Cowichan River

Historically Dec/Jan/Feb steelhead from the Cowichan were mostly in the 8-15lb range with the odd outlier at either end. One year the brood guys got a massive buck, I can't remember if it was 24 or 26lbs. At that time the fish were kept in a round swimming pool type tank. I remember looking in at about 30 mixed sized steelhead and what I thought was a stray chinook. Damn that was a big buck.
Back in the day.......................................................................sigh
 
onefish said:
Historically Dec/Jan/Feb steelhead from the Cowichan were mostly in the 8-15lb range with the odd outlier at either end. One year the brood guys got a massive buck, I can't remember if it was 24 or 26lbs. At that time the fish were kept in a round swimming pool type tank. I remember looking in at about 30 mixed sized steelhead and what I thought was a stray chinook. Damn that was a big buck.
Back in the day.......................................................................sigh
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Historically we used to have 20 fish drifts with fish up to 20 pounds but now we have 20 fish seasons with fish averaging at 5 to 10 lbs
 
chris73 said:
Careful in the upper section (fly fish section) : a sweeper all across the river! Better stay away!
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Thanks for the heads up. For anyone wondering it’s just above 3 firs you should be able to see it from a reasonable distance, always stay safe.
 
Fished the trail above Hot Creek. Water a bit lower than ideal for this time of year. Only encountered two rafts and one other shore angler. That says something. Unusually we were all using fly gear. Guess we all needed an excuse to catch NOTHING.

Looked and should be at least spotting fish. Only fish I saw was one small dead brown trout.
This should be peak times for Cowichan steelhead. Sad times for a once strong run.
 
All other ECVI rivers have their headwaters protected and are closed to fishing thus giving the steelhead an area where they are unmolested. The last time I was at Skutz falls I was surprised to see so many boats drifting the top end of the river. Maybe it is time to revisit the current regs while there are still a few steelhead to protect.
 
onefish said:
All other ECVI rivers have their headwaters protected and are closed to fishing thus giving the steelhead an area where they are unmolested. The last time I was at Skutz falls I was surprised to see so many boats drifting the top end of the river. Maybe it is time to revisit the current regs while there are still a few steelhead to protect.
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I agree. Too many guys, including those guided are so desperate to catch a steelhead and can't resist those fish on the redds. Close it down March to mid April.
 
onefish said:
All other ECVI rivers have their headwaters protected and are closed to fishing thus giving the steelhead an area where they are unmolested. The last time I was at Skutz falls I was surprised to see so many boats drifting the top end of the river. Maybe it is time to revisit the current regs while there are still a few steelhead to protect.
Click to expand...
I agree. Too many guys, including those guided are so desperate to catch a steelhead and can't resist those fish on the redds. Close it down March to mid April.
onefish said:
How about Dec 1 to May 1 like most other rivers.
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Gotta let the guys pound those big invasive browns in the winter. I say just close during peak SH spawning season. We'd be lucky to get that.
 
fishinforever said:
why not bring the hatchery steelhead back?
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If they actually worked and lack of fish was the only issue. I'd be willing to surrender and give it a try on a small scale on very popular rivers since we're at the point we have nothing left to lose. Not much we can do about the past 50 years of logging, ocean conditions, climate change etc. There just isn't the public will to save something generally unseen and unheard of like a fish.
 
Plenty of salmon enhancement $$$$ thrown around, even on the Cowichan where the area is mostly closed for salmon retention. I guess the question is, do you take a significant portion of the remaining wild steelhead to restart a hatchery program that had very poor returns, or hope things get better on their own.
 
onefish said:
Plenty of salmon enhancement $$$$ thrown around, even on the Cowichan where the area is mostly closed for salmon retention. I guess the question is, do you take a significant portion of the remaining wild steelhead to restart a hatchery program that had very poor returns, or hope things get better on their own.
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They may have had poor return rates but I can assure you it definitely helped improving the numbers of steelhead in the river. There were multiple times more sh in the Cowichan when the hatchery was operating. I still prefer hatchery fish over no fish. And so does the river and its ecosystem.
 
When there were hatchery fish in the Cowichan, most of the fish I caught were still wild. Maybe 1 in 6 was clipped. I was told all hatchery SH were clipped unlike other species. Maybe it was a good balance.
I have never caught a wild winter SH in the Stamp Somass, always clipped, always duds. Scares me away from huge hatchery dumps when I see how that system turned out.
 
Cow had some really nice hatch fish in the mix. I don’t know the science behind it, but the vedder seems to have some pretty good success. And the traffic on the cow is looking more and more like the vedder each year, which is fine if there’s fish
 
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