Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: Fish Assassin on June 17, 2025, 04:11:06 PM
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Somebody has to start a thread, might as well be me
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Hopefully they don't show up. People and garbage everywhere..
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Haven't seen any so far. Having said that... what are the dead giveaways its a pink?
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what are the dead giveaways its a pink?
I think the singular defining characteristic of a pink is the oval, elongated spots all over the tail. They get much easier to ID w.r.t colour and body shape as they get closer to spawning condition, but the tail is always a dead giveaway
I think pinks are most likely to be confused with jack springs; compare pics of the tail spots of the two and the difference in spot shape will become quite obvious
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With the numbers they are projecting to return in the Lower Mainland, the Fraser River should be awesome this year. Lots of areas in the tidal portion of the Fraser that should fish well. Had great results 2 years ago and the return was nothing near what they are expecting to return this year. Can't wait.
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With the numbers they are projecting to return in the Lower Mainland, the Fraser River should be awesome this year. Lots of areas in the tidal portion of the Fraser that should fish well. Had great results 2 years ago and the return was nothing near what they are expecting to return this year. Can't wait.
If they do what they usually do and don't let us in the river until Sept 10th, there can be 200 million pinks for all I care. The fish are pretty much inedible by then. Even with the roe by that date, a lot of the skeins are turning into loose eggs by then.
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I caught like 5 just off jericho beach in a kayak 2 yrs ago. So if there are more this year I'm in for a treat ;D
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starting to show on the east coast of the Island. Know a guy with his first earlier this week. Soon fury creek will be happening like 10-14 days.
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Any predictions on when the pinks will arrive around the cap or steveston?
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If they do what they usually do and don't let us in the river until Sept 10th, there can be 200 million pinks for all I care. The fish are pretty much inedible by then. Even with the roe by that date, a lot of the skeins are turning into loose eggs by then.
I think your disdain of DFO has affected your memory of events...
In 2023, tidal and non-tidal waters of the Fraser opened on Sept 1
In 2021, tidal Fraser opened Sept 3, and to your point non-tidal opened on Sept 11
The Fraser was closed in 2017 and 2019
In 2015, the tidal and non tidal Fraser both opened on Sept 5.
In 2013, the tidal and non tidal opened Aug 30 and Aug 31 respectively.
So as far as I can tell, going back to 2013, the non-tidal Fraser has opened well before Sept 10 (except 2021) and mostly concurrent with the lower Fraser.
If the non-tidal Fraser is opened later this year, but all means take the comparatively short drive to the lower Fraser and catch some nice fish with the rest of us Metro Van denizens.
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Any predictions on when the pinks will arrive around the cap or steveston?
first if you haven't,look over the previous discussion here:
https://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=45428.0
this record return isn't money in the bank and DFO forecasts are often well off the mark for reasons discussed in that link.
There are 3 major runs locally; in addition to the Fraser, there is the Squamish & Indian River up Indian Arm via Burrard Inlet. These 2 time a month or more earlier than the Fraser. Neither is included in the DFO pre-season Forecast. The Indian River fish will often be caught off the North Shore beaches in late July and early August though. Fraser runs will usually be in numbers by late August though timings can vary up to plus or minus 10 days.
Watch for DFO in season forecasts and for the prognostications of the armchair fisheries scientists who will post here once the 1st test fishery results become available in July.
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I think your disdain of DFO has affected your memory of events...
In 2023, tidal and non-tidal waters of the Fraser opened on Sept 1
In 2021, tidal Fraser opened Sept 3, and to your point non-tidal opened on Sept 11
The Fraser was closed in 2017 and 2019
In 2015, the tidal and non tidal Fraser both opened on Sept 5.
In 2013, the tidal and non tidal opened Aug 30 and Aug 31 respectively.
So as far as I can tell, going back to 2013, the non-tidal Fraser has opened well before Sept 10 (except 2021) and mostly concurrent with the lower Fraser.
If the non-tidal Fraser is opened later this year, but all means take the comparatively short drive to the lower Fraser and catch some nice fish with the rest of us Metro Van denizens.
So what you are actually saying is that we have been open for Pinks 1 time in the last 12 years on Sept 1st? Not too much different than what I said.
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but all means take the comparatively short drive to the lower Fraser and catch some nice fish with the rest of us Metro Van denizens.
I won't even look at the exit west on highway 1 from Chilliwack unless I'm going to Costco or some absolute unavoidable neccessity that I have to go west.
The drive to the lower Fraser and back would cancel out any stress relief I got from a days fishing.
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So what you are actually saying is that we have been open for Pinks 1 time in the last 12 years on Sept 1st? Not too much different than what I said.
My bad, I mis-read your post. I thought you wrote Sept 10
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My bad, I mis-read your post. I thought you wrote Sept 10
You did not misread my post. You misunderstood it.
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5 Dollar pinks at the supermarket again. Cheaper than some fishing spoons ;D
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Have you seen the shape they're in ? No wonder it's five bucks.
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Test fisheries should start late June with Whonnock starting earliest (2024 was on June 28).
Whonnock is one of the best test fisheries for Fraser pinks as it is located north of Glen Valley between Maple Ridge and Mission.
It should show when the river is loaded with fish.
Earlier test fisheries (as in the fish arrive earlier) are Area 12 is the north end of VI and is a good early indicator of Fraser spawning fish.
Area 20 which is the south end of VI - a certain (fairly small) percentage travel down the outside of the Island.
Purse/Seine tend to be more accurate than the gillnet counts - wrong size mesh, etc.
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looking at my notes from 2023 august 12 I caught some nice brights ones off bowen island, west van trolling the usual pink hootiches.
Fraser the numbers don't matter only the politics do. So save yourself a brain aneurysm and don't look at the test fisheries.
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Changed my mind.
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FWIW if you look at previous years test fisheries and hydroacoustic data it's pretty consistent that the first ones will show up in the Fraser sometime mid-august but not many. I dont have it in front of me, but I ran some numbers in previous years based on test fishery data and I recall that something like 10-15% of the run returns in Aug and the vast majority won't be until the first three weeks of september
Unless I'm mis-remembering, the largest 7-day rolling return period in the Fraser test fisheries is usually in the second week of September (ie Sep 7-14 +/- a few days). It's not unusual to see 40%+ of the total test fishery sampled during that peak week. By the last week of Sep, the run is basically done in the lower Fraser.
In 2023, tidal and non-tidal waters of the Fraser opened on Sept 1
In 2021, tidal Fraser opened Sept 3, and to your point non-tidal opened on Sept 11
The Fraser was closed in 2017 and 2019
In 2015, the tidal and non tidal Fraser both opened on Sept 5.
In 2013, the tidal and non tidal opened Aug 30 and Aug 31 respectively.
Based on this, if there is an opening it seems that it's typically early enough in Sep that there will still be plenty of time for you all to hit the bulk of the run. Plenty of fresh ones to be had, especially if you are able to hit the lower Fraser or the salt.