cowieslabslayer
Member
Fished river bottom area today and not a bite! Beauty shape but empty. Creel guys again in a blue raft this time and nobody had anything. Where’s all the chrome? Anyone have a good report?
Cowichan River
- Thread starter winephart
- Start date
fished friday alot of people angling for sure... the sandy pull is touching for sureCreel surveyors on the Cowichan… Sounds like it has Mucolochs name all over it, the lead steelhead “biologist” of the province who gets his rocks off closing east Coast rivers, or any river for that matter. I would be extremely cautious answering these surveyors & be adding any potential steelhead encounter whatsoever (float downs, lost fish) to any questions they might ask you about your day on the water. It starts with the upper river closure, then you blink & it’s like the other east coast rivers - closed above the highway bridge Dec 1-April 30.
Steelheaders giving honest and accurate data? Hahaha.........................that is a good one. You can measure angler effort level with some accuracy, the rest is rather suspect. The only somewhat reliable data is from swimming the river and doing adult/redd counts and/or netting fry/smolts while out-migrating.
I wish the money was being used to raise some hatchery fish, on a jet boat free river, here the east coast of Vancouver Island.
I wish the money was being used to raise some hatchery fish, on a jet boat free river, here the east coast of Vancouver Island.
Worked for the MOE collecting brood, done snorkel surveys for MOE, operated the smolt trap on the Salmon and had inside intel on the creel survey done on the cowie back before the hatchery program was scrapped.
Guided for steelhead back in the day on a number of island rivers including the Stamp and Cowie
Attended a couple of MOE meetings when they were selling their agenda on regulation changes.
Yes, I think I have a pretty good grasp of how things work, including the politics behind the scenes.
Guided for steelhead back in the day on a number of island rivers including the Stamp and Cowie
Attended a couple of MOE meetings when they were selling their agenda on regulation changes.
Yes, I think I have a pretty good grasp of how things work, including the politics behind the scenes.
Derby
Crew Member
Prefect then probably bumped into then over the years.. I'm.looking at this as it's been 1 year with a closer moving into the second year... an assement need to be done to see if the closer has been effective to allow the closer to be removed.. nothing more then that. As one of the folks that sits in that process more information the better not lack of.
The closure won't have any impact on returning adults for at least two years if you assume most fish on the cowie are 2 fresh 2 salt. If they are 2 fresh and 3 salt then you can tack on another year.
Any info gained, re steelhead, is independent of the closure. Trout info would be of some use I suppose.
Any info gained, re steelhead, is independent of the closure. Trout info would be of some use I suppose.
Hyde-N-Seek
Active Member
It’s a complex issue for sure. Was curious about insights on why they closed the hatchery program on the cowichan? Mainly due to anglers not retaining hatchery fish or lacked of accuracy with reporting of more fish vs less fish? I think they justified it to use $ for lakes since the returned to value was greater?
Now that a few years since the closed of the hatchery program, I think the general consensus is fishing has, for most part, been a lot worst?
Dave H
Well-Known Member
As I recall, the success of the hatchery program, or lack of it, was the main reason that program was ended and was related to the water supply being used for it. I recall the constant temperature of the water along with the lack of nutrients in the water were found to be contributing factors to the poor results.
Bang for the buck was minimal, apparently.
Seems hatchery returns were always dwarfed by wild steelhead returns after the data were analyzed, and, in comparisons with other hatchery programs, the Cowichan hatchery returns were always the worst.
Off the top of my head so may not be 100% accurate.
Take care.
Nothing like anonymously bad-mouthing a biologist who works hard trying to protect seriously declining steelhead populations, so anglers (present and future) might have some sport. And suggesting anglers give false information? Classy.
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Derby
Crew Member
You are 100 Percent correct on that one.. I started steelheading just as retention of wild steelhead was stopped so many of us were brought up that it was bad to retain of them... sadly
I wouldn't say steelheading was worst because of no hatchery fish more to the ocean condition for the most part were not favorable in my option .wildmanyeah
Crew Member
I thought the purpose of the hatchery was to act as a backstop given the erratic flows because the system is dammed. anyways i guess they now get to have their experiment of if removing a hatchery increases wild returns.
hatchery's produce small fish too no one wants this
hatchery's produce small fish too no one wants this
Fins -n- Skins
Well-Known Member
What he said ^^^ Just look at the leader board on the Wally Hall derby. Lots of fish and a lot of big hatchery fish. Vedder is a prime example that hatcheries work. Period !! I see there are 3-4 fish weighed in daily and that’s just the guys in the derby. In the mean time they raise money for the hatchery and habitat restoration and is that a bad thing lol. The Cowichan had big hatchery fish and they need to bring it back if they want to save the world famous Cowichan heritage river. Oh no people would rather fish for invasive 2-3lb browns who eat smolts like crazy. Great management.
Which 2 rivers?
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