Print

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

[quill]

October 5, 2011

To: Distribution

From September 1 to date, 8 steelhead have been caught in the Albion test fisheries, 4 of which have been caught in the chum test fishery and 4 of which have been caught in the chinook test fishery (Figure 1).

Presently, the test fishing data suggest that there is a 40% chance of exceeding the abundance reference point of 1250 Thompson and Chilcotin steelhead. This reference abundance is identified in the 2011 Integrated Fisheries Management Plan for the management of Fraser River commercial chum fisheries. For the Thompson watershed alone, there is presently a 40% chance of exceeding the abundance reference point of 850, the reference point used to open or close the catch-and-release sport fishery.

More at http://thompsonfisheries.blogspot.com/2011/10/thompsonchilcotin-rivers-status-1.html

[Easywater]

It's kind of hard to figure if this is good or bad because the info is full of statistical terms.
I took a quick look at steelhead numbers for the last couple of years in the Albion and it has been close to zero, so it sounds good.

A 40% chance of exceeding abundance points sounds relatively good (almost 50/50 chance).

But the total numbers of fish reaching the spawning areas is pretty dismal.
600 in the Thompson and 290 in the Chilcotin.

Is this a hatchery supported fishery?
I was wondering if they shut down steelhead fishing for a year or two (or a full life cycle), would these numbers rise drastically?

[Dennis.t]

It is not a hatchery enhanced run.Until they stop the commies from netting in the fraser from late summer into fall for salmon and improve the habitat conditions in the tributarys,this run of fish will never recover.I think it should be closed to sportfishing with these low numbers returning.We need each and everyone of these fish to spawn unharrased by us the sports angler.

[Dave]

It is not a hatchery enhanced run.Until they stop the commies from netting in the fraser from late summer into fall for salmon and improve the habitat conditions in the tributarys,this run of fish will never recover.I think it should be closed to sportfishing with these low numbers returning.We need each and everyone of these fish to spawn unharrased by us the sports angler.

Gotta agree with all of the above.  I also would like to see some studies of the whys/wherefores of steelhead juvenile residualisation  ... perhaps the T, with it's great invertebrate populations and warmer water is a more acceptable place to live, as opposed to smolting and heading to the salt.  

[buck]

 Dave
 A study ? No money for technicians or anything else in the ministry. We can't get anyone to count adult steelhead on the Vedder other than you and me.
 Welcome back.

[Dave]

Thanks Buck - good to be back ( 60 days in a motorhome is probably enough!) You are of course right; no money for much of anything Fisheries wise.  Oh wait, I forgot that Cohen thing happening ... 
Leave a few for us midriverguys

[silver ghost]

Dave
 A study ? No money for technicians or anything else in the ministry. We can't get anyone to count adult steelhead on the Vedder other than you and me.
 Welcome back.

x2...sad but true

[KP]

As I take in all this intriguing dialog I remember an article I read about a doctor working for the railroad at the turn of the century in the Kamloops area.  He mentioned day trips he would take from Kamloops to the Thompson River and talked at length about the huge rainbows he would hook and lose as he was fishing for smaller resident rainbow.  He worked in the area for a number of years and noticed the large fish would show up in the early spring and be gone in early summer.  In his day the large black rainbows would be an annoyance.  Now in little more than a century we go from a river full of large black rainbows to a Trophy steelhead river world renowned to a river we will soon only be able to dream what it would be like to hook one of those large black rainbows.

We need to start putting the ministry responsible to task so we can hopefully keep this gene pool which is on the very edge of colapse a viable functioning self sustaining  piece of the ecosystem puzzle.

[silver ghost]

As I take in all this intriguing dialog I remember an article I read about a doctor working for the railroad at the turn of the century in the Kamloops area.  He mentioned day trips he would take from Kamloops to the Thompson River and talked at length about the huge rainbows he would hook and lose as he was fishing for smaller resident rainbow.  He worked in the area for a number of years and noticed the large fish would show up in the early spring and be gone in early summer.  In his day the large black rainbows would be an annoyance.  Now in little more than a century we go from a river full of large black rainbows to a Trophy steelhead river world renowned to a river we will soon only be able to dream what it would be like to hook one of those large black rainbows.

We need to start putting the ministry responsible to task so we can hopefully keep this gene pool which is on the very edge of colapse a viable functioning self sustaining  piece of the ecosystem puzzle.

X2

I really feel like DFO and the people that actually count are subjected to a world of corruption and politics, or are simply going after 'fish 'that are "too big to fry". If only there was something I could do, I would in a heartbeat. As im sure many others on here feel the same.

Is there anything we can do guys? maybe it's about time we organized something

[KP]

Spread the word.  Get organized.  find politicians who are like minded. 

[quill]

The SSBC has been active in attempting to protect wild Fraser/Thompson steelhead. http://thompsonfisheries.blogspot.com/p/letters.html (I see DFO is set to open another 41 hour Johnstone Strait gill net fishery on the 12th, hence the "attempting" reference. DFO is either not listening, blissfully unaware of how serious the situation is, or simply doesn't care.)

From earlier in the year: http://www.steelheadsociety.org/news/letter-ms-sue-farlinger-regional-director-general-fisheries-and-oceans-canada From the SSBC's Northern Branch: http://www.steelheadsociety.org/news/northern-branch-letter-dfos-sue-farlinger

  

[Trout Slayer]

Well I see that 12 steelhead have been caught in the Chinook/Chum test fisheries at albion. Why havent they granted an opening??

[quill]

Doubt an opening will happen. Not enough so far unless something changes in a hurry. 

[Trout Slayer]

Doubt an opening will happen. Not enough so far unless something changes in a hurry. 

Well they opened it in 2009 with only 9 fish in the test nets so I dont understand the reasoning this season.

[Dennis.t]

Best to leave the whats left of this run to spawn unimpeded by us. Keep it Closed.