The Carp- at the meetings I attended I asked the same question. FN had tradionally fished the Chilliwack system, it's been almost 25 years since the last time. The Vedder/Chilliwack system crosses over between native bands so each band has their own traditional fishing territory. You cant tell one band to fish another bands territory so unfortunately it is not that simple. Each band wants to fish their own traditional fishing territory and crossing over into others would only cause conflict between bands.
The good news is that there is lots of sockeye in the river and it won't take long to reach their quota of 15k,I don't think they will be fishing the most popular sportfishing locations either so there should not be too much conflict between user groups. If anyone does experience a conflict or abuse by FN please call me as I am the representative for recreational conflicts with FN. I can be reached at 604-671-3474 anytime.
The FN/Sporfishing working group has been working hard on this and we are hopeful that recreational anglers will respect FN rights to retain surplus fish in a time when sockeye numbers in other river sytems are very low. The reason for this fishery is to access surplus fish as this year there will be very limited fishing on the Fraser. 11 bands have applied to access surplus Chilliwack lake fish, they will be releasing all Cultus lake sockeye as most of them are marked.
If you have any questions or concerns you can e-mail me directly at
sts@guidebc.comVic Carrao
STS Guiding
604-671-3474