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[Britguy]

Decided to give it one more try today
I tried the Cheakamus river first but it had poor visability
so I went back to the Squamish river, it was very clear for the first few hours then it changed as the Mamquam river started to push down the sandy silt.
I then spotted a black bear on the opposite side of the river and not too far down from me
I moved up river to pass it, as i looked back I  noticed it on the shore directly opposite where i had just moved from
I then decided to call it a day as the river was getting coloured up and none of the fish wanted to bite my offerings
still nice out there even in the rain
lots of spawners in the shallows now

[hickman]

Good on you. Indeed, the rain has blown out the rivers, especially the Mamquam as it receives a lot of run off from smaller creeks. It is running muddy right now. Visibility will be marginal for a few days in all rivers of the system looking at the forecast. Best option in those conditions is probably still the Squamish upstream of the Mamquam.... Fishermen's Park and upstream...
There are lost of chum in the system. At least it seems like it is a decent run this year if they keep on coming. Hopefully, a recovery trend for the chum runs in this system.

[capman]

Good on you. Indeed, the rain has blown out the rivers, especially the Mamquam as it receives a lot of run off from smaller creeks. It is running muddy right now. Visibility will be marginal for a few days in all rivers of the system looking at the forecast. Best option in those conditions is probably still the Squamish upstream of the Mamquam.... Fishermen's Park and upstream...
There are lost of chum in the system. At least it seems like it is a decent run this year if they keep on coming. Hopefully, a recovery trend for the chum runs in this system.

I agree. Upper section is by far better and fish are more willing to byte. For the first time after a few years, you see more Bald Eagles which is also a welcoming news for this system.

[hickman]

Yes, this year seems good so far. There have been chum and coho in the systems since mid/ late September. There are more bald eagles showing on the river each day. I sure hope that this is a recovery trend...
On the fishing report front, I saw a chum landed on the fly yesterday on my dog walk at Fishermen's park although the water has come up quite a bit and visibility is getting poor. Lots of fish showing and rolling close to shore.
If water levels allow, I might give it a go again on the weekend.

[bkk]

There have been chum and coho in the systems since mid/ late September.

That is normal but a bit on the early side for chum. First Nations encounter coho in their food fishery starting in late August. Don't also forget that in some years there is a very small amount of chum in July and August. Strays maybe as they seem to be almost exclusively male. During the 2006 Cheakamus chinook recovery program I captured about a dozen of them while conducting the chinook capture field program.

Chum are looking significantly improved over the previous 5 - 6 years and some of the groundwater spawning channels on the lwr. river tribs are starting to get OK amounts in them for this time of year. Still a far, far cry from a good return but better than it has been. Nice to see chum actually cutting up the gravel for a change.

[adriaticum]

I wonder what would happen if we left this water alone for 5 years?

[bkk]

I wonder what would happen if we left this water alone for 5 years?

Probally nothing as that has essentially been what has happend over the last 5 year with only a single two week sport opening during that time. I think that what is happening to Squamish chum is happening in the marine environment. Chum fry enumeration on the Cheakamus as part of the Water Use Plan juvenile monitoring has shown that juvenile migration has generally been good even though escapements have been ( in my estimation any way ) poor to fair. At least 3 main factors are at play there. Lots of secure and generally stable off channel groundwater habitat, few large gravel moving floods and removal of the main predator ( sculpin ) by the CN Caustic Soda spill. Those factors have allowed maximum survival of juvenile chum from the escapements. So they appear to be having the bottleneck in the ocean.
 Other chum stocks have been fairing generally better on the South Coast than the Squamish but not every year or in every place. No idea what the "smoking gun " is but I have my suspicions ( just like everyone else ). One area that needs to be seriously looked at is the Johnstone Staright mixed stock dedicated chum fishery. Basically this fishery is allocated 20% of the standing crop on chum. So if the return is 1 million, then they can get 200 000 fish to catch. More if the return is larger but I believe the 1 million mark is the threshhold for a fishery. What concerns me is that the catch composition is only 50 - 60 % Fraser fish, so 1/2 of the fish are going somewhere else. So where? There needs to be a concentrated effort to collect DNA from Squamish fish and have them comparred to the stock composition in the catch. We could then at least answer if there is indeed a significant Squamish component of the fishery. Easy to do as it's done for sockeye all of the time.

Maybe it was just a coincidence  but the Squamish crashed about the same time as this fishery was set up this way. Then again, so did other stocks on the mid coast that had no exposure to the Johnston Staright fishery. We need to get to the bottom of this but hopefully this years return will be good and this will be a period of favourable survival. Hears to keeping your fingers crossed.

[adriaticum]

Thanks bkk, informative.

[hickman]

Yes, very helpful and interesting insights and thoughts from bkk!