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[VAGAbond]

In the last couple of weeks I have gone twice to the Squamish to greet the Pinks and last week had the best Pink fishing I have ever experienced.  Went again yesterday, Sept. 1 and found the run is essentially over so I went drive about to look around upstream where I have not been for some years.  First stop was Ashlu Creek where a spawning bed was constructed a few years back.  Stuffed with spawning Pinks.  Great stuff.

Some years ago I read a report on the Squamish salmon runs and there was a little note that there were indications of a very small but continuing run of Sockeye into the Squamish.  Rather surprising as the Squamish doesn’t have the geography for Sockeye which normally require a lake downstream of the spawning bed for the young to rear for most of a year. 

A buddy once told me that 40 years ago or so he thinks he saw Sockeye spawning in High Falls Creek alongside the road just past the generating station.  High Falls Creek tumbles down the mountainside just beyond the Cheekye Generating Station, crosses  under the road, disappears into a small marsh and then runs down a small gravelly stream and dumps into the powerhouse channel.  So I went to see what could be seen.  The stream alongside the road is quite overgrown and I didn’t try too hard but I managed to peak through the bushes in a couple of places.  A small number of Pinks were spawning in the little stream and darned if there wasn’t what looked to me like dead Sockeye. Quite a good sized Sockeye, much larger than the Pinks.  That little marsh must do the duty as a rearing lake for the Sockeye.  It would be interesting to know how many Sockeye there are in that tiny run if it really exists.

[RalphH]

it's not uncommon that sockeye spawn in creeks and rivers with no accessible lakes for rearing the young fish. They just don't generate the large runs as do the fish that have a lake environment available. it's more common in northern BC and Alaska but it does happen down south.

[Quin]

Not too surprised that there's a small population of sockeye that shows up in the Squamish. Was very surprised when looking up Squamish sockeye to find that American Shad have been found in the river! (2001 and 2002).

[bkk]

The Squamish does indeed have a very small sockeye population but not really enough to call it a "run". Before I retired from DFO, I worked on this system for 35+ years and the few sockeye that are there are generally confined to the Mamquam and Cheakamus Rivers. I have seen them all through the watershed but generally not every year. For the most part, they are very small fish and are smaller than Fraser River sockeye. There were no genetics taken from these fish as they were generally encountered during the summer chinook capture programs. One thing of interest about these fish is that a few years back while running the Mamquam chinook program, we caught a adipose clipped sockeye. That in it's self is rare because there is very limited adipose clipping of sockeye. With that in mind we retained the fish to determine it's origin. When we got the coded wire tag data back from the lab we were very surprised to find out that is was a sockeye from the Sakinaw Lake system on the Sunshine Coast. That is a lake with an extremely low sockeye population currently and is the subject of a recovery program based out of Roswell Creek on Vancouver Island. Seems it was a tad lost. So are the sockeye in the system just strays or a local stock? I don't know but they have not increased in amount in the time I have been here.

[VAGAbond]

The Squamish does indeed have a very small sockeye population but not really enough to call it a "run". Before I retired from DFO, I worked on this system for 35+ years and the few sockeye that are there are generally confined to the Mamquam and Cheakamus Rivers. I have seen them all through the watershed but generally not every year. For the most part, they are very small fish and are smaller than Fraser River sockeye. There were no genetics taken from these fish as they were generally encountered during the summer chinook capture programs. One thing of interest about these fish is that a few years back while running the Mamquam chinook program, we caught a adipose clipped sockeye. That in it's self is rare because there is very limited adipose clipping of sockeye. With that in mind we retained the fish to determine it's origin. When we got the coded wire tag data back from the lab we were very surprised to find out that is was a sockeye from the Sakinaw Lake system on the Sunshine Coast. That is a lake with an extremely low sockeye population currently and is the subject of a recovery program based out of Roswell Creek on Vancouver Island. Seems it was a tad lost. So are the sockeye in the system just strays or a local stock? I don't know but they have not increased in amount in the time I have been here.

Thanks for the reply and information. Over the years I have accumulated lots of little questions about what is and often cannot find answers even though probably somebody knows.   It is great to get one answered.

[redside1]

Caught sockeye in the Cheakamus in the middle of August back in the mid 1970’s when Chinook fishing was open for retention. No very many though.

[living_blind]

Definitely sockeye there in small numbers. I’ve seen a few over the years, but very unusual.

A friend landed one in Paradise Valley (Cheakamus) roughly 7-8 years back. He managed a picture though it did not have any background to ‘prove’ location; just the sockeye in the shallows. He was pretty rookie at that point and did not realize it was rare at the time.