Print

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

[skaha]

overall 40 to 50% of chinook harvest has been by the Rec sector over the last many years. Excepting the Fraser, FNs take a smaller portion than either the rec or commercial sectors. Proportions will have changed for last year and this year.

--That is akin to saying: More flyfishers catch trout in lakes designated as fly fishing only...  FN can fish in the rec opening if they choose to follow the rec methods, daily catch quota and area/time designations. Rec sector cannot buy a Net and fish in the FN or Commerial designated fisheries. Of course I would like to see continued adjustments in the various openings and quota's. The issue is when any sector continues to fish when they are not able to follow "all" of the escapement, conservation rules. This is like going to a River where no Trout can be kept but White fish can and using a treble barbed hook and justifying it by saying, I'm allowed to keep white fish here so that is what I am going to target and keep. I'm just going to ignore the other rule inteded to reduce the stress on by-catch of Trout which must be released.

[RalphH]

--That is akin to saying: More flyfishers catch trout in lakes designated as fly fishing only... 

sorry but that doesn't make any sense ... at least to me and based on the hard numbers. If you were actual familiar with the catch statistics I can't see how you would say that.

[redside1]

i do wonder why BC first nation's can't do something like this and be leaders at making sure they have enough fish to harvest and maybe even a few extras for the rest of Canada. Sure looks like it would be a win win for all involved.
(sorry, not all copied across)


SEPTEMBER 23, 2020
Coho Salmon Headed Upriver to Idaho
Marika Dobos

The Coho Salmon are just starting to get to Idaho, so it may take a couple weeks before chances of catching one become reasonable. For details on the Coho Salmon rules, please refer to the Coho Salmon Seasons and Rules.

For those of you interested in what this Coho Salmon run is looking like, we have provided the figure below. This figure shows how many Coho Salmon have been counted at Lower Granite Dam since 1995. The years where Coho Salmon fishing opportunities were provided in the past were 2014, 2017, and 2019.

In most years, over half the Coho Salmon destined for Idaho have passed over Bonneville Dam by September 15 which gives us some confidence in projecting how many will ultimately make it to Idaho this year. This year the run is looking stronger than expected, but the run also seems early which makes us think that anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 Coho Salmon will make it to Lower Granite Dam. This is displayed in the light blue shaded area on the graph below. About 60% of these fish are destined for release locations in the Clearwater River basin and 40% are destined for the Grande Ronde River. At this point we are still working with the Nez Perce Tribe on what our harvest shares will be, but we are confident that enough are returning to provide harvest opportunities for both Tribal and non-Tribal fisheries.

coho_run_and_projection

Creative Commons Licence

Joe DuPont

The Coho Salmon program is a success story spearheaded by the Nez Perce Tribe. The Nez Perce Tribe started this program in 1994 by using surplus Coho Salmon eggs collected from the lower Columbia River. As the run began to build, the Nez Perce Tribe was able to use these returning fish for broodstock – fish that demonstrated the ability to migrate hundreds of miles to the ocean as smolts and back to the Clearwater River as adults. Not too surprising, the “localized” broodstock is producing offspring that have better survival rates than smolts coming from adults collected in the lower Columbia. What we hope this means is that Coho Salmon returns large enough to produce fishing opportunities will become more common. This seems to be happening as this will be the third year out of the past four where Coho Salmon returns have been large enough to provide some fishing opportunity.

Currently, the Nez Perce Tribe collects Coho Salmon for broodstock at Lower Granite Dam, Lapwai Creek, Dworshak Hatchery, and Clear Creek (Kooskia Hatchery). In addition, the Nez Perce Tribe outplants a portion of these returning fish into some of Clearwater River’s tributaries in an effort to start natural spawning populations.

[RalphH]

I believe many of them already do...the recovery of Okanagan Sockeye, Cowichan Chinook and the current healthy state of South Thompson all involved considerable work by local FN groups and others of course. Local FN groups operate a number of community hatcheries and enhancement or improvement projects

[bigblockfox]

Thx for the vid Rod,

The Salmon number problem is much bigger than First Nations fisheries even though they do impact the Fraser and other rivers tremendously.
I'm on the Fraser on a regular basis and what we see during the course of the year is mind numbing. Go to Sturgeon Slayers Instagram page and look at the multiple dead Sturgeon left in nets on the beach to rot. Same with Salmon. Shameful and sickening.
Chum Salmon are in deep trouble so are Pinks. Yes, last years Pink run was bigger than expected but still poor. 2 yrs previous it was terrible.

Watching 1000's of male Pinks been thrown back in the river because they are worth nothing is a waste, yet The Harrison Chum pet food contract the Natives have (not sure if they still are doing this) send those male Chum to the US. Why not Pinks also? At least take the males out of the net if they are still alive and release them so they have a chance to spawn.

Us sport fishers are also not angels on the water. I've seen people snagging black Springs in the Vedder and watch family members run down the bank fill their totes and drive away to only come back and see it happen again. This is common practice. Not a good practice to teach your kids.
I've seem anglers takes over their limit of Coho and Chum at the Nicomen Slough, Vedder and Fraser on a regular basis. We counted a least 20 poached Spring and Sockeye on the beach at the Port Mann boat launch a few days ago that the Vultures we eating.
The Albion test set numbers are scary low. In one 5 day stretch only 2 Sockeye were caught where it should be at least 100's.

Off shore fishing from other countries catch our Salmon as do we on many US fish.

My point is that the massive reduction of Salmon is a extremely wide spread problem with so many issues affecting the numbers. Nobody can bitch about the natives net fishery on the Fraser if they are not getting any fish because those fish are not their to be caught.
Yes we do need to clean up our own yard with this fishery issue. Make our limits smaller, educate people on how to fish properly and like you said Rod work together with First Nations to enhance the Salmon runs......
I feel some Nations will but there are a handful and we know who they are that will continue to do what they want, when they want with very little if any reaction from DFO. I'm not sure how many fisher people know that there are quite a few hatcheries that are owned and run by First Nations, so let's not paint them all with the same brush.

DFO have to pull their heads out of their @sses and change the rules in so many areas for our Salmon to make a successful come back. And please people let's not forget about the Sturgeon. They also need help especially from poaching.

well said, the only thing i would like to add is habit destruction and our every changing climate. i am ashamed of how the lower fraser gets treated.

either we all eat together or starve as individuals.

[Dave]

I believe many of them already do...the recovery of Okanagan Sockeye, Cowichan Chinook and the current healthy state of South Thompson all involved considerable work by local FN groups and others of course. Local FN groups operate a number of community hatcheries and enhancement or improvement projects

I think we will be seeing a lot more FN involvement in fisheries management, restoration, enhancement and research in the coming years. Capacity has been slowly building and I believe this is what our present government wants.