Steelhead Management and the Big Q

Steelhead Management: The Provincial Framework for Steelhead Management in BC is in an updated draft form on line and you may make comments until Feb 18, 2015 at this site:  http://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/pub/ahte/. You may read the report at: http://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/pub/ahte/angling.

The purpose is to provide the high level conceptual framework that managers will use in fisheries’ management in specific areas, so the whole province does things the same way. The document acknowledges that it is based on wild steelhead as the basis for the fisheries, rather than enhanced stocks, the Stamp River, for instance, which has both wild and hatchery steelhead.

If this is an important subject for you, there are several previous documents that you may like to read as well: the Steelhead Summit and Caucus Follow-up 2008-2009; the Greater Georgia Basin Steelhead Recovery Action Plan 2002; and Thompson River recovery initiatives (Thompson River Steelhead: A Resource in Crisis? SFU Workshop 1998; Independent Review of the Science and Management of Thompson River Steelhead 2014). The materials from these various undertakings have been reviewed in the development of the document to assist in identifying priority issues and strategies.

I summarized the framework some time ago, and you can reread it here: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.ca/2014/10/provincial-framework-for-steelhead.html.

Big Qualicum River: The Big Q is a classic, intimate steelhead/trout/salmon river on Vancouver Island. It has several important features that make it a river to get to know. First, the valley was never logged, so it is one of the few that shows what all island rivers should look like, rather than the lunar landscapes many suffer, the San Juan, for instance. Second, tall trees provide a year-round canopy important for keeping its temperature cool, particularly in summer. Next, it flows out of a lake – Horne – and this gives it a more consistent volume, in this case there is also a weir at the outlet to help regulate flow. Added to this is a water fall just below the lake that gives it ten clicks of relatively low gradient flow, something that is good for fish and fry. It also means that you have a defined amount of water within which you will find fish; this means you can slot information into your mental calendar with assurance that your conclusions are likely right.

The Big Q is so fertile that its gravel is scarified from time to time. This controversial practice has as its purpose ‘cleaning’, removal and redeposit of gravel into the course, providing lots of spawning ground. A big tractor goes into the river and does the deed, an out of date technique for some who would like scarification to cease or, at least be limited to certain portions of the river, leaving other sections natural. Natural means algae, insects, fry and adults being left alone to do their business.

Also of importance, is that there is a road, limited to walking (as in, no vehicles) that gives access to the river’s entire length. This allows the angler, and fly is preferred (do look at the regulations before you fish, for time, gear and species conditions), to dip in here and there and amble along, and over the course of many years come to know this special river. Then there are the fish: typically chinook, coho and chum in the fall, winter and summer steelhead and sea run cutthroat trout. In addition, in my years fishing, I have seen rainbows to two pounds spawning in the spring. Because this river is so short and because these fish are not found all year round, I suspect these represent residualized rainbows that have a saltwater phase, but close by, not out to the ocean as the larger steelhead do.

Also take a look at the straight-line man-made channel intended primarily for chum salmon. Its flow can be regulated from the small in-river dam at its top end, which also prevents fish from rising higher, although they can divert around the bottom end in the river’s main channel.

There is a major hatchery at the bottom end, accessed near the First Nation property at the estuarial end of the river. See this for my discussion of the 2013 egg and fry activities for the major Van Isle hatcheries: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.ca/2014/06/dfo-hatchery-plans-on-vancouver-island.html.

The Big Q put out 4.65 million chinook in 2014, along with 49.97 million chum fry (mainly from the special channel) and .6 million coho. Also take a look at the Living Genebank Steelhead program, that used an enlightened approach to ‘naturally’ enhance the wild steelhead in the nearby, Little Qualicum, as well as the Quinsam and Keogh: http://www.bccf.com/steelhead/living-gene-bank.htm. The purpose was to help nature by catching wild fry as they left the river, raising them in the Duncan hatchery to maturity, when they were spawned. The progeny went back into the rivers, and the program was only intended to operate for three cycles, for genetic reasons. See: http://www.bccf.com/steelhead/living-gene-bank.htm.

Take your time getting to know the Island rivers that you fish. A decade’s worth of fishing 12 months of the year will reveal fish, plant and animal information that is a great satisfaction to know. For example, it came to me recently that one of my rivers passed through a special, small sockeye run as fry backing down from a stream into the main-stem on their out migration. It dawned on me that epoxy minnow flies would be the fly of choice for several months for a mile below the confluence. And it worked. Good fishing.

Q and As – January 2

Salmon East and West: In putting together a piece for the Pacific Salmon Foundation, it crossed my mind that one indication of the importance of the BC salmon fishery to Canada would be to compare the number of wild Pacific salmon with the wild Atlantic salmon.

I was stunned to find out that in 2012 the entire Atlantic salmon numbers for all of North America was only 170,000 adults. That is the entire number from six provinces (half the country) and the State of Maine. The entire number has not exceeded the minimum conservation limit of 213,000 adults (termed 2SW for spending winters in saltwater, i.e. no grilse) for 23 years. And even in the early ‘70s, before the precipitous decline, the entire run was typically below 900,000.

Here is the report with graph. Do look: http://0801.nccdn.net/1_5/039/0bf/290/nasco-background2014v4.pdf.

In BC, I have not found a good source document from DFO for wild Pacific salmon. I settled in one snowy winter day – okay it wasn’t snowing, but those deer eating my tulips had gotten me steamed – and went through all the rivers and areas in BC and came up with, in an average year, 86 million wild Pacific Salmon in BC, only one province in Canada. In a good year, I would say 100 million is in the ball park.

So the east coast ‘fishery’ for Atlantic Salmon is, at .18%, far less than one percent of the BC fishery. By comparison, the Campbell River pink run, since the Quinsam spawning barrier was removed, is about one million fish. The sockeye run in Port Alberni has exceeded one million fish for several years. In fact, many chum runs on the island far exceed all the Atlantic salmon on the east coast.

I have fished in a year that the Nitinat was 1.8 million (1.2 million taken in aboriginal nets) and with 650,000 chum we got soaked to the skin just floating through schools that bolted as only chum can bolt. And the artificial spawning channel in the Big Qualicum regularly returns 100,000 chum to that river. The Cowichan terminally returned, before a mop up commercial fishery two years ago, 400,000 chum. These are regular events.

In other words, there really is no comparison between the two coasts of Canada, and little wonder that carbon 14 dating of west coast cedar a millennium old (BC and Alaska) shows that 14% of the carbon in them originates from salmon carcasses taken up into the forest by bears, wolves and other animals.

Oh, and in BC, DFO et al put out about 600 million fry per year. In Atlantic Canada, there has been no Salmon Enhancement Program. Atlantic numbers are more comparable to our steelhead numbers. Our steelhead had their origin in the Atlantic and are more like Atlantics in behaviour. They began migrating west in warm weather periods more than a million years ago, and then came to be only on the west coast because of cold weather cycles.

For 2015, DFO, for the first time, has put $4 million toward enhancement in the east.

Ocean Survival: Bruce Morrison queried me on the meaning of the term ocean survival of salmon. It is a term that has more than one meaning. In loose terms, it doesn’t mean much, other than estimating the fish in the river this year, and comparing the number with past numbers, particularly the brood year. If numbers are high, this is taken as meaning good ocean survival because more fish survived to come back.

But the problem is that science has suggested that salmon migrate out into the ocean in as precise a pattern as they do coming back to spawn within 100 metres of where they were hatched. In other words, without doing the science to measure the ocean in a systematic grid, some rivers can return high numbers and some low, indicating both low and high ocean survival at the same time, and thus not be useful.

The other meaning of ocean survival is stricter and it does indicate that science has been done to monitor the ocean and correlate it with salmon numbers. If you look at the sources of the Salmon Outlook and the Integrated Fishery Management Plans you can find the references to follow up.

Good survival typically indicates higher ocean wind patterns, the Aleutian decadal weather cycle, for instance, and colder water temperature. High wind pushes surface waters aside and brings up nutrients resulting in vastly higher phytoplankton numbers that are the base of the food chain, producing chlorophyll. Photos of the ocean can show the vastly increased numbers, typically where plumes of freshwater from rivers carries iron oxide, a rate determining metal, and where weather has been bad.

The second problem is that we tend to use both the loose and strict definitions at the same time, and so it is often debatable whether ocean survival has actually been good or bad. And, of course, a La Nina is a cold water event, but an El Nino is a warmer water event, associated with lower salmon numbers.

Another wrinkle is that we assume higher ocean survival based on the relative presence or absence of jacks, and for chinook, 3-year old fish that come back with the run. The Cowichan, for instance, returned 4,000 chinook jacks in 2013, indicating a higher run of mature fish in 2014.

SFAB Minutes Port Renfrew: Probable ocean survival for 2015 is discussed in a PDF by Ian Perry, Ian.Perry@dfo-mpo.gc.ca and Marc Trudel, Marc.Trudel@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. You can get it from them.

Their presentation showed that 2014 temperatures were as much as 4 degrees centigrade higher than records from 1981 – 2013, which they note is: HUGE. (PDF page 5). Warm surface water of low density (low salinity) prevented nutrients being brought to the surface and, hence, low chlorophyll production.

This water moved east and clearly shows warm water pushed up against Alaska, BC and the lower Pacific States (P7). But growth rates for coho show conflicting predictions (P15). The references will give you the science behind ocean survival, i.e., in the strict sense of the expression.

Q and As – January 2015

Halibut: The season opens February 1, coast wide, with a maximum size of 133 cm. The daily limit is one, with a possession limit of two, only one of which may be over 90 cm. Halibut have to be entered on your licence immediately and the annual limit is six.

2014 sport retention was 140,000 pounds below the total allowable catch; this implies a good, long 2015 season in Victoria that is the major fishery that ends the season in BC.

Dave Narver: The Washington Fly Fishing Club Foundation does something we should foster in BC, at fly clubs and perhaps for the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, the folks who bring us trout.

My brother sent a note saying some resources of the Foundation go to helping wounded veterans. Club members teach wounded vets to tie flies, and then take them fly fishing (from boats). Their excitement is terrific when they hook trout using flies that they have tied. It's a huge morale booster for them.

Supporting the activities of the Foundation is one of the best things the Club does. For example, I donated my 8' pram for a silent auction at the annual fundraiser. The Foundation issues a charitable tax donation receipt for the estimated value of each donation, based on current prices for replacement cost of boat and accessories. I got a deduction for $850 and the pram sold for $350, proceeds going to the Foundation. It’s win win win all around.

Victoria Boat and Fishing Show: The biggest boat and fishing show on Van Isle will be at Pearkes Arena, Feb 22 – 24. For info see: http://www.victoriaboatshow.com/. You can reserve a booth by contacting Kevin Blackburn: kevin@canwestproductions.com. Island Outfitters and BC Outdoors are also sponsors.

SFAB: The final minutes for the year-ending meeting Dec 13, 14, 2014 is in my inbox. A 34 page PDF, I will send to those who request it.

The executive summary focuses on one main issue – funding for urgent fisheries management [this is a mechanism issue]:

“SFAB Chair Gerry Kristianson reviewed the background of SFAB’s ongoing efforts to secure federal approval for a recreational fishing licence fee increase to fund urgent fishery management needs in Pacific Region, and recent discussions in Ottawa, where SFAB was advised that the federal User Fee Act posed an insurmountable obstacle. SFAB Executive has drafted a new proposal based on advice that Ottawa may be receptive to approving new programs focussed on implementation of the Recreational Vision. The SFAB Chair has therefore circulated a draft document asking the federal government to establish and fund new programs to support implementation of the Recreational Vision. If Ottawa should decide to source federal funding for these programs through new recreational fishing licence fees, the SFAB proposal states that any such increase should be consistent with SFAB’s previously-approved conditions. Members were asked to provide feedback and endorsement to support formal submission of the proposal by the SFAB Executive.”

2015 Salmon Forecast: Based on ocean temperatures, unusually warm in 2014, the extremes were unprecedented and do not bode well for future returns, especially with an El Nino expected in 2015. This could well mean in the south coast area, low Fraser chinook, and thus much higher fishing for Fraser pinks, rated at 4 this year, which typically brings 15 million fish.

Interior Coho: you will recall the Cohen Commission recommended that DFO place more emphasis on the Wild Salmon Policy. Connected with that, interior conservation constraints are expected to continue for some time, but ‘DFO now has Wild Salmon Policy abundance benchmarks for Interior Fraser coho. So there will be more information available for 2015, but the expectation is for an iterative approach to determining appropriate management for this population going forward.’

Salmon Enhancement Program (SEP): Presentations included the following:          

1.      Importance of angler cooperation with chinook tagging/sampling programs for understanding productivity issues.

2.      Concern over trend of reduced fish size for chinook in recent years, in the context of broader studies linking such trends to increased fishery intensity.

3.      SEP has been reviewing/experimenting with different hatchery release practices that have improved survival rates and is considering releasing hatchery fish at multiple times and/or at different weights, instead of all at once, to improve survival rates.

4.      DFO is working with other scientists to develop a better understanding of factors affecting productivity in SoG, including seal predation.

5.      Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) initiative: A new database has been established and the hope is to interview long-time anglers and First Nations to record their experiences with changing trends over time.

Regarding item 2, side discussion suggested, from DFO, that net pen chinook tend to stray at higher rates than from hatcheries.

Chair, Gerry Kristianson responded: I disagree that straying is a negative, since current salmon populations were established via colonization. Is the size issue related to age class or other issues?

DFO answered: The obvious issue would be fisheries that select for size, so we need to look at that. The challenge with straying, especially with large hatchery production, is the risk of overwhelming smaller wild populations.

I recall that Robertson Creek (Stamp River, Port Alberni) hatchery chinook have strayed all the way from the Conuma (Nootka Sound) to the Nitinat. That is a significant range. Also to remember is that many hatchery chinook are not able to spawn naturally. Also, net pen chinook could be diploided, assuming salmon can be treated like rainbow trout for freshwater that are routinely so treated to render them sterile; this also makes fish bigger because all food goes into producing mass, not the third of energy required for production of milt/eggs.

Another fact: Clayoquot wild chinook are at extinction levels in the six streams, total escapement only 501 fish in 2012. It would be interesting to know the effect of the 22 fish farms, the chinook ones shown to have ISA and, as I recall, PSMI, viral diseases, in Cohen testimony. Or, are a couple of netpens in the area warranted, considering that the local populations are at extinction levels, and hence there may be no genetic base to protect?

The rest of the report has many interesting subjects and thought provoking discussion. If you want the PDF, let me know.

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.