Fishing Report Archives
Report Filed: March 2, 2008
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Optimism renewed for pink salmon run
D.C. Reid, Times Colonist
Published: Thursday, February 28, 2008
You may recall I recently wrote spring salmon will be in poor numbers in many Island spots and that doom and gloom is a general theme because of poor ocean survival in 2005. And although there are bright spots here and there, in general, all five species will be in short supply in Victoria.
I have renewed optimism. I was ferreting out pink salmon numbers from the Fish and Game Department in Washington State, looking for cheer in Puget Sound rivers. They have been producing 10 times the expected numbers. And chinook also show some of the best numbers for a long time; the Skagit will have 25,000, maybe more, and other inside rivers are showing the same. But the real news is that outside rivers, are in better shape, with the Columbia, for example, returning 590,000 chinook.
I reminded the fellow that the numbers had been as low as 20,000 before bouncing back to 34,000 then all the way up to 900,0000 at the turn of the millennium when they began falling steeply once again. He reconfirmed the 600,000 estimate for 2008 and stated that Oregon, too, was seeing improvement.
So, here's the deal: Take your boat and/or yourself to the West Coast side of Vancouver Island for spring action in 2008. The 600,000 chinook -- in fact more, because the figure means those that make it into the river -- will flow down the West Coast, making the ocean almost spill over its banks.
The best fishing should be in Bamfield?/Ucluelet/Tofino because the Continental Shelf is more than 40 kilometres across before it drops to the deep, and, this far from home, most southern chinook should be found off shore, perhaps at the Rat's Nose. Puget Sound fish may well make landfall at Amphritite Point and slink over Swiftsure, past the Nitinat and Owen Point shelf, all the way in before crossing over to the American side. But the majority of the great girthy ones should be farther out.
The shelf narrows as you go north, for example, the shelf in Nootka Sound is 20 kilometres (270 degrees) off Gillam Channel. This edge will also bring big spring fish in higher numbers than usual. Typically, it is Ferrer, Maquinna points etc. where the local conuma springs are taken. But I'll bet that the offshore Columbia fishing will be better.
By Kyuquot Sound, the shelf is only a few kilometres across. In addition, there are bottom contours that strongly influence tide direction, funnelling fish through a restricted pipeline. Ditto for Quatsino.
Chinook behaviour is the most interesting of the five species. Predicting their whereabouts is more difficult because of the different phases in life cycles. First they mill marine estuaries as smolts, then they may or may not move to the outside in their second and third year, then they swim into the open ocean -- travelling as much as a 1,600 kilometres per month as little minnows that move through their own length about once every second. When, as four- to seven-year-old fish, they turn and come back, they usually stay offshore until within about 160 kilometres from their natal river. At this point they come in from the ocean, following the shore so closely you can sometimes take them from, well, the shore, even here in Victoria.
Scientists are now finding salmon spread out into the open Pacific returning to the same river, to within 90 metres of where they spawned. There are now acoustic grids being built under the ocean and this will allow scientists to follow smolts as small as your little finger. This means that the Pacific was not uniform in its El Nino of 2005 -- a condition related to poor fish numbers. Thus the fish from the Columbia and other U.S. rivers foraged in different parts of the open ocean, where things were more benign. So, let's get out there and intercept our share this summer.
dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com
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