Summer Chinook

It’s time to don those shades and switch over to summer fishing. May marks the month that Columbians begin to filter through our waters, with some legitimate 50 pounders in the early fish. And the first are taken at Sheringham Point, west of Sooke (where most anglers fish).

With their feeding reflex down in preparation for spawning, the longest time without food is over night; hence why the crack of dawn is usually the best time of day to fish for the big fish – they are more likely to be feeding at this time than any other. These days dawn comes early with first light now before 5:00AM. Overnight, the big fish will be found finning along at their 1.5 mph cruising speed in back eddies. They don’t pass the point, as the ebb is streaming faster than this, and simply pushes them back into the back eddy until the tide changes, whereupon they are ‘freed’.

We all know to fish close to shore as these fish are on a mission, not like feeders that reside in our area fattening up, and, of course, in much deeper water following lunch rather than shore. At the crack of dawn the most likely bet is back eddies formed behind points of land on ebb tides. That is because the fish are not moving fast and are, in essence, pushed home by flood tides.

A typical land structure, like Otter Point, sticks out as much as a half mile, creating a large back eddy. Fishing the 50- to 75-foot contour, rods at 35- to 50-feet on the downrigger, usually puts you on the money. Having said this, one day, aced out of my arc onto shore by a boat that pushed its way past me and a dozen other boats, I fished along the seam running from the Point directly toward Sheringham, past Muir Creek. The latter is also a good close-in structure to mosey past.

To my surprise I hooked a 30-pound fish, unexpected in more than 200 feet of water and with rods high, but in the back-eddy seam. Justice in a world where the boat that pushed all the rest of us out of our spot, circling, one behind the other. When I got close, I showed the offending boat my big fish and smiled, content that they had caught nothing.

The circling technique in back eddies is a cut plug technique usually used in the out backs. We don’t fish cutplugs in the CRD anymore, perhaps because there are far fewer chinook than there used to be. But, where practiced, it is deadly. To achieve a crest and trough pattern for the bait, when the line is at 90 degrees, you put the boat in gear, and move until the line is at 45 degrees, then take the boat out of gear. It is spine tingling stuff to be among a circle of a dozen boats grinding a rock pile. When the person in front of you puts his boat in gear, you do to, and when he takes it out of gear, you also do the same – move and glide, move and glide. Hence a very well-organized bunch of boats are all doing the same and when a boat gets a fish on, the fleet opens a hole and the fish-on boat passes out of the fleet to fight and net the fish. Then that boat rejoins the circle.

It is spine tingling because you never know who will get a fish, and once the bite comes on, many boats will catch a big fish. Sometimes every single boat gets a big fish before the bite wanes for an hour.

But in the CRD, we do fish anchovy in teaser-heads behind a flasher. It used to be a fishery for a Pal No. 3 metal dodger, which is a slow-motion fishery indeed, because the big fish are more choosy, and less inclined to speed up to catch a meal. As flashers rotate, rather than sway side to side, they impart more action, and thus, you are advised to use a four-foot leader between blade and bait. Also put less bend in the wire-rigged anchovy, near the tail, so it spirals more slowly and always check bait action beside the boat before sending it down to fish. And you fish slow, the time of year when some boats toss out a pail on a line to slow the boat down.

Check your chart and find the pronounced back eddies close to shore. Those are your greatest chance spots. And it takes years of fishing, to know how to fish each one. Put that time in and catch more fish. There are some in the Victoria area, that I am sworn to silence on, that the only time skippers in the know will be found fishing in them is on the ebb, for summer fish. Keep your eyes open and lips closed.

I should also add that in many places it is the top end of the flood that is best, rather than dawn, or ebb tide back eddies. This includes Port Renfrew’s Owen Point, and inside Sooke’s Becher Bay, at Creyke and Aldridge points. Check them out on the end of the flood, regardless of time of day. Every year, some 6 PM high tides reward after-work fishers with big fish. Phone ahead to the marina, and find out this important information.

The current regs allow a minimum size chinook of 45 cm, and max, for a wild fish of 62 cm, in our area. Our area is 19 and 20, Cadboro Point to Sombrio Point. Larger hatchery fish, virtually all American, may be retained. See: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/tidal-maree/a-s20-eng.html#s-regs. And remember those closed areas for killer whales, to the west of Sooke.

These are the saltwater regs: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/index-eng.html. 

This post of mine gives more information on killer whales: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.ca/2018/02/dfo-has-failed-chinook-and-sport.html. 

This one has killer whale feeding grounds: http://sportfishing.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/SRKW-Discussion-Paper-Final-Feb-15-2018.pdf. 

See page 8 of this one: http://sportfishing.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/SRKW-Discussion-Paper-Final-Feb-15-2018.pdf. In Juan de Fuca, we are looking at closures for feeding, except for Port Renfrew and Sooke, then to the east of our area, there are several closures that don’t affect us.