Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: BigFisher on November 17, 2005, 10:59:59 PM
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So what is really going on with all the salmon this year? Did they just disappear or are they late, how bad are the runs looking from previous years? I havent really fished enough to be able to compare this year of fishing to other years. Id like to hear what you guys think.
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Definetly the worst year for me. :-\
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Talked to a fellow today who hooked 6 coho so I guess they are some out there. :-\
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A guy says he hooks 6 coho...without know how much effort went into finding those fish i.e. one hour or a full day, its hard to tell if that means anything. As well, as the season progesses and fish stack up, upper pools will hold lots of coloured coho that are mostly wild (because the hatches have been harvested).
For a report to mean anything to me I would need the duration and a break down of wild/hatch and coloured/chrome which certainly helps determine if these are fish that are new or stale.
This has been a very poor season all round I'd say. I have taken 5 or 6 trips to the Vedder and Chehalis and have retained 8 fish or so. If it was a good season I probably would have take 2X's the number of trips.
I dont think I will fish this weekend, well maybe a quick fish on the north shore somewhere but I don's see any justification in getting up at 4am to drive 150km to be at the river for first light - and probably have a mediocre day of fishing at best..
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A guy says he hooks 6 coho...without know how much effort went into finding those fish i.e. one hour or a full day, its hard to tell if that means anything. As well, as the season progesses and fish stack up, upper pools will hold lots of coloured coho that are mostly wild (because the hatches have been harvested).
For a report to mean anything to me I would need the duration and a break down of wild/hatch and coloured/chrome which certainly helps determine if these are fish that are new or stale.
This has been a very poor season all round I'd say. I have taken 5 or 6 trips to the Vedder and Chehalis and have retained 8 fish or so. If it was a good season I probably would have take 2X's the number of trips.
I dont think I will fish this weekend, well maybe a quick fish on the north shore somewhere but I don's see any justification in getting up at 4am to drive 150km to be at the river for first light - and probably have a mediocre day of fishing at best..
lol..i'm driving even farther...the guy i go with makes me pick him up at 4:50 so we can be there at first light..and get our spot...to be honest, i've only seen one time that i can really say first light made a difference...fro the most part the fish seem to hit after 8 and now 9 with the time change...go figure..i have heard that the vedder blew out bad four years ago and that has caused this years stock to be so low, i have heard that they are just late..i have heard the tribes have netted them all..pretty much every story there is...i have seen guys fish hard for two days and then hit a pocket of coho and take their 4 in less then an hour...personally i just like being on the river and i screw around if nothing is biting and practice my steelhead techniques
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commercial fellows were allowed by DFO to fish for chum but at the same were allowed to take all bycatches in that time. this was to appease them because they were shut out of the sockeye fishery this year. they smacked whole runs of coho in a matter of hours as "bycatch". the vedder does not use hatchery fish for egg production. all eggs are from wild fish. that is what i have been told anyway. it don't matter if there is a poor hatchery return because they are not next years brood stock. maybe someone coould clarify if this true or not.
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Not entirely true regarding the commercial chum fishery that only lasted 18 hours in total. Any by-catches of chinook salmon was allowed to be retained. Any coho and steelhead by-catches were to be released. By-catches of coho and steelhead were reported to be minimal.
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I tottaly agree with you golfman on the first light thing. I have never actualy gotten a fish first light. :-\
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Maybe Buck can give us a technical explanation for the low #s of Cohoes to date. I believe there's a fair amount cohoes in the system but are stalled midways up due to fluctuation in water levels, compound this with a high degree of rotting spawned out springs/ chums in the system degrading water quality for them. There were many days out fishing when I could not take the smell of decaying fish anymore..so much for the great outdoors! 6000 fish have returned to the hatchery but the numbers are expected to be low. Total expectations should amount less than 20000 fish for this year. Actually early fishing successes yield 40% hatchery to 60% wild. Some fishers mentioned releasing up to 8 wild cohoes in a day. ::) This year for me was about the same as the last where you had to cover a lot of ground to find them. Spent about 20 plus days hunting for them!! this season and let me tell you I need a vacation... :P. Coho migration patterns are changing for the worse which I feel are attributed to a successful white spring program!