Cowichan River Chinook

there has been a steady climb for a while athough last years lower water didn't help...more water is a good thing.. :)
 
Been checkin' out the flow for a few weeks now. Have seen plenty of nice springs as far back as the first week of Sept.
Also,the day after our first big rains last week,I was down below the Silver Bridge,and saw a quite a few coho jumping
and finning.Pretty early for them to be showing up,so I bet they'll be another good return this year as well.
 
Check the regs for in-season openings . Fly only area will be open for C&R but the general river will probably not open till November 15th.
 
The discharge in the Cowichan River is 80 cms, as measured by the Water Survey station upstream of the fence, which may be biased high due to the fence effect of backing up the water. The panels are still under water however the crew are continuing to identify and count the salmon going over. I’m hoping the water will have dropped enough to get the fence properly fishing again by next weekend. The weather forecast looks like very little rain will fall over the next two weeks. It would have been nice to spread the aquatic wealth over several weeks instead of getting it all in one weekend, but what can you do.

Some Chinook are still moving but the numbers have dropped off. They may have taken full advantage of the storm event a week ago and already moved in. Coho are continuing to move in and Chum are starting. Ian Matthews is installing the DIDSON sonar to count chum at the lower river today.

Totals to date:
Chinook adults 2724
Chinook jacks 689
Coho adults 1127
Coho jacks 353
Chum no update, 32 last week
Pink 521

The run projection forecast is for 5150, with a confidence interval of 4050 to 7150. The final natural spawner enumeration will be estimated using a mark-recapture.
 
Good news on the Chinook count.

It would be nice to establish a big pink run. The river probably could handle it.

HS.
 
Turn the corner? I sure hope so, as you can see from this data it's been bad for some time.

 
Such good news! I've personally noticed far less pressure from the tribes this year while doing my hikes on the river I
love so much. Common sense finally prevailed by looks of things. Looks as though this year may even be better than
last for all species. Very happy!!
 
Thanks High Five. High five for preserving lake water for later useage if required.

Do the tribes have any input/said about the old steelhead hatchery program?

HS.
 
Thanks, its debateable if fishing got better. I personally thought its gotten worst. Mind you, I don't fish as much as used to.

HS.
 
Don't call the success too soon though. This year's improved Chinook returns cannot attributed to the adjusted release formula for the lake weir after last year's disaster. Any improvements from that would be seen earliest in 4 years. Also, FN fishing efforts in the river were hampered by high water levels early into the fall this year. Seals couldn't get many salmon because they could quickly fly up the river. So even 4 years from now it will be tough to say stocks have improved because of this or that... There is still so much work to do to ensure long term improvement of the Cowichan salmon and steelie stocks and not just praying for a lucky turn in nature which this year's improvements could just well be.
 
It's still a big win for the community. My buddy lives on the lake year round and the people that were fighting for beach front are the ones who only like to whip around in ski boats for two months of the year at their weekend houses. Fortunately there are enough permanent residents that know what's up. Hopefully in 10-12 years the numbers can rebound to former greatness and if not then at least this is a step in the right direction.
 
Any update on the numbers of chinook through the fence? How about coho are they seeing good number like lasy year yet?
 
Around 3,500 Springs throught the fence as of last week. This leads to assume that about 5-6k made it into the river this year. No word on coho yet. At least not that I have heard any.
 
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