Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: Rodney on July 20, 2015, 03:53:01 PM
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https://news.gov.bc.ca/stories/fishing-closures-announced-for-south-coast
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So to confirm, the Skagit is closed?
Area 2-1 remains open (east of the Skagit), but area 2-2 is the Skagit and is now closed?
Bummer, but completely understandable. Hopefully people really respect these closures.
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That's correct CraftyCoho.
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That's correct CraftyCoho.
Wow! A Skagit River closure is afaik unprecedented, but well called, imo. Time to take a few Chilliwack/Vedder River water temperatures ... will report the numbers tomorrow.
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funny that the vedder is open with its cultas lake sockeye.
And you can't say it's a hatchery thing because they shut the chehalius and stamp river down.
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I don't ever recall so many rivers closed to fishing due to a prolonged drought.
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funny that the vedder is open with its cultas lake sockeye.
And you can't say it's a hatchery thing because they shut the chehalius and stamp river down.
Many of the Fraser tribs are now closed and also hatchery rivers. Its needed but it still sucks as many of us fish those smaller systems to avoid the gong show. Guess I should dust off those golf clubs
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Don't even fish in the open rivers if you care about the fishery at all.
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Don't even fish in the open rivers if you care about the fishery at all.
I agree but we all know people in general are greedy and have a sense of entitlement
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I agree but we all know people in general are greedy and have a sense of entitlement
I'm seeing that on other boards I've posted this sentiment on.
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funny that the vedder is open with its cultas lake sockeye.
And you can't say it's a hatchery thing because they shut the chehalius and stamp river down.
I doubt any cultus fish have even arrived yet , always seemed to be an August September thing
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At 0800 this morning I measured 16° C, just down from Lickman Road, so for now water temperatures are a non issue. The first Cultus sockeye typically arrive the first week of August but could possibly be holding in the Vedder during late July.
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Wow Capilano Closed too above the highway 1?! So Cable Pool is to be closed as well. It'll be pretty easy to catch violators there.
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Hey Dave, not sure if you're aware but Chilliwack water temperatures are recorded at the WSC station at the Crossing. I've pasted the last week's recording here. Your reading of this morning appears to align closely with the station's reading.
(http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/7/7/e/118485/chilliwackwtatcrossing-0.jpg?rev=0)
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Thanks Mike, I didn't know that! Wow, that's quite the diurnal fluctuation ... so late afternoon temperatures are indeed serious.
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Wow, these closures are definitely concerning to say the least. The water on the C-V is certainly warmer than average especially during mid-day. All this information has made me come to the conclusion that i'm finished fishing the Vedder until we get a big dump of rain which may not be for a while so it's probably time to put the rods in the closet for the time being. :-\
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Region 2's freshwater salmon fishing openings and limits have also been updated by DFO to stay consistent with the province's closure starting today.
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/fresh-douce/region2-eng.html
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I was on the Skagit yesterday (July 22) and the water temperature was 12C and there is quite a good flow of water, much more than is normal by late September. There were no significant hatches underway, as expected because of the low water temperature. The Skagit may end up in trouble later this summer, but there is certainly no problem now and it should not have been included in the stream closure. I have been other streams in other parts of BC this summer where temperatures were 20-22C, nearly lethal for trout under stress, but they have not been closed. I agree that streams should be closed to fishing when the flows are too little or the temperatures are too high. But the decision to close should be based on hard data not guesses. Presumably, the lack of data about stream conditions is due to cutbacks of ministry staff. The the BC government is happy to take our money for license fees for fishing opportunities now lost. A simple fix would be to add Skagit Park to Manning Park as not closed to fishing in streams.
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I was on the Skagit yesterday (July 22) and the water temperature was 12C and there is quite a good flow of water, much more than is normal by late September. There were no significant hatches underway, as expected because of the low water temperature. The Skagit may end up in trouble later this summer, but there is certainly no problem now and it should not have been included in the stream closure. I have been other streams in other parts of BC this summer where temperatures were 20-22C, nearly lethal for trout under stress, but they have not been closed. I agree that streams should be closed to fishing when the flows are too little or the temperatures are too high. But the decision to close should be based on hard data not guesses. Presumably, the lack of data about stream conditions is due to cutbacks of ministry staff. The the BC government is happy to take our money for license fees for fishing opportunities now lost. A simple fix would be to add Skagit Park to Manning Park as not closed to fishing in streams.
Issue isnt so much the temperature or level of the Skagit, but the insane amount of pressure that would result from the closures...
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Seeing as these are stream closures, Ross lake is obviously still fishable? Anyone?
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I was on the Skagit yesterday (July 22) and the water temperature was 12C and there is quite a good flow of water, much more than is normal by late September. There were no significant hatches underway, as expected because of the low water temperature. The Skagit may end up in trouble later this summer, but there is certainly no problem now and it should not have been included in the stream closure. I have been other streams in other parts of BC this summer where temperatures were 20-22C, nearly lethal for trout under stress, but they have not been closed. I agree that streams should be closed to fishing when the flows are too little or the temperatures are too high. But the decision to close should be based on hard data not guesses. Presumably, the lack of data about stream conditions is due to cutbacks of ministry staff. The the BC government is happy to take our money for license fees for fishing opportunities now lost. A simple fix would be to add Skagit Park to Manning Park as not closed to fishing in streams.
The skagit is 0.9 meter lower then last year at the same time. that's a lot when there is still the rest of July , August and September of very little rain. Just look to Cali for what we have to come if Bc's weather stays on this course.
A few years ago I was in Smithers late September and had a week of weather in the 25 c range. Sunscreen anyone....
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The only thing that sucks about these closures is that I can no longer fish for my warm water species (Carp and Bass) in my favourite sloughs :( No fishing for warm water species in the extremely warm water... go figure lol. It's too bad they couldn't have pegged on a "no fishing for salmonids," but I guess that would be extremely hard for the CO's/DFO's to regulate.
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Yeah, besides creating havoc conditions for the salmon, Trout and native species of fish it is creating ideal conditions for invasives like brown catfish.
Keep an eye out for these guys in the fraser, could only expect their numbers to spike as warming continues. Not good.
http://alienspecies.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/eng/species/brown-bullhead-catfish
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The Master on Global this week. http://globalnews.ca/news/2123889/b-c-restricts-fishing-amid-drought-heat/
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The only thing that sucks about these closures is that I can no longer fish for my warm water species (Carp and Bass) in my favourite sloughs :(
You might be OK depending on the water.
See this post re: whether places like Pitt Marsh would count as a stream or lake for the purposes of gear restrictions. ie could you use a treble on a crankbait while bass fishing.
http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=38150.msg359022#msg359022
Based on that response it would seem that Pitt marsh and other agriculture irrigation channels containing bass/carp should be considered stillwater and therefore exempt from the closures.
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OK, so can I fish for Sturgeon in Fort Langley from shore? I thought no but a dude fishing from the pump house this morning assured me its all good? I thought ALL fishing was banned on the tidal Fraser???
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OK, so can I fish for Sturgeon in Fort Langley from shore? I thought no but a dude fishing from the pump house this morning assured me its all good? I thought ALL fishing was banned on the tidal Fraser???
All salmon fishing is banned,
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Only salmon is banned on the tidal portion of the Fraser. OK then, look out dino's!!!
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As per the response above saying that sloughs are not streams. I thought the same thing at first and went digging through the regs. Under the definitions section on page 96, a "stream" is defined as any moving body of water, and sloughs are listed under the definition of steams.
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Thinking about going for a ride in the quad up chilliwack valley and bringing the rod but wasn't too sure if the chilliwacks tributaries that are typically open still remain... Ie tamahi.???
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The closure has a number of exceptions of larger streams with flows and temperatures currently suitable for a sustainable recreational fishery. These exceptions are for the following river mainstems: the Fraser (non-tidal portion), Chilliwack-Vedder, Harrison, Lillooet, non-tidal Squamish, non-tidal Pitt, Elaho, Cheakamus, Capilano (downstream of Highway 1 bridge) and Mamquam (downstream of CN railway bridge). However, the tributaries of these named exceptions are closed.
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Thinking about going for a ride in the quad up chilliwack valley and bringing the rod but wasn't too sure if the chilliwacks tributaries that are typically open still remain... Ie tamahi. ???
Closed.
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so on the vedder it is closed from the sumas to the fraser? thats my go to pink fishing spots.
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so on the vedder it is closed from the sumas to the fraser?
I believe so. I think that where the Vedder joins the Sumas to the confluence with the Fraser is considered part of the Sumas, and therefore currently closed. Pink time is still a ways off, so we'll see if they open it by early September.
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I believe so. I think that where the Vedder joins the Sumas to the confluence with the Fraser is considered part of the Sumas, and therefore currently closed. Pink time is still a ways off, so we'll see if they open it by early September.
I don't fish in the Sumas so I could be mistaken, but I thought it was all considered part of the C/V? Quote from the DFO website:
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/fresh-douce/region2-eng.html
"Chilliwack/Vedder River (including Sumas River): from a line between two fishing boundary signs on either side of the Chilliwack River 100 m from the confluence of the Chilliwack River and Slesse Creek downstream including that portion of the Sumas River from the Barrow Town Pump Station downstream to fishing boundary signs near the confluence with the Fraser River."
I read that as you the area discussed in is from below the Slesse Creek cut-off to the Fraser River. It also lists a size and retention restrictions. Then at the bottom, when looking at Sumas River it says "see Chilliwack River." If I am reading this wrong, please tell me. But it seems pretty straightforward to me.
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Tylsie, you're reading it right, and this is what's confusing people I think. The province's freshwater regulation synopsis actually regulates the two systems separately, so the two agencies are contradicting each other (one says it's open, while the other says its not based on the definition). It needs to be sorted out and I will contact the individuals who are responsible for this and get back to all.
This is why it's so ridiculous to have two levels of government managing one freshwater resource.
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I don't fish in the Sumas so I could be mistaken, but I thought it was all considered part of the C/V? Quote from the DFO website:
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/fresh-douce/region2-eng.html
"Chilliwack/Vedder River (including Sumas River): from a line between two fishing boundary signs on either side of the Chilliwack River 100 m from the confluence of the Chilliwack River and Slesse Creek downstream including that portion of the Sumas River from the Barrow Town Pump Station downstream to fishing boundary signs near the confluence with the Fraser River."
I read that as you the area discussed in is from below the Slesse Creek cut-off to the Fraser River. It also lists a size and retention restrictions. Then at the bottom, when looking at Sumas River it says "see Chilliwack River." If I am reading this wrong, please tell me. But it seems pretty straightforward to me.
I never noticed that particular discrepancy. I was thinking of the freshwater synopsis where the CV and the Sumas have their own separate entries.
on pg 24:
CHILLIWACK / VEDDER RIVERS*
(Does not include Sumas River)
(See map page 26)
And the way that particular map is labelled suggests that the CV ends with the canal. As Rodney points out, having two gov't agencies managing the same waters yet in different ways can lead to all sorts of confusion.
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I never noticed that particular discrepancy. I was thinking of the freshwater synopsis where the CV and the Sumas have their own separate entries.
on pg 24:
CHILLIWACK / VEDDER RIVERS*
(Does not include Sumas River)
(See map page 26)
And the way that particular map is labelled suggests that the CV ends with the canal. As Rodney points out, having two gov't agencies managing the same waters yet in different ways can lead to all sorts of confusion.
The CV does indeed end at the confluence with the Sumas, hence the reference to the "portion of the Sumas from the Barrowtown Pump Station to the confluence with the Fraser" in the DFO regulations. I suppose it doesn't really matter if the DFO manages the two systems the same or not, if the DFO opens the Sumas to retention of Salmon, but the Province has closed the Sumas to all fishing, then you would not be able to fish to catch a salmon to retain it anyway. The only question is whether or not the Province intended to close the Sumas.
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Just an update on the Sumas/Vedder closure discussion earlier. The province has now included the Sumas downstream from the Vedder Canal confluence to the confluence of the Fraser River in the list of streams which are open for fishing to stay consistent with DFO's regulations.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/#anglingclosure
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Just an update on the Sumas/Vedder closure discussion earlier. The province has now included the Sumas downstream from the Vedder Canal confluence to the confluence of the Fraser River in the list of streams which are open for fishing to stay consistent with DFO's regulations.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/#anglingclosure
Yes, that is good. Of course it still is not consistent as the DFO regs would have it from the pump house down to the Fraser open. However, this is good for those looking to chase pinks in there. I was thinking of running my little inflatable over from Dwedney, there any bars in the river between to worry about? The map I have shows it clear sailing, but it is fairly old and I have no depth sounder. I would drift down from the pump house, but I don't want to have to fight my way up in the shallow water.