By Ron Neitsch
The salmon and halibut fishing in Sooke has come on strong with a great run of powerful, healthy chinook passing through area waters.
These fish are in great shape and are mostly males, both indicating the start of a good run of fish.
On Friday, the spots west of Sooke harbour lit up with more boats getting into larger spring salmon.
The popular bait heads are reported as green, chartreuse, lemon/lime type colours. Bloody Nose and glow heads have also been working well. Gibbs and Coyote spoons have been popular in prism, Bon Chovy, and Irish Cream patterns.
The best salmon fishing still appears to be in the shallows, with our best fish coming from 50 to 70 feet on the downrigger last week.
Halibut fishing has picked up again with some recent good tides, good weather and the absence of the spiny dogfish, which seem to have moved out of the area.
Halibut spots near the harbour entrance and up west have produced larger 30- to 70-pound flatties to those willing to anchor up and spend the day rolling herring, salmon bellies or octopus on the bottom in 80 to 250 feet of water.
Crabbing in the harbour seems to have slowed down a bit, but we are still pulling a couple of good Dungeness males out each trip.
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Ron Neitsch is owner of 2 Reel Fishing Adventures, based in Sooke.