Salmon to return to numbers not seen in a century
 

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Good news for the B.C. fishing industry. The Pacific Salmon Commission reports this year will be the largest return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in almost one hundred years.

Salmon stock has been on the decline for years, but recent test catches are suggesting this year will see a heavy rebound. Nearly 25 million salmon are expected back this year, the most since 1913.

Steve Johanson with the Gulf Trollers Association says it's great news for business. "Everybody is dusting off the cobwebs. We haven't fished this much sockeye in years. It is important for people to realize that the fact fish are coming back this year is really excellent news and hopefully it is the start of many years to come where we see lots," he says.

But don't expect lower salmon prices. Johanson says he isn't anticipating a drop as he says the demand for salmon is always high.

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/a...n-in-a-century


man i reallllllllllly wanna fish before end of summer :)

anyone know where the closest place to fish for salmon is (from vancouver)?

I <3 salmon steak.

11 million were forecast to return in 2009 but only 1.5 million showed up so the 25 million expected could turn out to be alot less :(

Yey they're back! Let's fish them back down to near extinction again!

Just wanted to share some fishing related bs...

One of the companys I work for took me out on a fishing trip to Barkley Sound at the end of june, it was pretty awesome!!! I have lake fished my whole life but never did any real open water fishing, and it was a totally new experience.

We seriously spent 3 days just reeling fish in, non stop, 15-30lb spring salmon (too early in the season to catch any other type of salmon really) and 30-60lb halibut. Over the course of the weekend I probably caught about 100 fish lol... but we couldnt keep em all! Nothing like knowing the salmon you're eating is actually fresh caught, wild, un farmed salmon.

One interesting thing was that about 90% of the salmon we caugh that weekend was hatchery salmon (they are missing a fin so they are easy to spot), so that gives you an idea how essential the hatchery's are to the local fishing industry.

Anyway, just wanted to slip in a shameless plug for our fishing guides, they were awesome, just a couple of guys from the island, one owns a photography store and the other is a lawyer, they dont do it for the money, they do it cause they love to fish.

http://luckyfishinglodge.com/

The resort we stayed at is Eagle Nook, they basically treat you like a king and do whatever you ask of them lol.

http://www.eaglenook.com/

I wouldnt say it's cheap, but I think all things considered it's fairly well priced considering it's location, and the amount of fish you get to take with you :)
If anyone is interested I can tell you the best way to approach this to save the most money, so feel free to pm me. The cost for 3 nights at the resort and 2 full+2 half days of fishing is about 5k for 3 people.

...That might seem really expensive, but if you split that three ways its only about 1600/person, and there is just no way for me to explain how beautiful and quiet it is on the coast and at the lodge.

Plus you can smoke yourself retarded or get loser drunk and the guides dont mind :D

At 1600/person you are also getting about 300$ worth of fish at a minimum.

On my last fishing trip only ONE out of the many that we caught was a wild-born fish. All the rest were hatchery fish, which is kind of sad actually, it shows how fucked up the natural rivers and streams which these fish would normally spawn in are.

woo, gotta love salmon sashimi

every year they report huge number to be expected and as stated above, it's always significantly less than what was projected. don't get me wrong, i would love for them to be right about the numbers, just that their track record always indicates otherwise.

I think its to convenient to have so many salmon projected to return right on the heels of a DFO failure from last year. Fishermen were screaming for a lynching last season and demanded answers and solutions. An advertised high return I feel may just be a means of buying time.

me and my dad goes to chilliwack


and the more the better.
last year they didnt even allow sockeye fishing :mad:

lets grab a ton of salmon then bury it in the ground so no one can eat it!

not even ants?

it's actually the fish farms that threaten the salmon

Berz gonna hunt em all gone ahha

Don't tell Dr Morton...she says the Salmon farms killed them all with sea lice.

HAHA I have hundreds of pounds in my freezer. I have been going every single day since the opening and bringing my limit home every day with my dad. Thats 4 fish a day, minimum as we have caught spring as well, everyday haha.

Berz out.

Farms, yes. Hatcheries, no.


Big difference.

dam that is sick

wow :| fishing must be fun eh

It is when it's this good! We are usually in and out in less than hour. There is a group of 6 of us that meet up every morning and we all walk out together within about an hour of when we start fishing with our limit. These next few days are going to suck balls though as there is a 36 hour commercial opening. For the first time in 4 years they are allowing gill netting at the mouth. We will see that affect up river in a about a day or so.

Berz out.

The eggs they use are as wild as they get. They are hatched out of the wild and released back into the wild. Have any of you participated in the Salmonid program while in elementary school? Awsome program for the kids. It doesn't contribute much in the way of increasing the wild stock, but it educates our children about the life cycle of the salmon (various species and whatnot).

as long as it is wild and not that farmed crap

They do their best, but dealing with nature is tough. It's like trying to predict the weather in this part of the world. There's no way to know past one or two days (jet stream crossing). The DFO have test fisherman go out and take a sampling of returning fish in various locations. It's hit and miss, but that's all you can do, unless you have a "fish counter" in the river. Even then, you can't tell which species and which river system they are from.

Chilliwack is OK, any further up the river and the fish get shitty. You have to remember, the sockeye stop eating as soon as they hit the river (fresh water). Their bodies go through a tremendous change. By the time they hit the spawning grounds, they are very close to death. The males get to jizz once. How sad............

actually, i have :lol good times.. i remember we had a field trip to release the eggs at stanley park

There are a lot of native private fishers who are selling sockeye salmon for $10-13/fish!! Take a look around if you know anyone!!

I've purchased from natives in the past. Didn't have much of a choice when "native only" openings in the Fraser were all there was in the last little while (4 to 5 years). Now that commercial fishing is open to all, I would not buy fish from the natives. Even if they were a bit cheaper. I think I mentioned this briefly in another salmon related thread. Native fishing boats and the way they store their fish is the issue. Most of them do not have access to ice, whereas fisherman who fish for, or sell their fish to canneries and other processing plants, do. When you buy fish, you have to worry about its condition. Commercial fisherman have to meet government inspection guidelines or they lose their license. Native fisherman? Anyway............