Heading To The Skeena?

[razz]

For anyone considering heading to the Skeena this fall:

 

http://steelheadvoices.com/?p=391#more-391

 

 

[bcubed]

Bob knows his *hit. I've said this a few times to a few people, it's going to be a bad year to be a steelhead

[Dangus]

Pretty sad. I've put that trip off for years. Have always wanted to make it up there, but defected to US rivers because they were closer.

Needs to turn into a lottery system, and/or eliminate dink bobbers shooting fish in a barrel. Too many people want to play.

[bcubed]

Bron, virtually none of those things you brought up would change the state of the fishery this year... If you've never been there, pretty quick to bring up dink bobbers when there are maybe a handful of guys fishing them

[Dangus]

That's not what I've heard. Guys fishing spoons, jigs etc.

Looking at how many guys fish the bow with gear, I doubt it's any better than the vedder in winter.

Maybe youre too Busy looking down at your slickshooter slipping through your fingers to notice them?

How would limiting anglers stressing fish have no effect on the fishery? Talk about double standards. I guess steelhead are immune to everything you bitch about.

It's almost like you think I'm suggesting putting less pressure on fish would make more fish magically appear this year!

In case you forgot, swinging flies is a far lower percentage game than fishing gear, nymphing etc.

[troutlover]

Seems like a management issue to me after reading the article

[bcubed]

That's not what I've heard. Guys fishing spoons, jigs etc.

Looking at how many guys fish the bow with gear, I doubt it's any better than the vedder in winter.

Maybe youre too Busy looking down at your slickshooter slipping through your fingers to notice them?

How would limiting anglers stressing fish have no effect on the fishery? Talk about double standards. I guess steelhead are immune to everything you bitch about.

It's almost like you think I'm suggesting putting less pressure on fish would make more fish magically appear this year!

In case you forgot, swinging flies is a far lower percentage game than fishing gear, nymphing etc.

I'm glad what you've heard, but again you have no idea what you're talking about. Poor ocean survival, mixed with worse management causes low run numbers year over year, and pointing fingers at gear fisherman quickly undermines any effort to actually worry about fish returns . The sheer number of fish that will have died from FN take will far outnumber incidental take from sport anglers.

 

There are bigger issues then the number of anglers, and definitely their gear choice, that need to be solved at a management level before the first steelhead of the season returns.

 

Go for a lottery, restrict angler gear. That doesn't increase one fish that happened to get caught in ocean nets, or nets in the mouth who are apparently species specific... solve those problems then look to recreation. Alienating gear anglers is a brilliant idea, particularly when you're obviously clueless in the ratio of fly to gear on the river.

[Dangus]

You know that those long rods with big bottom corks and big hardy reels on them aren't always two-handers, right?

 

Sooo...management. Pretty sure that includes the pincushions getting slammed every day In Smithers.

One gear guy equates to 20 swingers easily. They don't need to be standing Fraser river style.

Either way, it was obviously a poor ocean survival year because the Fraser salmon and Columbia steel/salmon runs are poor too.

Scares me about the Thompson run this year.

Seem pretty defensive. Must have a trip planned for this fall.

You ready to fight yet?

[bcubed]

sigh..and they call me a troll..

 

Let me know when you've spent one minute up there on the Bulkley, and then you can tell me just how many gear guys there are. Keep to the US rivers and hatchery fish, you deserve each other

[Dangus]

You let me know when you're going and it's a date

[sldrose]

I was going to make my first trip this sept/oct.

 

i'm really disappointed about those numbers.

 

 

Can anyone explain how to read the tyee daily test fishing data

 

What does a July 30th steelhead index value of

0.45 mean

 

.45 steelhead per hour?

[bcubed]

I was going to make my first trip this sept/oct.

 

i'm really disappointed about those numbers.

 

 

Can anyone explain how to read the tyee daily test fishing data

 

What does a July 30th steelhead index value of

0.45 mean

 

.45 steelhead per hour?

Tyee isn't actually correlated to steelhead, as it's a sockeye test fishery. So it's hard tomgive you a per hour or per day. With that, you can still follow the trends. If you're on Facebook look up North Coast Steelhead Alliance as they provide trend graphs. Take them with a grain of salt as they are not a steelhead test fishery. For example last year was forecast as one of the best years, but it was likely forecasting very high due to low water which was causing more fish to be caught in the nets.

[razz]

I was going to make my first trip this sept/oct.

 

i'm really disappointed about those numbers.

 

 

Can anyone explain how to read the tyee daily test fishing data

 

What does a July 30th steelhead index value of

0.45 mean

 

.45 steelhead per hour?

 

The daily test fishery indices represent the number of steelhead estimated to have passed that point on the tidal reaches of the lower Skeena in the preceding 24 hr period. The daily index number on the DFO test fishery web site should be multiplied by 245 to arrive at an estimate of the actual number of fish the index number represents for that date. That expansion factor (i.e. 245 has a lot of study behind it and it is a bit too complicated to be trying to describe on a blog or bulletin board.) For comparison purposes the expansion factor for sockeye is 895 so the daily index needs to be multiplied by that number to determine how many sockeye swam past.

[kevbine]

I've been making an annual pilgrimage to the area for the last 12 years. One thing I've noticed as the years pass is that it's not just about catching fish, it's about the whole experience of being up there with friends, camping in the bush, and standing in a beautiful river, swinging flies for hours on end. My point with this statement is that I will go no matter what the Tyee says.

 

Last year the test fishery indicated a very large run of steelhead. Those that were up there in the Fall of 2016 will attest that it was not any more productive for the most part to any of the previous years.

The numbers from this test fishery can be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Also the amount of fish that return to spawn each year varies greatly and in accordance to a cycle that we know very little about.

 

When anyone says poor ocean survival, that's an excuse used to say we haven't the slightest idea of what's happened to the run this year. If there has been very little gillnetting this year, then what is happening out at sea that is harming our steelhead?

[flywiz]

I think what we can't argue is that our impact, impacts steelhead and salmon.

 

Commercial and native fishing used to be well distributed over many river drainages across the pacific rim, feeding a smaller world population that wasn't obsessed with eating "wild salmon or steelhead"

 

We now are promoting "wild salmon" still with more people to feed and less river drainages to get the fish from.

 

I think we all know where this will go eventually, and that's what is sad about it.

 

We should probably not be eating wild salmon any more, too many people in the world for it to be sustainable, and too few fish. I think we should be eating farmed salmon, not in the ocean but inland, but alas its expensive, so it won't happen until all the wild fish are gone.

 

Sure we can give certain alaska or BC salmon silly little decals to say its sustainable so that profits can be made today, but for how long?

 

negative point of view, but coast to coast, salmon and steelhead fisheries have only gone in one direction