Hi everyone. I have been posting on the sister sites for a few months now and just discovered this one. I'm a 26 year pro guide working from various Vancouver Island locations. Over the years I've enjoyed the company of many folks from your part of the world. Some of you have visited us up here to enjoy the great fishing and others are hoping to one day. I will post here regularly with fishing reports and also anything that will be of interest to many of you. We fish both protected coastal waters, inshore inlets as well as offshore locations. We target all 5 species of salmon when in season and also halibut, ling cod and various snapper species.
I've started a fish of the week post on my FaceBook with archived photos from years gone by. Once I get busier with charters this spring I will post photos from those trips. Until then, enjoy the best of the past 26 seasons. This 47.5 pound Chinook salmon (our 4th largest) was taken at Otter point on June 26, 2002 by Mr. Bill Pearson. That days catch also included 31.5, 18.5, 12 and 10 pound Chinook. The 2 largest fish were caught in the afternoon on the incoming flood tide.



Sooke Salmon Charters Ltd -www.fishingbc1.com
Nootka Fishing Charters -www.nootafishingcharters.com
Vancouver island Fishing Club - vifishingclub.com
250-380-7018 - office
250-213-3055 - mobile
Facebook - www.facebook.com/SookeSalmonCharters
You Tube Videos - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2eBanNvRD0
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqbCSG2vJs

Is that a shad ?

Yep, the best fighting and tasting one you can catch too!

This weeks fish of the week is our largest all time from the Sooke area on Vancouver island. Some of you may have heard of the Aussie band Powder Finger. Mr John Collins is the bands bass player. John and his wife joined me for a half days fishing on July 4th, 2001. It was a lousy weather day, blowing and rough water. All the other guides cancelled their trips, I was going to do the same. John was really disappointed, so much so I offered to give it a go if they were game. We were only one of two boats who ventured out that morning to fish Possession Point, the closest spot to the harbour. In the first 5 minutes John hooked up into the smaller fish, a 30 pound King. (Chinook) We lost another shortly afterwards. Then 2 hours into the trip his wife who was on her first ever fishing trip hooks into this monster. 52 pounds!!! She had a long hard fought battle with the fish and ending with a brief tug of war with a local seal who tried to take it from us. The fish was to heavy for her to lift for the picture. A day that so easily might have never happened!!!

Yikes!!! Me likey. Nice fish my good man.

The stars aligned that day for sure. It could have been so easy to not go out and try that morning. Also if it had been another calm summer morning I would never have stopped to fish that spot. It is the closest to the marina's and is typically the busiest, so I normally avoid that spot and fish further up coast. Its good to be lucky sometimes!!!

I agree about being lucky bcprofisher .Did some White Bass fishing Saturday. I watched all day long as boats launched, some going north and some going south, most if not all of them in search of White Bass. We drifted about 50 yards from the boat ramp and my buddy is fuddling facking around with his tackle so I decide to cast a few times, I throw out and catch a big White, throw out again and catch another big White, we anchored down and didn’t leave that spot for another 7 hours. Skill had nothing to do with it, the fishing Gods finally threw me a bone. lol

This weeks fish of the week was caught on the afternoon of August 12, 2003 at Otter Point. A foggy day with flat calm water. We arrived just before the low slack tide change and I was outside of the other boats to make it easier to get the gear set up. We hit this fish almost as soon as the gear was in the water. A beautiful 45 pound Chinook.

Wow, nice fish. I can't hardly imagine the fun of catching Salmon that big, although I'm trying too. lol

Those rods laying up against the transom in the picture were 7 foot Fenwick trout rods. The reels were Islander LA-4 fly reels. I now use 9 foot Trophy rods that are intended as a buck tailing rods(trolling flies)and either the LA-4's or MR-2 mooching reels also from Islander. Either way very light tackle. 25 pound test main, 40 pound leader (both mono) The reels have about 350 yards of line loaded onto them and with the bigger fish you can get down close to backing if you don't turn the boat and chase a bit. The longest I've had customers play a fish is about 45 minutes and it went 49 1/2 pounds. When these fish first get hooked it is a few head shakes and then they take off like a freight train....you can't stop them. If it is a busy weekend you start yelling at the other boats behind you to clear out so they don't cut you off. It gets pretty hairy at times when a bite comes on and multiple boats are all in the heat of battle.
www.fishingbc1.com
www.nootkafishingcharters.com

That's what I call fun, big fish, light tackle the only way too go. I have a 12' Fenwick Surf Rod, that a friend gave to me, it belong to a friend of his who was probably one of the best Striper fisherman living in the south. I used it to set the IGFA line class record for Blue Catfish in the state of Louisiana. That's him on the left in the photo where I'm holding up the two Big Blue Catfish. He weighed 73 lbs and he was caught on 12 lb test. I thought at the time it was a world record because the scale I weighed him on said 77 lbs, (the world record at the time was 76 lbs) Once the IGFA cerified my scale, I found out that it was 4lbs off and he only weighed 73 lbs, what a bummer. haha The 12 lb world record now stands at a 101 lbs, so I reckon that won't be broken anytime soon.

This weeks fish of the week is a 37 1/2 pound Chinook salmon caught on June 22, 2001. Mr Dennis Calvert from Memphis caught this beauty at the Trap Shack during a morning outing. Dennis is returning this June for a couple of days of fishing with us and will be staying at the Sooke Harbour House, as he did back in 2001. Dennis is convinced his fish was over 40 pounds, a true fisherman! It will be nice to catch up Dennis on what is new over 12 years.



Sooke Salmon Charters Ltd -www.fishingbc1.com
Nootka Fishing Charters -www.nootafishingcharters.com
Vancouver island Fishing Club - vifishingclub.com
250-380-7018 - office
250-213-3055 - mobile
Facebook - www.facebook.com/SookeSalmonCharters
You Tube Videos - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2eBanNvRD0
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqbCSG2vJs

Reports this week indicate that there are some nice Chinook salmon being caught on Constance Bank. Those coming in are between 8 and 12 pounds. Nice size for a spring barbecue.
With Killer Whales being in the news this week I dug up a pic with a whale story behind it.
This weeks fish of the week is a 41 pound Chinook caught at Otter Point of June 13, 2005. The local salmon eating resident Orca's had already made an appearance that morning and I was not feeling very optimistic about our chances. I decided to tuck around the point to where I might go to get out of the whales path and hide. I went right up against the shore thinking this is what I would do. I had finished my intended tack and was turning around when this guy hit. Sometimes a plan does come together!

Was out this morning for a half day salmon trip and we managed to bring back a couple of smaller Chinook that the hotel was going to prepare for the guests. Also added a couple of nice Dungeness Crab from the traps I put out at the start of the trip. Wish I was joining them for dinner! Our spring halibut season opens this coming weekend. With that I thought it appropriate to make this weeks fish of the week a shot of some halibut we caught off Victoria in April a couple of years ago.

A nice supply of fresh fish and chips!

Was out this morning for hours fishing for winter Chinook salmon with a couple who were guests of the Sooke Harbour House Hotel. We left the dock at 8am and by 9am we had their 4 fish limit weighing 12, 10, 8 and 7 pounds. I also kept a smaller fish for my dinner. We then trolled west doing some scouting for future trips. No more salmon but we did fluke into a 15 pound halibut. A great day on the water in March!

We got out a couple times this week, last Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we had a tough time finding the fish but did manage to scrape up a 14 pound Chinook and lost another that would have been a similar size. On Friday we landed on the fish and stayed with them until we had our 6 fish limit. All went between 7 and 9 pounds. A first ever for me was hauling up a large Octopus which hugged my downrigger weight all the way to the surface. I manged to net him just as he let go. Octopus leg chunks make for excellent halibut bait. Here is a picture from the Friday outing. Joshua is from New Orleans and Jennifer is from Portland, Oregon.

No trips this week so back to a blast from the past photo. This photo was taken on July 15th, 2001 just east of Otter Point. The fish went 30.5 and 30 pounds. They also landed another 12 pound Chinook but as you can see they have their hands full with these two. I decided to take this photo when I did because we were just about to head in when the local pods of Orca's showed up (about 92 of them in the 3 family pods) You can see one of the larger Victoria based whale watching boat drifting in the background. I figured it was a good time for some free advertising!!

We just had our local halibut derby this past weekend. Over 400 tickets sold and there were 106 halibut weighed in. The derby was running under an altered format this year as there is a size slot and the maximum size you may keep is 126cm or roughly 60 pounds. The winning fish went 57.7 pounds. There was also a prize for the largest released halibut as well. You were required to take a photo with a tape measure in the foreground with your finger on the 126cm mark. Many over 100 pounds were photographed with one estimated at 130 pounds taking the prize. I was out last Monday for both morning and afternoon salmon trips. We landed nice fish on both trips with the largest going about 14 pounds. The big summer Chinook (Kings) will start to arrive in about 4 weeks. (middle of May) The 2nd largest from our area was taken on May 29 a few years back and went 66 1/2 pounds!!!

I've missed a week in reporting here because I'm in the middle or organizing a Father's Day Weekend fishing derby and my free time has been minimal these days. Both salmon and halibut fishing has been excellent the last while. We are still fishing for immature feeder Chinook (King) salmon for a couple more weeks and then the big mature summer fish will arrive. I was out the past 2 days on salmon trips at Constance Bank which is 4 miles offshore of Victoria. We took 3 on Saturday, 14, 12 and 10 pounds and 3 more today, also loosing 2 to seals and 2 more that shook the hooks. Saturday we had 16 guys out on 4 boats, all part of a stag weekend and a picture of my crew is below. Also a pic of a very busy local boat ramp as the weather is low 80`s and flat waters. the 3rd picture is of Mt Baker in Washington State. (behind the tanker hard to see with the bright sun) Mt Baker is a dormant volcano in the same chain that includes Mt St. Helens.

Out again this afternoon for 4 hours. Two boats with 7 customers fishing Chinook salmon. We hit 12 fish, landing 5 of them between 8 and 14 pounds. Took a better picture of Mt Baker today with a UV filter to cut down the bright sun glare. My buddy who was helping on this group is in the photo.

I haven't posted much for a bit as this is the time of the year that I concentrate on servicing my boat and equipment for the upcoming busy summer season. Something that has paid off over the 27 years in the business with few unexpected breakdowns. Not my favorite set of chores but ones that must be done. I'm also organizing a fund raiser fishing derby which is proving to be quite time consuming. Here is a picture of some of the prize haul I have solicited so far and as you can see the boat is in the back ground calling me to come polish and wax it!!!

We did a 1/2 day halibut charter yesterday off the Victoria area waters. Beautiful day and flat calm waters. My lucky guests brought home some fresh halibut which was apparently on the dinner menu that evening. After they limited out we had about 40 minutes to try and get me one. I had friends coming over for dinner and was hoping to add fresh halibut to the salmon I took out of the freezer. Not to be this time.

Ok been awhile since I gave an actual fishing report. So here we go. The fish are in boys and unlike the previous 2 years there are some good numbers of bigger fish around. last year it was tough to find a fish over 30 pounds. Not this summer so far. Today we finished up at Otter Point for the last hour and a half of our morning trip as I was getting tired of pulling weeds off the lines up at the light. At about 10:45 we hit what I knew was a big fish by the long powerful strokes of the downrigger boom before the line released. A great battler ensued with a very long run of line off the reel. After 15 minutes we had a beautiful super chrome spring that was an easy 35 pounds along side the boat. I snapped a few shots of the fish in the water. Also got the while thing on the Go Pro. The hooks were in the corner of the mouth. He layed there still and I popped the hooks with pliers, never had to lay a finger on him. As soon as the hooks were out he rolled upright and slowly swam out of sight. My customer was informed ahead of time that we would likely catch fish that would have to be let go. He was fine with it and enjoyed the experience. Here are a couple of the fish and one from the day before.

Well, it ain't Louisiana, but I would love to do that someday.