Today with 4 guests from L.A. for the 1st of two mornings of fishing this weekend. The morning started quiet for about 90 minutes. Nice calm water, watched a couple of Humpback whales around us and then between 9:30 and 10 am fish started to bite. We ended up with 5 nice Coho salmon, lost a couple more and a couple of Jack Mackerel. Three nice Dungeness crab in the traps finished the morning off. Left the traps in overnight today so hopefully more will be in them tomorrow morning.

Todays catch 4 Coho salmon and 13 Jack Mackerel.

Our fall Coho salmon fishery is in full swing and they will be in local waters until the end of October. Most are in the 7-12 pound range but my Sooke waters record went 23 pounds. For the balance of the Coho run your daily limit is 1 wild and 3 hatchery fish per person. There is also the possibility of hooking into a few winter Chinook as well. In the past week there have been big schools of Jack Mackerel around and when we hit a school of them it is fast action. Apparently they are excellent on the barbecue. I’ll have to take my customers word for it because I never get to take any home for myself. Come enjoy the remaining weeks/days left of the summer fishing season. The boat is dry and heated!!

This past week has seen the arrival of some very nice and larger Chinook salmon into local Sooke hot spots. On Wednesday the 19th we played and released Chinook of **hidden content** and 7 pounds and has a couple more larger fish get off after a frw minutes on the gear. We also have been bringing home easy limits of pinks and hatchery coho salmon. Our trips right now offer constant rod action.

We are targeting larger summer run Chinook salmon right now as they are plentiful and the most fun and a real challenge to play on light tackle. Fishing pressure right now at the local hot spots is almost zero and we have had Otter Point to ourselves on most trips. The largest verified caught and released Chinook this summer went 52 pounds. Chinook are catch and release until August 1st and locals are not participating right now and are waiting for August 1st. The cost of fuel likely is playing a part as well. This leaves all these fish available to us each trip and results in more hook ups. We leave enough time on each trip to also target hatchery Coho and Pink salmon which can be retained and brought home. Our crab traps which soak during each trip have also been doing well and most charter parties have enjoyed crab boils back at their accommodations after their fishing trips.

Yesterday was the last day of May and we finished off the month with a 6 hour morning trip in Sidney waters which is a 1/2 hour drive from downtown Victoria. We kept 15 and 12 pound hatchery Chinook and lost 4 others which out smarted us. The beautiful summer weather continues and we have enjoyed the protected calm lake like waters fishing among the Gulf Island near Sidney. I will be shifting my efforts back to the Sooke area waters for the next upcoming trips and hope to see similar results. As of June 1st to July 31st all Chinook must be released unless DFO announces otherwise.