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[yoda]

Heard from someone reliable that the squish is paved from side to side with chum.
Any truth to this? Very encouraging if this is true!
Any news on whether there might be an opening?

[leapin' tyee]

Heard from someone reliable that the squish is paved from side to side with chum.
Any truth to this? Very encouraging if this is true!
Any news on whether there might be an opening?

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=31583.0

[mistermongz]

yup there are fish in there you just have to find em.

[bkk]

Heard from someone reliable that the squish is paved from side to side with chum.
Any truth to this? Very encouraging if this is true!
Any news on whether there might be an opening?

Some one is selling you a line. The river has more chum in it at this time of year than the last 5 years but that is not saying alot as in those years it was just piss poor awful. Hopefully the return will continue to build but in the last couple of years we had a early push of fish and then it just stopped. Would love to see this river with hundreads of thousands of chum like it should and did have but that has not happened for a bunch of years now. Most people don't apprecieate how many chum this system had so now when they see a decent push of fish the just think it's lots. It is'nt. I've lived and fished in Squamish for 28+ years now and it used to be that you could go down to Fishermans Park on Brennen Road in mid November and it was impossible to fish spoons in the river due to chum. The whole residential neighbourhood smelled of dead chum for weeks on end. I can also attest to drifting the lwr. Squamish just above Fishermans Park and having the whole run ( about 300 meters long ) just moving with chum in huge waves. I must have moved 10 000 fish around in that run. You don't see that any more. I did a drift about 10 days ago on that same section and I saw about a dozen chum roll in that 3 miles of river. Hardly paved with them but it has improved since then. Just another reason why the eagle numbers have continued to decline here as well.

As to a opening, the local Sport Fish Advisory Board meeting is on Nove 8th and it will be discussed then but unless something spectacular happens, then I would not hold out expecting an opening. Hears to letting them spawn and actually putting eggs into the severly underseeded habitat.

 My two cents worth.

[Rodney]

Thanks for the update as usual bkk. Can you provide some numbers so people have a better idea how the runs have been? Eg. Escapement requirement, past years final return numbers, this year's estimate to date.

[Matt]

I was up on the weekend, and I didn't see a single chum.  I was there on the tide.  Not one.  You may want to redefine "reliable source" as it very definitely isn't "paved" with chum.  None of the 15 people in my sight caught anything.  Typical Squamish the last couple years; anglers outnumbering fish 10:1.  

Only saw one seal and it moved on as well.  Only saw on set of fresh bear tracks, so either the run is late or poor, again.

[bkk]

Thanks for the update as usual bkk. Can you provide some numbers so people have a better idea how the runs have been? Eg. Escapement requirement, past years final return numbers, this year's estimate to date.

All good questions Rod but the facts are that other than the BC Hydro Water Use Plan funding where they are doing population estimates on the Cheakamus, there is really no good data on chum for this system. The data from this multi year program is on the BC Hydro website, Bridge Coastal Water Use Plans. I would caution anyone who looks at those reports to take them with a grain of salt. I and a few other people don't have much faith in the estimates as we feel that there is a bias somewhere in the methology they are useing to generate the population estimates. I feel that there estimates are grossly overestimating the population by a huge amount. The only other credible information  is the escapement data for Tenderfoot Creek where the fish are counted thru a counting fence. This fence has been operated since 1981 when Tenderfoot Hatchery was constructed and the chum to this stream are primarly wild fish with a small hatchery chum component. Chum returns to Tenderfoot have plummeted to historic lows on some of the recent years and significantly below the average escapement for the last 6 years. This appears to be mirroring what is happening on the watershed as a whole.It is much too early for that stream to make any kind of guess as to what size the escapement will be. This stock returns primarily in November but historically was very strong well into December. It do's appear that the fish for Tenderfoot are returning earlier now than they did  in the past but that also seems to be indicative of the system as a whole. December fish are hard to find now but that was not historically the case.

This is about the best I can do  but the reality on the ground is that the Squamish is operating at between 10 - 30% of what was considered a average - good escapement of only a few years ago. There is lots of protected high quality chum habitat in this sytem that is not comming close to being spawned over and has not been for a bunch of years. Maybe this year will be different and I sure hope so as chum power this whole ecosytem. from fish to grizzlies to eagles. It's a crying shame as to how quickly this system has crashed.

[adriaticum]

Some one is selling you a line. The river has more chum in it at this time of year than the last 5 years but that is not saying alot as in those years it was just piss poor awful. Hopefully the return will continue to build but in the last couple of years we had a early push of fish and then it just stopped. Would love to see this river with hundreads of thousands of chum like it should and did have but that has not happened for a bunch of years now. Most people don't apprecieate how many chum this system had so now when they see a decent push of fish the just think it's lots. It is'nt. I've lived and fished in Squamish for 28+ years now and it used to be that you could go down to Fishermans Park on Brennen Road in mid November and it was impossible to fish spoons in the river due to chum. The whole residential neighbourhood smelled of dead chum for weeks on end. I can also attest to drifting the lwr. Squamish just above Fishermans Park and having the whole run ( about 300 meters long ) just moving with chum in huge waves. I must have moved 10 000 fish around in that run. You don't see that any more. I did a drift about 10 days ago on that same section and I saw about a dozen chum roll in that 3 miles of river. Hardly paved with them but it has improved since then. Just another reason why the eagle numbers have continued to decline here as well.

As to a opening, the local Sport Fish Advisory Board meeting is on Nove 8th and it will be discussed then but unless something spectacular happens, then I would not hold out expecting an opening. Hears to letting them spawn and actually putting eggs into the severly underseeded habitat.

 My two cents worth.

LIKE

[yoda]

Thanks bkk for the 2 cents worth. I guess my reliable info wasn't.
Sorry he was wrong. Oh well, I'll just keep waiting for a better year.
Let those fish regroup, and save gas money:)

[Rodney]

http://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/xnet/content/fns/index.cfm?pg=view_notice&lang=en&DOC_ID=147452&ID=recreational

[Matt]

Pointless to open retention for fish that mostly aren't fit for consumption anymore... its mid November!  Just promotes waste.  Let them spawn, die, decompose and add nutrients the system so badly needs.

The Squamish has been heavily logged so it floods easily, washing out a lot of the nutrients, this is why you can go to a lot of nice water on the Squamish and its totally devoid of life.  Chum and other salmon are critical to all fish and wildlife in the system because they transport nutrients from the ocean back inland.  Why open it when all that happens is that nutrients that could support the ecosystem end up in a landfill?

[milo]

Pointless to open retention for fish that mostly aren't fit for consumption anymore... its mid November!  Just promotes waste.  Let them spawn, die, decompose and add nutrients the system so badly needs.

The Squamish has been heavily logged so it floods easily, washing out a lot of the nutrients, this is why you can go to a lot of nice water on the Squamish and its totally devoid of life.  Chum and other salmon are critical to all fish and wildlife in the system because they transport nutrients from the ocean back inland.  Why open it when all that happens is that nutrients that could support the ecosystem end up in a landfill?

Excellent post, Matt.

[Fish Assassin]

Nice to hear chums are making a comeback.

[Matt]

I should clarify.  The opening is too late and to limited for it to probably have much impact on the escapement, but it just invites people who maybe haven't previously enjoyed consuming a chum with a drinking straw to go crack a fish thats unfit for consumption.

[bigsnag]

Agree DOF should keep it closed to retention. It's become a roe for bait fishery now like all streams that allow retention.Squamish system needs a couple of cycles to recover and replenish itself.