🎣 Fishing Conditions
📍 No location🌊 Current Conditions
📅 7-Day Forecast
📊 Historical Data
Otter Point to Secretary Island fishing & marine conditions
West of Otter Point the coast becomes progressively more exposed, with fewer places to duck in and a longer fetch to the open Pacific. This section sees less traffic than the water immediately off Sooke, and the sea state is generally a step rougher for the same forecast. It is water for boats and crews with the range to handle a deteriorating afternoon.
What runs here, and when
Chinook move along this shoreline through the summer, following the same migration that feeds the fishery further east. Coho appear later in the season. The deeper offshore ground holds halibut. Fish are travelling rather than resident, so productive spots shift with bait and tide rather than staying fixed year to year.
Otter Point to Secretary Island salmon fishing — runs, limits & season
Local hazards
Exposure is the main hazard: there is limited shelter along this stretch, and a westerly that builds in the afternoon leaves a long, uncomfortable run in either direction. Swell from the open Pacific is more noticeable here than to the east, and it steepens over the shallower ground. Fog is frequent in summer. Cell coverage is patchy, so a VHF radio matters more than it does closer to town.
Tides, current and sea state
Tidal streams run strongly along the shore and set up rips off the points. Wind-against-tide is the condition to plan around, and it is more punishing here than further east because the fetch is longer. Check the forecast for the western strait rather than for Victoria, and give yourself margin - conditions at the eastern end are a poor guide to what happens out here.
Live data on this page
Conditions above are for 48.420°N, 123.720°W. Wind, wave and pressure data come from Open-Meteo and refresh every three hours; tide predictions come from the Canadian Hydrographic Service. The fishing score combines wind, wave height, barometric trend, moon phase, tide movement and time of day.
Marine forecast & warnings
Otter Point to Secretary Island lies in Environment and Climate Change Canada's Juan de Fuca Strait marine forecast zone.
⚠ Strong wind warning in effect for Juan de Fuca Strait - west entrance, issued Sunday November 01, 2026 at 04:00 PCT.
ECCC reissues the forecast through the day and can post a warning at any hour, so the Marine Forecast panel above carries the current wind, visibility and multi-day outlook word for word. It describes the open water of the zone, not a particular bay inside it, and is no substitute for the VHF or weatheradio broadcast.
Regulations
Otter Point to Secretary Island lies in DFO Pacific Area 20. Openings, closures and limits change in-season and differ between subareas, so check the DFO Area 20 recreational fishing page before you go. Nothing on this page is a substitute for the current regulations, official charts, or the marine forecast.
As of November 1, 2026, five closure areas are in effect in DFO Pacific Area 20, among them Pacific Rim National Park, Coastwide and San Juan River mouth. Salmon limits for the area: chinook 2 per day; chum 4 per day; coho 4 per day in 20-2, 4 per day in 20-1 and 20-3 to 20-7; pink 4 per day; sockeye non retention.
Read from the DFO Area 20 page, last updated 2026-11-01. See the full Area 20 regulations for every closure and limits table, or the Fishery Notices for changes newer than that date.
Nearby locations
- Sooke Basin
- Beecher Bay to Trial Islands (Area 20)
- Sooke to Otter Point (Area 20)
- Finlayson Arm (Area 18)
- Victoria Harbour
- Victoria Harbour (Area 19)