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[Navy Seal Fisherman]

As per DFO notice;

The first principle of selective harvest is to avoid catching non-targeted stocks.  This means that anglers are requested to use angling methods that do not catch coho.

I am not very smart, and some of you I am sure would agree, but for my benefit and others', can you improve my knowledge on this.

If you were selectively catch sockeye and avoid coho, how would you do that?

[BBarley]

My personal experience tells me most sockeye travel in lanes in the river, and it's the flossers that find these "lanes" that smash the sockeye every couple of casts. I don't know for sure if the coho take the same lanes, I know they will stay in different spots in rivers when the big springs come in. So maybe if your targeting sockeye with your 10 foot leader. Cast where the guys who are getting the fish are casting. 

My thoughts are if there are endangered fish coming up the river, the river should be shut down to salmon fishing. River has been open for sockeye for 1 month, if you haven't got your fish yet, too bad.

[Fish Slayer]

Sockeye and coho will take very similar paths while traveling upstream. How do you avoid catching coho while trying to floss sockeye? Stop fishing as there is no way to target sockeye and not target coho considering sockeye are snagged by using a flossing technique. Clearly DFO and MoE have no clue of how the sockeye fishery really works or what happens out on the river. I'm sure some Joe blow in the office gets a numbers report that 30 something million sockeye are bound for the Fraser so they open it and now he's glowing with joy and pride as he knows "anglers" will get to fill their freezers.

[purple monster]

it's called catch and release.  Use a nice hook release, and , don't them (any unidentified) fish, out of the water.

simple.

[Fish Slayer]

it's called catch and release.  Use a nice hook release, and , don't them (any unidentified) fish, out of the water.

simple.

Great in thought, on paper or typed on a forum however haven't you seen how fraser river anglers ID their fish? An average of 15-30 feet up the beach after being dragged through the sand, rocks, and litter 

Sure good fish handling skills could minimize mortalities but the thread starter doesn't want to know to safely release fish, he wants to know how to comply with DFO's request and not hook coho.

[the carp]

It would seem to me with the sheer numbers of sockeye in the river the"harvestors" should be done very quickly and get off the river leaving the coho alone.Also if people work in pairs when a fish is hooked one can see what you have before it is dragged up the beach, and released in the water. No excuses about flossing for springs there are other methods to catch them. Just my thoughts.

[Rodney]

If you are trolling on a boat outside the Fraser River mouth, you will encounter the odd coho salmon while catching chinook and sockeye salmon at the same time. If you are spincasting with a spoon in the tidal portion of the Fraser River, then chances are you will encounter more coho salmon than sockeye or chinook salmon during this time of the year. If you are barfishing with a spin-n-glow in the non-tidal portion of the Fraser River, then you will most likely catch more chinook and coho salmon than sockeye salmon. If you are flossing with a bouncing betty with long leader, then chances are you will hook a lot of sockeye salmon with the odd coho salmon in between.

To answer your question, you cannot completely eliminate the chance of encountering a coho salmon while fishing for other salmon species on the Fraser River, but you can certainly reduce the mortality rate caused by recreational fishermen. Coho salmon have a tendency to be deeply hooked when fishing with roe or other natural bait, especially in still water found in the tidal portion of the Fraser River. Mortality study done on bait fishing in the Lower Fraser River demonstrated that it has a huge impact on released coho salmon, therefore a bait ban is implemented during this time of the year.

Secondly, to reduce release mortality further, correct fish identification and proper fish release need to be practiced. If the released fish is kept in the water, unhooked and released quickly without to much handling, then it has a very good chance in surviving its journey. Anglers need to bring their fish in, identify it while it remains in the water instead of dragging it onto the beach while walking backward.

I have put together this information in a more organized manner on the following page:

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fishy_news/100908-3.html

[eddy]

A very good question, Navy Seal.
Rodney has done an excellent and honest response summary, except he left two methods out.
The best way not to target coho is DON'T GO FISHING. Is that going to happen?
The second best way is NOT ALLOWING ANY KIND OF NETTING on the river. Is that going to happen?
It is more of an idealistic request from DFO, not very realistic at all.
Look at the Albion report. TWO (2) coho caught in the last 30 days. Recreational fishers have caught less than 1% of the salmon on the Fraser River this year. How large is the recreational fishery practices on the Fraser River coho? The Math is simple. Yes, be careful and release all coho if accidentally caught, just as Rodney describes. But, one should include a grain of salt in our fishing vest to understand DFO's real driver of their policy.

[mistermongz]

I hooked a Coho just today while i was out targeting sockeye didnt drag it up to the beach kept himin the water i wasnt sure what Salmon species it was had to ask and yeah it was a coho so i unhooked him took a quick picture and sent him on his merry way!

[Gooey]

Lets not fool ourselves by saying we are targeting ANYTHING when we go out flossing.  I have seen every species of salmon flossed while "targeting" another.  And its equally "effective" on other species too: sturgeon, pike minnows, steelhead, seen em all flossed while targeting sockeye!  THERE IS NOTHING TARGETED ABOUT FLOSSING...you are randomly snagging what ever is in the way out there.  Just so happens that because there are 30 million sockeye, thats what you see the most of.

And for those of you who can't read between the lines, when DFO asking for sports fishers to use selective methods...they are asking us not to floss.  Is it a heartfelt or seriosu request - no. Its probably just positioning because the shut down the comercial fleet..thats all.  Its the same request they used to placate the natives when the native sockeye harvest was closed for conservation resons but the chinook sport fishery remained open...its just posturing, nuthing more and thats why no one is heeding the request and why nothing extra is being done by DFO. 

[alwaysfishn]

And for those of you who can't read between the lines, when DFO asking for sports fishers to use selective methods...they are asking us not to floss.  Is it a heartfelt or seriosu request - no. Its probably just positioning because the shut down the comercial fleet..thats all.  Its the same request they used to placate the natives when the native sockeye harvest was closed for conservation resons but the chinook sport fishery remained open...its just posturing, nuthing more and thats why no one is heeding the request and why nothing extra is being done by DFO. 

Has someone from DFO told you this, or are you just guessing? What about fishing with bar rigs? Does DFO want us to stop using those as well?

[BwiBwi]

Lets not fool ourselves by saying we are targeting ANYTHING when we go out flossing.  I have seen every species of salmon flossed while "targeting" another.  And its equally "effective" on other species too: sturgeon, pike minnows, steelhead, seen em all flossed while targeting sockeye!  THERE IS NOTHING TARGETED ABOUT FLOSSING...you are randomly snagging what ever is in the way out there.  Just so happens that because there are 30 million sockeye, that's what you see the most of.

Not true at all.  Though flossing has the ability to catch any type of fish but if you pick your location, depth, flow correctly, what you target will change drastically.  Same as any other fishing methods laid out in prev. posts.  Different location/water yields different result.

[Gooey]

Sorry, I don't buy that you can target anything while flossing...not when I see such a wide variety of of fish being hooked, not when I read the sarcastic comments here about using red for springs, green for sockete, etc.

To a degree I see that certain fish have preferences for certain water but I also know that I have hooked 2 springs wihile retrieving close to shore (ie not in a deep slot), and I know I have hooked sockeye in the deep slots where you may expect springs.  i would guess that springs like the heavy stuff due to their size and ability to handle a heavier current so tell me BwiBwim, how to due target sockeye vs coho while flossing on the fraser?  

Oh on a side note, while fishing pegleg, I was casting to within 10 feet of the other side and certainly going through the heaviest part of the run...only hooked sockeye.  I have also witnessed guys "trying to hook a spring" do nothing more than release sockeye after sockeye...I guess their targeting skills arent as good as yours?  

Thought I would ad that I have seen guys doing this for springs when socks were closed....double 

[burnaby]

Agree with BwiBwi one can target based on water preference in that Springs like fast, deep water whereas the smaller salmon like socks & Coho like the shallower, slower water. Rare to hit small socks in the fast channel but have hit everything in the slow waters.

Agree with Gooey Socks and Cohos being similar size will take similar water.

I've hit very few cohos in years of sock fishing and all have being noticeably different play than socks; all fought like Jack Spring so I always triple check for black gum and fully spotted tails while still in the water (expect to get wet).