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[noxcape]

so i want to take my daughter up to the hatchery by chilliwack lake does anyone know if there are any springs are sockeye up in there yet

[buck]

NOXCAPE

There are approximately 70-80  chinook holding just downstream  of the visitors foot bridge.

[Rodney]

Buck, how many red chinook salmon have been obtained by the hatchery to date and what is the target number? Thanks.

[Funeral Of Hearts]

How do you get into the hatchery?
I've been up there but the entrance off the road says "disabled access only" and "no unauthorized personel" (or somethiing like that).

[noxcape]

go up to the next gated fence and you will see the parking lot you ahve to take the stairs down there

was up there earlier not many fish in the channel yet but the ones we did see my daughter liked im going ot hit the vedder next week some time any ideas where to start not very familuar with the upper part of the vedder

[buck]

Rodney

Our target for red chinook is around 500,000 to 520,000 eggs. ( 105 -110 females ) To date there have been only about 70 - 80 fish in total show up at the hatchery. Ongoing construction and pond resurfacing has hampered our ability to hold fish in our normal holding area. Hopefully, we will be able to install our finger weir back to its normal location and holding of incoming fish will improve greatly.
Lets hope that there are a lot more fish to come.

[Rodney]

Thanks for the update. Here are a few more questions, since this may make other anglers who use the system more aware of what goes on behind the scene. My understanding is that mortality always occurs while fish are held. What % of red chinook salmon don't make it to the spawning phase when held at the hatchery? Also are you looking for the same number of males as well like in the steelhead brood program, or is one male's milt used to fertilize eggs from several females? Lastly when does the hatchery typically obtains the number of red chinook broods required (the end of July, mid August)?

[buck]

RODNEY

Holding mortalities can be an issue some years if water temperatures become elevated due to a warm spell. Last year we collected 159 females for brood stock, we spawned 121 and lost 38 before they were mature. ( 24% loss) I think our egg total was around 580k and we released 530,000 smolts. So as you can see we didn't have a lot of extra fish to spare. Assuming a yearly release of around 500,000 fish and a return back to the hatchery rack of 400 fish, ( males and females) thats only .08%.  Total run size would only be a guess so I had better not put my foot in my mouth. When spawning we like to stick to the one male to one female ratio as we do when we spawn steelhead. Spawning takes place the last week of August and the first week of September. If we were to release fewer smolts you can see how the number game would come back to haunt us. Thats why we closed the limits hole so as to get as many fish as possible back to the hatchery.

[BNF861]

Thanks for the very imformative posts Buck. Much appreciated, nice to have an idea on how it all works and how things are going

[Rodney]

Thanks Buck. I think this type of updates/information needs to be more readily available to the angling public if we are to make people rethink about how their actions/inactions are affecting the hatchery's work.

The holding mortality is much higher than I had thought.

[Wulff Man]

Thanks for that info. im surprised the number expected is so low to begin with....just reinforces how fragile a system it really is. I wonder why the limit hole was open for retention as long as it was...or am i wrong on that?

also, i was wondering...why are the red springs that return to the hatchery not clipped?

[rides bike to work]

With such low numbers of returning spring why do they open this fishery at all.If I catch and keep 2 springs that could be 5 % of the return.Who makes the call on opening this fishery?

[rhino]

with the red spring numbers being not so favorable, my question is why is there a retention of spring allowed during July and August?

[Rodney]

Changes on regulations such as retention of red chinook salmon in the Chilliwack River are usually done by DFO's fishery manager of Lower Fraser region. He or she receives information from others such as the Chilliwack River hatchery and members of the SFAC to make changes if needed.

[BigFisher]

with the red spring numbers being not so favorable, my question is why is there a retention of spring allowed during July and August?

There hatchery fish. Go ahead and catch and keep, another year of fish will be brought up by the hatchery. There also not the easiest fish to catch. saw a couple springs sitting in the chipmonk canyon yesterday, im guessing they were wilds.