Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dave]

Hello fellow anglers

This year we have a strong hatchery component to the returning Cultus Lake sockeye.  To date approximately 25% of the 325 sockeye counted through our fence on Sweltzer Creek are adipose clipped.  The majority of these are 3 year old jacks (mainly males) but there are quite a few adults as well. 
If you catch and are about to kill a clipped salmon in the Vedder-Chilliwack system please be sure it is not a sockeye.  Clipped sockeye will be more common in Vedder - Chilliwack over the next few years as our hatchery returns increase.
Give me a call if you have any questions.

Dave Barnes, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
604-824-4710

[Nicole]

Hey Dave,

Instead of adipose clips, why not do maxillary or ventral clips?

The confusion would be avoided...

Cheers,
Nicole

[Dave]

Hi Nicole
Good question and the reason is studies have shown adipose clips, when done correctly, are less harmful to fish than the marks you mentioned.  They are also easier to identify when these fish are handled, which at this time of year is at night.  With Cultus numbers so low we wanted the best mark with the least possible chance of compromising survival rates. We also have some fish with coded wire tags; others with a dye called Calcein which colours fin rays yellowish.  All fish however are identified with a missing adipose fin.

[Nicole]

Interesting, I was wondering why you don't see those clips anymore... 

Thanks for that!
Nicole

[Arnie Salmonegger]

Dave, do you know whether adipose clipped Cultus sockeye are found above the Sweltzer Creek confluence, so that this is a concern basically below the Vedder Crossing area?  Or do people fishing more than, say, half a kilometre above Vedder Crossing not have to worry about encountering these fish?  How far up the Vedder River are these fish likely to be found?

[SnakeRoll]

well don't want to be negative, but adipose clipped sockeye going through the vedder system is a bad idea... there are so many people who fish the system who can't tell difference between anything that they catch.. and these people seeing an adipose fin missing will be one of the few things they can identify as a hatchery fish to bonk.

[Old Black Dog]

well don't want to be negative, but adipose clipped sockeye going through the vedder system is a bad idea... there are so many people who fish the system who can't tell difference between anything that they catch.. and these people seeing an adipose fin missing will be one of the few things they can identify as a hatchery fish to bonk.

When you see someone doing this get down there and explain it to them.

[Dave]

Occasionally (and I stress that word) Cultus sockeye do stray above the mouth of Sweltzer Creek - we have seen a few up as far as Way's field.  We believe these fish eventually go back downstream and head up Sweltzer into Cultus.  When the adipose clip was first decided on, we knew it would cause problems for those that had a hard time identifying salmon but as mentioned earlier our options in the marks we can use are limited.   
I believe Rod will be posting a salmon ID guide soon - in the mean time remember sockeye have white mouths, virtually no spots on the body or tail, have forked tails and a thin caudal peduncle (wrist of tail).
Coho have black gums, spots on the body and the top half of the tail, have squarer tails and a thicker caudal peduncle.

[Dave]

Birdman, you are right and I should have been more specific - the edge of the gums of coho are black; sockeye are pure white.

[Rodney]

Here you go Dave:

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fishy_news/070917_1.html

Dave or anyone else, if you find any misinformation or confusion in that article, point them out to me so I can make modifications to it. I spent quite a bit of time trying to simply it as much as possible without omitting the important information.

So to those who are still unsure, to sum it up:

On the Chilliwack River, you can keep:

• adipose fin clipped coho salmon
• chinook salmon
• pink salmon
• chum salmon

You cannot keep:

• wild coho salmon (with an adipose fin)
• all sockeye salmon (with or without an adipose fin)

If you are not sure how to tell the difference between a chinook and a coho salmon (especially between a chinook jack and an adult coho salmon), then please take a look at:

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/articles/2006/0906_01.html

well don't want to be negative, but adipose clipped sockeye going through the vedder system is a bad idea... there are so many people who fish the system who can't tell difference between anything that they catch.. and these people seeing an adipose fin missing will be one of the few things they can identify as a hatchery fish to bonk.

That's why this is being brought up, so the information can be distributed widely. The alternative (inaction) isn't much better.