Fraser River Sockeye!

[trendsetter240]

Well, the Fraser river sockeye run is finally back on. I've heard forecasts of between 7 and 11 million fish returning.

I caught my first one of the season last night. A nice 5.5lb, 24 inch red. Caught about 4 miles off the mouth of the Fraser in the Straight of Georgia.

He was about 45 ft deep and liked my green flasher and green/white hoochie.

If the forecasts are correct this will be the first of many!

 

[lyle]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

congratulations on a nice fish ... never caught one before ... next week I'm heading to the kenai river to try and find a few silvers in amongst all the pinks ... does the coastal area of the kenai hold any sockeye I wonder

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

congratulations on a nice fish ... never caught one before ... next week I'm heading to the kenai river to try and find a few silvers in amongst all the pinks ... does the coastal area of the kenai hold any sockeye I wonder

Most of the Sockeye will have passed through Alaska by now. They are on there way down here

Amazing fishing up in the Kenai river; I've never been but I have buddies that went and caught huge Chinook Salmon.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

Update: caught 2 more sockeye when I went out again today. One 3.5lbs and another 7lbs monster. Lost a decent sized one at the boat.

Anybody else on here been out Sockeye fishing lately? These fish are jumping like crazy all around the mouth of the Fraser river.

Good times!


p.s. only have crappy cell phone pictures of these unfortunately.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

Caught another 4 beauties this morning. All 4 caught about 100ft deep using pink/red hoochies and red flashers.

Caught my limit in 2.5 hours. Gotta love that! Two of them were 7lbs, one 6lbs and one 5lbs.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

This is supposed to be a record run, somewhere between 20 and 30 million fish returning to the Frazier.

The Kenai has a very good run of Sockeye.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

The current estimate is for 35.5 million sockeye returning this summer. There is still around 10 million staging at the mouth of the river.

Here is some video I took last night while out fishing in the Straight of georgia. The water was boiling with fish! Not a lot of biters but still manged to take home two.

Click on the image to watch the video.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

Here are the latest numbers from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

"The total run size estimate for Fraser River sockeye this season of 34,546,000
fish was unchanged at the meeting today. The estimated total catch of Fraser
sockeye to-date is 13,100,000 fish.

The run size estimates of 3,800,000 Early Summer-run and 5,200,000 Summer-run
sockeye were unchanged at the meeting today. The estimated escapements of Early
Summer-run and Summer-run sockeye past Mission through September 16 are
2,701,000 and 3,137,000 fish, respectively.

Present assessments suggest that approximately 9,000,000 Late-run sockeye are
currently delaying in the lower Strait of Georgia. At the meeting today, the
current run size estimates of 1,200,000 Harrison, 24,000,000 Late
Shuswap/Weaver, and 241,000 Birkenhead stock-group sockeye were unchanged. The
estimated escapement of Late-run sockeye past Mission through September 16 is
6,887,000 fish.

Migration conditions for sockeye in the Fraser River are currently satisfactory
and the management adjustments were unchanged at the meeting today. Management
adjustments are employed to help achieve spawning escapement targets for Fraser
River sockeye."

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

Congratulations catching them fish.

How many can you catch a day? Also what is the possession limit?

 

[lyle]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

cool video trendsetter ... wish I could get up there on that river

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

Congratulations catching them fish.

How many can you catch a day? Also what is the possession limit?

You can keep 4 per day in the marine areas and 2 per day in the freshwater areas of the river. At the moment they have closed the river to fishing to allow them to spawn.

Possession limit is 8.

I've caught 19 of them all together over the past 6 weeks. Best tasting salmon there is!

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

do you fish around the mouth of the river in Vancover?

how is the powell river for salmon fishing?

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

do you fish around the mouth of the river in Vancover?

how is the powell river for salmon fishing?

Yeah, when fishing for Sockeye I do. There are 3 arms of the Fraser River where it meets the ocean (North, Middle and South). The Sockeye fishery has been fantastic this year within about 5 miles of either North or South.

The video above was taken about 3-5 miles off the mouth of the South arm.

Powel River is excellent for salmon fishing; I haven't been there in about 15 years but it was great at that time.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Fraser River Sockeye!

One last pic to finish up this season.

Overall this was a once in a lifetime season. I managed to get 19 sockeye from August 5th through the middle of September. They say that before the commercial fishing industry came to BC the sockeye runs were as high as 150 million fish. Lets hope that with proper management these fish will return once again in abundance.

Appx. 16 million have made it through to the spawning grounds. It will be 4 years before we know how successfull their offspring were.


The sockeye below was 7lbs 2 oz.