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.

I've been fishing the waters off Sidney just 1/2 hour from downtown Victoria all of the month of May. The fishing is typically good here in May and because you are on the east side of the Island and among the Gulf Islands the waters are sheltered and often lake like calm. The fishing has been very good most of the month with only a couple of stinker trips during a week of bad tides. Yesterday with awesome afternoon tides we played 15 Chinook up to 24 1/2 pounds. We kept our 3 person limit of 3 hatchery Chinook that went **hidden content** and 10 pounds. Released 5 wild Chinook that went **hidden content**,and 5 pounds. Released 4 more hatchery Chinook because we had our limit and lost 3 more far from the boat. Lots of action for a 4 hour trip and we were the only boat there for all but the last 15 minutes of the trip.

Our late fall Coho salmon fishery is still producing limit catch potential on every trip out this week. Average hook ups per 4 hour trip is around 20 fish right now. Fish are between 5-12 pounds. The weather continues to be summer like warm and the waters calm. These Coho will remain here until significant rainfall gets creeks and streams flowing so these fish can enter to spawn. We are also watching dozens of Humpback Whales feeding around us as we fish. Today they were everywhere you looked and we had to maneuver around to stay out of their way. Customers got some great videos and pics througout the morning.

The fall Coho season is now happening with lots of action on each trip. It is common to have multiple doubles and even triples with the numbers of fish migrating through Sooke waters at this time. Most are between 6-10 pounds but there are larger ones as the photo above proves. Out largest over the years topped 23 pounds! Coho will continue to run into the 3rd week of October. Daily limits until Sept 30th is 2 hatchery Coho plus 2 Chinook (most likely winter Chinook at this time) As of October 1st the Coho limits increase to 1 wild and 3 hatchery per person.

Chinook salmon fishing has been excellent this spring and nearly summer. For the 3rd year now we are under non-retention rules for Chinook salmon and they must be released. We are averaging 10-12 Chinook landed and released on each 4 hour outing. The largest we have taken so far in Sooke was caught on June 1st and went 28 pounds. We also took a 27 pound Chinook on May 7th in Sidney area waters. Most of the fish have been in the 8-17 pound range. While disappointing to have to release all the Chinook we land I explain to my customers....given a choice would you prefer to fish a hot spot and have it to yourself, have lots of action and time on the rods and release the fish...or go out in a big crowd of boats when you can keep fish but have no action at all? Right now we have my favorite spots to ourselves, all the fish there are available to us and clients are on the rods multiple times on each outing. Crabbing has been fair lately. We aregetting crab but not big numbers this past week or so. Todays largest Chinook would have gone 18 pounds.