ROUNDTABLE REPORT—MAY, 2006
By Eric Carlisle
It is now end of season for winter steelhead in most south coast rivers and very late season for winter steelhead in the Squamish system (but peak time for Mamquam River steelhead).  From what I have heard, runs in most rivers have improved this year. Although the river I fish the most, the Capilano, was very spotty and inconsistent, the BCCF guys swam the river several weeks ago and had their best count yet—27.  Fish were observed scattered throughout the canyon and not concentrated in just one area. The swim went from the fish barrier at Capilano Hatchery to the 401 Highway Bridge. I feel that the fishing would have been better and the swim count would have been better if a seal had not been present in the river.   I have seen the seal five times for certain and a probable sixth time, and on two of the five occasions I saw the seal, it took a steelhead. While I have recommended the Puntledge solution (remove the problem animal), employees of both governments are reluctant to do anything.  Apparently, they have to go through Environment Canada and fill out reams of paperwork, and Environment Canada people seem more interested in critters with cute, big eyes than they do in cold, slimy fish.       This morning (May 9), I was present at Capilano Hatchery during the steelhead spawning check.  This season, the hatchery has held 40 WSH, and only two hatchery males have died before spawning.  Today, three hatchery females and three wild females were found to be ripe and were spawned.  One wild female which had wounds on the top of her head and fungus problems was killed and spawned, while the other five females were air spawned and released.  Eggs from the wild steelhead females were fertilized with milt from wild males, and eggs from the hatchery steelhead were fertilized with milt from either wild or hatchery males.  Offspring from the wild steelhead will be used for the smolt program (which is now a one year program), and offspring from the hatchery steelhead females will be used for the fry planting program in the upper river.  There is talk of increasing WSH production at Capilano Hatchery from the current goal of 10,000 but, so far, Capilano Hatchery staff have not heard from the Fresh Water Fisheries Society about this matter.  Details such as funding for increased production would have to be worked out.                   MoE Steelhead Biologist Greg Wilson told me that at the end of April, float counts indicated the Cheakamus held about 400 steelhead.  Yet, from reports I had heard, the fishing rivaled that found in years of much better returns.  I must admit that the two times I visited the Cheakamus I found nothing, but that’s steelheading.  While I was picking up my brood stock collection permit at Tenderfoot Hatchery on May 5, two steelhead were brought in.  That gave the hatchery 7 females and 5 males; the goal is 10 and 10. Tenderfoot Hatchery staff told me that they have 14 brood stock anglers and, from what I saw, they should experience little difficulty in reaching their goal.  I understand the adult steelhead are to be transferred to Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery and the eggs are to be incubated there.  Part of the rearing will be done at Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery, and the rearing will be finished somewhere in the Cheakamus system—either in a new channel at
Tenderfoot Hatchery or in net pens in Daisy Lake.  I have heard various unofficial reports that MoE steelhead biologists were “choked” that Environment Minister Barry Penner decided to approve a temporary hatchery program on the Cheakamus.        While fishing the Cheakamus eight days ago, I passed the Cheekye and walked upstream along the railway tracks to a run I know as 10 Mile.  At one time, the river ran along the railway tracks at this run, but a flood in the 1980s changed the course of the river and it now runs along the far side of the river channel.  At the base of a large, triangular boulder which used to be at the head of the old run, there is a two feet or so deep pool of water, and in this pool, I saw 20 or more salmonid juveniles which were about 2 ½ inches long. What species they are I couldn’t tell—probably, they are coho, but some could have been Chinook and some could even have been steelhead.  However, whatever species they are, they are survivors from August 5, 2005.  Perhaps this pool was not connected to the main flow on August 5, or maybe these survivors, which may have come from a groundwater channel, were caught in the pool during a flood last fall or winter and are waiting for the spring freshet to set them free.         Of course, there is that other species of concern—coho.  While I had heard a few reports of coho in the Capilano for just over a week, until Monday I hadn’t seen any. Last Monday I caught my first coho of the season and saw another angler take a coho. The season has started right on time.