Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[VAGAbond]

Loads of Chum in the river.    Based on my small sample of fish to the beach and jumpers observed, they average darker than I have seen other years at this stage.

 With what appears to be an excellent run I wonder why there is no retention of Chums?   Although I didn't see any that would have tempted me this year had retention been allowed, I have certainly seen very bright fish other years at this time so there is undoubtedly some clean fish in the river.

No Coho for me.

Pinks are all gone.

I was surprised to see quite a number of dead and zombie Chinook.  More than I have noticed other years.   Good news.

A fair number of fishers on the river for a Monday.

[bkk]

I have to disagree with you on the chum numbers. A reasonable amount in the lower river but they are not pushing into the upper Squamish or the tribs in any significant amount. River is very low so I think that they are just stageing in the lower river hence the dark condition of many of them. Were coming off a very poor brood year (about 20 - 30 % of "normal") as we have for the last bunch of years and it is very premature to want to have a kill fishery. Last year saw an improvement on the chum return but in the scope of what the Squamish should have last years return would have only been an  "average return". The Squamish should have many hundreds of thousands of chum and it is no where remotely close to having those amounts. Lets leave the damn things alive so they can rebuild. A kill fishery on them is the last thing we need. If you want to kill chum, go to the valley.

Pinks are indeed done and have been since about Oct.15th. A very long return period this season.

I have no idea what you are seeing in regard to chinook but I have been on the water every day except 4 days this month and I have not seen more than 6 dead or live chinook for about 2 weeks. Nor have my fishing buddies. Squamish chinook are summer run fish predominately and spawn mid Aug to mid September. The run was extremely poor this year. There is also a fall run chinook but it is also small but they should all be dead by now. Those fish spawn mainly in the Cheakamus. I suspect what you are seeing is some zombie large chum which are fungus-ed up and are already dieing. Seems to be more of those early dead and they seem to be predominately males. Most likely picked up a fungus infection from the huge amounts of pink carcasses around this year.

[living_blind]

I agree the spring run seemed low, as it usually is. Did see four spawning in the upper squamish during the pink spawn, always a great site.

[Matt]

Chum retention... why?  It brings out the degenerates in rain ponchos who leave their garbage on the bars, mishandle everything they catch, disregard regulations etc.  Chum tastes pretty awful compared to ...every other species of salmon.  Don't bother spending $40 in gas to drive to Squamish to catch fish with the texture and taste of spawned out coho, you can buy meat as Safeway for cheaper.

[silver ghost]

Chum retention... why?  It brings out the degenerates in rain ponchos who leave their garbage on the bars, mishandle everything they catch, disregard regulations etc.  Chum tastes pretty awful compared to ...every other species of salmon.  Don't bother spending $40 in gas to drive to Squamish to catch fish with the texture and taste of spawned out coho, you can buy meat as Safeway for cheaper.

X2. If you want to whack a chum go to the Stave. But then again... why whack a chum when the vedder is full of coho...

[cutthroat22]

There was 2 CO trucks and 2 RCMP trucks checking all vehicles leaving the Squamish Valley on Sunday evening.  They had 2 vehicles pulled over when I went through which I can only assume had chum in their possesion.

[hickman]

The Squamish had lots of early coho about 3-4 weeks ago. They were taking virtually everything. Then the chum moved in and the coho we harder to target. I have to agree that the chum have not come up much due to the low water. I fished the Cheakamus last week and all I saw were half-rotten chum. I saw nothing fresh. I walk the Squamish river almost every morning, it seems like the action has died off somewhat. I am sure the rain will bring the river up and fresh fish will be moving in.
The bigger dead carcasses are chum, I think. Keep in mind that the first chum showed up in early September already... and yes, the garbage along the Squamish is insane. It was disgusting during the pink run...

[VAGAbond]

I have to disagree with you on the chum numbers.

I accept your information on the relative abundance because I don't fish the Squamish regularly but I have been fishing it occasionally for more than forty years and apart from some abundant years about 10 years ago, what I saw on Monday looked about what I saw 30 and 40 years ago.

The dead springs(?) I observed were up near the Cheakamus but they were all about the size of large Chum.   I didn't notice any large teeth or stripes but maybe I didn't look close enough, they were very fungus covered.

Chum retention... why?

A few years back when retention was allowed I retain a nickel bright coho, a very bright chum and a fairly clean Chum from the Squamish on the same day.   We did taste comparison and the bright chum was the better fish.  Admittedly the coloured Chum was not prime.

Don't bother spending $40 in gas to drive to Squamish to catch fish

$40 is about right to get to the Squamish but the Chilliwack costs me $60.

I like the Squamish because there is so much space.  The other day nobody fished closer than about 40 yards.   On the Chilliwack it is often 4 yards to the next fisher.

[fishseeker]

Thanks for the report.  Its good to know there are some chums in the system even if the numbers aren't what they were.  I like fishing this system at this time of year precisely because of the non-retention rules keeping the vagabonds away.  I disagree that chums are not good eating - in my opinion they are excellent but more like a cod than a salmon.  Maybe people don't like em because they don't have the flavor they are expecting.

[bluenoser]

I usually do a cat scan on fish to decide its desirability...my cat snubs its nose at Chum and pink...I find both good on the barbie if done before they are frozen. Once frozen in my opinion they are only good smoked.

I do miss the chum retention mainly because the chum just like the pinks caught in Squamish were usually in fine shape. That being said if the numbers are low Im all for non retention.

BN

[capman]

Years ago you could walk over the Chum on that river. I can assure you the numbers are still way bellow the norm.