South Island report summer 2014

Thought I'd start a fresh thread for south Vancouver Island  this summer. Please post any reports or tips  you have to share.
C-J and I tried trolling at Otter Point, west of Sooke yesterday, looking for springs but it was slow. The power boat guides I passed weren't doing well either. I did bring 2 wild coho to the yak to be released, so coho are starting to make an appearance. It was a beautiful day to be on the water.
Cheers,
T2

 Every year there is a  sockeye run heading for the Fraser the fish can either go "inside"--between the east coast of Vancouver Island and the mainland or "outside"--down the west coast of the Island. In my local waters on JDF we wait on the outside run to come by to fish sockeye. Usually they do both but this year we have barely seen any sockeye at all as they are all going down the inside. Over the past 3 weeks the spring salmon supply has disappeared as well. I've been out a couple of times this week in the yak without even a bite, let alone a fish. In a word, fishing has been sloooow. I hope you Vancouver/lower mainland yak fishers get a crack at all the sockeye going past your door. Let us know how you do so I can live vicariously! Let's hope some springs show up in the strait to work on.
T2

It was one of those days where everything that could go wrong, did but in the end it didn't matter. I went out chasing coho in the Strait yesterday off Otter Point west of Sooke. It was a beautiful fall morning, warm, no wind and mixed sun and cloud and I had the whole ocean to myself. (In the summer, this is a very popular fishing spot with the power boaters) During the summer, the spring salmon tack is tight to the beach so you are fishing within 100 metres of the launch spot. The fall coho are different--they are typically out in 400-600 ft of water so you have to go out a couple of miles into the strait. I pedalled straight out from shore to gain depth and put my downrigger in and started to fish at about 250 ft of water. I started with 35 ft down on the rigger and dropped it 15 feet or so every 20 minutes until I got to 75 feet. I tried herring strip, spoons and a hootchie, all behind a flasher, to no avail.
    Meanwhile, kayaking conditions were perfect--there was an easy 4 foot swell, an intermittant breeze (which helped my sail push the yak along), not much current to fight and the sun kept breaking through the broken clouds creating rainbows over by the Sooke hills onshore.  With no power boats around, it was absolutely quiet and I could hear whales blowing long before I spotted them--a pair of humpbacks traveling from west to east outside of me.
Once I hit the 400 ft depth, I started marking some fish on my sounder and there were diving birds and gulls working out, so I marked the spot on my plotter and began to circle it but still no action. On my vhf I heard a couple of power boaters who were a few miles east of me talking about getting coho at 90 ft on their downriggers so I thought I would drop mine down to that depth too--mistake #1. I use 80 lb braided line on my downrigger and earlier in the summer I had to replace the line as it was worn. I had about 95 ft left on a spool and I thought for summer time spring salmon depths (rarely deeper than 70 ft) it would be fine until I replaced it in the fall. So with a brain lapse, I forgot I had done this and dropped my rigger down too far and  saw my rod bounce--fish on! I thought and grabbed the rod but then I noticed my downrigger line was all off the rigger and the action I had seen was my release clip pulling off as the 8 lb ball, 90 ft of downrigger line and the release clip headed for the bottom. I thought about packing it in but it was such a beautiful morning I dug out a 4 oz slip weight and put it in front of a flasher and herring strip and trolled through my spot---bang! fish on! These fall coho are awesome--it was about a 10 lber jumping and skipping around as I brought it closer to the yak. Suddenly I was horrified to see that the slip weight had come loose and was close to heading the same direction as my downrigger ball. I carefully brought the coho closer in, and my fingers reached within 4 or 5 inches of the slipweight and then the coho came out of the water like a rocket making the line bounce and off came the weight. To add insult, the fish spit the hook at the same time!  I was laughing at myself like a drunken monkey. I found one more 4 oz mooching weight in the bottom of my gear bucket and tied it very firmly on and kept trolling. The result was another coho lost at the boat and a long distance release on a second one. After 4 hours my legs were done in, there was no fish in the bucket but I was happy as hell and there was a nice breeze to carry me back to the launch spot at 3 knots. That's fishing!