The big news out of Sooke this week is last week's Vancouver Island Salmon Classic Derby.

Dave Cowell of N'Joy Fishing Charters in Sooke, and fishing partner Len Neveu, won first place with a 40.6 pound salmon. They also gained 2nd place, with a 37.8 pounder. Good for $150,000 in prizes!

Trevor from No Bananas Fishing Charters got third place with a 37.2 pounder, winning $25,000.






The fishing was a little slow, with 38 salmon weighed in from the 55 teams. However, the top 8 were over 30 pounds, so the Sooke report continues...some slow moments, but some nice fish out there too. The winning fish were both caught off Sooke Bluffs....no other details provided!

There are still pinks and coho out in the deeper water. Dave Hadley reports some luck: "run a little faster - 3 to 3.5mph around the tidelines, greens are good, whites are good/combinations of white/green. My traditional favorite combo is usually mint tulip hootch on a plaid flasher - rarely fails me, yesterday was doing good when we found the pockets on glo-green coyote and plaid. Can be partly a hunting game as well...only area we got into them was around 95', but earlier in the day, one guy mentioned all around 40'. Stack your lines until you find the depths. I'm hearing further east (Church/Race) is better right now as well, but I'm sure waves of them will be coming through."


And finally a hopeful word from Trevor at No Bananas, for all you hunting that last Tyee of the season: "i have a feeling there's going to be one more small push of springs in the next morning floods...don't give up yet boys, the biggest fish of the year are still lurking around."

Good luck out there!