It's good to see so much perseverance and anticipation in this fishery.
With so much effort expended yet little reward so far, quite a few people have been asking why they are so late. They are in fact not late, we are simply just trying to get them earlier this year. I usually start my search on August 15th as there are always some fish making their way into the river during the incoming tide at certain spots. I took a look at my notes from the past three seasons and would like to share those with you, so perhaps it could ease the anxiety slightly.
In 2007, the bulk of the run didn't come through South Arm until September 5th or 6th. On the weekend of September 8th and 9th, we did pretty well along the south shoreline of Richmond, then September 10th was the best day.
In 2005, we had an excellent day along the south shoreline of Richmond on August 27th when a massive mix of pink and sockeye salmon came in with the incoming tide. We had a few dozen hook-ups that day. August 28th was a different story, not a single fish were seen. The fishery didn't pick up again until around September 5th.
In 2003, I found some good fishing in South Arm along Delta on August 30th and 31st, then the fishing died off. September 5th was when fishing really picked up along the south shoreline of Richmond in that afternoon during the strong incoming tide. After that, we had excellent fishing everyday, both morning and evening, until September 12th. In those seven days, it was easy to hook into dozens of fish per tide.
So, you can kind of figure out when the possible magic dates are around Richmond for this year...