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[obie1fish]

So I was fishing the Harrison (no, folks, there wasn't a whole lot of fry around from the mouth of the Weaver to the Fraser, and we didn't see any Cutties), and my buddy and I went above the pilings and walked up the outflow that had the weirs. The area had been burned, and there were smouldering areas. It also appeared that there were earlier fires on parts of the flats. Not only that, there was a fire that started upstream of us while we were at the metal pillars. Two anglers had just started back from the area, and were downwind of the blaze, which grew over 20 feet high. I highly doubt it was them that started the fire.

Any idea if these fires are naturally caused, arson, or a set of controlled burns? The smoke was visible over a very large area.

[Fatso]

I would suspect that these fires were either caused by weenie roasts gone out of control or man mad global warming. 

[clarki]

The fire(s) are noted as active wildfires on the BC Wildfire Service website
http://bcfireinfo.for.gov.bc.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNews/Fires.asp?Mode=normal&AllFires=0&FC=0

AFAIK it hasn't been picked up by any of the news outlets which is strange considering it is a LM fire, and the first one, and so early in the season

or man mad global warming. 

Should call you Billy Ray Cyrus. He was a one hit wonder too.

[Hike_and_fish]

I spent all day up there. Saw two other boats. I assume you were the guys with the pedestal seats ? Anyways. I did see LOTS of big fry. Tons. I would think I would have seen even more if it wasnt so windy. There were two RCMP officers near the FN boat launch ( 200 yards past the end of the pilings ). I assume it was an unofficial controlled burn and the flames were not 20' high. It was ground level brush that burned.

On another note. The water is SUPER low. I saw exposed redds on the south side. LOTS of them. Basically anything that's not in the path of the mainstem is high and dry. Very dry. I didnt see a single Cutty and only landed 3 dinky Whitefish. Again, the water was really choppy due to the extreme wind. It was challenging to get a decent cast in. I switched to a light spinning setup as a last ditch effort to catch something down by Kilby. I had a few grabs but that was it.

[RalphH]

a couple of times in my fishing life I have seen chum fry emerge from gravel that is out of the water and watched them flip and wiggle a foot or 2 to the waters edge. Once it happened right between my feet. NFB produced a short film some decades back called "the Man who Digs for Fish". He owned property on a small stream near Powell River that had a run of chum. In the spring when the water was low he'd dig redds that were high and dry and place the gravel in the streams. Large numbers of fry would come out of the gravel and scoot downstream

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21870271?q&versionId=26333697

[obie1fish]

At the time I saw the flames, my vantage point had the flames starting off at brush level, but they did get much higher at their peak, but not for a sustained amount of time. As for the fry, I saw only two occasions where fry were accumulated enough for the birds to get into a feeding frenzy- once across from the boat launch in the morning, and once in the afternoon at the highway bridge.

Clarki, thanks for the digging on the forest fire site- it's one I used a lot last summer, and is very helpful. Like H & F said, the conditions are extremely low, but the brush is also extremely dry. Brush fires make good sense, in retrospect.

[Hike_and_fish]

a couple of times in my fishing life I have seen chum fry emerge from gravel that is out of the water and watched them flip and wiggle a foot or 2 to the waters edge. Once it happened right between my feet. NFB produced a short film some decades back called "the Man who Digs for Fish". He owned property on a small stream near Powell River that had a run of chum. In the spring when the water was low he'd dig redds that were high and dry and place the gravel in the streams. Large numbers of fry would come out of the gravel and scoot downstream

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21870271?q&versionId=26333697

That's cool

[clarki]

Prescribed burns throughout the Province are in the news and in BC Wildfire Service information bulletins, but no mention of one in this location. Besides, a wildfire on a river floodplain is such low risk, it's highly unlikely that a prescribed burn would seen as a risk management approach for this location. Could it have been an unsanctioned burn, perhaps by the Sts'Ailes nation? Perhaps...

a couple of times in my fishing life I have seen chum fry emerge from gravel that is out of the water and watched them flip and wiggle a foot or 2 to the waters edge. Once it happened right between my feet. NFB produced a short film some decades back called "the Man who Digs for Fish". He owned property on a small stream near Powell River that had a run of chum. In the spring when the water was low he'd dig redds that were high and dry and place the gravel in the streams. Large numbers of fry would come out of the gravel and scoot downstream https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21870271?q&versionId=26333697

I've never seen this, but in my dog eared copy of Eric Carlisle's book, West Coast River Angling, he speaks about water flowing unseen through the substrate, sustaining the eggs, and the newly hatched fry being able to wiggle through this subsurface water to the river's edge.

[stsfisher]

At the time I saw the flames, my vantage point had the flames starting off at brush level, but they did get much higher at their peak, but not for a sustained amount of time. As for the fry, I saw only two occasions where fry were accumulated enough for the birds to get into a feeding frenzy- once across from the boat launch in the morning, and once in the afternoon at the highway bridge.

Clarki, thanks for the digging on the forest fire site- it's one I used a lot last summer, and is very helpful. Like H & F said, the conditions are extremely low, but the brush is also extremely dry. Brush fires make good sense, in retrospect.

I too witnessed the massive cloud of smoke billowing in the later afternoon. it almost had that burning smell of garbage.
I only fished the south shoreline, witnessed 2 good concentrations of fry, without a fish in sight. Only a matter of time before the cutties are around with some numbers, hopefully?

[Hike_and_fish]

The redds I saw were DEEP in the south side sloughs and I mean deep. I took a long walk after seeing a few. I just followed redd after redd. It's so dry out there its ridiculous and u certainly dont see the water rising more than a meter anytime soon.

[clarki]

https://www.agassizharrisonobserver.com/news/b-c-wildfire-crews-respond-to-stsailes-morris-valley-fires/

[Hike_and_fish]

Around noon I motored up past the ripping water at the east end of the pilings. I went up to Graveyard on the rez side and drifted down. I saw a small amount of really thick black smoke from far away. As I got closer the smoke got larger. It also changed from a black to yellow then to a smoky white as it grew. There was no fire from noon and by 2:30 when I left it was pretty big. I first assumed someone was burning a matress or some foam. I do remeber seeing two spots where it looked like there had been fires recently with beer cans around them. ATV tracks all over the place too.

I'd post my pictures of the fire but I cant figure out how to post them on this site.

[RalphH]

I've never seen this, but in my dog eared copy of Eric Carlisle's book, West Coast River Angling, he speaks about water flowing unseen through the substrate, sustaining the eggs, and the newly hatched fry being able to wiggle through this subsurface water to the river's edge.

15 minutes in following Fisherman's Fall, a short film about Haig-Brown broadcast on the old Westland TV series.


https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/westland/items/1.0048248

there is much more to gravel and soil in a river bed and valley. Rivers are much broader than they appear on the surface with aquatic life existing in the saturated stratum just below the apparently dry valley lands and flood plains.

[StillAqua]

I've never seen this, but in my dog eared copy of Eric Carlisle's book, West Coast River Angling, he speaks about water flowing unseen through the substrate, sustaining the eggs, and the newly hatched fry being able to wiggle through this subsurface water to the river's edge.

Very true. I saw a talk by a DFO scientist about studies they did in BC on sockeye and he was showing how the over-wintering yolk-sac fry (alevins) can move through the water between the gravel (hyporheic zone) to avoid it if water levels drop too low or if surface water starts freezing down into the gravels in winter. Makes sense that they would have that ability to avoid natural threats to their survival. Impairing this ability to live and move through the streambed is one of the biggest problems with sediments coming from logging, road construction, agriculture and urban development.

[Blood_Orange]

Very true. I saw a talk by a DFO scientist about studies they did in BC on sockeye and he was showing how the over-wintering yolk-sac fry (alevins) can move through the water between the gravel (hyporheic zone) to avoid it if water levels drop too low or if surface water starts freezing down into the gravels in winter. Makes sense that they would have that ability to avoid natural threats to their survival. Impairing this ability to live and move through the streambed is one of the biggest problems with sediments coming from logging, road construction, agriculture and urban development.

Interesting stuff! I went to the Stave today and was floored by how low the water was in the marsh. There were many spots where the river was impassable to fish due to dry gravel beds stretching all the way across the waterway. I hope that the eggs can survive these conditions!

Since the flow is dam-controlled, it makes me wonder why they put all the work into environmental restoration in the area, only to let it dry out...