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[Hike_and_fish]

Is the big silver by Harrison lake? From google map. it looks inaccessible.

About 90% of it is. You can walk and wade 2 klm of it to the lake however.

[wildmanyeah]

anyone at the derby today? last i heard 1 fish weighed in

[GENERAL-SHERMAN]

Only One weighed in when I checked at around 1 . Slow out there not and that busy compared to what Iv seen in past years. At least where I was .

[Dave]

anyone at the derby today? last i heard 1 fish weighed in

Yup, that's it, one fish.

Brood stock capture of wild fish begins mid January .. I personally would like to see this hatchery program scaled back in regards to the number of wild early run fish taken. The numbers Buck and I have seen these past 9 years in the upper river during our enumerations clearly shows a decline in these early fish; let's not tube them to extinction.
I really hope the Province and the Chilliwack River hatchery sit down in the next 2 weeks and make some decisions that favor fish, not fishermen.
If any on here agree, say so now as people who have the clout to make these decisions are reading.

Also, Pete and I have decided to do one more year of counts.

[buck]

To protect early timed Sthd, brood stock could be limited to fish below Tamihi only. Also closing the river above Tamihi for the month of April would go a long way to protect spawning and staging fish. Let’s no let the Vedder turn into another Thompson River..

[avid angler]

Buck/Dave just curious as what you classify as early stock steelhead? With the lack of holding water throughout the upper nowadays the early wild fish push above the boundary pretty fast.... I don’t think that only taking fish below Tamihi would protect early fish. Better protection for the early run fish would just be pushing the starting date back to February would be a better way to protect the December/January fish imo. I catch a lot of fish from Tamihi to the boundary in January-March and most of them are just as fresh as the ones I catch from the crossing down. Even more so since many of the upper river stackholes have filled in. To be honest I think the decline of vedder steelhead lies in ocean survival, not in river issues. Have they ever done any DNA testing to determine if the early run fish are any different genetically then the later stock?

[Dave]

We agree ocean survivals are the major cause of the declines of these early run (Nov - Jan) fish, but there is not much we can do about ocean productivity.  What we have in our power to do, however, is to allow more wild fish to spawn. Cutting back on brood stock numbers, closing the river above Tamihi Creek on April 1 to allow less harrassment and increase spawning, are 2 ways to do this.
I'm not aware of any DNA studies on Chilliwack River steelhead; hell, we don't even know where most of them spawn.

Avid angler, you seem to be one of the few who seems to care about the future of these fish and your ideas are needed. Lets hear some more..

[Tangles]

So, how did the Boxing Day derby go?

[avid angler]

I agree with you about the early closure. In the upper. IMO it could even be earlier like March 1 or 15th.
In my experience after April most of the fresh fish coming in seem to stick around the lower-mid and don’t even migrate to the upper. So closing the upper earlier would result in more fish utilizing all the prime habitat between slesse park and limit hole that normally get pushed out of their by angling pressure.

The one other rule angling wise that could be implemented and actually make a difference is a no wild fish out of the water rule. Not that a quick lift out of the water hurts a fish. But the amount of fish I see being dragged into an inch of water and then held hostage for minutes at a time for the perfect hero shot is appalling. With everyone hungry to be known as a “top rod” guys are seriously abusing fish to get the perfect hero shot for Instagram and Facebook. If they couldn’t post a picture of them holding a fish out of the water without getting reemed out by the people their trying to impress. Then at least the fish would be kept in the water where they can actually breathe and not suffocated and covered in sand and pebbles. Steelhead are pretty hardy but when mishandled multiple times it makes me wonder if they would die before they spawn...:

[mikeyman]

Only 1 fish weighed in. 10.66 lbs. Not good.

[MetalAndFeathers]

Most of the fish caught past Allison from February onwards usually have multiple hook Mark's and clearly have been caught multiple times, I cant imagine being caught and released multiple times has any positive effects on the wild population. Maybe early run wild fish are much more affected than later runs due to the ridiculous amount of pressure in dec-jan and staying in the system the longest? Just a theory....

[avid angler]

It’s 50/50. Certain water types are more likely to hold stale fish that are repeat catches. Like then deep choppy runs and pools. The shallower faster water where moving fish are found hold more virgins

[Wiseguy]

I agree with no lifting them out of the water regulation. I believe that’s a rule now in Washington state. How many pictures on social media with the steelhead laying beside a center pin reel out of the water? I also agree with starting the brood stock program a month later. 2 yrs ago I had some solid fishing in April, the best of that season. All caught mid river. Fresh chrome fish.

[Robert_G]

I heard the water conditions were near perfect for the derby? 1 fish? How people many entered in?

[psd1179]

I heard the water conditions were near perfect for the derby? 1 fish? How people many entered in?

Around 300 participants. Water is quite clear.