Tales From The Tyee Pool...........2016....
- Thread starter Dave H
- Start date
Team Black Dog
Member
Good luck tonight Dave. Hope tonights the night !
Dave H
Well-Known Member
It's over.
So last night turned out to be a repeat of the previous as it proved to be lovely, with the sunset under-lighting the dark clouds to the west and a huge Moon peeking from behind the scattered clouds to the east, but no fish.
Total Tyee registered is 13, with the 36 1/2 pounder rowed by Jeremy Maynard the largest, the two 30 1/2 pounders rowed an hour apart by Randy Killoran will be the Daily Double, not often won these days and in this case with the third smallest weight available, as Randy explained the other day.
Regardless, those two and the one other at 30 1/2 pounds make Randy the top rower again, something not new to him and IMHO always well deserved.
Nobody works harder nor knows his marks better and that, coupled with his refinement in tackle, positioning skills and dedication all contribute to his status, which is considerable.
Here's a couple of pics from last night.
Somehow I misunderstood the concept of "decorating your boat", a practise followed by a few others who use lights and such and went with what I thought were two pretty decorative rod-holders.
Actually, only one fished while the other enjoyed her first guided tour of the Tyee Pool.
She said she liked it.
As usual, there was a crowd at the clubhouse with many greetings exchanged, lies swapped and stories told of days of old, followed by fireworks which experience has shown me scares the crap out of Buddy, my dog. With that in mind I was at home with him so have no pics of the pyrotechnics display, but it sounded pretty good.
Finally, thanks to all the people who came aboard my humble rowboat and tried their luck in the pool this season.
I enjoyed you all.
My favorite part of being a rower is meeting new peeps and making new acquaintances and friends and this year was great for that, so thank you all.
I just wish some of you weren't so darn big sometimes. LOL
Thanks also for the kind comments regarding my annual little contribution to the site.
I appreciate them.
Take care.
So last night turned out to be a repeat of the previous as it proved to be lovely, with the sunset under-lighting the dark clouds to the west and a huge Moon peeking from behind the scattered clouds to the east, but no fish.
Total Tyee registered is 13, with the 36 1/2 pounder rowed by Jeremy Maynard the largest, the two 30 1/2 pounders rowed an hour apart by Randy Killoran will be the Daily Double, not often won these days and in this case with the third smallest weight available, as Randy explained the other day.
Regardless, those two and the one other at 30 1/2 pounds make Randy the top rower again, something not new to him and IMHO always well deserved.
Nobody works harder nor knows his marks better and that, coupled with his refinement in tackle, positioning skills and dedication all contribute to his status, which is considerable.
Here's a couple of pics from last night.
Somehow I misunderstood the concept of "decorating your boat", a practise followed by a few others who use lights and such and went with what I thought were two pretty decorative rod-holders.
Actually, only one fished while the other enjoyed her first guided tour of the Tyee Pool.
She said she liked it.
As usual, there was a crowd at the clubhouse with many greetings exchanged, lies swapped and stories told of days of old, followed by fireworks which experience has shown me scares the crap out of Buddy, my dog. With that in mind I was at home with him so have no pics of the pyrotechnics display, but it sounded pretty good.
Finally, thanks to all the people who came aboard my humble rowboat and tried their luck in the pool this season.
I enjoyed you all.
My favorite part of being a rower is meeting new peeps and making new acquaintances and friends and this year was great for that, so thank you all.
I just wish some of you weren't so darn big sometimes. LOL
Thanks also for the kind comments regarding my annual little contribution to the site.
I appreciate them.
Take care.
fshnfnatic
Well-Known Member
Thank you again Dave.There's always next year bud.Feel proud of what you accomplished.Till next year.
Barnacle Bill
Well-Known Member
Dave, once again live through the Tyee Pool season via your reports and photos.
THANKS, and I am looking forward to next year, and maybe give it a try myself.
THANKS, and I am looking forward to next year, and maybe give it a try myself.
OldBlackDog
Well-Known Member
Tyee Club season closes.
by Jeremy Maynard
The ninety-second Tyee Club season came to an end with nightfall on September15. Although the official rowing season is over with the broader Campbell River terminal area fishery remains open until the end of the month, albeit usually with much reduced effort. The rowing community rarely seems to continue fishing past the close of Tyee Club season and powerboat effort always seems minimal during the ensuing two weeks.
Unlike in most recent years, during which the fish seem to quit biting in the final ten days, relative to the overall low recorded catch of tyee’s there was a modest flurry towards the end with 4 registered tyee’s in the three days leading up to the 15th, regrettably nothing on the final day. One encouraging feature of most of these fish was their bright condition, suggesting new arrivals to the rivermouth area. Included was the biggest of the year at 36.5 pounds, and congratulations to new member Drews Driessen. This is the first time in the long Tyee Club history that the largest fish of the season has weighed less than forty pounds. Declining size-at-age by chinook salmon is a phenomenon that has been observed coastwide and is not unique to the Campbell/Quinsam stock. Perhaps 36 is the new 50?
If they only looked at the Tyee Club website (www.tyeeclub.org) for information those interested in this fishery or stock of chinook salmon might conclude from the final tally of 13 registered fish that the return was poor however this source of information doesn’t tell the whole story, far from it. I’m hopeful that when the comprehensive in-stream assessment of this chinook stock is completed late this fall it will show an increased return compared to recent years.
Perhaps more than in any other year after their return from north coast waters many of the chinooks were holding well down the shoreline away from Tyee Pool where the majority of the rowboat effort takes place, all along the waterfront past downtown at least as far as Rotary Beach adjacent to the 50th parallel marker. This trend has been underway for many years, starting with the collapse of the once famously productive Frenchman’s Pool area on the northwest side of the estuary. For unknown reasons during the past 20 years the holding chinooks no longer stage there despite every indication that the environment is cleaner than ever. At the far end of Frenchman’s Orange Point wasn’t named for any random reason, as the site of the original paper mill effluent outfall the water was coloured so, and yet even I can remember back in the mid 1970’s seeing large fish rolling in the tinted water.
Exhibit A for the newer holding pattern is the tremendous season enjoyed by anglers casting off the sport fishing pier, almost certainly some kind of record for the chinook catch there, with the record board running out of space! At least 15 tyee’s were caught from the pier, with another 70 or so chinooks landed, many of which were over 20 pounds. And this is to say nothing about the numerous fish hooked and lost, either broken off in the barnacle-encrusted pilings or seized by one of the patrolling seals that haunted the place. Word of this success started to spread beyond town and a number of anglers from elsewhere down island were known to have made repeat visits.
There’s always a cluster of boats that fish close to and along the lower border of the special management zone at the Hidden Harbour breakwater, outside of which it’s a “business as usual” tackle regulatory regime, but this year there appeared to be more than ever suggesting a higher than usual presence of large chinook holding there. I don’t fish this area myself but I fielded a number of inquiries from several non-anglers who repeatedly observed large numbers of boats in this location and wondered what the cause might be.
And my own success this season in the Tyee Club fishery was reflective of this emerging trend. I rowed approximately 30 tides in Tyee Pool with nothing to show for that effort and by early September I was beginning to wonder if my own season was going to be something of a bust. However I have some friends who like to consistently fish from their rowboats downtown, rarely venturing up to the Tyee Pool area, and their stories more than caught my attention. I essentially switched locations full time and in about half the number of trips boated seven chinooks, one of which was a tyee, as well as loosing several more – it was like night and day!
A number of people have asked me whether I think the operation of netpen projects for chinook smolts at three downtown locations for the past twenty odd years has something to do with the new holding pattern by the returning chinooks. My response has been that they must have some effect – after all promoting a secondary imprint (netpen location v. the river) in the fish to create a more widespread and predictable fishing opportunity when the maturing fish return is one of the objectives of the netpen program.
That said I don’t see how the netpen fish could have so heavily skewed the holding behavior of the aggregate return. At about 700,000 smolts the netpen projects account for approximately one-sixth of the Quinsam hatchery production, and then there’s the natural production from the two rivers themselves to factor in as well. All the chinook produced by the hatchery are now otolith marked, with a discrete thermal mark for each program (netpen, river release, in-stream incubators) placed on this bony inner ear, and so far as I know analysis has not shown that the netpen fish are contributing a disproportionately large share of the overall return.
Methinks something else is going on but who knows what. Presumably the fish hold out where they are most comfortable, I just hope the southeastward trend doesn’t continue much further!
by Jeremy Maynard
The ninety-second Tyee Club season came to an end with nightfall on September15. Although the official rowing season is over with the broader Campbell River terminal area fishery remains open until the end of the month, albeit usually with much reduced effort. The rowing community rarely seems to continue fishing past the close of Tyee Club season and powerboat effort always seems minimal during the ensuing two weeks.
Unlike in most recent years, during which the fish seem to quit biting in the final ten days, relative to the overall low recorded catch of tyee’s there was a modest flurry towards the end with 4 registered tyee’s in the three days leading up to the 15th, regrettably nothing on the final day. One encouraging feature of most of these fish was their bright condition, suggesting new arrivals to the rivermouth area. Included was the biggest of the year at 36.5 pounds, and congratulations to new member Drews Driessen. This is the first time in the long Tyee Club history that the largest fish of the season has weighed less than forty pounds. Declining size-at-age by chinook salmon is a phenomenon that has been observed coastwide and is not unique to the Campbell/Quinsam stock. Perhaps 36 is the new 50?
If they only looked at the Tyee Club website (www.tyeeclub.org) for information those interested in this fishery or stock of chinook salmon might conclude from the final tally of 13 registered fish that the return was poor however this source of information doesn’t tell the whole story, far from it. I’m hopeful that when the comprehensive in-stream assessment of this chinook stock is completed late this fall it will show an increased return compared to recent years.
Perhaps more than in any other year after their return from north coast waters many of the chinooks were holding well down the shoreline away from Tyee Pool where the majority of the rowboat effort takes place, all along the waterfront past downtown at least as far as Rotary Beach adjacent to the 50th parallel marker. This trend has been underway for many years, starting with the collapse of the once famously productive Frenchman’s Pool area on the northwest side of the estuary. For unknown reasons during the past 20 years the holding chinooks no longer stage there despite every indication that the environment is cleaner than ever. At the far end of Frenchman’s Orange Point wasn’t named for any random reason, as the site of the original paper mill effluent outfall the water was coloured so, and yet even I can remember back in the mid 1970’s seeing large fish rolling in the tinted water.
Exhibit A for the newer holding pattern is the tremendous season enjoyed by anglers casting off the sport fishing pier, almost certainly some kind of record for the chinook catch there, with the record board running out of space! At least 15 tyee’s were caught from the pier, with another 70 or so chinooks landed, many of which were over 20 pounds. And this is to say nothing about the numerous fish hooked and lost, either broken off in the barnacle-encrusted pilings or seized by one of the patrolling seals that haunted the place. Word of this success started to spread beyond town and a number of anglers from elsewhere down island were known to have made repeat visits.
There’s always a cluster of boats that fish close to and along the lower border of the special management zone at the Hidden Harbour breakwater, outside of which it’s a “business as usual” tackle regulatory regime, but this year there appeared to be more than ever suggesting a higher than usual presence of large chinook holding there. I don’t fish this area myself but I fielded a number of inquiries from several non-anglers who repeatedly observed large numbers of boats in this location and wondered what the cause might be.
And my own success this season in the Tyee Club fishery was reflective of this emerging trend. I rowed approximately 30 tides in Tyee Pool with nothing to show for that effort and by early September I was beginning to wonder if my own season was going to be something of a bust. However I have some friends who like to consistently fish from their rowboats downtown, rarely venturing up to the Tyee Pool area, and their stories more than caught my attention. I essentially switched locations full time and in about half the number of trips boated seven chinooks, one of which was a tyee, as well as loosing several more – it was like night and day!
A number of people have asked me whether I think the operation of netpen projects for chinook smolts at three downtown locations for the past twenty odd years has something to do with the new holding pattern by the returning chinooks. My response has been that they must have some effect – after all promoting a secondary imprint (netpen location v. the river) in the fish to create a more widespread and predictable fishing opportunity when the maturing fish return is one of the objectives of the netpen program.
That said I don’t see how the netpen fish could have so heavily skewed the holding behavior of the aggregate return. At about 700,000 smolts the netpen projects account for approximately one-sixth of the Quinsam hatchery production, and then there’s the natural production from the two rivers themselves to factor in as well. All the chinook produced by the hatchery are now otolith marked, with a discrete thermal mark for each program (netpen, river release, in-stream incubators) placed on this bony inner ear, and so far as I know analysis has not shown that the netpen fish are contributing a disproportionately large share of the overall return.
Methinks something else is going on but who knows what. Presumably the fish hold out where they are most comfortable, I just hope the southeastward trend doesn’t continue much further!
advTHXance
Well-Known Member
Thanks again for all the reports this season Dave. Its nice to be kept in the loop of such a historic salmon fishing tradition! Looking forward to next year already.
littlechucky
Crew Member
Looks like a big number of fish made it back...but the rains will have impacted spawning.
http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/news/403623366.html?mobile=true
http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/news/403623366.html?mobile=true
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