Getting Chummy With Chum

It’s time once again to get out the old rod and head to Sooke for the annual chum run up the Sooke River. Below the bridge in town, both gear and fly are allowed. Above the bridge only fly. In Sooke Basin, the most commonly fished spot is Billing’s Spit. Whiffen Spit should also offer fish when they stage just inside it or on the corner coming into the Basin, though I have not fished it during the fall fishery.

Above the bridge, the river is tidal for a good mile, and offers many spots for casting. The most open spot is the Sooke campground. You pay a Toonie for entrance and have the use of the washrooms. The river in this location offers a very good spot to learn fly casting, because it is completely open, having no obstructions behind or in front. So those false casts that would otherwise fail on back and forward strokes, more often stay in the air, something that during learning is a good thing. I should add that this spot is fishable on all tide levels, particularly rising tides.

The campground also gives access to De Mamiel Creek, which is where most of the coho rise up to spawn, hence during a dry fall the fish can hold in front of the grounds waiting for the creek to rise with fall rains. Some of the coho rise up Sooke River as well, and thus you can take them from the river above the campground. 

Access to the river above the open area is granted either by wading across from the campground or from the access path across from Sun River estates up the road. In either case, pay attention to the tide level and check the tables for the time of tides, particularly high tides. High tides restrict your access to the river from the far, or Victoria, side of the river. You can be stuck there for several hours before the tide falls enough to allow you to wade back across the river. 

While rising tide is better fishing than falling tide, something that is typical in most estuaries, the high end sends water all the way above the Clay Bank corner, around and all the way to the pool at the end of the farm, and egress can still be a problem on higher tides to these spots. So, pay attention.

For most of the commonly fished waters on the Sooke, it is glorious water to try out your new Switch rod. Two hundred yards below the Clay Bank all the way down to the bridge the river is fairly wide and thus these two handers, which are far less effort to cast than single handers, find good use. One distinct advantage of Switch rods is that you can release a fish in the river without fear of the tip breaking. I have broken tips of both single handers and Spey rods, and the latter, being 14 feet or more, don’t allow you to get the fish close enough to release, and you either need Gunga Din with a net, or you have to drop your expensive rod in the water once you have the line in your hand, to avoid breaking the rod, and then dance around trying not to step on your rod.

Every fly guy/gal in Victoria should put the Sooke on their annual calendar. It is a good fishery, that you are bound to catch and release a fish or two, and on the right days more than a dozen, if the chum are snappy. Chum are at their most willing on a rising tide, and within a couple hours after it. I have been on the pool behind the farm when chum have been rising into it for several hours before and after the high tide.

Now, turning to flies, everyone has their own go-to fly for Sooke; thus many completely different flies can have fine days. Remember that no matter the fly’s size, if you have some silver metal or attractant like Krystal Flash in it, you can single out the coho in the waters. As they are few in number, you likely won’t see them mixed up in large chum schools, but your flashing fly will work on them. I have seen tiny Clousers (see image below) with silver dumbbell eyes do the deed on coho, and then all the way up to large multi-layered, silver-based flies for both species.

Flies that I have seen do well include: pink or white or chartreuse Woolly Buggers, pink and purple Egg-Sucking Leeches, California Neils, double-egg patterns in purple and orange, and gargantuan streamers featuring lots of purple and pink Krystal Flash or Flshabou. Note that circle hooks make lots of sense for chum as they school tightly and are the clumsiest of the salmon species. If you don’t have circle hooks, use black salmon hooks and bend the barb up toward the shank. Note the points in the image below, particularly the double sperm egg patterns on the left: one has a circle hook and the other a bent Salmon hook.

This image will give you a place to start tying. Ones that look beat up are in that condition because they work and have received many bites, and still work.