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[Dave]

Good to see that you are seeing more Char this year....but has your angling effort increased over the last couple of years?
Good point and could very well be why.

Another question to the mix

How many Adipose Clipped Steelhead do you think make it past all the anglers and sucessfuly spawn?

Don't know but certainly some escape to the closed area and others simply are not caught.  In past years the hatchery overflow had up to 100 clipped, holding steelhead; perhaps Buck could add some info here[/i]and what percentage of unclipped Adult Steelhead had a adipose clipped parent?

Again, who knows but we do know hatchery steelhead do spawn in the Chilliwack

Is that a bad thing? In an Urban setting, personally I don't think so, as the brood are all unclipped and from the system, but it must have had an affect.
I agree, hatchery steelhead spawning is not a bad thing

Do you think there were distinct runs of steelhead in the Chilliwack/Vedder? and now one hodge-podge mix...a true Canadian eh...a bit of this and a bit of that!

Here is the one question you ask I can answer!  Yes, the Chilliwack did have distinct spawning populations - Post, Sweltzer, Liumchen, Ryder, Foley, Slesse all had their own populations.  I can remember seeing 20-30 steelhead in Sweltzer Creek.  Now seeing a steelhead in any of the above mentioned tribs would be a rarity

[Every Day]

mykisscrazy..

I have drastically decreased my angling efforts this last year (university will kill that I guess).
I have noticed WAY more resident rainbows and dollies than I have ever seen in the Chilliwack-Vedder.  Already caught, and seen more caught then I caught all last year in about 1/4 of the fishing trips made, and probably 1/10 of the hours put in. Also saw a lot more bulls around this summer as well (way too many were killed by the uninformed bonking smolt fisherman).

In one of my classes here we have learned periphyton growth helps make a bigger population of insect food, therefore more fish food. In the last couple of years I have noticed that the amount of the periphyton (brown sludge on the rocks) has increased, so therefore maybe more steelies are hanging back and becoming resident rainbows. Could this also bring more of the big char down for feeding as well possibly, on both the bugs and maybe the smaller resident bows?

One more question for you Dave... Have you ever seen or heard of a summer steelhead in the Vedder? Did it ever have a distinct run of summer steelies at any point in time? The reason I ask is because a number of my friends believe it did, and one of them has actually landed one. I am curious because I too landed one (well fairly sure it was one could have possibly been a resident bow) at Peach last year one evening just before dark on a dry fly (little undergunned on the 4 wt lol). Jumped a hell of a lot of times and when I got it in ended up being a 6 pnd wild doe with all the "summer run" looks to it. Possibly a stray? Or did I just get REALLY lucky and land one of the few native ones around? One of my friends also picked up one of these "summer run" looking fish up behind the red springs last year in the upper, beautiful chromer with red cheeks and probably around 4-5 pounds as well.

Also when was the last time you checked Sweltzer? I took a look in there a few years back and saw 2 heading up it just at the big rock wall there...Maybe they are just heading farther up the creek to spawn than usual, or wait until later in the year since it always seems to be so low for a bump in the water. Also saw one in Tamihi creek last year that was def around spawning mode.

[Dave]

Great observations ED.  The increased periphyton could be the result of the nutrient additions to the Chilliwack system over the past few years, thanks to the BCCF and CRAC , as well as the carcasses of spawning chum, pink and chinooks.  Low water flows and sunlight would also increase this growth.

Summer steelhead .... I know some have been caught in the Chilliwack but we always suspected they were stray Coquihalla or Silver Creek fish.  I don't know of any studies, or anything anecdotal, that indicate a population of summer steelhead in the Chilliwack.

Sweltzer Creek ... this is a system I know well.  I understand one steelhead attempted to enter Cultus Lake last year ... was thwarted by the sockeye smolt fence .. turned around and was not seen again ( being by itself, probably a good thing ).  The bottom half of this creek is not subject to the near lethal water temperatures common in the upper area ...  good spawning and rearing potential there.  White chinooks are liking it!
Good to hear about that Tamihi fish - how far upstream did you see it??

[Every Day]

I figured the one I caught was a coquihalla stray... was quite small and a beautiful fish. The one my friend caught was also very small but super fat, figured it had dropped out of the upper to feed on the spring eggs, but I guess we'll never know. Def one of the prettier fish I have seen out of the river to date.

The tamihi fish was in the pool just below the falls I believe. Not too familiar with the system, but it's a deep pool just around the corner up from the bridge. Was gonna go try fish in the open section of the creek for a change and saw it walking by...

And I def know what you mean about the white springs liking that area. They are always going up Sweltzer during high flows. I am very surprised that the Steelies don't go up the cleaner water during high water events... I know that I always fish that area during high water for all species and always have a lot of luck right on the edge of the clean water because of fish cleaning their gills, funny more don't just re route.

[mykisscrazy]

Summer Steelhead. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were never any summer runs in the Chilliwack. Most Summer Run Streams the gradient is pretty steep and one usually finds a barrier or some sort that separates the two. The Chilliwack just doesn't have that.

I ran into an oldtimer on the Skagit a couple of years ago (81 years old!)He was an American from Bellingham and fished all through the area. I asked him about the Upper Chilliwack on the US side and if he had ever fished it. Has a good rainbow and bull trout fishery in the summer, never had caught summer steelhead, and it was just too hard to get to in the winter and there were other streams that were closer to fish for winters. He had no idea about what it's like now as it had been  over 30 maybe 40 years since he had fished it. Skagit was still his favorite river and it was his happiest day when Canada fought back and did not allow the Ross Reservoir to increase in size. He gave me a few of his skagit patterns. I still have a couple which I keep aside to make copies.

[Every Day]

I have heard about the upper Chilliwack on the US side of the border.
I would love for them to open the upper (above limit) to fly fishing, catch and release only from July to August.
Would make for a fun trout fishery and wouldn't have too much of an impact on salmon or steelhead that are spawning I would think since there aren't many around at that time.

[buck]

ED

The upper Chilliwack was open to fly fishing only for two weeks in July or August many years ago. At the time it seamed like a good idea but concern was raised about the number of
juvenile steelhead that were being caught and released. ( future adults ) As it stands right now you can see anglers fishing the closed area on any given weekend during the summer.
You can hike into any log jam away from the main road and find worm containers as well as lures hanging in the trees.
Lots of questions regarding adult steelhead and bull trout numbers. No enumeration of adults or outgoing juveniles = guesses. Why do you think the stocks are in decline ? Unfortunately you
probably will never see any work on the Vedder/Chilliwack regarding steelhead as the province seems to have a different agenda. Even the steelhead float counts in the upper river have been
dropped due to a lack of funds. ( 3 floaters, 1 driver for 2-3 days ) $$$$$$$ Money being spent on expansion of fish farms and gravel extraction from the Fraser?

[jetboatjim]

I figured the one I caught was a coquihalla stray... was quite small and a beautiful fish. The one my friend caught was also very small but super fat, figured it had dropped out of the upper to feed on the spring eggs, but I guess we'll never know. Def one of the prettier fish I have seen out of the river to date.

The tamihi fish was in the pool just below the falls I believe. Not too familiar with the system, but it's a deep pool just around the corner up from the bridge. Was gonna go try fish in the open section of the creek for a change and saw it walking by...

And I def know what you mean about the white springs liking that area. They are always going up Sweltzer during high flows. I am very surprised that the Steelies don't go up the cleaner water during high water events... I know that I always fish that area during high water for all species and always have a lot of luck right on the edge of the clean water because of fish cleaning their gills, funny more don't just re route.

perhaps a ...
silverhope fish
chehalis fish
vedder fish that decided to stay
or a fish from washington that just went for a swim

I ahve caught hatchery fish that were many miles from thier natal stream....perhaps they just wanted to go for a swim.