Monster chinook return to Port Alberni

searun

Well-Known Member
Run upgrade alert. Latest forecast is for 117,000 fish returning to the river. This means there will be 2 fish of any size, with no slot limit in Barkley Sound. The normal regulation is 1 under 77cm and 1 over, however with this run the regulation will change to 2 of any size.

The majority of the returning fish will be age 4 chinook, meaning the run composition will be larger fish.

This will be an epic season, sharpen your hooks. Go get em!
 
Ocean conditions when the smolts went to sea were excellent, apparently not so much for the following brood year.
 
I thought there was all kinds of talk to close Chinook fishing requested by FN????

Great news if not closed in Jun, Jul and the rest of the year Whohooooo
 
Totally different fishery. The Fraser fish generally stay well out off shore and hit land in the lower portion of the island on their migration to the Fraser. The CWT (coded wire tag) data shows very few encounters with upper Fraser fish in other areas. The rec fishery on the south island has demonstrated a very low interception rate with the current slot limit restriction. The number of upper Fraser chinook that are impacted by the rec fishery is statistically insignificant. All the huff and fluff from FN communities on the Fraser is really about convincing DFO to horse trade their sockeye closure for increasing opportunities to fish upper Fraser Chinook beyond their normal allocation in a low abundance cycle year.

The Minister would be breaking policy and the current law if he agreed to these demands IMO, and would also spark an unhealthy conflict between communities that have traditionally been able to work together to find amenable solutions.

Sorry to hi-jack the thread. Just tying to distinguish the Port Alberni fishery which is quite abundant and will not be managed to the same conservation constraints.
 
If your not planning to fish Area 23, you should be. It will be great. The area 123 off shore area will also be good based on the large Columbia River return which so far appears mostly to be coming down the outside west coast. Its a bit early to know for sure, but the colder water on the west coast is attracting back species like the pilchards. :p

When we see that happening, it usually brings most of the Columbia run down the west side of the island.
 
What's the word Searun ? has the run been upgraded at all ? seems all the reports have been pretty spotty so far ... when can we expect these large springs? my tyee is in there i know it !!
 
If your not planning to fish Area 23, you should be. It will be great. The area 123 off shore area will also be good based on the large Columbia River return which so far appears mostly to be coming down the outside west coast. Its a bit early to know for sure, but the colder water on the west coast is attracting back species like the pilchards. :p

When we see that happening, it usually brings most of the Columbia run down the west side of the island.
From what I have seen and heard this report is very optimistic. So far it has been one of the worst years. Still hope but should have been way better by now.I hope you are right.
 
there coming guys...this big run has already showed up in the Alaska fishery and the area F troll fishery.. they be here in the next couple weeks :)

Then its game on :cool:
 
Sounds like the commercial guys in Alaska pounded our fish hard because of raised limits. The limits were raised because of the optimistic abundance forecasts. Hopefully there will be something remaining for us by the time they work their way down the coast. I knew it was too good to be true because DFO forecasts are notoriously wrong. Any other job you'd be butt canned if you were so inconsistent in your business projections. But it's the govt, so that's considered perfectly acceptable. Only in Canada :(
 
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