Sooke Fishing Adventures - Salmon Fishing - Wildlife Watching - West Coast Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Sooke Fishing Report
Welcome to the Sooke Fishing Adventures website! On this page, we will post regular updates on what's happening with Sooke fishing, Vancouver Island fishing, and other news of interest to our fishing friends from around the world.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sooke Fishing Report, June 27
The fishing around Sooke has ranged from good to excellent lately.
Last weekend, the Juan de Fuca Derby was a huge success, with over 200 salmon weighed in on the Saturday, and nearly 300 in total. That is close to triple the 2008 result...needless to say, this is proving to be a much improved year for salmon fishing off Vancouver Island's south-west coast.
There was a tie for first place, two 36.2 pound tyees, both caught west of Sooke, one at Sheringham and one at Muir Creek. The winner was the one weighed in first.
Below is a picture of Roy from Blue Wolf Fishing Charters with his fishing buddy Paul Taylor (from Trotac), a happy derby participant.
Since the weekend, lots of reports of tyee salmon above 3o pounds. Many reports from Possession Point, Secretary Island, and towards Trap Shack.
The coho have arrived, once you're in a school, there's reports of regular triple headers. They are still small, up to 10 pounds, but there's no shortage of action (just either bring a LOT of bait, or switch to artificial lures). They are both wild and hatchery salmon, so you can keep some potentially....smaller, but nice dinner fish.
A few reports of pink salmon arriving too...this being an odd numbered year, they should be in thick in another couple of weeks.
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On another note, some very entertaining stories posted to the Sport Fishing BC forum about orca whales and salmon fishing. Below are a few excerpts, see the original thread for more...picture courtesy of Salty Towers Oceanfront Cottages.
"Profisher: Started at the trap and hit a 20 before I even got the 2nd cannonball one the rigger. Lost another later, (sawed off leader) also 3 hatchery coho, then part of L pod showed up heading west. Ran to Sheringham and picked up a 15 on the first pass and another hatchery coho. Lost another spring just before the whales arrived again. Then the fun began. One of the other 2 boats there hooked a big fish. They fought it while the whales were passing by. I saw 3 females turn back to the east heading right for them. I knew what was coming. The 3 people in the boat saw it too and started to work the fish more aggressively to the boat. The flasher was up but the fish stayed about 10-15 feet away from the boat. The whales closed in. The guy holding the net started smacking the water with it trying to spook the whales. They got the flasher to within a foot or two of the rod tip but the fish was going nuts. The net guy tried a couple of times to snag it. The line and flasher went quickly towards the bow, I knew a whale had it. Then the line eased off and the net was quickly slipped under a 30+ pound spring. The female on board started yipping it up as they managed to land the big fish. They told me a few minutes later that the whale did have the fish in it mouth but it slipped out. They managed to net it before the whale could get turned around for a 2nd attempt. The 3 whales swam back and forth around their boat for a few minutes trying to find the fish. What a great thing to watch and what a story they have to tell!"
"TheRock: That sounds like my experience 2 years ago at Otter, a pod of killer whales came right under our boat and at that moment we had a TRIPLE header on !! the pod kept going however the big male killer whale by him self turned back and came straight for one fish and grabbed it and came to the surface ! Rolling and splashing with the spring in its mouth. It was the most unbelievable experience I have ever seen! Here I am Fighting out a killer whale with the rod in my left hand!!! My right hand I have the net scooping my dads spring all on the same side of the boat and the third rod still in the rod holder as the third spring is zipping line offff!!!!!!!! An experience I will never forget.. we had 6 springs on by 7am !!! All in 30. Min. of fishing!!!!! (Kept four) I will never forget that trip.. a memory to last a life time. I look back and wish I had a third person on the boat that day with a video camera filming that morning.. If I did I would of put it on U-tube for every one to see..."
"FishFlyGuy89: Same story for me at aldridge 3 years ago, My dad had about a 15 pound spring on, no whales to be seen and then what happenes, out of nowhere a small female comes right up behind the flasher, my dad is fighting the fish, and he starts to horse it in only feet from the whales mouth and into the net and into the boat, the whale did one pass and then bolted out into the strait."
*** A short youtube video of a similar encounter:
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Great fishing stories...like it's not already exciting enough just catching salmon!
The salmon fishing in Sooke is excellent right now!
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Gord from Foghorn Fishing Charters reports: "Sooke fishing has been good over all, nice fish around and like normal good days and slow days, but the one thing is they are here till Sept and the pinks and sockeye should show up mid July, here is a pic of my clients from Texas John Bledsoe and his 16 year old son Wilson with there first spring salmon, John has a 20lb and his son a 32lb"
*** Lots of reports posted on sportsfishingbc forum of salmon in Sooke from high teens to mid 20s. 65-85 feet, most common combination is Betsy flasher and teaser 82 feet.
Mark P out for a quick Sooke fishing trip today: On the water by 6:00am done by 7:30am. Four fish up to 32+lbs.
That's fast and furious fishing action.
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Trevor from No Bananas Fishing Charters is down from Port Renfrew for a week's fishing in Sooke: "salmon fishing in Sooke is unreal, best june I can remember in many years. Yesterday we fished 5am until noon and played 8 fish up to 28lbs. Then this morning we left the dock at 5 agaain and fishing was just as good if not better. We were back at the dock by 10am with 6 fish a 14,24,25,29.5,30,31lbs. What a morning! The salmon were caught at Otter point on betsy flasher and bloody nose teaser head, or white glow flasher with green head. Depths 51 and 85 feet."
Fishing in the Sooke area continues to be strong with nice catches coming from all the local hot spots.
After a good run of calms seas the westerlies returned last week and continued through the weekend limiting fishing to the morning. Saturday seemed to be the hottest day on the water with many anglers returning with limit catches into the 30 lb. range.
Fish are being taken from 30’ to 120’ on the rigger, fishing in close to shore or out in the 200’ range. With the Granddaddy of them all the 23rd Annual Juan De Fuca Derby coming up this weekend the poundage should be up considerably from the past few years.
One local guide said Chinook fishing hasn’t been this good in six or seven years. It wouldn’t surprise me if the big fish comes from one of Sooke’s many hot spots, just like last year when Joe Kadar nabbed his winner off Secretary Island. Angler’s will be heading out early Saturday morning in search of the winning fish which will net a nice $25,000 first prize with the final weigh-in Sunday at noon at Peddar Bay Marina.
Halibut has slowed a bit with the windy weather and the arrival of more Dog fish making catching a nice Hali a bit of a challenge. Crabbing continues to be strong with some really nice keepers. Keep your rod tip up!
Kiwi Magic
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The Juan de Fuca Derby is this weekend. This high stakes derby is sold out far in advance, most difficult ticket to get in town! It is the traditional kick off to the Sooke summer fishing season.
**** Tickets are now on sale for the Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society (SSES) Derby: July 31-Aug 1, 2009. $50 to enter. A very fun weekend and for a very good cause! Come out and support your local hatchery and have a blast doing it.
Check out this youtube video of a Sooke fishing trip. 4 spring salmon on, 1 landed, 3 Dungeness crabs...looks like a nice day of west coast Vancouver Island fishing.
Sooke's salmon fishing has been pretty decent of late. The summer pattern has begun, with fish reported at Trap Shack, Secretary Island and Possession Point, and Otter Point. There are some slow days, but there are also some really nice fish being caught...as they say "your trophy is out there" somewhere.
Colin from Toronto caught a nice 29 pounder, his first salmon ever, fishing with Neil from Salty Towers Resort.
Ryan Fairclough (aka Luna) posted a couple of detailed reports for Sooke on sportsfishingbc forum:
June 3: Fished at Sheringham today from 6am to 9am, had a teenager on by 6 11am and the old man lost it at the side of the boat. Purple hot spot and jdf purple haze head, 61ft in 65ft of water. Landed a teenager around 830am, Betsey and bloody nose head, 8 ft leader same depth. Only 1 other boat there and didn't see anything else, had 1 other bite. Moved down and fished Possession from 930am to 12pm, landed a 10 lber off the front corner of Secretary at 10 20am, 66ft in 140 ft of water. Lots of crap in the water made for hard fishing, saw 2 fish caught in the bay on the west side of Possession. 1 was lost and 1 was giving a solo fisherman a hard time, that was at 11 35am."
June 8: You ever have a day when everyone is catching fish around you but you cannot hook on to save your life, that was my Sat, snap! Fished Possession Point on Sat. from 6am to 12pm, saw a slow trickle of fish getting caught all morning, saw quite a few caught off Secretary. One guy fishing solo was tubbed out by 7am fishing tight off the west side of Secretary. We had 1 bite at 10am off Possession and that was it for us. Went back out from 4 to 630pm, zero. Fished more off the harbour mouth, lots of bait boiling, saw Reel Excitement pick up 2, other then that it seemed a lot quieter than the am shift. Sunday was better for us, fished from 6am to 12pm, hooked 1 at 11am off the point of Possession, 80ft, purple hot spot, purple haze head, 5 ft leader. Next pass hooked another 76ft, Betsy flasher and bloody nose head, 6ft leader. One shook the hooks beside the boat and one was mainlined, F#$% me !!! No I was not on the rods! Lots of fish hitting the table on Sun. but Possession was not as good as Sat., counted 45 boats Sun. and everyone was spreed out trying to find'em. More fish were coming from between the harbour mouth and Possession on Sun, Bob from 2 Reel had 4 in the boat, lots of bait. Saw a 36lber at the cleaning table which was caught at Otter at 7am, the guys that caught it had one other small one and a bite but said it was not hot and heavy up there, saw very few nets out. Back out soon good luck to all!!"
Thanks for all the details and good info Ryan!
Crabbing is still excellent in Sooke Harbour, with big Dungeness crabs and lots of them.
The video below is Port Renfrew based, not Sooke, but pretty entertaining, so worth posting here too. Jolly Rogers Fishing has posted another excellent youtube video, "A Day in the Life: Port Renfrew and Swiftsure Bank Fishing." Check it out:
Salmon fishing continues to be steady around Sooke, with a fair number of salmon caught in the 20s and 30s. 40 to 80 foot depth on anchovies seems to be ticket.
On a beautiful hot south Vancouver Island day, Neil from Salty Towers Oceanfront Resort got his first summer salmon...a 31 pound stubby Chinook, caught off Possession Point.
Crabbing in Sooke Harbour has been fantastic.
Good times...now get out there and fish, enjoy the nice sunny weather while it's here.
On another note, some very entertaining stories posted to the Sport Fishing BC forum about orca whales and salmon fishing. Below are a few excerpts, see the original thread for more...picture courtesy of Salty Towers Oceanfront Cottages.
