November 2009 Salty Towers News

Hello to Friends of Salty Towers around the world!

It is November in Sooke, and that means storm watching season. We've seen some pretty interesting weather of late, no shortage of wind and rain, then sunny for a few minutes, then back to the storm again. It is certainly not boring weather...fun to put on your rubber boots and rain slicker and go for a walk on Whiffin Spit.

And with the winter storms comes the winter surf. The area around Sooke has some of the best waves in Canada, and there's a wetsuit-clad local crew chomping at the bit for when a new storm arrives. The picture above could have been taken from the Salty Towers dock, if you stood way up on your tiptoes and had a really good telephoto lens. :-)

The picture below is about 20 minutes up the road at Jordan River. Swells tend to last 1-3 days, and come once or twice per week on average from November to April. So...if you're looking for something different, it's going on in and around Sooke!

For fishing, we are into winter spring salmon fishing mode. Plenty of nice salmon are being caught out front of the Harbour mouth west towards Otter Point. This week has had some reports of fish well into the teens, up to 15 pounds. As is typical, they are usually caught right off the bottom in 130-150' depths, usually with hootchies -- something glow or purple haze are popular.

Here's a photo from October, with Mike Ross from Alberta with a nice coho.

There are an increasing number of boats anchoring up for halibut too, just off Sooke Bluffs....so that is an interesting possibility, bring home some nice white fish for the table, without having to go all the way to Swiftsure or Constance Bank.

It's a nice time to visit, but then again, when isn't it a good time around here? Come by for a visit!

Happy days,

Neil and Maggie