Rockfish (Aggregate) Fishing in Sooke, BC

Rockfish sit on the same rocky ground here every week of the year. They are long-lived residents, non-migratory, and they hold on reefs and pinnacles rather than moving through, so what you find in March is what you find in October. We cover 12 spots around Sooke that hold them, including Aldridge Point, Beechey Head, Bentinck Island, Christopher Point, Jordan River Mouth, Muir Creek / Muir Point, Otter Point and Pedder Bay. Peak fishing runs March through October, when herring and sandlance pull fish up onto shallower structure and put them into an active feeding pattern. Winter fish drop tighter to deep structure and slow down, but they are still there.

Current runs the day. Fish the slack. From dead slack up to about 0.5 knots you can drop a jig and have it hang where you put it. By roughly 2.5 knots the ground is unfishable and you are better off waiting. Plan your stops around the window either side of high or low water.

Jigging is the main method. Work metal jigs, leadhead jigs with soft plastics, or swimbaits down onto rocky structure and pinnacles in 60 to 200 feet along the nearshore reefs. Cut or whole herring, squid or anchovy on a dropper rig near the bottom covers reef edges and rockpiles, and a weighted herring moochedover structure pulls quillback and copper rockfish off the bottom.