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Author Topic: Squamish River  (Read 13229 times)

clarki

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #30 on: December 02, 2019, 09:12:15 AM »

I made it out to the Squamish river this past week. The river dropped fast and the water clarity and rd conditions improved each day I was there. You can camp at the first bridge where there is a nice run above the bridge. Saw a few spawning chum salmon in this run. Further up river there are pull outs where u can park to get away from the logging trucks working the valley. At these pull outs one can hike into some pretty sweet water that is meant to be fished. A few Bull trout came to hand on my fly rod. I did see other anglers along the way, but not even remotely close to the hordes of people on the Vedder. Did not spot any bears but I did see a herd of Elk which was so cool to see. A big river with spectacular mountain peaks to marvel at and a few fish to hand makes for good times. Can’t wait to go back.
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It's very rewarding to do the research like you did, explore a new location, catch some fish fish amid some spectacualr scenery and think to your self "I made that happen!"   
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Rodney

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #31 on: December 03, 2019, 04:28:12 PM »

I made it out to the Squamish river this past week. The river dropped fast and the water clarity and rd conditions improved each day I was there. You can camp at the first bridge where there is a nice run above the bridge. Saw a few spawning chum salmon in this run. Further up river there are pull outs where u can park to get away from the logging trucks working the valley. At these pull outs one can hike into some pretty sweet water that is meant to be fished. A few Bull trout came to hand on my fly rod. I did see other anglers along the way, but not even remotely close to the hordes of people on the Vedder. Did not spot any bears but I did see a herd of Elk which was so cool to see. A big river with spectacular mountain peaks to marvel at and a few fish to hand makes for good times. Can’t wait to go back.

Great report Wiseguy.

Back to the earlier points addressed by B, which are very similar to what Dave and Buck were talking about when I toured the spawning channels with them a couple of weeks ago. How does the angling community push for these ideas so they become reality?

wildmanyeah

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #32 on: December 03, 2019, 04:42:26 PM »

Great report Wiseguy.

Back to the earlier points addressed by B, which are very similar to what Dave and Buck were talking about when I toured the spawning channels with them a couple of weeks ago. How does the angling community push for these ideas so they become reality?

I believe the squamish SFAC has been working on these issues for a long time but I'm sure you know what is and is not possible though that process and that's seems to be absolutely nothing these days.  I believe this all comes down to advocacy and how we leverage the 300k sports fishing license is hard as you know very few are willing to even show up to a meeting or buy a membership.

I sent B's list to their chair and he responded to me with:

"Some good points. There is no enumeration of Chum or Pink now that BC Hydro stopped doing the rotary screw trap. Tenderfoot is stocking the upper Elaho. 15,000 Chinook marked fed fry and smolts will be released into the Upper Elaho river each year. BC Hydro is huge problem which we're fighting but its a tough battle. Pink enhancement will continue, thanks to hatchery manager Jordan making it a priority."
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bkk

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #33 on: December 03, 2019, 05:17:31 PM »

Talked to hatchery manager Jordan today and he informed me that the pink program has now been canceled. The process only works if you have the people in fish management  listening and for the most part that is not happening.

We have a couple of other avenues to explore and 2 years to get funding in place so it might not be final yet.
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wildmanyeah

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #34 on: December 03, 2019, 05:51:04 PM »


We have a couple of other avenues to explore and 2 years to get funding in place so it might not be final yet.

can the public donate to this or???
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bkk

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #35 on: December 03, 2019, 06:25:13 PM »

Too early yet to say. Will see how our sale pitch is received. I think it will be a while before we know but pressure will be applied.
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dnibbles

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #36 on: January 05, 2020, 11:06:08 AM »

Too early yet to say. Will see how our sale pitch is received. I think it will be a while before we know but pressure will be applied.

Hey hey bkk, just sitting here on 9 months off of work and saw your list. Good points, I've got some thoughts that may help out.

My top 5 would be a bit subjective. Some would benefit fish more while others would benefit the angling experience. Here is what I would do:

1 - Develop a spawning escapement goal for both pinks and chums and implement it.

Be careful what you wish for here. The methods that have traditionally been used to develop biological escapement goals tend to generate targets that are much lower than you would likely expect. In the case of the Squamish where data availability and quality is somewhere between little and none, there are new methods that Carrie Holt in DFO has been developing for generating WSP escapement benchmarks, but I still suspect they would be relatively low. And once there is a spawning escapement target, fishery managers, harvesters etc will all start to try to harvest every last fish above the target. For the level of harvest that comes from a sport fishery, I don't think the Squamish needs this intensive of a management framework. The single digit harvest rates that occur (likely very low single digits) on pink and chum are not biologically relevant unless their productivity falls off a cliff for cycles on end, and if that happens then stopping a few sporties won't make a difference anyways. Main point being, a formal escapement target will = seiners and gillentters licking their lips. Don't go that route, but let the sporties have some limited openings at 1 fish/day.


2 - At present there are several groups as well as government, spending significant amounts of dollars to remove large river obstructions ( boulders ) preventing salmon access to the 40 + kilometers of habitat in the Elaho River. This is the best habitat in the whole watershed especially for chinook,  coho and pinks. This habitat has recently been made accessible but with current salmon population sizes it's going to be a while before it's colonized in any significant  way. What is needed is a fry stocking program to utilize this habitat until returning salmon can colonize it on there own. Coho stocking would see the most immediate return from this. 

I agree 100%. The current plan is far too small to make much of a difference. I've given my thoughts multiple times that putting yearling smolts up there is not a good plan, and that they should be pouring large numbers of fry for a cycle or two (Chinook and coho). 40 km of near vacant habitat is a perfect situation for this approach. Putting 15000 fish up there is simply pissing into the wind. Standard recolonization theory is to choose one or two appropriate donor populations, and hit it hard for a cycle or two then back off.

3 - The water ramping rates on the Cheakamus River downstream of the BC Hydro dam need to be totally changed as the flow changes are currently too rapid.

Local stakeholders did a good job making noise on this, as BCH heard the concerns loud and clear and they are scared of screwing up again.

4 - There needs to be a significant revision of the amount of fishing guides on this watershed. It has gotten a little silly in the last few years with guides coming from as far away as Pemberton and Mission. Combine that with the amount of  assistant guides and the pressure gets a little silly. A good example of that was a guiding company who will remain nameless, was bringing up full bus loads of people this summer to target pinks. There has to be some control on this.

Hmmm, I don't think I'll be popular on this one, but this sounds like NIMBYism. If the guides are legal and above board, not sure how this can be dealt with nor why it should be. Manage impact through total harvest (catch limits, open dates, open areas), the rest will sort itself out.

5 - Currently there is a small pink salmon enhancement program on the Cheakamus ( 1. 6 million fry ) that will likely disappear next cycle due to reallocation of priorities by DFO.

There's no reason this should fall off the table due to reallocation.  Outside groups should not be putting money towards this, there is way more than enough money in DFO to deal with this. A little creativity needs to be used but in my opinion this is not a hard one to figure out.


And that is what I would do if I had a job in DFO.






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Dave

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #37 on: January 05, 2020, 11:55:49 AM »

 ;)
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Wiseguy

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Re: Squamish River
« Reply #38 on: January 05, 2020, 08:00:46 PM »

I was recently up in Pemberton and wanting to book a guide to show me a few spots on the Upper Lillooet. The local tackle store there told me all their guides were on the Squamish! Lol
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