Chinook Salmon Fishing in Victoria, BC

Victoria sits on one of the best pieces of Chinook water on the coast, and you can fish it any month of the year. Sub-adult winter springs feed hard through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Oak Bay and Constance Bank from November through April, giving you a steady baseline when other fisheries go quiet. The dominant run arrives from late June through August, when migratory Fraser, Columbia and Puget Sound fish stage off southern Vancouver Island. Peak months are May through August, with a secondary lift in late spring as early-run fish push in and herring and needlefish stack up. October runs thin once mature fish enter their natal rivers. We cover 18 spots that hold Chinook here, including Albert Head, Brodie Rock, Brotchie Ledge, Cadboro Bay, the Chatham Islands, Church Rock off Albert Head, Clover Point and Constance Bank.

Two things drive the bite. Go at first light, from just before sunrise through the first couple of hours, and again as the light goes in the evening. Through the middle of a bright day it tails off. Fish moving water too. You want the tide running at 1 knot or more, so plan around the run of the ebb or the flood, not the turn. Dead slack is the worst of it.

Downrigger trolling does most of the work. Run flasher-and-bait or flasher-and-lure setups from 40 to 150 feet along Constance Bank, the Oak Bay flats and the Waterfront, using anchovy or herring in a teaser head, trolling spoons or plastic hootchies. Drift mooching a cut-plug or whole herring with a banana weight still produces around Oak Bay and the Trial Island tide rips. When fish hold tight to ledges and bait balls in 60 to 200 feet, work metal jigs or soft plastic swimbaits vertically.