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[Sir Snag-A-Lot]

God, what a biased article!  No mention of the thousands of fish the natives caught legally, or the suspected thousands more caught illegally. 

In this ridiculously overly politically correct society of ours there is no way that the truth could be told either without it coming off as racist.

[BNF861]

when was the last time you caught a sockeye while sturgeon fishing? lol

lol thats what i was thinking, i'm still waiting 

scary article. As already mentioned, its also my opinion FN want the sporties shut down so that they have free reign and no one else on the river to observe and report their poaching. Not saying all fn are poaching, but many are fishing outside of their already loose regs.

[alwaysfishn]

I was fishing up in hope a few days ago and saw a boat come by, drop its net, pull in a few sockey then hand bomb them to a guy on an ATV on shore.  What joke.

If all this illegal fishing is happening why aren't there more DFO officers to regulate?

Did you report it?

[dereke]

 That is a good question, if no report is made then complaining about it is useless!

[BNF861]

watched earlier this year,  a fn member catch a 4-5 ft sturgeon in his net, toss it in his boat, and quickly take off up river to unload it.

yes it was reported but said sturgeon was quickly brought to shore and unloaded so an officer can't prove anything.

funny how they are trying to give the sport fisher a bad name though in the paper. Not saying all sport fishers fish legally either but from what i have seen one group abuses the stocks more than the other.

[Geff_t]

Well I think people should be writing letters to the editors of your local paper that has printed this story. here is the one I sent to my editor here in Maple Ridge.

Dear editor
 
  As usual around this time of year when the sockeye are returning to the Fraser river to migrate to their home rivers to spawn we see Mr Ernie Crey  giving us his verbal diarrhea on how the river should be closed to sport fishing because they have a big impact on the survival of the sockeye. Last year there was a study done that was funded by the government on the mortality rate of sockeye that where caught and then released 24 hours later. This study showed that the mortality rate was less then 1%  of the fish that where caught. I believe that the impact of the illegal drift netting that goes on between Chilliwack and Hope has a far higher impact on the sockeye then the sport fishing community does. Yes these infractions by these people that are drift netting are reported but nothing comes of it. Most of these people drift netting are doing it under the cover of darkness making it tough for DFO to enforce. So Mr Ernie Crey maybe you should put less effort in keeping the sport fishing community that reports these infractions off the river but put more effort in fighting the illegal netting that goes on.
 
   
 

[tsawytscha]

Well, I can confirm the same...I was fishing from the shore on Seabird Island bar on Monday, and  the FN small boat with its net and a few guys was drifting down the Fraser....BTW, I got 1 sockeye over 3 days of fishing for chinook on Fraser (fish unhooked carefully in the water wit NO any damage).  Fraser is almost a dead river, no fish, a few chinook, minimum sockeye....

In another occassion, I did report poaching/illegal fishing on Chehalis River (coho) last year and finally rec'd a repply from DFO syaing that they are aware of illegal practices over there and are doing their best....over a week of fishing on Chehalis, no DFO showed up......who, ho,ho !!!!
I am REALLY wondering what other action we can do in order to preserve our BC fishing and fish.

[dnibbles]

Why is it that with other environmental issues, such as energy consumption, solid waste recycling, and water use, it is an accepted understanding that "every little bit counts"? Turn the tap off when you brush your teeth, recycle your newspapers, lightsw out when you leave a room. And yet with the salmon fishery, the vast majority of sports anglers continue to point the finger at First Nations, commercial fishermen, fish farms etc, as an excuse to not do their part? Crey is correct in that any sport caught sockeye is as good as dead, and this is in a year where we are seeing a catastrophic collapse due to factors outside of human influence. Yes, you are correct in that the nets are having a negative impact. That doesn't excuse you when you carefully release a sockeye that you flossed and watch it swim away. It's a dead fish at this point. Do your part guys, avoid catching any sockeye at all costs right now!

[Geff_t]

That doesn't excuse you when you carefully release a sockeye that you flossed and watch it swim away. It's a dead fish at this point.

   I do not fish the fraser at all during this time of year and unless they can prove that the sport fisheries has a big impact on the mortality of the sockeye it should remain open to any method that DFO says is legal. It is illegal for the natives to be drift netting at night and drifting netting when it is closed for them to be fishing. If they close it for one then it should be closed for all.

[canso]

Crey is correct in that any sport caught sockeye is as good as dead,

  what a load of bull.

[Rodney]

what a load of bull.

FYI, HLABT's work field is on Fraser River sockeye so he has extensive knowledge on the species. Whether you agree or disagree with his opinion, it is unnecessary to insult it. A better approach would be to express why you disagree with him.

[Easywater]

Crey is correct in that any sport caught sockeye is as good as dead...
...release a sockeye that you flossed and watch it swim away. It's a dead fish at this point.

There was a study last year (and ongoing this year) that indicated the opposite is true.
The study showed that flossed & released Sockeye have a very low mortality rate.

The drop in tempurate in the Fraser is going to make a big (good) difference in the health of the migrating Sockeye.

Edit: to add that snag cuts on the side of Sockeye would definately be detrimental.

[BwiBwi]

Why is it that with other environmental issues, such as energy consumption, solid waste recycling, and water use, it is an accepted understanding that "every little bit counts"? Turn the tap off when you brush your teeth, recycle your newspapers, lightsw out when you leave a room. And yet with the salmon fishery, the vast majority of sports anglers continue to point the finger at First Nations, commercial fishermen, fish farms etc, as an excuse to not do their part? Crey is correct in that any sport caught sockeye is as good as dead, and this is in a year where we are seeing a catastrophic collapse due to factors outside of human influence. Yes, you are correct in that the nets are having a negative impact. That doesn't excuse you when you carefully release a sockeye that you flossed and watch it swim away. It's a dead fish at this point. Do your part guys, avoid catching any sockeye at all costs right now!

Didn't FN did the finger pointing first?

[wacker]

Still waiting to hear a good reason from a member of the flossing/snagging crowd as to why they keep on fishing while faced with a poor sockeye return and high water temperatures. The most common excuse I keep hearing is that DFO says it is legal ...kind of similiar to people yacking on their cellphones while flying down the highway. Just because the government says it is right dont make it right. The same crowd that is hiding behind DFO regs right now would be jumping and screaming calling DFO a bunch of idiots if the river got opened up to the FN before them . It is embarassing to be part of a sport fishery that has basically been labelled a bunch of snaggers by a FN fisherman....sockeye openings/closures seem to affect the flossing crowd only to the point of whether or not they can crush in a fishes skull with a rock. DFO says it is legal to snag springs and then catch and release the sockeye after all ...so to hell with common sense lets just go have some fun and carrying on with the same fishing practices . This is not the year to experiment with catch and release for sockeye, this is the year to leave them alone and let them carry on to spawn....or you can keep on fishing , DFO says it is legal

[BwiBwi]

May be you can start by answering why do we fish for salmon, knowing many systems have extreme low return.