SEHAB October, 2006 Roundtable Report
by Eric Carlisle
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The main concern for all people involved with anadromous salmonids is the lack of rainfall going back to last spring.  With the exception of the rainfall on September 20 (which allowed Seymour River, Lynn Creek and assorted small creeks to rise a little but did not increase flows in Capilano River or Chilliwack River), there has been no significant rainfall since June.  While we are not in a panic situation yet, forecasts of rain coming this weekend and continuing into next week are welcome.  Of course, there have been long range forecasts of rain coming but the forecasts changed and sunny weather continued instead, so we can only hope that, this time, the forecast of rain is accurate.  Then, salmon which have been waiting will be able to migrate up their rivers and salmon which have been holding in their rivers will be able to migrate up the tributaries and spawn.  Juvenile salmonids living in the streams will have increased living space.
Yet in spite of record low flows for the time of year, in some streams salmon have been able to migrate upstream.  In Chilliwack-Vedder River, coho, chum and adult and jack chinook are spread throughout the river.  In some riffles the water is barely knee deep, yet the salmon appear to be moving upriver during the night and holding in deeper pools and runs during the day.  Still, angling conditions are difficult and anglers are hoping rain will raise the river.
In most streams coho migrations have barely started or the coho are waiting for rain, so it is difficult to comment on the state of the runs.  However, I have fished for coho in three streams, so I can comment on these runs.  Capilano has seen an improvement over last year—by September 27, 5,770 coho had entered Capilano Hatchery.  The early season in-river fishery—mid-May into early July (when the runoff ended)—showed improved numbers of fish present over the same time period in 2005.  The changed behavior of the early run coho, which I have mentioned before, continued.  Instead of holding on the lower river, the coho moved in during the night and were well up in the canyon or near the hatchery early the next morning.  While some coho held at the river mouth in July and August, many clipped coho were present at the Cypress Creek mouth area from early July into early September.  Then, most of these coho vanished and, at present, there are hardly any coho showing at the river mouth and only a few showing at Cypress Creek mouth.  So far, Seymour River has experienced a very poor return of coho.  I fished the river only a little following the September 20 rainfall (which briefly raised the river a bit), observed a few coho, lost several, released a few wild jacks, and kept one hatchery adult and one hatchery jack.  In late August and September, numerous wild coho were reported holding off the Maplewood Mud Flats, and we can only hope that many of these fish are wild Seymour coho waiting for rainfall.  Still, in spite of low summer flows in other years Seymour coho, both wild and hatchery, moved up the river, so the lack of coho is cause for concern.  At Chilliwack River, by September 19 only 40 coho had returned to Chilliwack Hatchery.  Just two years earlier, 1,600 coho were
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present on September 21, and 200 were kept for brood stock and the remainder sold off as surplus.  The staff member I spoke with expressed much concern about the state of this year’s coho run.  Yet following the September 20 rainfall (which did not raise the river), 1,000 coho were present at the hatchery just a few days later.  This number represents an improvement over last year’s run at the same time.
Anglers fishing the Chilliwack-Vedder are observing coho in many pools and runs, but these fish are proving to be very difficult to catch. Part of the problem is the presence of adult chinook—the coho do not like to hold in the same water as the chinook and may be spooked by the chinook—but part of the problem is the reluctance of the hatchery coho to bite on anglers’ offerings.  Anglers used to feel that Chilliwack coho were much easier to catch than coho in many other rivers, but this is no longer the case.
Similarly, at the 2006 North Shore beach fisheries both hardware and fly anglers found that coho have become much more difficult to catch.  At times we cover lots of fish, but bites are few.  Talking about this situation with Highwater Tackle’s Dave Steele, I learned that the hard to catch coho are not just present at North Shore fisheries; in 2006, coho in many other areas have been much more difficult to catch than usual.  Again, this appears to be changing behavior by the coho, but why is anyone’s guess.  It is not as if the fish are full of feed; a few I took in mid-July-early August had stomach contents (in each case a few small herring), but all other coho had empty stomachs.  Commonly, fecal matter was present at the other end of the gut so the fish had been feeding recently, but they were not feeding at the time at which I caught them (generally first light to sunup, with a few later in the morning).  Most of the anglers I know have long lists of lures or flies which used to catch the coho but which now rarely attract any bites.
Climate change may be influencing the ocean survival of coho, but it does not explain why catching coho, especially hatchery coho, is becoming more difficult.