Coho Salmon Fishing in Victoria, BC

Coho fishing out of Victoria runs on a clear schedule. Fish build through spring as smolts and early feeders move into local water, and the peak sits from May through September, with the heaviest numbers from late July into early September when migratory schools returning to the Fraser River and Puget Sound systems push through the Juan de Fuca Strait. Large Northern coho arrive late September, then numbers drop sharply by mid-October as fish enter the rivers. From November through February you are down to scattered resident blueback coho, which hold a low year-round presence but nothing like the summer push. We cover 18 spots that hold coho, including Albert Head, Brodie Rock, Brotchie Ledge, Cadboro Bay, the Chatham Islands, Church Rock off Albert Head, Clover Point and Constance Bank.

Downrigger trolling does most of the work here. Run flasher-and-bait with anchovy in teaser heads, or flasher-and-hootchie, at 30 to 80 feet around Oak Bay, Constance Bank and the Trial Islands. Trolling spoons cover the same water. When coho feed high on needlefish along kelp lines and tide rips, surface troll bucktail flies or small spoons just off the prop wash. Over bait balls in Juan de Fuca Strait, drop metal jigs and work the top 60 feet.

Plan your day around light and current. Be on the water before sunrise, fish the first two hours hard, then again as the light goes. Time it so the tide is running at 1 knot or more, and fish the ebb or the flood rather than the turn. Dead slack is the worst of it.