Pinks on Van Isle

[Jockey]

I have a few general questions about pink fishing

1 - I know the pinks only go down the west coast of the island (sooke) on odd numbered years. My question is can you catch them all over the sooke area or are the just out in the shipping lanes? Anytime I have fished for them we have gone way out, I only have a small boat (8.5 ft.) so I can only go out on very nice days and can't venture far from shore. This should be alright for some spring/sockeye fishing but will I be able to knab some pinks as well?

2 - Do pinks only go up the inside of the island (Campbell River) on even years or are they there every year?

Thanks for the info. I know we are 10 months away from any pink fishing but I just got my boat (or dingy if you want to call it that ) and I am excited to catch a salmon in it.

 

[TheRock]

1. While trolling in Sooke for springs inshore we all ways catch incidental Sockeye, Coho and Pinks. This year we didn't have any pinks thus not a pink year. This summer we had more incidental Sockeye on our spring gear trolling inshore than the few times we actually tried targeting sockeye farther out in the tide lines/shipping lanes!

2. From what I know Pinks are every 2nd odd year, with every 4th. year being a larger run. On a year of a pink run, some runs travel on the inside some runs travel on the out side, I guess it depends on what rivers they are headed for... ?

 

[Jockey]

Pinks are every odd year on the outside of the island (west coast).

I don't know about inside but I do know there were pinks in Campbell river this year. Thus my question. Is it odd years they run outside and even years inside? Or do they run inside every year with just odd years on the outside.

Good to know you get them on the spring gear though. All I will be able to fish for is springs but when you only get out once or twice a month its nice to know you can pick up something else if the springs are not biting.

 

[scott craven]

odd years west coast, there are smaller runs that hit the
east side of the island every year, but fewer numbers.

 

[marula]

pinks are two year returning fish and generally they are balanced out over both years with differnt runs. West Coast VI pinks are largley heading up the frasier and a long time ago the frasier was overfished one year to the point of wiping out the even year's fish. That run has never rebounded so we are left with the odd year.

Good clip about sockeye and fraiser river history.
http://www.greatcanadianrivers.com/salmon/history-home.html

 

[lpaulcarter]

I thought I read somewhere that the demise of the even year Fraser run had been brought on by a catastrophic slide in the river...

 

[Jockey]

are there ANY pinks that return to the fraser on even years? or just very very few?

Why doesn't fisheries just release a bunch of hatcheries on an even year to bring back the run. I've seen them bring pinks to rivers like the Nile they could do it in the fraser if they wanted to. Perhaps the pinks would interfere with other salmon spawning? Or they just don't matter?

 

[marula]

It could have been a slide too, i've heard both. I think it would be a great idea to rebuild that year of pinks. For a commercial industry it may not be worth it but as sports fishing is getting more popular it would be worth it just for that.