Print

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

[Dogbreath]

... I know a while ago there was a chemical spill, that was pretty devastating to the wildlife there. It's one of the reasons I try to avoid that area, because it takes time to for things to rebuild, it'll never be normal again....

It was back to normal within two years.

[A Frayed Knot]

It was back to normal within two years.

That's actually not my understanding of it, when it happened. It has gotten better as I did more research about it, but its never gonna be the same is what I am saying, the population of fish will eventually get back up there but I think it was reported that around 500,000 adult and young salmon, steelhead, trout, lamprey and other species died of suffocation from "severe burns" to their gills from a "concentrated pulse" of caustic soda.
The animals that live off those fish and river itself will be affected too which makes sense, the whole food chain and what not.

But to hear that people are able to fish it again is good sign, and its been awhile so there has been plenty of time for nature to heal itself.
Regardless glad to see fishing is good. I think I'll probably stay away from it myself, I may try to fish it as I haven't really been there yet myself but for the most part I am in no hurry.

[bkk]

It was back to normal within two years.

Wrong.

 Mostly recovered except for chinook as that population is still depressed. Coho have recovered as have pinks but it took 3 cycles for those two species to do it. Steelhead have recovered to pre-spill levels. Chum were not effected by the spill. Sculpins have returned to the lower river but are below pre-spill population numbers for the mid and upper part of the river.

[RalphH]

kind of confusing info. The Cheakamus what was severely affected by the spill while the Squamish not so much. The Squamish main stem has had issues with some species over the last several decades. Pinks crashed to next to nothing in the early 70s and didn't rebuild until the 90s. It was the similar with chinook and steelhead. Chinook really crashed in the 70s but have been rebuilding. Steelhead crashed in 90s and are still depressed. It may be that their niche has been taken over by bull trout.

 Some of this is due to excessive logging and clearcuts. The Cheakmus completely lost it's pink run probably because of the Daisy Lake dam. It had been brought back via planting of Indian Arm and Squamish pinks but wiped out in the spill. Steelhead there did ok over the years compared to the Squamish but the spill was very tough on all in stream species - it basically wiped them out though some survived in tributaries.

[MetalAndFeathers]

I think the cheakamus is doing well 2 months ago there were springs everywhere now wild coho and chum the ration between wild coho and hatchery is like 9-1.Out of 37 i saw caught in the past weeks 6 of those were hatch.

[bkk]

Chinook really crashed in the 70s but have been rebuilding.

 The Cheakmus completely lost it's pink run probably because of the Daisy Lake dam. It had been brought back via planting of Indian Arm and Squamish pinks but wiped out in the spill.


Some of the information you have posted about the Squamish system is correct but some is not. Chinook are not rebuilding but this year was better than any in the last 10 years. That being said, it was still poor in relation to historic levels.Over all there has been a increase of the fall chinook but not the summer white chinooks. The fall chinook are an interesting fish as they were not here historically but some how carved out a niche for themselves post chemical spill. Genetically they are linked to east coast Vancouver Island fish and not native Squamish summer white chinook. How they colonized the Squamish system is a mystery as they were not introduced but were enhanced for a few short years at very low levels post spill. They are no longer being enhanced.

Pinks were not wiped out by the chemical spill but were impacted. Spill happened on Aug 5, 2005 and it was estimated that about 10% of the population was in river at the time of the spill. Pink enhancement has been ongoing since that time but the last couple of cycles more as an insurance policy in case the river gets impacted by a large flood as it is prone to do.

[RalphH]

I'd be interested in knowing where you get your information. Most of what I have seen re: the summer white springs is that they have been doing better over the last 10 years or more. Before that period of time summer fishing in upper Howe Sound was closed best I recall. It's been open for some time and the current limit is set at 2 suggesting the stocks are in good enough shape for a harvest fishery.

[bkk]

The fish that you are targeting and catching in upper Howe Sound are fish that for the most part originate from the chinook netpen program at Porteau Cove. These are summer chinook juveniles originating from Tenderfoot Hatchery that are short term reared at Porteau Cove and then released at that site. They then return to that site as adults and mill around Porteau and Brittania Beach until early August and then head to the Squamish River. That program has now been canceled and all chinook enhancement in the Squamish is now back to river of origin. The 2013 brood fish were the last fish to be reared there and they will only be available until 2017.

My information comes from the fact that for 30 years I have been working with these stocks of fish on the Squamish River system.

[RalphH]

I think it's important for other readers to know problems with the Squamish watershed are long term and of a more pronounced and chronic nature than simply the CPR spill of 2005. There also is very hard data as to how large or small numbers of returning adults is - there is little or no data collection. The watershed salmon recovery plan : https://www.psf.ca/sites/default/files/SquamishRiverWatershedSalmonRecoveryPlan.pdf suggests chinooks stocks declined from about 15,000 returning adults to 500 in the 80s and early 90s but rose to 1,000 plus and varied from around that level to below 500 until the plan was published in 2005. I couldn't find any other hard numbers.

[Vancouver_2010]

Anyone been out the last few days?  I was there Saturday, visibility sucked but saw a few people hook into one.  Had one on but I think it was foul-hooked, it broke off quickly.

Is visibility always that bad on the Squamish or can it be expected to improve anytime soon?

[RG]

It's foul hook city when the visibility is as bad as it is.  Should clear up with the cooler temps this week.  I don't bother fishing it until the water levels are under 3m. 

Also, I'm told they re-opened all the old cut blocks back in the Elaho which isn't good for Squamish levels and visibility...

[MetalAndFeathers]

Anyone been out the last few days?  I was there Saturday, visibility sucked but saw a few people hook into one.  Had one on but I think it was foul-hooked, it broke off quickly.

Is visibility always that bad on the Squamish or can it be expected to improve anytime soon?

Thats wierd fished below the mamquam saturday evening and landed well over 10 chummers on my new spey.

[smoqqy]

same here,whole day saturday @ the squamish main channel,below mamquam entrance..fish are trickling in but saw a lot of hook up by the fly and spey guys..the lady next to me landed a wild coho..landed six and they are all chum..

[RG]

There's a narrow band of clear water from the mamquam that flows into the squamish, good place to fish when the squamish is is running dirty.