Print

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

[Chum Slayer]

So with the season upon us, what is the earliest you have caught a steelhead on the Vedder River? I personally have already heard some rumors of fish and one confirmed wild/extremely large resident rainbow.

[Dave]

Earliest I have landed a Vedder steelhead is Dec 1, about 50 years ago.   I have hooked and lost a very few in November and the earliest I have seen a winter run caught in the Vedder is Oct 12

[bigblockfox]

earliest i have caught a steelhead on the vedder is dec 22 2012. caught 2 that day and a small bull trout. all on coho roe in the same run. both does, 1 hatch which was all you were aloud to retain then. thought i hooked a steelhead once in early december only to find out it was chrome chum.

i find as time goes on my starts for the season start later but last longer into the spring on other flows since the regulation changes. now i start venturing out half way into january because of the low early returning fish and fish till mid april.

[Chum Slayer]

I wonder why there is fewer early run fish, I was talking to an old timer and he remembers when you could consistently get action by the last two weeks  of December.

[hammer]

Different system but still Fraser Valley ...Dec 12

[Dave]

I wonder why there is fewer early run fish, I was talking to an old timer and he remembers when you could consistently get action by the last two weeks  of December.

One of the reasons is early run fish are targeted by the Chilliwack hatchery for the steelhead broodstock program.  Annually, since the programs inception, up to 80 early spawning fish have been removed from the spawning population.
The decline in early run Vedder steelhead has been well documented on these pages.

[bigblockfox]

just to confirm, were talking winter steelhead.

i have caught steelhead in other flows in both november and early december, they just were not winters.

here is a fish that was caught early november on a local flow.



wish the fish porn page could be resurrected. miss it.

[Spoonman]

......dec 18....

[firebird]

One of the reasons is early run fish are targeted by the Chilliwack hatchery for the steelhead broodstock program.  Annually, since the programs inception, up to 80 early spawning fish have been removed from the spawning population.
The decline in early run Vedder steelhead has been well documented on these pages.

Hey Dave, didn't the Chilliwack oldtimers deplete the early runs before the hatchery program started? I recall seeing old Boxing Day Derby photos of 20 or 30 dead fish and lots of anglers probably killed at least their first couple or few fish every season back in the 3 and 2 fish limits.
But seriously, the hatchery program is probably gradually eroding diversity of the population so that the majority of fish will return over an ever-shrinking time period. i would be the first to raise my hand for ending the program for the sake of wild steelhead conservation in the Chilliwack/Vedder and neighbouring streams.

[RalphH]

Well it's long been recognized that the longer adult steelhead (and salmon) are in stream the more they are exposed to in stream hazards not the least of which is anglers. Yet do we know that the early fish are a distinct breeding population? If they aren't the genes that times an early return must still be in the population but simply are not dominant.

FWIW My earliest winter run... it was an ocean bright fish caught in the later part of November while fishing for trout. Based on an archived letter the stream (not the V/C) produced good catches of steelhead in November and December then again in February. My experience these days is though a smattering of fish show in December, it's mostly a February return with some dribbling in through March into April. Hatcheries aside it could be that steelhead are far more plastic and adaptable in some respects (like timing of returns) than we give them credit for.

[Dave]

Hey Dave, didn't the Chilliwack oldtimers deplete the early runs before the hatchery program started? I recall seeing old Boxing Day Derby photos of 20 or 30 dead fish and lots of anglers probably killed at least their first couple or few fish every season back in the 3 and 2 fish limits.

You're correct Mike, we did kill a lot of fish back then, and for sure, anglers were a huge part of this problem.

[bigblockfox]

would a regulation change protecting early run fish be an option? kind of like the closure in april above tamihi, or is it to late?

i get the arguments against hatchery production but lets look at real world results. every water shed in the fraser basin without a hatchery has little to no winter steelhead. the vedder is really the last strong hold for winters in the southern end of the province. even the skeena is having lower returns and they have no hatchery supplement. as much as i see the demise of genetic diversity with hatcheries, the thompson, chilcotin, coquihalla, nahatlatch just to name a few might be in alot better shape. how much genetic diversity are you getting when less than 100 fish show up through out a 4 month period.

my point is we might be past a time where winter steelhead can make it on their own. a hatchery steelhead is better then no steelhead. hopefully im wrong and its just a bump in the road.

[RalphH]

would a regulation change protecting early run fish be an option? kind of like the closure in april above tamihi, or is it to late?

that's been in place for a couple of years now:

  No Fishing downstream of a line between two fishing boundary signs on either side of the Chilliwack River 100m downstream of the
confluence of the Chilliwack River and Slesse Creek to Tamihi Rapids Bridge, Apr 1-June 30

[/quote]

[bigblockfox]

that's been in place for a couple of years now:

i know it has, im talking about one potentially in december or possible january. is there a real point for 300-400 boxing day derby anglers to be targeting maybe 4 hatchery and 10ish wild fish. i know the intentions are good but puts a lot of pressure on the vary fish that are struggling. back when this derby started is was a different story.

[RalphH]

i know it has, im talking about one potentially in december or possible january. is there a real point for 300-400 boxing day derby anglers to be targeting maybe 4 hatchery and 10ish wild fish. i know the intentions are good but puts a lot of pressure on the vary fish that are struggling. back when this derby started is was a different story.

oh sorry...the downside is that would load more anglers downstream of Tamihi. Another possibility is just can the Boxing Day Derby & move it to Family Day in Feb when half of BC residents are in Mexico.