British Columbia Fishing Blog

“The Heart of the Fraser is in peril…”

My good friend Dr Marvin Rosenau sent this to me and has urged me to share it with my followers.
All of you who fish the Lower Fraser River and tributaries from Mission to Hope, already understand the ecological importance of this stretch. Salmon either spawn here or travel through as a corridor, cutthroat trout fishing can be pretty awesome, sturgeon fishing is also productive year round. Eagles, bears and other wildlife depend on these fish, so it makes sense to protect and enhance it right?

Well, as unbelievable as it sounds, developers have applied for permits to build bridges to two large islands, Herrling and Carey, for agriculture and subdivisions. These bridges must not be approved! If approved, it would not only lead to destruction of critical fish habitat and we are looking at losing more access to fishing areas.

Please take a few minutes to watch this video, and sign the pledge on the following website:

https://www.heartofthefraser.ca

The Heart of the Fraser is a coalition of concerned groups including Watershed Watch Salmon Society, BC Wildlife Federation, BCIT Rivers Institute, Outdoor Recreation Council of BC, British Columbia Federation Of Drift Fishers, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Alouette River Management Society.

Please share this with your friends.

A couple of months ago, we published an alert notice on the presence of smallmouth bass in Cultus Lake when the northern pikeminnow capture crew encountered a couple during the program in the spring. There was surprisingly fair amount of skepticism of this news even though the notice came from BC’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

This morning, I accompanied Region 2 biologist Colin Schwindt, and Martina Beck from Ministry’s invasive fauna unit head who spent the day sampling the lake for specimens. Several smallmouth bass were captured, including both juveniles (1 year old) and adults (3 ~ 5 year old). Their stomach samples were collected and their age will be determined at the lab.

How smallmouth bass will impact native species in Cultus Lake including endangered sockeye salmon is unknown at this point, because there simply isn’t enough information to determine that.

Colin has asked anglers who fish the lake to retain smallmouth bass if you encounter them (the current daily quota is 20), and bring them to DFO’s Cultus Lake Salmon Research Lab (4222 Columbia Valley Highway).

More information can be found on this page.

The non-tidal portion of the Fraser River is closed to sockeye salmon fishing after today. This year’s opening was almost a month long, so I hope everyone has had a chance to bring home some of the finest eating salmon. The good news is that the river will remain open for two salmon species – Chinook and chum salmon. Traditionally, the Lower Fraser River is closed to all salmon fishing throughout September, so several vulnerable runs, including Interior coho salmon and steelhead, can be protected. To still have some salmon recreational fishing opportunities available on the Fraser River this month is a bonus.

The key point that anglers should remember is to selectively target chinook and chum salmon only. In the past ten years, my colleagues and I in the Sport Fishing Advisory Committee have repeatedly asked Fisheries and Oceans Canada to define selective angling methods so they can be enforced during specific species closures. By doing so, it would result in more fishing opportunities for you if by-catches can be avoided. Instead, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has chosen not to do so, and continued to issue a “request” for selective fishing in fishery notices. This puts the recreational fishing community in a difficult place. While most anglers abide to that request, some would still choose to bottom bounce for chinook salmon and incidentally hook sockeye salmon in the process. When Fisheries and Oceans Canada observes and determines that by-catches of sockeye salmon and other closed species become too frequent, the entire fishery is shut down due to the lack of compliance of a “request” which cannot be enforced in the first place. It is a frustrating scenario and it needs to be changed, so your fishing opportunities would not be lost while conservation goals could be met.

The directors of the Fraser River Sportfishing Alliance and other business owners of the Fraser Valley recreational fishing community have been working hard on this issue. Starting tomorrow as sockeye salmon fishing closes, we are asking all anglers to stop bottom bouncing and practice selective fishing methods only. We are not asking you to do so because you should comply to a loosely defined request by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. We are asking you so the recreational fishing community can take the lead on proper fishery management, to avoid by-catches of species which we are trying to protect while enjoying the opportunities available. We want to see anglers out bar fishing for chinook salmon, and practice safe catch and release when a closed species is caught. You can also cast and retrieve lures in waters which are appropriate for the method. The take home message is that we should all avoid catching sockeye salmon, coho salmon and steelhead in the next several weeks. Thank you for the support.

Chilliwack Vedder River Cleanup Society has finalized this year’s river clean-up dates with the City of Chilliwack and Fraser Valley Regional District. They are:

• April 20th at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve
• July 20th at the Great blue Heron Nature Reserve
• September 29th at the Chilliwack Fish and Games Club

This will be the twelfth year since we started the group. In 2012, participants racked up 2,464 volunteer hours, collecting 5.72 metric tonnes of garbage from the Chilliwack River. This shows the importance of having these clean-ups. Not only are we maintaining the Chilliwack River valley so it is a pristine recreational corridor for all to enjoy, we are also minimizing garbage from being washed into the Pacific Ocean. Please support these three clean-ups once again in 2013.

Fishing with Rod reached a milestone today. Thanks to your support by watching our videos, subscribing to the channel and providing us with your feedbacks, Fishing with Rod is now the first Canadian fishing YouTube channel to reach 10,000 subscribers!

We started producing online video content in 2006 when YouTube first hit the internet. Our videos in the first few years were done on what was then a rather expensive DV camera. Since then, our videos have evolved to 1080p HD that can be viewed on your large screen television. Our goal has been to share our experience in fisheries that are family friendly, which you can also enjoy later on.

Many thanks to our commercial supporters last year, including Shimano Fishing, Islander Reels, Pautzke Bait, Yakima Bait and Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC. Without their support, our video content could not have grown and improved.

This year, we will once again be producing long video blog episodes to show you different places to fish in British Columbia. There will be instructional videos as requested by many viewers.

To celebrate our milestone, we will be running some contest give-aways in the next several weeks, so please check our contest section often.