2002 in Review

Well another summer season has come and gone already.

The 2002 pre-season predictions held lots of promise for an excellent year along the entire west coast. Chinook returns were hoped to be the best yet and in many areas they didn't disappoint. The west coast of Vancouver Island had strong runs of large chinook salmon in most areas.

Places like Nootka Sound and Port Renfrew were on fire for much of the summer. Sooke had a below average June fishery and then a very good July and August. In Sooke we saw a return of a good number of the real heavy weights. Many fish weighing over 40 pounds and a few over 50 pounds were registered at local marinas. My largest went 47 1/2 pounds and was taken on June 26th. The largest Sooke chinook of the season was also caught on June 26th and went 58 pounds.

The late summer chinook runs repeated a pattern started last summer by once again staying somewhat offshore and running deep. Normally the late summer fish hug the beaches and stay in the top 50 feet of water. Often they are caught in the top 15 feet. The last two summers they have preferred the 70 to 120 foot depths. Why is a mystery.

Sockeye returns were good for a short period in early August. During a ten-day period it was quite easy to limit your fishing party out on nice sockeye ranging from 6 to 10 pounds. My best effort included a double and 2 triple-headers for an 8 fish limit in just 40 minutes of fishing! There is a picture posted on the picture page of that days catch.

Coho did us a favor this summer and stayed offshore until mid-September. Coho are fairly small until late summer when they explode in size in preparation for spawning. By the middle of September they are reaching their adult size and are great fun to catch. Prior to September they can be a nuisance when they move inshore with the currents and feed on your bait meant for mister chinook.

This season was not a pink salmon year in southern Island waters. We did however see a number of them show up in August with the sockeye. Where they were from and where they were going is another mystery of nature.

As I write this season report it is almost the middle of October. The coho fishery in Sooke is still going strong. This morning we hit over a dozen fish for a 4-hour outing. The waters were flat as they normally are this time of the year and the boat traffic at a fraction of the summer numbers.

This is a great time of the year for sea life encounters as well. Dahl and harbour porpoise are easily found skimming around on the surface in group frolic. The Dahl's often buzz around your boat as if hoping you will speed up and join them in their games.

Chum salmon, which are one of the last salmon species to enter streams to spawn, are flopping around everywhere. Sea lions are cruising the holding areas for spawning chum salmon and picking off these easy targets. You will often encounter one of these large mammals on the surface thrashing a salmon back and forth playing with its kill before consuming it.

Next month will bring the beginning of the winter chinook runs into the Sooke waters.

Now is the time to start thinking of booking your fishing trips for next year. I plan on returning to the Nootka Sound area next summer for a couple of weeks during the peak of that area's chinook runs. Those persons wishing to fish with me in Nootka Sound must book dates as soon as possible to secure accommodations at the lodge. I look forward to seeing everyone again next summer and I will keep in touch by email with those of you that I have in my address book. May I also be the first to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season

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2003 Fishing Highlights and Stories

June 26

As I mentioned earlier the Sooke June fishery was a bit under average this summer for numbers of chinook. However I did manage to find a biggy on the 26th of June, which helped me forget some of that months tougher days.

Bill Pearson was the lucky fisherman with me that day. We started fishing at Secretary Island and managed to land 3 teenagers by the time our planned six hour outing was concluding. At about the time I was preparing to head to the barn, the radio came to life with reports of a bite on at Otter Point. I asked the guys if they wanted to make the 4 mile run and check it out. Luckily they wanted to give it a try.

The report on the radio sounded good, something like "they're stacked in here like cordwood".

Twenty minutes later the gear was being dropped in at Otter Point. There was a fish on beside us as I lowered the last line to depth. Bang, off popped a rigger and we were into a fish that fast. This was a better fish than the others that day and we eventually slipped the net under a nice 31 pounder.

Well this made the last minute trip up to Otter Point worthwhile even if it proved to be the only one we were to catch.

But not to worry the best was yet to happen.

We were now on the last part of what apparently had been a very intense and long bite period. The last fish we seen hooked up was also our last fish for the day. The back rigger set to 55 feet hammered off hard and a big fish was hooked.

This fish gave Bill everything he could handle and more. A long first run out to sea, a powerful jump clearing the water and scary open mouthed head shakes that any fishermen hates to see. I even got taken up by the moment and almost screwed up the netting job. I leaned out to try and scoop the big fish instead of waiting for Bill to bring it in closer. I managed to get 3/4 of the fish into the net but didn't have any leverage left to be able to lift the hoop up enough to coax the big guy the rest of the way into the bag. The fish sensed his chance and lunged over the hoop and back into the water.

Luckily both treble hooks were deep inside his mouth and they didn't hang up on the webbing as the fish made its dash for freedom.

After a few minutes I got a second chance and didn't repeat my mistake. The largest fish my boat saw for the season lay at our feet. The 47-1/2 pound chinook almost doubled Bill's own personal largest ever salmon as well. A planned six hour trip turned into an eight hour trip, but nobody was complaining!!!!!

August 12

On August 12th I decided to switch my normal pattern up a bit and began the day fishing for sockeye instead of chinook. The tides were better later on in the day for chinook anyway.

I had 5 lines rigged and ready to go with my favorite sockeye gear when Stanley and Dorothy Plaster arrived early at the marina. After a ten minute ride the 5 lines were lowered into the water off the Sooke bluffs.

We didn't have to wait long for the first action of the morning. A double header in the first 5 minutes got us started. We landed them both.

I called a buddy on the radio and told him not to head offshore too far as we had found a school closer in. As I watched him turn around and head back towards our location three of the five lines came to life.

A triple header!!! Wow, I actually got to play a fish. I think I horsed mine in quick so that I would be ready to land the other two fish. I took a chance and lifted my fish over the side without using the net to keep it clear and ready to land my customers fish.

The next fish was ready so I scooped it into the net. I didn't have time to clear the net after bagging the second fish so I netted the third fish with the second fish and gear still in the net. I think that was a first for me...hey it worked!!

By the time I got the mess cleaned up and all that gear back in the water fishing, we had lost that school of fish.

At this point we hadn't been fishing a half hour yet. I let the ebbing current take us to the west in search of another school of sockeye. I must have had the human fish finder working that morning because in short time we were into another triple header. We landed all three fish and after our final fish hit the deck I checked my watch. It was 40 minutes since the first line went in the water that morning.

We never lost a fish that morning, which is not common when fishing sockeye with barbless hooks. I bet that canned sockeye will be tasting mighty fine down in California this winter!

July 18

On July 18th I fished with a regular client who at the last minute decided to let his fishing buddies sleep in and go it alone. When Dan arrived at the boat in the morning he explained he was tired of always being a good host and allowing his fishing partners to land the largest fish of the day.

Later on he brought up the question "so what happens if we hit 3 fish at once?" noticing I still had 3 riggers out and only 2 of us onboard. I told him that triples on springs are very rare and unless you think it's your turn to win the lottery not to worry about it.

After fishing for a couple of hours and nothing much being caught at Otter Point by us or any of the others boats around us, I was looking for a change. I noticed a couple of guides leaving for the next fishing spot to the west. They both left within minutes of each other.

I brought out the binoculars and watched them as they arrived to where 3 other boats fished in a tight pack at the next spot. I figured they must have got a call from a friend who I knew was one of the 3 boats up there.

I told Dan we were moving and explained my hunch.

We arrived to join the 5 other boats, dropped the gear and made a short tack. I had time to ask what was going on and was told that only a couple of fish had been caught.

One of the guides that ran up ahead of us was trolling up in front of me and began a turn back, I covered his move and turned back so that I would keep my gear ahead of him. (I hate when it happens to me).

Just as I straightened out of my turn, 2 of the riggers started to jump. Doubleheader!!!! I grabbed one rod, Dan jumped on the other. Rodney, in the other boat, yelled that we had his fish!!! Dan and I could only chuckle at our luck.

The third rod and rigger presented a potential problem and my intention was to get my fish under control put the rod back in the holder and then quickly retrieve it along with the other riggers while the boat was still slowly trolling ahead. Just then the third rod started to jump as a third spring had decided it liked the slower moving bait.

We could hear the other fishermen in the other boats talking to one another about our double. I had to correct them and let them know it was actually now a triple. Talk about rubbing salt into a wound!!!

I landed mine quickly so that I could give Dan a hand with his fish. The third rod continued to bounce in the rod holder and give out a little line. It seemed like the second fish took forever to play out and land as I kept checking to see if the third fish was still with us. Once in the net I told Dan to drop that rod and grab the other one.

The fish was still there, even with barbless hooks!!! I quickly cleared the net and gear so that I was again ready to net a fish. After a few minutes the third fish came over the side. The next few minutes are fuzzy, except for a high five and lots of chuckling by both of us.

The springs went 23, 22 and 18 1/2 pounds. That day I even got to put a fish on my license and take it home to give to my neighbors.

July 31

My favorite trip of the season happened on the afternoon and evening of July 31st. It was the second trip of the day and the first morning outing had been slow. During the morning outing I managed a 14 pound chinook and released a wild coho for 6 hours hard work.

The second trip was to run from 1pm till 5pm. The afternoon was beautiful, flat calm and only a few boats still out trying their luck after a non-productive morning. The afternoon proved that there were fish around as we hooked up 2 larger chinook but lost them both. There still had been no significant bite all day.

By 5pm nothing had changed and one of the younger guests on board asked how much longer we were going to fish. I looked at my watch and said time is almost up. There was some discussion between the group and then I was asked if I had to get back in right away.

I said that I had no plans. They had decided to keep fishing for a couple more hours as the evening looked like it would remain beautiful and they came to catch some fish. I was game. Nothing happened until 6pm, then that bite that had not happened all day kicked in.

Every one of the ten or so boats still fishing at Otter Point was hooked up into one or more fish each. For the next hour and a bit you struggled to get lines down before a chinook was on. I would get one line down to depth, reach over to pick up the next rod and be screamed at by a guest that there was a fish on the rod I had just finished rigging.

Shortly after 7pm it all ended as fast as it started. The final count was 5 chinook landed and 6 lost. Nine of the eleven fish we hit were hooked during the 6 to 7pm bite. The chinook sizes ranged from teenagers up to 25 pounds. That is intense and fun fishing and easily made the best trip of the year!!!!

2004 - A Good Year!

Everyone predicted another good fishing season for 2003 and the fish didn't disappoint us.

It was another great year with lots of fish and many of them being of the extra large variety. With the exception of a few days in the early part of the summer season most days saw anglers going home happy.

The largest fish of the year showed in late August and early September this past summer. The season's largest for the Sooke area went 62.5 pounds and was caught at Otter Point on August 29th. There were at least 3 more fish over 50 pounds and many over 40 pounds also taken in early September.

45 lb. Chinook, caught on August 12, 2003 at Otter Point near Sooke, British Columbia.

Our largest for the season was 45 pounds and was caught on the afternoon flood tide of August 12th, at Otter Point.

On August 22nd an unbelievable bite occurred that rewarded the few fishermen who braved a bad weather forecast. On that day we hit a total of 24 chinook salmon, landing 8 up to 33 pounds, we released 9 up to 33 pounds and lost 7 more!

The 2003 season saw a record run of about 30 million pink salmon returning to the Fraser River. The larger share went down the inside straits between Vancouver Island and the mainland.

We still had lots of pinks to catch as the increased run size made up for the larger diversion down the inside waters. Coho fishing in the fall was hot, with the better days producing over 30 fish on the gear for a 4 hour trip!

We have now seen 3 consecutive years of above average fishing and the forecast for 2004 is for more of the same! We are now into the 2003-04 winter fishery and winter chinook have arrived early this year. We are now enjoying some great winter fishing which will last into the spring.

Forecast for 2004

We have already been told by fisheries officials that 2004 looks good and we can expect as good or better fishing opportunities as we saw in 2003. The curtailing of the commercial fishery has really paid off over the past 3 or 4 years. Fish that normally would have been taken by the commercial nets are now making it back to the rivers to spawn and repopulating previously depressed salmon runs.

Fisheries managers have made a commitment and a promise to the people of Canada to never allow the commercial fishery to return to the harmful and destructive practices of the past. There will still be a commercial fishery, but one that respects conservation concerns and the needs of the other users, including sport and native fishers.

The 2004 season is not a pink salmon year so there will not be a pink salmon run of any significance this summer. Chinook and coho salmon will return in above average numbers similar to the numbers seen the in past 3 seasons. We have not yet heard much about the predicted sockeye returns, but will post that info when it is released to the public.

Stories from the 2003 Season

August 7th

On August 7th I had Ann and Don Clark out for their last day of a 3-day fishing trip. Ann and Don are father and daughter.

We started the morning by leaving the docks at 6am and heading up to Otter Point. We arrived there by 6:15 and had the gear fishing quickly. I set the lines to about the 40-foot depth. We trolled only a minute or so to reach what the locals call the third rock and we were into a nice fish. After a good battle Ann had a 28 pound chinook in the tub.

Ann and Don Clark display their bounty of 28, 25, 23, 20, 19 lbs Chinook, 2 sockeye & 1 coho caught August 7, 2003 at Otter Point and the Trap Shack.

I reset the lines quickly and started fishing again. Bingo, another fish on. I now thought that there were lots of fish around and it was going to be a hot morning's fishing at Otter Point. Don played and landed this fish, it went 19 pounds.

We trolled around for about 30 minutes, watching a few other fish being caught. The fish appeared to be moving around and I was trying to stay with the school and get us into our third, when everything changed in a flash.

Killer whales appeared, lots of them. All 85 members of J, K and L pods quickly moved right into our fishing spot, obviously sensing the good numbers of fish holding there.

The bite ended as fast as it started and it appeared as if a good day was going to be cut short. I could tell by how they were feeding that it would be over for the rest of the day at Otter Point.

It was a flat calm morning and still very early. I told Ann and Don that the lines were coming aboard and we were moving to another spot. The whales were heading in an easterly direction so I headed east as well to the next hot spot.

After travelling 4 miles we were at Secretary Island asking another charter operator if a bite had happened there too. He had landed 3 chinook out of 5 fish he had on and the bite had been at first light as well. We stayed there for about 20 minutes and nothing was happening, the whales would arrive there in another 10 or 15 minutes.

I called another guide who almost always fishes the Trap Shack, the next spot to the east. He came back with a report of 12 fish hooked and he lost all 12, ouch!

Was the bite still happening?, I asked. It's been non stop all morning was the reply.

I had the gear up again and arrived at the Trap in under 10 minutes. I spotted John's boat and headed right to where he was amongst the flotilla of boats already there. He was already playing his 13th fish, I asked what depth and was told 65 and 70 feet.

I dropped and set the first rigger to 70 feet and turned to pick up the 2nd rod, bingo fish on! I honestly don't remember who played what fish from here on, it was either Don or Ann. We landed that fish quickly, it went 20 pounds.

John hollered over to us, can't you hook up any faster than that? I grabbed the 2nd rod which was already rigged and sent it down to 65 feet and bent over to set up the 3rd rod, fish on again!

The whales were closing in on us again by reports coming over the VHF radio. We got that fish aboard, it went 23 pounds. Don and Ann were now limited out on chinook salmon. I needed a fish to donate to the Pink Salmon Festival (take a kid fishing event later in August), so I decided to stay there until the whales arrived and see if I could get a turn.

I managed to get all 3 rods baited and in the water, made my first turn back to return to the fishy spot and hit another fish as we exited the turn. The guide got to play a fish! That fish went 25 pounds.

About 6 to 8 whales were now just arriving on the spot and it was amazing to watch this lead group as they swam into the salmon school. As soon as they reached the spot and sensed the large number of fish they had stumbled onto they started breaching clear of the water, 2 or 3 slapped their tails, the loud bangs echoing over the water.

It was like they were telling the rest of the gang behind them, hurry up guys you won't believe what we just found. The entire group of whales worked those fish over for about 15 minutes, it was awesome to watch.

That was the end of the chinook bite at the Trap Shack, it ended the same way it had earlier at Otter Point. We decided to move out to a tide line near Secretary Island and try for sockeye. In an hour we landed 2 sockeye, kept 1 hatchery coho and released 2 more.

It was now 10:30am and Don who is in his 80's, said he was pooped and was happy to go back early for a good breakfast before heading for home.

August 22

As mentioned earlier in this report August 22nd produced the best chinook bite of the year in Sooke.

The winds howled all night the evening before and the morning weather and lighthouse reports were terrible. At 4:30 am the winds at Sheringham Lighthouse were blowing from the west at 34 knots and gusting.

On a day that looked as if it might be too windy to fish, patience paid off with 24 chinook hitting the lines on August 22, 2003 near Otter Point.

Very few fishermen bothered to show up at the marina to even reconfirm that the reports were accurate, it seemed that bad. When the few who hadn't listened to the radio showed up at the marina the trees were still bent over and low clouds were blowing by us as the strong winds pushed them east.

Everyone stood at the marina tackle shop, drinking coffee and resigning themselves to going back home to bed. Most did just that.

Finally by 5:30am one local guide decided to sneak out past Whiffen Spit and take a look outside the harbour, just in case. The rest of us figured we would let him burn some gas to confirm what we thought we already knew. After 10 minutes Larry called us on the VHF, the wind seemed to be dropping and he had fished in worse.

There were only a couple of us left standing at the marina by now and we decided to go for it. That was the best decision I made all year. The winds were in fact dropping and they did so all morning. We fished most of the day in nothing more than a one foot chop, with only 6 other boats out there with us at Otter Point.

I remember thinking that I was thankful to be out on the water and not having to cancel my charter that morning, I had no idea how happy I would be later in the day.

During the late morning and until the time we left at 3:30pm we hit 24 chinook salmon. We landed 8 weighing 33,23,22,20,18,17,15 and 12 pounds. We released 9 more up to the same size as our largest and we lost 7 more near the boat. We also managed 1 sockeye and 1 coho.

The other boats were all doing well too and at times we all were dead in the water playing fish at the same time. When we left at 3:30 the fish were still biting.

I hate to think how upset I would have been if I had given up and gone back home to bed, only to hear the next morning about what I had missed!

October 5th

I received a call from the Sooke Harbour House on the evening of October 4th. They had some guests who wanted to go fishing the next morning. I talked to a gentleman named Jack and set up a 4 hour trip for 2 couples at 7am the next day.

I had everything ready to go in the morning and was waiting at the marina tackle shop for the guests to arrive. A vehicle pulled in and I could tell this was my charter. One fellow wandered over while the others gathered their gear from the car.

October still yields a great day of fishing with 7 cohos up to 9 lbs. and a winter chinook.

Jack introduced himself and said the others would be along in a minute. Jack and I started down towards the docks to the locked gate. I held the door open as the others checked out the local seals that hang out by the fish cleaning table. As they got closer I looked at Jack's fishing partners and realized right away who one of them was.

As his friend was just about to introduce himself I said, "Mr Vila". He held out his hand and said, hi I'm Bob. (for those of you that don't recognize the name right off, Bob was the original host of the PBS hit show "This Old House" and now does the tool-related Sears TV commercials).

This was a nice surprise first thing in the morning. I told Bob if I started asking to many construction related questions just to slap me and I would stop. We fished for coho that morning and managed 7 keepers up to 9 pounds and one winter chinook. We also released 9 more wild coho.

Bob as it turns out does a lot of fishing on the east coast and wanted the experience of fighting a large chinook salmon. I gave him the bad news about being a few weeks late in the season for that to happen and explained that by then most of those fish were already in river and in the process of spawning.

I told him he should consider finding a local waterfront home that needs a major renovation and next summer feature a Canadian home on one of his shows. He could fish every morning and then shoot the show in the afternoons.

He would look good at the start of each episode as he came off the water with the big catch of the day. Bob commented, that wasn't a bad idea.

September

There was the day during the coho fishery that a large group of porpoises were playing around my boat as we fished off Secretary Island. After about 15 minutes of this and the bite going cold for those same 15 minutes I started to head closer to shore in an effort to lose them.

All of a sudden one of my guests yelled what's that? I turned to see my port side downrigger that had been set at 70 feet going wild. The line was no longer at a 45` angle to the stern, it was pointing to 10 o'clock off the bow. The spool on the rigger was spinning so fast that in only a couple of seconds the line counter was passing the 150 foot mark.

All this was happening with the rigger brake engaged. The angle of the downrigger line was now such that I knew the 15 pound weight was getting close to the surface.

A porpoise doing maximum speed surfaced, the weight which was coming up as well, must have hit him, there was a shriek from him, the rigger jumped wildly, the 170 lb test cable snapped and all thirty or so porpoises were gone in an instant.

I've never had that happen before in all the years of fishing. Whales and porpoises always seem to know where your lines are and never touch them. Maybe his sonar was out of commission that day!

More On The Winter Fishery!

Sooke Salmon Charters Ltd. "The Next Generation" Brett 1998

Going into my eighteenth year of professional salmon guiding this coming season I've been asked two questions uncountable times. How's the weather up here during the winter and do you fish in the winter?

I'm going to share with you what I've replied to others, all those times. The winters on Vancouver Island are the mildest in Canada. I call our area California north. Daytime winter temperatures hover between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit, on average.

With the heated cabin on my boat I can make it 70 degrees while you’re fishing. The lower half of Vancouver Island (including the town of Sooke) has its own micro climate which gives us a dryer winter than nearby cites like Vancouver and Seattle. In fact we receive half the annual rainfall of both Vancouver and Seattle.

This area only averages 1 to 1.5 days of snowfall each year and it usually melts as fast as it falls! Even the golf courses remain open year round! And no, the ocean doesn't freeze over and we never see icebergs. In fifteen years of guiding you're bound to get the odd goofy question!

As for the winter fishing, we have chinook salmon fishing in every month of the year. Winter chinook, also called "blackmouth" or "feeder springs" are plentiful and easier to catch than their summer counterparts. Winter fish are feeding fish, bulking up before nature calls them back to their native rivers to spawn the following summer. Winter chinook salmon range from 5 to 20 pounds. We like to keep the ones larger than 8 pounds. These salmon are pound for pound the best fighting fish we catch all year. They are in prime condition, all fattened up and full of energy. Winter-caught salmon are also regarded as prime table fish. The high fat content and firm flesh makes them a local favourite.

Your daily limit is 2 chinook per day (per person) with a 2 day possession limit. Peak months are November thru February Where else can you enjoy a winter day salmon fishing, golfing, and dining on a fresh morning’s catch? So come on up and enjoy some great winter fun.

I look forward to fishing with both existing clients and those of you who will be first timers. Please book early as the best dates go first. Give me a call or email me, even if just to say hi!

Tight lines....Rollie

Sooke Salmon Charters Ltd.
836 Rockheights Ave., Victoria  BC CANADA   V9A 6J4
Phone: (250) 380-7018    E-mail: sscl@shaw.ca