Back From The Coast.

[walleyes]

Well another year is done out at the salt chuck and not a bad year at all, not a great year but certainly not a bust.

Sooke can be a tough place to fish it certainly doesn't give them up easy. This not being a Pink year pretty much leaves you with a Chinook fishery this time of year. Chinook are always the main target but at least on Pink years one has that option to fall back on if need be. They did open up Sockeye but they just never seemed to come down yet, not in any great numbers that's for sure. There were a few being picked up but nothing great. the Chinook were around but again not in the numbers one would like to see nor what was predicted for this year. Even the charter boats were struggling with 1 or 2 Chinook a day being a good day with the odd one with 3 for a day. We were able to hold our own once again with the charter boys as I do know the area quite well. I am not in a competition by any means but I do use the charter boats as a guide line to judge if its something I am doing right or wrong or if its just the way the fishery is going. Sooke will test a person and bring out the best or worst in you, you have to pay attention to detail and study the fish and play their habits and you will get fish. I like the place, it challenges me and keeps me busy all day. There are many places with better fishing if you want to play it safe and go throw lures in the water half ass and get fish yah there are those places but if you want to test yourself,, it will do that.

The first 4 days were special to me as it was just the wife and I that fished together. My wife has been out with us a couple times but more just for a ride never as an active participant in the fishing. With only two in the boat there is a lot of work to be done. For those of you that have never been on an ocean fish it would be hard to understand the amount of work involved to be successful. I know my wife was sure amazed at the amount there is to do, its a hard day on the water that starts at 4:30 a:m and we fish until 15:00 by the time you get in and clean fish, put stuff away and get a bite to eat its time for bed and you are beat. I will say this my wife was an awesome fishing partner that got to pull in 2 or 3 Chinook in the 20# range and netted about the sae for me she was a great partner that I look forward to fishing with in the future. I know she liked it as well. For the next few days it was a nephew of mine that fished with me, an experienced salmon fisherman and for one day a niece of mine from Victoria joined me that never fished the ocean before and she was able to land 2 dandy Chinook as well. In total I fished 9 days and for the 9 days my boat landed 12 Chinook with an average weight of 22# as well we brought home 2 Pinks and 2 nice clipped Coho. So as I said it wasn't hot and heavy but we did very well considering how slow it was.

A few pics of the trip.

Heading out at first light.


Thank goodness for GPS or I may be in the middle of the Pacific by now, some days you can't see more than 30 or 40 feet. The other day we never saw land until noon, fished by GPS until then.


Picked this slab up from 120' lol.




The biggest of the trip in at 28#


My niece and her first salmon,, first fish maybe not sure.


3 Chinook and a nice Coho

[BruceW]

Looks like a heck of a nice trip!

[Speckle55]

Grats .. and on your wife/niece/nephew Priceless

beautiful pictures

Thanks for sharing

David

[AxeMan]

Glad you had fun and caught some pretty darn nice fish.  I can sure see that ocean salmon fishing takes a lot of work and skill, and especially some experience.
I only ever went salmon fishing once up the Skeena on a jet boat to some remote rivers coming in and we slayed the Cohos pretty good.  That didn't take a lot of skill catching them on the river where they were concentrated.  The vast open ocean would be an eye opener for me.

You guys will have a few salmon meals for sure.

[walleyes]

Yah it's a differant ball game out there that's for sure especially when you target chinook. If a person wanted to catch salmon one could go on a pink year and with basic gear and knowledge you could put fish in the tub. But chinook are differant I sort of compare them with walleye,, you just can't go there and throw a hook in the water and in just any old place and catch fish. Then there is the safety issue with being on the ocean,, not a place to break down there is always that nasty tide to deal with and one never knows where that would drag you. I remember a couple years back there were a couple guys off shore of Port Renfrew about 10 miles a popular fishing spot it's about 10 miles from shore. They were the last ones to stay in the evening and when they went to leave they had engine problems and so they started to drift. Port Renfrew is just up the coast from Sooke, anyways 4" days later a freighter came across them off the coast of Oregon lol,,,not something I ever wish to experience. It's fun out there and some day I hope to live in that part of the world but one has to be on the ball when playing out there.

[unclebuck]

Sounds like a good trip, Terry!!  We were on the Shuswap River, east of Enderby, but it was pretty slow for coho & pinks.  Yeah, you got a good one in Gaylene, putting up with you for all these years!!!!!  You are resembling your bro. Les more with every picture that I see of you.

[JIMMY 808]

Heck of a summer trip.  How was all the equipment anything you wish you had? 

[walleyes]

Heck of a summer trip.  How was all the equipment anything you wish you had?

Well I guess there is always something a guy could use,, fishing is like hunting right,, always something worth trying out. But I have been at this for quite a few years now and am quite well equipped. I try and run quality stuff as in the the long run especially out there it really pays off.

One thing I am going to be doing in the next couple years Lord willing is upgrade my boat. As time goes on I am finding we have more time to spend out west about the only thing keeping us from doing it is a bigger boat in order to go to the places I want to go at certain times of the year. Certain places on the coast require a decent sized boat to do it safely  early on in the season or during the winter months. The wife and I plan on spending a good deal of time out on the island in coming years so a bigger tub is definitely in the works.

I have been talking with a boat builder in Langford on the island and more than likely I am going to have a custom built 26' Aluminum built. With the family off now I can look at getting a more west coast specific boat built. Nothing fancy just a well built west coast fishing boat. I am working with them designing a modified centre console / walk around design with a couple pedastill  seats up front and a bench down each side,, lots of room to pack the grandkids in. No paint on the hull to scratch just raw aluminum maybe some paint on the cabin. It is actually quite reasonable to have one built a lot more reasonable than getting a brand name boat like a Weldcraft or Harborcraft like 30g's cheaper and the quality in a custom built well,, you can imagine they make the brand names look like toys,, not fancy but built for a lifetime.

something along these lines but not as wide and a sleeker cabin..

[unclebuck]

When looking at a new boat, look at the Kingfisher & Harbercraft line, manufactured in Vernon.  Excellent equipment, a lot of which is made for "chuck" fishing.  A friend of mine is the purchasing manager for them.  PM me and I will give you his name and number.  He may be able to cut you a deal.

[walleyes]

I know the kingfisher line well Rick, the Umbles ran a couple of them. Not saying they are a bad boat by any means but you can't compare them to these type of boats. It's like comparing a Chevette to a Power Wagon. And like I said you would be amazed at the price difference. You would think a custom build would be more expensive but they aren't. Those boys on the island aren't exactly over busy and they bend over backwards to give you service and to keep you happy. Buddy ruff quoted me a 26' ready for power all wired with trailer at just under 75,, there's no way you could match that with a Kingfisher,, and even if they did it ain't the boat.. You buy one of these boats honestly you have a boat for life if you want it.. You put 120 g's into a boat like this and in 20 years you will still get 90 for it not so with a Kingfisher.

[Sonny]

Great pics walleyes..

I have never been fishing in the ocean but one of these years...haha..

[JIMMY 808]

Those custom made boats are pretty cool!  There is a whole thread on a boat build on that small forum I told you about not sure if you have seen it or not.

  One thing I have always wanted was radar and auto pilot.  A pard of mine was showing me  his fish finder/ gps he had three other screens for it around the boat.  Also rear steering is about as handy as pockets in underwear. 
Hopefully you let us fallow along the build.   

[walleyes]

Yes the auto pilot and radar are a must on the next one for sure.

If the new build happens it will be at least a couple years away but when it does I am sure I'll be showing it off on here all along lol.