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Author Topic: 2016 Chilliwack River fall salmon fishery information & water condition updates  (Read 204452 times)

Rodney

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The Chilliwack Vedder River system offers salmon fishing opportunities between late August and early December. It is the most heavily fished river system in British Columbia so it is important to distribute the correct information to those who are new to this fishery. This thread, like previous seasons, aims to provide ongoing updates so all of you can have a chance to enjoy what this river has to offer by learning proper techniques, staying informed on regulations and etiquettes.


Fish species

In fall 2016, there are three salmon species that anglers can target and retain.



Fishing regulations

The salmon regulations of Chilliwack River, including the daily quota of each species, can be found in Region 2 of the Freshwater salmon supplement.

You can only keep FOUR salmon in total per day, which means if you keep four hatchery coho salmon, you can't keep anymore chinook or chum salmon. This is the updated regulations as of August 31st 2016. Regulations may change during the season so please make sure you double check the regulations page before heading out.


Cultus Lake sockeye salmon alert

Cultus Lake sockeye salmon are endangered and usually enter the Chilliwack River in late summer so their run time overlaps with other fall salmon species. All sockeye salmon caught in the Chilliwack River are required to be released carefully. Please be aware of the difference between a coho and a sockeye salmon. Some Cultus Lake sockeye salmon are also missing their adipose fin so please don't confuse them with hatchery-marked coho salmon. Read about it some more...


How to float fish more effectively for coho salmon?

To effectively catch salmon on the Vedder by float fishing, you want to keep your offerings in the strike zone. New anglers have a tendency to mistaken the strike zone as the depth where the fish are sitting. It is not. Salmonids look up and strike at the offerings above them. The fish position themselves near the bottom, so the strike zone is usually 1 or 2 feet above the river bed. This technique does not only apply to the Chilliwack River, but also other Lower Fraser River tributaries.

Gear setup

Rod:9' to 10'6" baitcasting or centerpin rod, rated between 8 and 20lb
Reel:Small baitcasting reels or centerpin reels
Main line:12 to 15lb test
Leader:6 to 10lb test
Hook:Size 4 to 2/0

The diagrams below illustrate the correct and not-so-correct ways of float depth adjustment.

Excessive length of leader



For some reason, many people believe a longer leader would produce more fish, quite the opposite! Your hook will always travel faster than your weight in a river. By using a long leader, your hook and bait are lifted up higher from the river bed, away from the strike zone.

Excessive float depth



Some choose to adjust their float depth so the weight is "tapping" or sitting on the bottom. The weight will usually anchor itself to the river bed, while the float drifts slowly or becomes stationary. Two things will result from this setup:

  • You'll snag onto the bottom, and lose your weight, hook and bait.
  • Even worse, you'll end up snagging a pink or chinook in the belly or tail, which can be time consuming to bring in and release.

My way of float adjustment, but not necessarily the ONLY way



So far this has worked very well by producing about a dozen or more coho each season on the Vedder River without losing any hook, weight or line. I usually like to keep my leader length (the line between the hook and weight) around 1.5 feet in length. Judging the depth by looking at the gradient of the river bank and the water, I adjust my float depth (the length from the float to the hook) so that it is about 1 to 2 feet shorter than the actual depth. When this is drifted, the bait will lift a few inches higher, remaining in the strike zone. When the float dips under the water, there is no hesitation as I don't need to question whether it is a snag or a fish. The hook is usually set hard and most of the time the fight is on.



Some other small adjustments

I find these adjustments would connect me into more fish in the past.

  • The float size varies, small (11 grams) in clearer, slower water, while big (25 grams) in faster, deeper water.
  • Tie on enough weight so only about 0.5 inch of your float (or the coloured tip) emerges on the water surface. This allows you to detect the bites sooner.
  • Keep your main line (the line between your rod tip and your float) tight enough without disrupting the drift. Always try to avoid having any line laying on the water surface.
  • Keep the drifts short. A longer drift doesn't necessarily mean a bigger chance to catch a fish. Long drifts also cause inconvenience for nearby anglers
  • Avoid standing in the water, especially when you arrive at a new location. Undisturbed fish have a tendency to stay close to the river bank.

Gravel pits

Like every other even years, several large gravel pits in the lower river have been dug up for flood prevention. Once river level rises in October, these pits will be filled with both water and fish. The most common method used to catch salmon in these pits is by casting and retrieving spoons, spinners and jigs. These pits can be quite deep, and gravel at the edge can be loose so be sure to step carefully when accessing them.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2016, 12:41:03 AM by Rodney »
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Rodney

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Salmon identification

Because there are both species that you can keep and cannot keep returning to the Chilliwack River, it is important to know how to identify all five species of salmon.

Chinook salmon
Chinook salmon have small spots across their back and small spots across their entire tail. Their gum is black and the edge of their jaw is white. Adult chinook salmon are defined as over 62cm and are required to be recorded on your licence when you choose to keep one.

Adult chinook (over 62cm)Adult chinook (over 62cm)Jack chinook (under 62cm)Jack chinook (under 62cm)Black gum with white
jaw edge
Small spots across both
upper and lower parts of tail

Coho salmon
Coho salmon have small spots across their back and spots on the top portion of their tail. Their gum is white. Two groups of coho salmon are found in the Chilliwack River - Wild and hatchery fish. Hatchery fish, which anglers are allowed to keep, do not have an adipose fin and a healed scar can be found at where the adipose fin is missing. This fin is clipped at the hatchery when they are at their juvenile stage prior to being released. If an adipose fin is present, then it is a wild fish, which is required to be released with care.

Wild adult coho
(with adipose fin)
Hatchery adult coho
(without adipose fin)
Hatchery jack coho
(without adipose fin)
Absence of adipose fin
with healed scar on
hatchery coho
White gumSmall spots on top portion
of tail

Chum salmon
Chum salmon have two distinct characteristics, which are colourful stripes across their body and large teeth found on males.

Female chum salmonMale chum salmon with
teeth
Striped back

Sockeye salmon
Althought sockeye salmon cannot be retained on the Chilliwack River, it is important to know what they look like so you do not kill one by accident. Sockeye salmon that are returning to Cultus Lake are endangered and their recovery depends on your assistance. Sockeye salmon are typically spotless and silver until they are near the spawning ground. At spawning stage, their body colouration is red.

adult sockeye in
spawning colour
adult sockeye prior to
spawning stage


Some thoughts on fishing locations

The Chilliwack Vedder River is long. Some say it gets crowded, but only at certain spots. To have a good experience, it's best to avoid the busy spots. The busy spots are usually the visible ones that have easy access. These include Keith Wilson Bridge, railway bridge, Lickman Road, Peach Road, Vedder Crossing, Tamahi, Alison Pool, Limit Hole. By going to a spot where less people are fishing, the likelihood of you hooking into some quality fish is bigger since the fish are not spooked. Surprisingly, you can usually find a nice quiet spot by taking a very short walk from one of these busy spots.


Additional readings



Water condition updates

Throughout the season, members will post up water condition updates so everyone can be alerted if condition is not ideal. Please feel free to post updates in this thread after your trips. We can all benefit from each other's updates and save gasoline and cost of our season. Please do not ask for updates. All requests will be deleted.

TheLostSockeye

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Despite the extremely low water the river is actually quite cold. My feet went numb within 1 minute of wading through it yesterday (no waders). Saw some guy bonked a rotting old red spring and that was it for me.
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LochLomond

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Fished a couple of spots on the canal and Wilson Rd. Didn't catch or see a fish but was nice to be out on my first Vedder trip of the year. Heard of 1 jack spring.
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Drewhill

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Went to Wilson road first light but the dog that belongs to the house on the corner escaped and was on the street. When I got out of my car he came charging towards me. Because it was still fairly dark out and the dog didn't seem friendly I decided to leave and hit another spot close by with no luck. Water is really low.
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grayman

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Hit the water today between 0900-1300, water is cool (too cold for wet wading), super low and clear by the Keith Wilson Bridge.  I didn't catch anything but I did see someone catch and release a trout.  Standing on the bridge, I saw several fish holding below but they weren't biting.

That said, I did manage to meet several very nice people on the river today.  One was from Abbotsford that was kind enough to spot for me from the bridge, second was a fly guy from Kamloops, third was a resident from Port Coquitlam, and last was a retired fellow with a centre pin.
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243Pete

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Chilly water but nothing rolling around except for the odd trout and white fish. Talked to some guys and nothing was landed except for a couple white fish and two guys on the other side of where I was landed a small trout.
Went by the gravel bar that was recently dug up to see for myself and holy, that is one fairly deep looking pit.
Going to pray for some heavy rain this week. ;D
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TheLostSockeye

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Saw jakes construction digging a pit yesterday. The gentleman said there were two days of digging left.
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tworivers

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Where exactly were this pits dug?
Northwest of Bergman Road area.
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Steelhawk

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So is that the run right off the parking to the train bridge access where it was recently gated? I hope not. That is one of the best steelhead runs in lower river.
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fishmonk

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Northwest of Bergman Road area.

Saw those pits too...around Bergman. That was a lot of gravel taken out! Fished the canal and saw 1 coho and a jack spring surfacing all morning but wouldn't take anything from anybody....roe, beads, wool, spinners, jigs...it got laughable after a while... ;D
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dobrolub

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should've tried shrimp  8)
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DanL

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I cant believe how low the Vedder water levels look right now? According to the Env Canada website its not just low but historically low. Unless something has changed in how they are reporting it, it appears to be at literally the lowest point since they started collecting data 100+ years ago, including last year’s dry summer.
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CohoJake

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I cant believe how low the Vedder water levels look right now? According to the Env Canada website its not just low but historically low. Unless something has changed in how they are reporting it, it appears to be at literally the lowest point since they started collecting data 100+ years ago, including last year’s dry summer.
I wonder if something has changed at the Vedder Crossing station, because the river changed quite a bit there since last year.  Have you compared the cubic meters/second?  I think that should be a more constant indicator (but again i don't know how accurate it is).  Up at the cement slab it is very low, but I think I have seen it that low before at least once.
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dobrolub

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I wonder if something has changed at the Vedder Crossing station, because the river changed quite a bit there since last year.  Have you compared the cubic meters/second?  I think that should be a more constant indicator (but again i don't know how accurate it is).  Up at the cement slab it is very low, but I think I have seen it that low before at least once.

The level recording started in 2011. Flow measurements seem to go way, way back.

Here what the lows (flow below 14cubic meter per second) look like.

The lowest was 7.93 in 1952.

Year          Minimum Flow (cubic meters per second)
1921        11.6
1927        11.9
1928        13
1952        7.93
1960        11
1979        12.8
1987        10.1
1989        13.8
1994        12.7
1995        13.4
2002        10.5
2003        13.9
2005        13.3
2009        11.5
2012        13.5

Today, it's at 5 m3/s. So, yep, it's the lowest the river has been at for quite a while according to the numbers.



« Last Edit: September 06, 2016, 04:49:32 PM by dobrolub »
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