Herring Comox Valley

[Charter Tofino]

To start they stay within allocation.

You obviously have a hate on for anyone making a living by harvesting seafood. Except guides I see

We are just leaving the grounds and this was one of the best fisheries I have seen in decades. Fish size is up we only used our largest gear. The spawn is still growing and there are still 10's of thousands of tons to spawn. DFO has such limited resources that they will struggle to asses how much fish was here. One school off chrome was estimated at 100,000 tons.

As for jigging go 1hr after flood. The fish back off the beech on the ebb.

Great to hear but I have to ask.... If the herring numbers have rebounded so much and the the size is large why don't we see it? Nobody rakes herring anymore like the good old days because finding a school of mature herring in suitable water is damn near impossible. I rarely catch Chinook on the inside with mature herring, most are 2-4 inches. The stories I hear from my old buddies regarding the 70's are always "you should have seen it, acre after acre of herring on the surface". Im pretty open minded so can certainly chalk some up to exaggeration etc but the numbers certainly don't seem to match. Has the fisheries changed herrings tendencies? Deeper dwelling habits? More migration? Poor stock assessments back in the day leading to underestimated numbers? Tough questions for sure. Having not been around long enough or involved in the fishery directly my actual knowledge is limited. I would be interested to hear your perspective.

 

[Fish Assassin]

Hey FA my wife saw this thread and was wondering if we could bum a ride on saturday?

If they are still around we my be able to arrange some thing...They sure have thined out and the water is clearing quickly. I am guessing its comming to an end.If you just want a few dozen you can come grab some off me tonight before I freeze the ones we just caught this afternoon since Bryan is not around to pickle them.

 

[Fish Assassin]

Anyone up to checking it out today? I can go around 1.

 

[wstcoaster]

their are two basic types of herring those that appear in november and stay around till march spawn and leave for west coast van isle; and some local herring that live in gulf of georgia all year; up until closure of herring fishery in 60s herring were fished for reduction in summer months; this was the fishery that decimated local stocks; no reduction fishery is allowed nowdays; so local schools should somehow recover; as they are in some areas; tho how i dont know;

 

[Charter Tofino]

their are two basic types of herring those that appear in november and stay around till march spawn and leave for west coast van isle; and some local herring that live in gulf of georgia all year; up until closure of herring fishery in 60s herring were fished for reduction in summer months; this was the fishery that decimated local stocks; no reduction fishery is allowed nowdays; so local schools should somehow recover; as they are in some areas; tho how i dont know;

With run size & demand being lower on the migratory herring they have transferred TAC from the roe fishery to the food & bait fishery so the local herring are being fished again.

 

[GDW]

You obviously have a hate on for anyone making a living by harvesting seafood. Except guides I see

Is that a personal attack? Just saying... Not sure how you pulled that out of his post except maybe his mind for conservation threatens your livelihood?

We are just leaving the grounds and this was one of the best fisheries I have seen in decades. Fish size is up we only used our largest gear.

So your boats are using their largest gear to get only the largest fish is that right? Might sound good but I'd rather see a mixed bag harvested those large fish could potentially get a lot bigger if they weren't selectively harvested by the commercial fishermen.

If leaving the herring alone for several years meant increased salmon and bottom fish oppurtunities in the future would you go for that? I'm for commercial fishermen but not large scale operations I'd way rather see 100 small boats working a fishery for a modest wage then 10 ships scooping it all up for healthy profits for the vessel owners.

That said in my idea of a commercial fishery those 100 small boats can't go on EI when the season is over gotta take care of yourself in the off season somehow. EI if your laid off or expected oppurtunities don't happen not for anticipated season closures.

 

[Andrew P]

Hey Fish4All,

I have a question about gear size relative to fish size. How many different size nets are used for herring? What size is the biggest aimed at?

I talked to the good folks at French Creek Seafood and they said that the fish they were processing were between 7-8". This is bigger than last year....but far from the natural mature size.

I just find it so ridiculous that this is being touted as a banner year....and ran with over the media that everything is just peachy when even DFO's wild guesses at the stock say that they are down in 2013 versus 2012. I must be missing something...

From DFO website:
- The median estimate of the 2012 post fishery spawning biomass is 97,802 (56,173 – 167,387) tonnes.
- The forecast of mature stock biomass for 2013 is 82,952 (47,069 – 142,361) tonnes (average recruitment forecasted based on summer trawl observations), which is above the fishing threshold of 0.25B0 (33,318 tonnes).

'I am not a scientist'(favorite DFO Herring Manager phrase) but those ranges are scary as hell if this is what they are basing their decisions on...I sure hope that the real number is close to the top end of those estimates...

 

[wstcoaster]

kelly; food and bait fishery is conducted in november about half is from prince rupert stocks

 

[wstcoaster]

net size 2 1/4 this year herring average 19 1/2 centimeters some parts of coast up to 22 at times

 

[notmebud]

how large did herring get in the old days?

 

[calmsea]

A foot long was not unusual. In active pass you had to look for smaller ones we liked for mooching.

 

[Charter Tofino]

kelly; food and bait fishery is conducted in november about half is from prince rupert stocks

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/mplans/2013/herring-hareng-2012-2013-eng.pdf

It's conducted nov-janurary and the numbers might surprise you. Check the top of page 40.

Only 1 license up near rupert for 60 tons and it was not even fished last season. The georgia straight has 100 licenses for 6,000 tons with 4,000 being harvested. Literally all of the fishery is in the strait now.

 

[Fish Assassin]

Does anyone have an actual fishing report? I was thinking about going out today.

 

[GLG]

Heard a report from yesterday that they are still out there.
GLG

 

[islander55]

Does anyone have an actual fishing report? I was thinking about going out today.

lol ive noticed every add on this website becomes into a stupid fighting post or a total different thread as you wanted it to be haha

 

[Fish Assassin]

lol ive noticed every add on this website becomes into a stupid fighting post or a total different thread as you wanted it to be haha

Ya you would think these people would have he decency to take their banter to the open forum topics or conservation topics in stead of ruining actual fishing reports.

 

[Fish Assassin]

I am going fishing again today. We have room for one more at this time.

I will post a report later.....

 

[Revenge]

Does anyone get any around the silva bay area. I was thinking of running across froM vancouver . Something diff to do ?

 

[Fish Assassin]

Sitting off the Comox Spit right now.. Fishing is really good.

 

[Fish Assassin]

Anyone like some herring well they are still fresh? Free for the taking...