

Generally I fish the Trap Shack to O'brian Pt. mostly, I motor mooch by dropping the bait down to 75 ft or bottom, whichever is less. Bottom is about 50 ft in Trap Shack Bay around the walls, point to point (except for that reef, of course.) Strength of tide will dictate my weight of choice (normally 6 to 12 oz.), I'm starting to really like those ball weights that you thread the line through, far less drag. By motor mooching, I'll put the boat in gear, as slow as it needs to rotate the bait, until the line rises to just around a 30 degree angle and then take it out of gear and drop down to about an 80 degree angle. The weight dropping is enough speed to generate rotation on your bait and then it will speed up a little after you slip it into gear. At the Trap, this means you are fishing multiple depths of 20 to 45 ft (assuming bottoms at 50 ft.) With the two rods, with different weights, say one 8 oz and one 12 oz, you can actually have your bait moving at two different speeds up and down the water column. The only thing you have to be careful of is letting your line go verticle, a recipe for a tangled mess. But if you monitor by your heaviest line, you shouldn't have any problems.

As for pulling a cut plug on a downrigger, be sure to brine your bait really well, most boats that do have downriggers available tend to like to travel a lot faster than I do, 2.5 - 3.5 mph, maybe more, and the bait tends to rip sooner at the higher speeds. As for depth, in Sooke, in summer, generally speaking the top 75 ft. of water is the fish column, although the trend this summer seemed to be a little deeper and there were a lot of reports coming of good fish at 90 - 125 ft.

Hope this helps,
George


Seafood, it eat, then catch more.