Bulkley River Steelhead. Does the Province care?

[OldBlackDog]

From Bob Hooton’s Facebook site.


An important letter from a long time Smithers resident and retired provincial government water management section head intimately familiar with stream flows and the Bulkley River steelhead fishery.

From: Bruce McGonigal <brucemcgonigal4@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 9:18 PM
Subject: Bulkley River
To: Chris Gareau <editor@interior-news.com>

According to Environment Canada's Hydrometric site located at Quick, the lowest river flow for October 9th (over the period of record - 80 plus years) was 39.6 cubic meters per second.

Today the river flow at the Quick site is 37.5 cubic meters per second - a new record low flow for October 9th....

Your eyes are telling you right....it's seriously low.

And you might say: "So what?"

Well, right now there are quite a few people out there fishing for Steelhead. The river is at record low, the water is clear and the fish are vulnerable to the angling pressure currently being applied. And while you might think catch and release is a nice "clean" way to sport fish the Steelhead without reducing the total Steelhead population currently residing in the Bulkley River system, your thinking might be seriously wrong. These critters will remain in the river till next May/June and until water temperatures warm to a point when spawning is possible. That equates to near 10 months of fresh water residency during which time the primary energy source is body fat accumulated during time in the Pacific Ocean. And I suggest to you these critters are at critical energy for survival during this 10 month time period. Catch and release is an indisputable stress on the fish; it is a drain on their energy storage. And while fishers delight in a really good long fight with a life form attempting to survive, the longer the fight, the greater the stress and depletion of the energy reserves of the Steelhead. Also, every fish caught that is landed and released requires handling of the fish. It is well understood that not all Fishers handle fish properly during the landing and releasing phase of having fish fun.

There is a Provincial Government agency in this town responsible for managing this extremely valuable fish species in the Skeena Region - a species that is, provincially, under extreme duress from anthroprocentric activities impacting watersheds, river systems, annual migration and, ultimately, declining Steelhead populations. I find it rather odd our Provincial and local Government agency is absolutely mute on this matter and specifically, today in the Bulkley River with record low flow, high visibility and substantial daily angling pressure, nothing is said - nothing is done to curtail the Catch and Release Sport Steelhead Fishery.

There is an old saying: "You don't know what you got till it's gone." I dread the day when the Bulkley River Steelhead go the same way of the Steelhead in most southern river systems. Absolutely unforgivable...

J Bruce McGonigal
Smithers, BC

 

[Whitebuck]

Great post by Bob yet again...not many people can actually see the big picture.
However if you really wanted to save a lot of these fish you would cut the amount of guides fishing the Skeena and it’s tribs. The same guides bringing clients everyday onto the same runs and flows beating on the same fish over and over again is the real killer of these great fish when they get to their wintering grounds. This fall you had guides on the Copper and other tribs who actually put the fish first and quit guiding halfway through the season, because they were tired of harassing the same fish on a daily basis.
The pressure that is on these northern tribs is ridiculous now. Between the guides and non B.C. residents that are on these flows is crazy! Guides fighting with each other for runs! These rivers have turned into the vedder of the North.
Anyway just a rant of someone on these flows and has watched the change for over 20 years.

 

[Metal Breath]

Great post by Bob yet again...not many people can actually see the big picture.
However if you really wanted to save a lot of these fish you would cut the amount of guides fishing the Skeena and it’s tribs. The same guides bringing clients everyday onto the same runs and flows beating on the same fish over and over again is the real killer of these great fish when they get to their wintering grounds. This fall you had guides on the Copper and other tribs who actually put the fish first and quit guiding halfway through the season, because they were tired of harassing the same fish on a daily basis.
The pressure that is on these northern tribs is ridiculous now. Between the guides and non B.C. residents that are on these flows is crazy! Guides fighting with each other for runs! These rivers have turned into the vedder of the North.
Anyway just a rant of someone on these flows and has watched the change for over 20 years.

I agree with Whitebuck. The guides on these rivers put way too much pressure on these fish in the same runs every day. The kispiox guides from the fancy lodge on the upper stretch refused to stop fishing. Meanwhile they lobby to try and monopolize "their" river. Paying off natives and land owners for less expensive or exclusive use of access points. Ive watched them treat non guided anglers like lesser than important for far too long (almost 20 years) and i cant watch it any longer. The situation is out of control with the guides up there. I can handle pressure from common anglers but the behavior of the guides us out of control.