Sooke and Cowichan River salmon returns

[Foxsea]

A commercial fish opening off Cowichan Bay has netted 150,000 chum salmon for the market, making it the most successful opening in years.

Dozens of gill-net and seine fishboats took part in the fishery, which began Nov. 3 and wound up this week.

“It was a very large fishery, a very successful fishery,” said Andrew Thomson, the south coast area director for Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The commercial fishery moved in after 230,000 chum salmon made it up the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers to spawn, meaning between 350,000 and 400,000 fish returned to the area in all.

The last commercial opening in the Cowichan Bay area was in 2009, when only 6,400 chum were caught. There have not been sufficient fish in the area to allow commercial fisheries until this year.


Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Chum+fishery+best+years+says/7562772/story.html#ixzz2CX2O63Qu

 

[outback]

i was there end of october, The odd fish showed up that was chrome-ish in the bunch (with sealice), so i wouldnt say they where all spawned out. I would love to say i was doing the impossible, but there were other guys there using the same gear landing fish in a timely manner.