[augie]

A friend of mine hooked into 18 yesterday, up on the north island! They said they couldn't get those buggers off the downriggers! I thought the action was hot up there when I was up there 2 weeks ago, but it's bigger now Then he saw a native seiner do a food-fish set and it was nasty big haul! This is about the fourth push of Fraser sockeye up there as of yesterday!

Apparently Adams fish are showing now. It's a matter of time my friends.

Here's the post he sent me (below). Don't know if this is any different than what some of you have been posting from the Salmon Commission. But I figured since he's an Ex-comm fisher, he may have some other links or connections or resources! This is the latest post, apparently.

Sorry about the excitement. It's not about the meat or the table fare of the sockeye; I care about the run and its health! I'm just happy to see a healthy run. It's my dream and hope that the Fraser has a run of sockeye like this every year! But not just sox, but other salmon species as well!

Here's the post:

Test fishing data collected over the past several
days indicates continued strong migration of Fraser sockeye through the marine
approach routes. DNA analyses indicate that the stock composition of Fraser
sockeye in the Areas 12 and 20 marine approach routes to the Fraser River are
ranging about 7-8% Early Summer-run, 11-20% Summer-run, and 71-79% Late-run
sockeye. The diversion rate of Fraser sockeye through Johnstone Strait is
currently estimated to be approximately 75%. The migration of sockeye past
Mission and Hells Gate continues to be strong over the past several days. The
estimated total catch of Fraser sockeye to-date is 2,634,000 fish. Total
escapement past Mission is 4,869,000 for a total accounted to date of 7,503,000
fish.

The marine migration of Early Summer-run sockeye continues to drop off in the
latest samples; the current run size estimate of 2,600,000 Early Summer-run
sockeye was increased to 2,900,000 fish. The 50% marine migration timing of
Early Summer-run sockeye through Area 20 is estimated to be August 7. The
estimated escapement of Early Summer-run sockeye past Mission through August 19
is 1,961,000 fish.

The marine migration of Summer-run sockeye has increased in recent days. At the
meeting today, the Panel approved a run size increase from 3,300,000 Summer-run
sockeye to 4,000,000. The 50% marine migration timing of Summer-run sockeye
through Area 20 is August 10. The estimated escapement of Summer-run sockeye
past Mission through August 19 is 1,823,000 fish.

Late-run sockeye are now the dominant stock group in marine approach areas and
there are indications of significant delaying in the lower Strait of Georgia
prior to entering the Fraser River. The gulf troll test fishery confirms
assessments of the abundance of Late-run sockeye that are delaying their
migration. A Late-run sockeye of 11 million Late Shuswap/Weaver stocks was
adopted at todays meeting. At the meeting today run size estimate of 700,000
Harrison sockeye was increased to 900,000 with a marine timing through Area 20
of August 6. The estimated escapement of Late-run sockeye past Mission through
August 169 is 1,417,000 fish.

On August 19 the discharge of the Fraser River at Hope was 2,540 cms, which is
25% below average for this date. The temperature of the Fraser River at Qualark
Creek on August 19 was 19 0C, which is 1.5 0C above average for this date. At
the meeting today, after reviewing environmental and stock assessment
information, the Panel changed the management adjustment factor for Early
Summer-run sockeye from 0.71 to 0.39 and for Summer-run sockeye a management
adjustment factor was unchanged at 0.22. Management adjustments are employed to
help achieve spawning escapement targets for Fraser River sockeye.

 

[leaseman]

Definately is a huge push of fish this year...... wish the other years runs would catch up, but I guess that is just a wish isn't it.....???

Mike

 

[Dennis.t]

Im thinking maybe some of last yrs run stayed out in the ocean and extra yr and our returning this yr instead, pushing up the #s.Whatever the case, its great to see such a strong return and everyone getting thier share of sockeye this summer! I have enough fish now in my freezer for smoking and canning to last awhile.It was alot of fun to go out and catch limits of fish everytime out!Time to put down the flossing gear and start processing my catch!:thumbup:

 

[kingpin]

sockeye are a 4 year fish i doubt any stayed out longer...for some reason there was a huge increase in the amount of fry making it the ocean and surviving out there...colder oceans maybe?

my bro works for PSC.. 91,000 sockeye in 4 sets in the strait....still coming strong

 

[Centerpin]

Hey Guys

Its great that there are so many Sockeye returning this year I just really hope the same holds true for the other Salmon species still to come in.
The worst part is there are those that will view this as that there are no problems and all is well with the Wild Salmon stocks. Once again DFO will have no idea what happened or how it happened. They will be just as baffled by the huge number of fish as they where by the small returns over the last couple of years.

Centerpin

 

[leaseman]

One thing I would like to know is with the different size and color (no, not spawners yet) of the socs, what river system they are heading to? All the fish we have caught the last couple times out, the doe's have very immature roe......

ANYONE HAVE ANY INSIGHT??

Thanks
Mike
:cheers:

 

[Farmer]

One thing I would like to know is with the different size and color (no, not spawners yet) of the socs, what river system they are heading to? All the fish we have caught the last couple times out, the doe's have very immature roe......

ANYONE HAVE ANY INSIGHT??

Thanks
Mike
:cheers:

Mike, From my experience, the early Stuart sockeye tend to be the smaller fish, the summer runs are medium sized and the late run particularly the Adams are the biggest. That being said, this year we caught some big sockeye at the start of the season and some big chromers last week also. We have also tended to believe that the Adams sockeye show the orange tinge rather than the silver shine of the earlier runs. I don't know when the Adams start getting the orange tinge, but it is very recognizable.

 

[Dennis.t]

The socks i have caught have been mostly males,probally about 80 % males compared to females.The females tend to be smaller in size and alot more chrome then the males ,some have immature roe,some have more mature roe.I guess it depends on how far they have to travel to which river they are heading to spawn.The males are larger in size and have very degrees of color to thier bodies, again depending on which river to which they are headed.I have no idea how to tell which strain is which,it would be interesting to be able to! Have caught one that had a large chunk taken out of its side presumbally by a seal.

 

[augie]

Test fishing in Robson Bite the other day: 85,000 sox in five sets.

A friend of mine made $30,000 in a couple of openings.

The seiners are open and have a 17,000 sockeye quota per license.

Biggest sockeye run since 1913

Hopefully its all being managed in a smart way. It looks like its a kid in a candy store scenario! But I'm glad everyone is having chances !!!

Taking my students in Oct to see the Adams run show their magic

 

[kingpin]

there is a mixture of fish coming up right now...horsefly, adams(and other shuswap tribs), harrison etc.. there are about 40 different runs in total.

 

[leaseman]

Thanks for the replies people.....:thumbup:

We found the fish from last thurs/fri were the chromest yet and were nice size fish...7-9 pounds......50/50 split on buck/doe ratio

 

[Farmer]

You are quite right leaseman. Last week the sockeye were as chrome as can be. The ones we caught yesterday were more grey than chrome.