I have read on this board some anecdotal speculation that the runs of pinks is delayed due to a number of factors like weather, water temp, etc.
So I decided to have a look at the test fishery data from the Whonnock 29D to see if that’s supported by the test catches. I took the returns from 2007-2013 from mid-august to late-sept and plotted them out. The 2013 run is in blue compared to 2011 (red), 2009 (orange), & 2007 (green):
2007 was a very low year but the other years look very similar. The first push of fish seems to come in the first week of September between the 2nd-5th. It also seems to tail off quite dramatically around the third week of September between the 20th-23rd and the bulk of the run (>90%) is seen in those 2 and a half weeks.
Assuming no late bump of pinks is forthcoming (I don’t know if there is any real data to suggest there is), it seems that the 2013 run of pinks is not timed any differently than any other year. If anything it is amazing how consistent it appears. Having said that, my records from 2011 shows I was still getting into 6-10 fish per day in the tidal Fraser as late as Sep 24th when the test fishery already declined to very low numbers, so do not let the test numbers deter you from going out and having some fun, they are still there to be found.
All the data can be downloaded here if you wish to look at other species or areas:
http://www.psc.org/info_testfishing_summaries.htm
Author
Topic: 2013 Pink Run Timing (Read 9157 times)