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[Noahs Arc]

Excited to take my little salmon slayers out again for pinks.

Good stuff, that sums up the pink fishery pretty good right there.

[BananasQ]

how do people get to the parking on the southbound side of the road - turn around at Brittania?

Nevermind - worked out from Google Maps how to get off before it and rejoin southbound north of the area. And agreed with the above - awesome pic, hope to have something like that with my fishergirls this summer!

[CohoJake]

Take it with a grain of salt, but this is what the WDFW is projecting for us south of the border:

"Meanwhile, this year's run of pink salmon, which mostly return to Washington's waters only in odd-numbered years, is expected to be about 80 percent lower than the 10-year average. About 1.15 million pink salmon are forecast to return to Puget Sound this year."

http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/feb2817b/

[redside1]

The Fraser river forecast currently is 8 million pinks. This leaves a TAC of 2 million fish for all user groups. So there will be enough fish for a sport season just not a great fishery

[243Pete]

Well hopefully it will be a good season and enough fish return for everyone to have some fun.

I'm interested in trying some top water flies after watching a video I believe Everyday posted in a thread a little while ago. Should add a little more excitement instead of scaring the crap out of a buddy when I turned my rod sideways and a pink grabbed my spoon only a few feet from where he was standing. 

Believe this is the video but I could be wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIv0FAzMS-s

[fic]

The Fraser river forecast currently is 8 million pinks. This leaves a TAC of 2 million fish for all user groups. So there will be enough fish for a sport season just not a great fishery

Do you have the url link for this forecast?  I hope they bump this number, up otherwise a lot of people in the Lower Fraser will find it hard to hook them. 

[KarateKick]

The 2015 pink salmon season was extremely disappointing for my family. It seemed like we were surrounded by a lot of other disappointed people as well.

Maybe we were doing it at the wrong locations. We tried mainly lower Fraser piers.

My impression was we missed most of the pink season because the river was closed to protect sockeye.

[bobby b]

Hmmmm.... I did really well in the 2015 pink season. Fished for 'em in Squamish and in Chilliwack and a few other spots too!

[Damien]

It seems the smaller systems like the Squamish and non tidal Fraser were the better opportunities during last run.

In the wide areas of the lower Fraser it wasn't a sure thing like it had been.  A lot of water to cover without the normal 'density' of pinks.

Could only find pockets of fish, not the steady flow of active fish moving through.

[fic]

Hmmmm.... I did really well in the 2015 pink season. Fished for 'em in Squamish and in Chilliwack and a few other spots too!

Just about everybody I encountered in those systems and including the Non-Tidal Fraser were limiting out within a few hours in 2015.  In 2013, I remember seeing a black band of fish may be 2 feet wide, and as long as your eye can see,  lining the bottom of the Vedder River that I didn't see in 2015.  In 2015, it was more of steady but scattered schools, trickling in.

[bigsnag]

Excited to take my little salmon slayers out again for pinks.

I remember this 2 boys, the taller one was chucking flies and slaying pinks like it was going out of style. Good job!

[RalphH]

Just about everybody I encountered in those systems and including the Non-Tidal Fraser were limiting out within a few hours in 2015. 

The limit stayed at 2 in '15 while in most previous years it has been 4. I think 2013 was the lowest return in over 20 years. Best I know the minimum escapement for the Fraser is 3 million. Target in the past has been 7. In the 70s it was as low as 1 million. Other have said the Squish was all but empty of pinks in the late 60s and into the 70s. Fry from the Indian River were introduced into the Squish and some credit that for returning pink abundance.

[bkk]

Other have said the Squish was all but empty of pinks in the late 60s and into the 70s. Fry from the Indian River were introduced into the Squish and some credit that for returning pink abundance.

The Squamish was indeed virtually void of pinks in the 80's as well. I ran chinook programs on those rivers during that time and we would literally only see a handful of pinks each cycle. Pinks eggs were transplanted from the Indian and when applicable were fertilized with Squamish pinks and then incubated at Tenderfoot Hatchery. At the eyed stage they were transported to one of the groundwater channels on the Mamquam and planted on the gravel. They were then covered with a plastic cover to keep predators out and were allowed to hatch and migrate naturally. This worked very well and juvenile migration was very good. This was done for 3 cycles and then stopped and the returns built up to about 25 000 adults. Then a couple of big Squamish floods happened and returns plummeted. Back to the Indian again in the mid 90's and repeated the process. Returns then increased and we went a bunch of cycles with good survivals and a fair bit of protected habitat was built on the Squamish, Ashlu and Cheakamus Rivers. Returns increased exponentially into the 2000"s and with the protected habitat allowed the stock to return in significant numbers even when there were large floods ( and there were a couple of huge significant gravel moving floods during that time period).
 My guess is that this year will be poorer than in 2015 and significantly poorer than the huge 2013 return. We had 5 large gravel moving floods during the 2015 brood incubation period and they have been shown to be very detrimental to pink survival. It will all depend on how well the protected habitat worked. It will also depend on how badly the commercial seine fishery kills then in the planned Howe Sound commercial fishery.

[Knnn]

The 2015 pink salmon season was extremely disappointing for my family. It seemed like we were surrounded by a lot of other disappointed people as well.
Maybe we were doing it at the wrong locations. We tried mainly lower Fraser piers.
My impression was we missed most of the pink season because the river was closed to protect sockeye.

Hi KarateKick, there are quite a few locations where you will have a far better chance to catch pinks than in than the Fraser.  Drop me an email in July and I will take you to a few.

[Knnn]

Fry from the Indian River were introduced into the Squish and some credit that for returning pink abundance.

Any idea why no-one has considered introducing pink fry (from the island's even year run) into the Squish and other systems to kickstart and even year run of pinks over here.  Is it concern over upsetting existing runs of other species during the even years?

It seams odd to me that there is no even run, here, but there is on the Island.  Does anyone know or have a theory why this happened.  Normally nature abhors a vacuum or empty niche, and while you can catch the very occasional pink in even years in the Vedder etc, they have never established a big run?