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[gman]

Tried my luck one more time this afternoon. Managed to land one spring, 1 chum, and 1 hatchery coho buck. All were released since the coho was a bit red. Roe produced the spring and chum, and blades the coho. Action seemed a little slower for me as compared to previous trips. Still some bright fish around among the old ones, and the river was in pretty good shape. That was likely my last Vedder trip, and perhaps my last salmon trip this year. Good luck to all those who are still at it.  

[milo]

Thanks for the report.
By the sounds of it, steelhead season is closing in on us.

Cool.

[Taboo]

I hit the Vedder hard on Friday as well knowing it would probably be my last outing until Steelhead season.  Fished 4 separate spots many KMs apart (mid and upper) with only 1 Chum to show for my efforts (released obviously) despite the flow looking very fishy.  Still some evidence of fish about...some risers, a few flippers, but I didn't see any other fish taken save one Coho around Tamihi. 

The river was up from a few weeks ago when I was last out but still clear, and there are a bunch of new run-off channels that are holding tired and beaten up fish.

Everybody I spoke to was complaining of it being "dead".  Speaking of dead, lots of dead Springs washing down river and many stinky carcasses polluting the banks. 

[alwaysfishn]

I hit the Vedder hard on Friday as well knowing it would probably be my last outing until Steelhead season.  Fished 4 separate spots many KMs apart (mid and upper) with only 1 Chum to show for my efforts (released obviously) despite the flow looking very fishy.  Still some evidence of fish about...some risers, a few flippers, but I didn't see any other fish taken save one Coho around Tamihi. 

The river was up from a few weeks ago when I was last out but still clear, and there are a bunch of new run-off channels that are holding tired and beaten up fish.

Everybody I spoke to was complaining of it being "dead".  Speaking of dead, lots of dead Springs washing down river and many stinky carcasses polluting the banks. 

.... and that's a good thing!  Lot's of nutrients for the next generation of salmon.     

[milo]

Everybody I spoke to was complaining of it being "dead".  Speaking of dead, lots of dead Springs washing down river and many stinky carcasses polluting the banks. 

The correct word to use would be 'fertilizing' the banks.
The day carcasses of dead fish stop washing out is the day the fishery will have died.

[Taboo]

The correct word to use would be 'fertilizing' the banks.
The day carcasses of dead fish stop washing out is the day the fishery will have died.

Poor choice of words - when I said "polluting" I meant smelly to stand next to versus "polluting" as someone might dump toxic waste into the ocean or discard an old couch on the side of the road.

I also noticed that many of the fish had their heads removed (cut off) but their lower jaw was still there.  Assume there was some sort of study underway to identify the species and/or transponders and/or gleen some information from these fish?

[Rodney]

I also noticed that many of the fish had their heads removed (cut off) but their lower jaw was still there.  Assume there was some sort of study underway to identify the species and/or transponders and/or gleen some information from these fish?

Fisheries and Oceans Canada conducts spawner count throughout the system and each counted fish is marked this way to avoid being recounted.

[bcguy]

Saw the same on the Harrison Saturday, saw many fish floating down stream, that had been cut in half by fisheries to mark them as counted.

[burnaby]

Recall they used to just cut them in half on the Vedder like in the Harrison but nowadays they cut the top part of the head off leaving the rest intact. Why the departure from just cutting in half?

[Dave]

Burnaby, the fish heads you saw were cut that way to sample for Coded Wire Tags.  Easier to cut out these chunks for later analysis than pack around a wand.  A cut like this, as Rod said, ensures this fish is not counted twice.  FOC Stock Assessment has different protocols for different species; pinks and sockeye, depending on the watershed, are normally cut in half.  40lb and bigger chinooks are, for obvious reasons, not cut in half but the cut that is made is obvious enough for a future examination.

[BBarley]

Hmmmm... interesting. I was also wondering about the top of the head missing on many molders.

To quote the late Paul Harvey, ``and now you know the rest of the story.``

[burnaby]

Thanks Dave for the clarification. Kinda ruined the Chinook voodoo brain collection cult theory but the truth is always better.

Is the obvious reason for not halving the 40# Springs the effort to cut such a large fish cause I recall in the past all springs small and large were halved.

[Dave]

Yup.  Too many lower back issues; having said that expect to see most smaller fish halved.