Winter Chinook In the CRD

Strategy for winter chinook in the CRD and other areas is the same because fish behaviour is the same. And, chinook are the only species in our waters 12 months of the year, so anglers should concentrate on understanding them to catch more fish. Other species are caught in the two months of the summer when they pass through.

It used to be the case coho were found as pan-sized bluebacks in January and February, Saanich Inlet, for instance, and in April – June in mid-island waters, for example, the Winchelseas, as three- to five- pound fish prior to migrating to open ocean. They were, and hopefully will once again be found (with anticipated success of the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s Salish Sea project), in surface waters in tide lines caused by restrictions in land structure below and above the water.

Both migrating adult chinook and nursing chinook are alike in their behaviour: they are relentlessly structure related for their entire lives. In winter, though, these fish are deeper, and far more commonly found related to bait. Adult fish, on the other hand, bite reflex waning, are not as commonly found with bait, other than when both come to reside in ebb tide back eddies. Their location is related only to the tide pattern, not feeding.

Summer chinook are moving relentlessly toward their natal rivers. In contrast, winter chinook are nursing, putting on weight, and not migrating anywhere; so winters are not found tight to shallow rock shores, nor are they going anywhere. They are staying close to lunch. Consequently, reading bait schools becomes far more important in winter, and staying close to them through the tidal change that moves them about.

Winter fishing is more reliable than summer, but for smaller fish. It makes less sense to fish back eddies tight to shore because bait, commonly herring, is found in mid-water depths, not related to shore. This winter bait pattern also includes herring staging to ripen before spawning. This is why we fish offshore of the 115 foot mark off Ogden Point where bottom falls away, and in the open water to the west that contains the bait.

The same pattern applies to other Island waters. For example, the mouth of Bamfield harbour typically turns white with herring milt in January to early March. Prior to this, herring stage in Rainy and Vernon bays in deep water. The same can be said for the Deep Bay, Fanny Bay, Denman Island waters with herring coming on to shoreline kelp in March.

In many areas the alternative bait fish is needlefish – pilchards and anchovies are more commonly found in summer and at west coast fishing spots. Change in bait species can result in changes in the hot lures in water only a few miles apart. For example, Clover Point to the Breakwater typically has herring (sometimes you read needlefish, the difference being they are almost always on the bottom, so reading bait on the bottom, think needlefish, not herring – often read right over the outfall pipe at 110 feet.).

Clover Point is a hootchy spot, but Oak Bay, a huge flat on the other side of Trial Island, is needlefish water and thus squirts catch far more fish. Last week, the Cloverleaf, Purple Haze and Glo-Below hootchies prevailed on the Waterfront, but in Oak Bay, Pickle Green, J-79 and Jellyfish squirts were the trick.

If you troll the long flat from Clover to Trial – you are scratching a fish, and it takes 45 minutes, so picking up lines and moving makes more sense than fishing through – you will be changing to squirts just after you pass directly south of Trial at 120 feet.

For the Victoria Waterfront, the Angel Wing, and Army truck patterns are good back-ups, while the Irish Mist and Mint Tulip are go-to back-up squirts in Oak Bay.

Similarly, Sidney is predominantly a needlefish area, and squirts rule. Add the Electric Chair to the Oak Bay squirts and you have a place to start. Also, needlefish presence, makes small anchovy and small strip the baits of choice, whereas in herring areas, medium anchovy is best.

This includes waters west of Victoria. Teasers of choice are the Bloody Nose and Glo- Green, although my favourite is the Pearl, a cream/glo/602 pattern that is highly visible in the deep. From Pedder Bay to Otter Point, the larger baits and same teaser colours, as well as the Purple Haze, a colour that fishes better in Sooke than waters east.

The other lure of choice in winter is spoons. They are more effective on winter chinook than summer chinook. Partly this is because winter water is clearer than in summer, thus smaller lures with high reflection make sense, along with some UV/Glow properties. Note that these two properties are different. UV means light waves that we can’t see, but that fish can, and they show up as Dayglo in the deep, dark winter waters – look at one under a black light and you will agree.

Glow properties refer to emitting light from the lure so that it is visible, in the same way a fluorescent light is. The best example are some Radiant spoons that literally glow all day. I once left one on my night table and it boomed out visible light all night long. Oh, and all glow lures should have a flashlight shone on them before being consigned to the deep. The non-Radiant surfaces hold light for only 15 to 20 minutes, and thus need recharging, whereas longer lasting glow does not. The difference becomes a strategy consideration.

In addition, spoons as we all know are the best, most reliable lure for continuing to fish without having to be checked. There is no bait to slip on its wire, no fronds to get caught on one another, or plastic skirt to slide up the leader after a whack that pulls it forward, but does not trip the release clip. Note that you want a kirbed hook on a spoon.

Spoons have the added advantage in clear winter water because they need not be paired with a flasher – you can use a dummy flasher attached to the downrigger line if you wish – and thus any fish you catch gives you the satisfaction of fighting only the fish, not the flasher and its sideways shear. Some west waters top spoons include Irish Cream and No Bananas, along with Cop Car, which is called a glow with gold between the scales. In Victoria to Sidney waters, try glow colours and the half glow/half green spoon we call a Coyote spoon.

Finally, before going out, do check the Island Outfitters web site for the most recent hot lures in your area:  http://fishingvictoria.com/fishing-report/. For waters from Cowichan North, try the Island Anglers site for current tackle hotties: http://www.islandangler.net/. Do patronize our local tackle shops before hitting the water.

Winter Steelhead Fishing - Lures, Floats, Flies

January and February are the peak months of river angling on Vancouver Island because the highest number of fresh winter steelhead fill the rivers. The most well know are the Cowichan, Stamp, Campbell and Gold. There are wild runs of winter steelhead in dozens of our rivers, though usually in small numbers.

Most anglers will not discuss the less well-known rivers because of the low steelhead numbers and desire to protect them – solitary fishing is also a good thing when you have gotten up in the middle of the night and driven up to several hundred kilometres to be there are first light. The books of Roderick Haig-Brown will give you many rivers to get to know, and joining a fly fishing club will, over the years, with their fish-outs and general discussion, help you build an extensive knowledge that is the price of long term admission and satisfaction.

Regardless of system, it is winter steelhead behaviour that is the key to catching them. They are bold beyond good sense and their aggression is why we can catch them, admire them and then release them unharmed. I have seen a summer steelhead move 50 feet to intercept a fly; that is how aggressive they are. In winter, though, the water is generally cloudy, deeper and swifter than summer lows when fish get pooled up and wary. In winter, falling, clearing water after rain is the best time to fish.

There are three methods of angling for winters: floats, lures and flies. The most commonly used method is floats. Typically a ‘dink’ float is threaded on the mainline, and slid up from the tag end, and adjusted so the weighted end just misses the bottom. The simplest weight system is putting some lightly crimped pencil lead on the mainline tag end that is left deliberately four inches long when tied to a tri-swivel. A leader of 10 lbs mono – lower in clear water, higher in cloudy water – of up to 2 feet is tied to the swivel as well.

The reason for a short leader is to keep the lure at weight level rather than floating higher, something that is much more important in fly fishing that does not use weights – no more than four feet leader.

At the tackle end, typically small, simple lures – Spin ‘N Glos, Jensen eggs, Lil Corkies, plastic beads, bait (where allowed), yarn and Gooey Bobs – are slid above a black steelhead hook (kirbed, octopus style), size 1 to 5, with a bead between lure and hook. Bait curing is an article in itself, as well as Roe Bags.

Float fishing is the most consistent method for winter steelhead. You cast the float out and run it down current. If it disappears you strike the fish, or adjust the float. Then you cast a foot farther out and run the rig down current. By casting out sequentially farther, you are able to contact all the water in a run, tailout or pool head from one side of the river to the other side of the fish bearing water. Go back to this article for steelhead behaviour and fishing: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.ca/2014/12/winter-steelhead-habits.html.

In cold weather – from 5 degree C to below freezing – rivers are colder than the ocean and fish tend to, well, freeze and not move as friskily to a lure. In other words, fish the absolute best part of the run, a number of times, as a fish in torpor will rarely move even a few inches. On the Gold once, I ran a drift 40 times down a narrow run that I was assured had a steelhead in it, without a nip. Then, when I had given up hope, I received a bite and landed a 14 lb buck.

Finally, add scent to a lure where allowed. It really makes a difference. Jensen Eggs are scented with aniseed and not considered bait in the regs, for example.

The alternative to float fishing is lure fishing. Depending on depth, temperature and water speed there is a wide spread of lures of different weights, allowing more or less penetration. At the lighter end are most spinners, the Mepps Blue Fox line in size 4 and 5, in red, chartreuse and pink, Bolos from Luhr Jensen in the same colours, but higher weight to volume ratio. At the large and heavy end are the high quality Gibbs lures, including the Ironhead, Koho and Kit-A-Mat in the same colours.

Note that lures are cast out across from you and reeled in slowly across the run. Although you adjust each cast to reach a slightly different radius of the run, note that the lure is running across the fish bearing water, rather than running directly down it, as is the case in float fishing. In other words, you are fishing less of the fishy water, and the colder the weather, the less likely you will catch a fish. Think spinners in warm weather.

On the other hand lure casting is a pleasant, simple method of fishing. Use a 9.5 to 10.5 foot rod with a quality baitcaster reel with 35 pound braided line and 15 feet of 20 pound mainline mono. A bait caster will cast father than a spinning reel and thus has an advantage.

Fly fishing for winter steelhead is the third method. In winter, if you concede a skunk before going out – which is a reasonable expectation – then a take or a landed fish is a great positive surprise. These days most winter fly fishers use Spey or Switch rods because they allow you to cast with a much shorter load behind you in the higher waters of winter, that push you back into the trees where there is zero room for the back cast of a single-handed rod.

The beefier, short D-loop rods, allow for the heavy, ‘nasty’ rigs of winter. By the end of the day, your arm will feel the weight of dragging line from the water on every cast. On the other hand, you can change tips all day to reach the bottom. I suggest you get a pouch and keep all the tips from all the fly lines you have ever had, as one day, a decade down the road, you will find good use from the Quad-tip system that by today’s Skagit modified methods, is from a different olden-day dimension. For example, I have several Leadcore tips that I try never to have to use, but that will reach any bottom you are trying to penetrate. Added to that are tips made from Type 3 to Type 6 full sink line, and so on. Use nail-less nail knots to form loops on tips and fly line.

Fly fishing reaches its greatest likelihood of presenting properly to a winter steelhead in shallower, slower runs, and swung flies through tailouts, which offer the same conditions. Just as important as deducing higher percentage fly water is the fly you use. Two styles of flies lend themselves to quick assembly, weight and use: marabou creations and bunny fur flies.

Use contrasting colours as the point is to make the fly easier for a steelhead to see and dash for. My simplest high-percentage Popsicle style fly has medium bead-chain eyes, then red over orange over yellow on a size two, black salmon hook. In bunny, my ugliest fly of high percentage, is black over chartreuse over red, also on a salmon hook. For shallower water, bead chain eyes are optional.

Q and As December – It’s a Wrap for 2014

The Hatch: This on-line fly fishing magazine is available at no charge. Ask to be put on the email list. See: http://www.hatchmag.com/.

SFAB Concept Paper: Your SFAB board has put out a document, with request for comments to

Gerry Kristianson, or other board member, both editorial and substantive.

The paper identifies specific outcomes to address the following seven goals:

Since January 2010 when it was first formally articulated, the Board has steadily pursued the vision of “a sustainable and vibrant recreational fishery in British Columbia, providing broad social and economic benefits through diverse opportunities that recognize and respect other users of the resource.”

The framing of this vision was assembled around the following seven strategic goals, all of which were developed in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment, and after consultations with First Nations, other fisheries sectors, and environmental groups:

1.      Achieve healthy and productive marine and freshwater ecosystems that support recreational fisheries.

2.      Realize the full social and economic benefit of the recreational fishery.

3.      Maintain and enhance a consultative framework which provides for a supportive relationship between governments and the recreational fishing community, and encourages a healthy and respectful dialogue with other users through inclusive and meaningful processes.

4.      Ensure that the management of the recreational fishery is based on the best available information while taking into account local and traditional knowledge.

5.      Provide sustainable fishing opportunities which consider the needs of and foster the potential of the recreational fishery.

6.      Establish a framework for sharing responsibility for activities which benefit the recreational fishery.

7.      Promote understanding of the recreational fishery and recreational fisheries management practices.

Please provide Gerry K with your comments. I suggested two financing points. If the SFAB is to become a not-for-profit society, the preamble and purposes should be written in a way that allows for the society to be designated a ‘charity’ by the Canadian Revenue Agency, and thus to be able to raise funds with donation tax receipts going to donors. Further, to retain that helpful designation, political comments have to be kept out of the discussion.

Second, as there are 300,000 saltwater anglers in BC, a stamp, like the chinook stamp on our licences (or charged to anglers to affiliate with the society), would raise, for every $10 charged, $3 million and multiples of $3 million with additional $10 increments. Such funding would provide a seriously positive outcome for helping our fisheries.

The South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition (SVIAC) Newsletter came out this past week:

1.      With better Fraser chinook numbers, the SVIAC was able to convince DFO that Area 19 and 20 anglers should be able to retain one unmarked chinook of any length as of June 14. The hope is that the same measure will be authorized in 2015.

2.      Alpine Group Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament last June was completely sold out, $65,000 in prizes was awarded and $19,500 was raised for the South Vancouver Island Chinook Revitalization Initiative.

3.      A meeting with DFO Pacific brass yielded progress on several fronts: Priority access for sport fishers for specific species; Resolution of the Fraser chinook issues; and, Southern Vancouver Island chinook revitalization.

The chinook revitalization has multiple objectives: to bring back the Sooke River to its optimum chinook spawning population through short term enhancement and habitat restoration, for the longer term goal.

With 1 to 5 million chinook smolts and netpens, the southern killer whale population is supported as is fishing in the area. A cost/benefit analysis will be done along with the socio-economic return to the Salish Sea.

4.      The 21.5 million Fraser sockeye return did not materialize in Juan de Fuca as warm temperatures and possibly algal blooms resulted in a 97% Johnstone Strait diversion. Ditto for Fraser Chinook. Inside fishing from Campbell River (22,500 chinook caught) to Nanaimo was terrific.

5.      The Malcolm decision was handed down this year and it reaffirmed that the Minister of DFO has the right to reallocate public fish, in this case, the 3% halibut quota from the commercial sector that had been given to the sport side.

6.      Commercial halibut fisherman, Bob Fraumeni, and owner of Finest At Sea Seafood Producers in Victoria pled guilty to illegally fishing for halibut in the inside waters of Juan de Fuca strait without holding the correct licence. The catch’s value of $14,164 was donated to the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

7.      The International Pacific Halibut Commission meets in January. The total allowable catch for Canada is 5.78 million pounds. Our representatives will be seeking 7.5 and a repeat of 2014’s halibut catch, which resulted in our area being extended to December 31, 2014.

8.      The 2015 Alpine Group Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament seeks to pay out more than $100,000 in prizes in 2015. Pick up tickets at Island Outfitters, or on the SVIAC site. www.anglerscoalition.com.

Winter Steelhead Habits

River anglers are now waiting for rivers to drop and winter steelhead to appear in their runs. Wild winters enter on rising tides and anglers get to know their calendars. The Nimpkish peaks in November and December, the Stamp January and February, ditto for the Cowichan, February and March in the Nitinat, January for the Sarita, and the Gold. Hatchery fish also have the same patterns in most rivers.

Summer steelhead are also available. They can enter from May through December, and then over-winter until spawning in the spring, when water temperature rises and flows subside. And both species can move a lot in short periods of time. On the Somass, for instance, two hours after the high tide they can be five miles upstream of saltwater at the confluence of the Stamp and Sproat.

The Campbell is an exception. Its summer run has split into two with most arriving in summer, but more recently, a contingent coming back in January. River anglers need to understand many rivers and their calendars to find the most fish. This takes decades, but if you know two dozen Island rivers, you will be rewarded with fish and knowledge that is its own reward – what can be better than a river, afterall?

There are two kinds of steelhead water: pass-through and holding. The farms on the Somass have a long inside bend where you can see the fish moving up through the slow water, waiting just below where the current is faster, and then moving up into it. In the Fraser, steelhead have been clocked at 24 kms per day upstream. As Island rivers are short, this means they can be anywhere, and this is why some anglers opine that steelhead are where you find them, not necessarily in the same high-percentage spots year in year out.

In pass-through water, you can fish your way down it, then walk back up to fish it again, because in the intervening time, steelhead will be, yes, passing through. Holding water, where steelhead stop and wait, typifies where steelhead will be found for longer periods. They are: heads of pools, tailouts and runs. Runs are 3-to 8-feet straight lines where there is a bottom crease under swirling water above, moving at walking speed.

Steelhead are associated with rock rather than wood. In runs, the bottom rocks create back eddies in the current where steelhead will sit without having to put out as much energy staying in one place, for example, one foot above bottom. Stand on a bridge some time and watch your river. If you spot a steelhead, it will invariably be close to rock, and swimming slowly, meaning where it is there is less current.

Fishers look for first water to find the bityest fish and so they are constantly on the move. They move from one hot run to another. If on the water with boats, that is when you pick up fish that are not necessarily in the best runs, as in, they are where they are. After catching a fish, come back in summer and look at the bottom. Winter flows create runs that in summer don’t look like much, but higher water means faster flows and those minor dips become holding water. Think of current as a wall. Steelhead don’t waste energy and so they are seldom found in current.

Another thing, in winter, there are deep pools where steelhead spend time on the bottom in torpor. River temperatures are often colder than the ocean and thus cold-blooded fish aestivate in cold weather. An example is the pools in the Ash River.

Summers tend to spawn earlier than winters, thus keeping the two species apart and not blended together. Both types of steelhead tend to move back into tailouts as the season progresses; these are slow water, and the fine gravel is well aerated and thus some tailouts are spawning spots. But do get to know your river well. You will find spawning water that you would not predict unless you had seen fish in it digging redds.

You will also catch more fish if you know your river. Our logging-gravel-choked rivers change their bottoms in high winter flows, moving thousands of tons of gravel and silt, eliminating and creating runs every year. In one of mine, I had caught many fish at a certain spot where they came up through a fast riffle and then stopped in deeper slower water to rest before moving on. In the winter in question, the run had been eliminated by gravel pushed directly below it that breached the surface, and a channel had been gouged on the other side of the river, where there had been none.

As I had caught steelhead in the spot, which was simply a backwater now – a place steelhead seldom will sit as they favour oxygen-enriched water, I made a few casts into water that was less than knee deep, clear, slow and an awkward spot for a fish, clearly in view of predators. Steelhead will not sit where they feel threatened.

As luck would have it, I got a sharp bite and the fish moved directly across into the current and then downstream, me glumphing along trying to keep up. Six hundred yards later, having crossed the river three times trying to stay with the fish, I was on my knees in the shallow water, looking down at the water trembling the fish.

When I tried to lift the steelhead, I had to stretch my arm way out to my fingertips, and the tail in my other hand was more than half way across my chest. I held the fish in the current until it was ready and pushed my hand aside to serpentine downstream. On my knees, it came to me that it was my first winter steelhead exceeding 20 pounds, a stellar member of any river on the planet’s gene pool. And it was caught in a spot no other angler who didn’t know the river well, would have wasted a cast.

One more thing: getting first water is more than being the first to fish a good run early in the morning. Steelhead can bite, or not bite, or be spooked by an angler that preceded you, or have moved up or down. But the important fact is this: steelhead come back on the bite later or at different times in the day. You may be an hour behind the last angler who received no bite, and catch a steelhead yourself. Steelhead are bity fish and it is good there are laws protecting them as they are bold beyond good sense. And that is a good thing, for us anglers, giving first water all day long, the better you know your river.

Have a nice Christmas.

D

A nice summer steelhead. Compare its size with the rod. The cork is a foot long, the reel is four inches across. That’s how big the doe is, and another good story for another time, the rod being a six weight, and the usual, almost drowning.

Salmon Outlook – Netpens for Killer Whales

Salmon Outlook: DFO has released its Salmon Outlook for 2015, a summary of stock numbers for the entire province and all five species of salmon. I have attached the PDF to the email sent to list members. Numeral 1 is a weak stock, while numeral 4 indicates a strong stock.

Their summary is:

A total of 91 Outlook Units were considered and outlooks categorized for 84. Six units were data

deficient (ND), and one pink unit was not applicable (NA). Thirty eight (38) Outlook Units are

likely to be at or above target abundance (categories 3, 4, 3/4), while 28 are expected to be of some conservation concern (categories 1, 2, 1/2). The remaining 18 Outlook Units have mixed outlook levels (categories 1/3, 1/4, 2/3, 2/4). Overall, the outlook for 2015 has inmproved relative to the previous outlook (2014 for most species but 2013 for pink). Fourteen (14) Outlook Units improved in category (Areas 7 to 10 sockeye; Fraser Spring 42, Fraser Spring 52 and Fraser Summer 52 chinook; Area 3, Area 12, Haida Gwaii East, Skeena and Skeena High Interior coho; Areas 11 to 13 and Areas 3 to 6 pink; Areas 11 to 13, Georgia Strait and Areas 7 to 10 chum). Eight units declined in category (Early Stuart, Early Summer North Thompson, Fall Portage and Fall South Thompson sockeye; WCVI Hatchery chinook; WCVI coho; Georgia Strait West pink; WCVI chum).

Here is my summary of the 24 page document:

Sockeye: Fraser sockeye runs returning average or better, i.e., some harvestable numbers, include the Okanagan, Early Summer South Thompson, Summer Chilko (often a high component of the run, that will exceed its average level of 1.55 million), Summer Nechako (568,000 on average), Summer Quesnel, Summer Harrison, Fall South Thompson, Fall Birkenhead, with five year old sockeye from the extremely large 2010 run contributing to 2015 escapements. It looks like some fishing opportunities in Georgia Strait, and, depending on water temp, Juan de Fuca, with action required for low stocks like Cultus Lake.

Anglers will be glad to know that Port Alberni’s Somass sockeye (particularly the Sproat) are rated at 4, and thus spring action looks likely; as does the Port Hardy area for Quatse and some Nimpkish fish. Surprisingly, Rivers Inlet, its Owikeno run drastically depressed since the early ‘90s – once the second largest commercial fishery in BC, in some years higher than the Skeena/Nass – have showed some improvement in recent years, but unlikely to continue in 2015.

Chinook: Fraser 4-2s (Spius, Coldwater, Bonaparte) and 5-2s (Lower Chilcotin, Westroad, Birkenhead) that have disrupted Juan de Fuca June fisheries in the past few years show patchy minor improvement; ditto for Fraser Summer 4-1s, including the Harrison, with the Vedder looking better.

WCVI chinook from hatchery systems (Conuma, Robertson Creek, Nitinat) will offer medium numbers of fish to be caught in Nootka and Barkley sounds (no estimate of Marble Creek numbers for NWCVI and Quatsino).  Disappointingly, Cowichan chinook, the indicator stream for the Pacific Salmon Commission, continues below average (2,400 adults, 1,100 jacks as of October 22).

Coho: Fraser coho are below average in numbers but improving. WCVI wild coho will be in average numbers. Port Hardy area rivers will bring above average returns. Quinsam returns for the Campbell River area should provide fishable numbers, too.

Don’t fall off your chair just yet, but Georgia Strait coho (that crashed in the late ‘80s) to Black Creek, an indicator stream, and Cowichan coho are above the levels of recent years. Northern BC numbers are good in most locations for 2015.

Pinks: Fraser pinks should greatly exceed the average number of 13.4 million for odd-numbered years. The 2014 fry output exceeded 604 million – the average is 443 million. So the easiest salmon to catch should flood local waters in the coming summer.

Fly anglers who do the beach fishery thing, from Campbell River to Port Hardy, the even-numbered year prevails and thus angling should be decidedly average in 2015. South of Campbell River, volunteer netpen operations have shown wildly fluctuating returns. Shore anglers should sleuth in-season information before setting out for the Cowichan to Salmon Point terminal netpen runs.

Chum: Fraser chum numbers have been variable in the past few years, hovering near 1 million fish (should be double that for a healthy return). Current fishing plans are uncertain. Don’t expect large numbers in WCVI waters. Fishable numbers should return on ECVI in 2015. So the Brown’s Bay fishery should be on in 2015 and in terminal ECVI estuaries.

Chemical Contaminants in killer whales: During the South Vancouver Island Angler Coalition/Sport Fishing Advisory Board meeting last Thursday it was noted that though our area has not received netpens for chinook salmon that we have proposed for several years, DFO seems to have accepted our representatives’ suggestion that local waters need numerous netpens for chinook. Our fishery is largely USA chinook, and it would show wisdom on all our collected selves to put some BC, probably Nitinat, chinook in the ocean as our help for the endangered southern killer whales in our waters, with an excess for angling, too.

Recently the Raincoast Conservation Foundation did an op-ed in the Times Colonist newspaper, suggesting that fishing should be terminated because it kills killer whales in the Salish Sea. I sent them emails to point out, among other things, that low chinook numbers in Georgia are really the result of low Cowichan chinook because they stay inside and thus are the fish of preference in the winter. Enhancement efforts need improvement. So coming netpens look to be a big help in the ‘Salish Sea’.

It was also pointed out by Jeremy Maynard, an SFAB chairman from Campbell River, that the issues withy the southern killer whales are largely the result of chemical contaminants. I found a really good, succinct discussion of the issue and suggest that everyone read it: http://wildwhales.org/conservation/threats/toxins/.

It does indeed show that contaminant levels of these peak predators – POPs, PCBs, dioxins, furans, etc. –  are very high; however, southern killer whales can have levels as much as four times higher than northern pods. The main problems are reproductive failure and immuno-suppression so the animal gets a disease. This may explain the dead female killer whale found near Courtenay with a near-term fetus in the past week. 

Necropsy to come. Inside Chinook, the preferred prey animal, have much higher levels of chemicals than those found in northern BC waters. And during summer months, killer whales eat more mature chinook, with lower fat levels and thus have to eat more contaminated prey than northern populations.

Also, oil spills have a great effect on marine mammals because they apparently do not smell them, and thus do not avoid the area. After the Exon Valdez spill in 1989 one northern pod lost 33% of its members in one year, after being filmed eating in a spill. Another pod, also so filmed, lost 41% of its members in one year, due to toxicity of ingested oil. Its reproductive success has been zero since 1989 and they approach extinction.

What we anglers can do is chip in and help out our killer whales by putting more chinook in the sea. Eliminating oil spills would help them breed. Also, there is research on this issue by Drs. Dick Beamish and Brian Riddell that you can look into.

Q and As – December

Pacific Salmon Foundation: The PSF’s Salish Sea projects seeks to understand the reasons why Georgia St., Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound salmonid numbers are a fraction of what they used to be even 30 years ago. In contrast, the open ocean shores of Washington, Oregon and California have far higher returns of salmonids. This year, for instance, the chinook return to the USA waters was 2.4 million fish.

The chief Georgia St. chinook run, the Cowichan, has been down to less than 3,000 in recent years (2015 Salmon Outlook not yet received, but 4,500 adults and Jacks returned by Oct 22.). The Cowichan chinook, is the stock most inside water fishers fished in the past.

The Cowichan chinook are a special stock because, unlike other BC stocks in our area, once their estuarial period ends they circle Georgia Strait for more than a year. They move up to Campbell River, cross over and come down the Powell River, Vancouver side then cross the strait again, heading west, before moving out to the open ocean. So they are available as winter feeders for far longer than other stocks.

Inside coho stocks crashed in the 1980s, with the Big Qualicum taking a big hit in ’86 – ’88. They have never come back and one possibility is that Georgia has had higher algal blooms in the intervening years and acidification, a condition coho don’t do well in.

Take a look at the salmonid PDF graphs from the project: http://marinesurvivalproject.com/wp-content/uploads/Decline-of-Marine-Survival-in-the-Salish-Sea1.pdf. Inside salmonids includes steelhead (the Englishman being a prime example of a once flourishing run highly targeted by anglers that went belly up).

Note that the BC coastal streams have higher survival rates. This implies there is something wrong in Salish Sea. Killer whales need chinook too for the winter months when they are the only salmon species available.

From Victoria west to Otter Point, the winter fishery has improved, but that is because the USA has stepped up its production of chinook. Had they not, our fishery may have been reduced to almost nothing.

The PSF points to other adverse conditions:  The Salish Sea ecosystem has changed significantly over the period in which salmon populations have declined. Changes have included increasing water temperatures, increasing acidity, more harmful algae, the loss of forage fish and some marine commercial fishers, changes in marine plants, more seals and porpoises, and the list goes on, including diseases.

If you are so moved, they would like your donation to help reach the $10 Million needed to fund the many projects: https://www.psf.ca/support/donate. Here is a summary of what they are doing: https://www.psf.ca/what-we-do/salish-sea-marine-survival-initiative.

 SVIAC and SFAB Meeting: The South Vancouver Island Angler’s Coalition is hosting a member-focused holiday season get together on Thursday December 11^th, 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. at the Esquimalt Anglers Lounge, 1101 Munro Street, Victoria (upstairs at the foot of Lampson Street by the launching ramp).

The SVIAC has this to say: Come on out and join us.  We see this as a chance for our member anglers to enjoy a small social gathering before the Christmas holidays really set in and to share a few stories about the 2014 fishing season. We’ll also spend a few minutes providing a brief update about tidal fisheries in our area and some insight into what the 2015 season may bring. We do need to seek your input on a couple of fisheries issues, so our SVIAC Victoria area Sport Fishing Advisory Board (SFAB) reps (Thomas Cole and Chris Bos) can act on your behalf at the upcoming South Coast SFAB Committee meeting in Nanaimo.
Door prizes, raffle, refreshments.

Tom Davis: At the Sport Fishing Institute’s winter splash conference our Tom Davis was presented the first ‘Bob Wright Legacy Award’ – details of this award and Tom Davis’s valuable contributions to the sport fishing community can be found at: BWLA 2014. Congrats Tom.

2014 Port Renfrew, Nitinat and Cowichan SFAC meeting minutes, Nov.13: A few selected items of angler interest:

Fishing: Poor with about 1/3 of the normal chinook catch. The season produced a record low crab fishery. This was largely due to the high intensity commercial crab fishery that went on day and night. Also, confusion over coho regs had a negative effect. By the end of September the Coho count was 7,000 for the San Juan with the majority to return in November.

Returns: Very good to the Nitinat, escapement of 35,000 Chinook, and over 4,000 Chinook returning to the San Juan. By the end of September the Coho count was already at 7,000 for the San Juan with the majority yet to return in November. It was noted that the Chinook egg take at the San Juan hatchery was cut back to 250,000 eggs from 1,000,000.  

Cowichan River, by October 22: The preliminary count was 2,400 Chinook adults, 1,100 jacks along with 4,200 Coho and 177,000 Chum.

Cowichan Roundtable discussions: The concerns of the recreational fishery were voiced by Martin Paish and Andreas Berglund at these meeting and Andreas stated it has been very difficult at times. Martin's hard work as our representative paid off with a retention of 1 Coho in the Cowichan River along with a Chum retention. This was not supported by Cowichan tribes but was supported by the department and took place in a very short time.

Groundfish/Shellfish: Brad Beaith, DFO, reported the 140,000 pound underage on Halibut. Consensus by members was if halibut regulations were to change they would like to see a retention of 1 large halibut of any size in the annual limit of 6.

New Transport of Fish Policy: Bob Gallaugher noted the new policy was eroding the sport fishery. Families cannot give their possession limit to another family member to transport and process for them legally. Before this change families could spend a holiday together fishing at a destination. The dad [for example] could take his family members possession of fish home to process with a note containing all the information required and his sons and daughters could carry on to their destinations around the country. Now that is not legal according to enforcement. There was no support for the new policy. A motion passed unanimously for DFO to withdraw the new policy before it destroys the recreational fishery. Better consultation would have helped.

Saanich Inlet e-Book and Hot Lures

Saanich Inlet e-book: Several times in the past year, readers have mentioned interesting stories about fishing Saanich Inlet over the years. I would like to see these stories collected as they form part of the fishing history of our area. Some who were central have already passed, such as Jimmy Gilbert and Charlie White.

I cut my saltwater fishing teeth in Saanich Inlet in the ‘70s and got to know some of the best anglers at the time, including John Rose and Bob Redgrave, among many others who taught me the Inlet’s fishing. Remember the laconic Harold, with the huge, floppy-hind-legged German Shepherd. He told me when asked: “Fish what you are best with.” Rather than a specific lure.

It was good advice. Large strip in a green teaser was the ticket, but making it work was the trick, until it became one of your best. Remember Angel Wing squirts, blue backs in January, 225 and 418 Tomic Plugs when Siwash barbs were legal. Tod Inlet on Boxing Day. Halls Boathouse, Chesterfield Rock, the Pink Lady, Glass House and Stone Steps.

I learned wire line and planer fishing, and that Saanich Inlet was, and still is, absolutely precise in where you caught and will still catch fish today, when they are there. While the Inlet is very calm, a great benefit to fishing, even in its relatively slow moving waters, you could predict accurately where the fish would be based on tidal flow.

For example, in the Bamberton run that anglers committed to memory, the reefs and pockets held fish based on the tide. Where the slag ‘slide’ at the south end of the docks is, marked a ‘V’ shaped cranny under water, that on the flood, most fish would be to the south of the slide hanging over that reef and on an ebb, the fish would be closer to the docks, hanging over the reef that formed the other side of the ‘V’. Then Jimmy’s Hole and…

It was so precise that on several occasions I said to someone I had along, “If we are going to get a fish it will be… right now.” And actually had the planer trip and the rod pop up and the fish was on. One of the benefits of the old Peetz roller-guided rods was that when the planer tripped, the rod jumped almost four feet. You would have to be in a coma to miss a strike. And the bells we put on rods tinkled over the water, and we could hear others also having good fishing, particularly in the dark with the only lights being the cement factory ones.

I first fished from a canoe at the marker off Coles Bay, drift-fishing Stingsildas. My wife at the time managed to catch a 12 pound spring on a summer evening with the new herring sparkling around us. She leaned into the fish, and the gunwhale slid to the water. I leaned out the opposite way and so we did not go under. And landed the chinook.

This is the luck of being young and foolish. She was eight months pregnant with our first child, and we were half a mile off shore. Either you swam to the marker and held on until someone spotted you, or swum a half mile to the Dyer Rocks. Or so I thought. That was the confidence and sheer luck of underprepared youth. Looking back, I see how foolish we had been. And, of course, we did not realize how cold the water was and we would have been in a very serious, life threatening situation if we had gone in.

Here is the point: I’d like everyone who has some Saanich Inlet memories to write them down and send them in. We will put together an e-book from the stories, so the history is preserved. My several lists to which I send this column do not have all the people on them who made the history, from the heyday ‘50s and ‘60s. So would you please let other anglers you know who fished Saanich Inlet that I would appreciate their taking the time to write your and their good stories down and send them in.

I have asked Mike Rose to be the collector of the stories, putting together a digital file which we will then shape into an e-book or PDF for distribution. His email address is: mike-rose@shaw.ca. Please send him your stories. Mike mentioned he had access to some of the old Saanich Inlet Anglers Association scrapbooks and etc. Period photos would be good, too, if you can send them digitally. I have ISBNs and will handle the reporting requirements for the National Library in Ottawa. There is also the possibility of putting out a tangible, printed book, but let’s just get the stories in and take it from there.

Tom Cole also sent me a CD of memorabilia, and I will look into that, too.

Hot Lures: Tom Vaida does the Island Outfitters weekly fishing report. The hot tackle from a week ago that you might want to try are: bait: anchovy; teasers: green, UV Green, Bloody Nose, UV Chartreuse; spoons: G-Force, in Irish Cream, No Bananas, also Cop Car, Glow/Green Coyotes; plastics: Yellow, Purple Haze, Gray Ghost, Cloverleaf, Glow Below, Electric Chair; squirts: Pickle Green, J-79, Jellyfish; flashers: Gibbs Madi, Purple Onion, Green/Silver, Green Jellyfish, Silver Betsy.

dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com