White Springs
- Thread starter spring fever
- Start date
seahorse
Crew Member
Well gentlemen I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my Dad is 83 this year, he commercial fished with his uncle when he was a teenager here on the west coast in the late 50’s early 60’s. His uncle was a Canadian paratrooper in WW2 and survived multiple jumps into **** occupied Europe. He bought a boat after the war and was a commercial fisherman. He has told me numerous times that they got more $ for white springs, maybe it was just a particular buyer at the time with a market for those white springs. I’m sold on them myself.
I wish I knew that buyer. Sold to plenty of buyers, never heard of such a thing.
My in laws definitely enjoy them every fall when I offload my white Harrison dinosaurs on them!
IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
Same on this end.
The fellow I worked with was at it for over 50 years straight.
Asked him and he said that they NEVER got more jingle for white springs ever, and that he had never even heard of such a thing...
spring fever
Well-Known Member
Ok -I get the thoughts on the white Springs but the question I really want to know is where the hell they all come from--they can't all be yankee or Harrison fish. Why did I catch so few back in the 70's-they were a novelty in CR or comox- now it is the norm.
CBsqrd
Well-Known Member
They were just a much smaller proportion of the total fish back then. Stocks in general from all rivers were doing much better, and the Harrison fish made a small portion of the total biomass. Now the amount of Harrison stock fish is much higher due to hatchery output - this stock is used on the Vedder and Capilano Rivers as well. All rivers will have some portion of white springs, but the Harrison stock is much higher, >50%.
I believe that the Harrison stock are "ocean type" chinooks which have been doing better than "stream type" stocks that spend an extra year in the river before out migrating.
Very few white predominant stocks south of Alaska and BC, although all stocks have the potential to have a small portion. The Tule fish on the Columbia - which look very similar to Harrison stock - are sometimes called whites, but they are actually a pale red / pink in the ocean and the flesh goes white once they are in the river due to not feeding and burning fat reserves.
spring fever
Well-Known Member
Thank you!! A very well reasoned response that I believe has much merit. Makes a lot of sense
RiverBoy
Well-Known Member
Last year my buddy almost exclusively fished Kitty and he sed most of his fish were whites. this year most of my fish and the ones caught on my boat have been reds around CR. someone sed Puntledge has whites? i dunno
When I trolled off the west coast out on the bank we found we got lots of whites and marbles on the finger bank, less whites off the bank itself, ( large and small gullies and the shallow spot) I think you guys refer to it as the rats nose. And when we fished up near the wreck/portland point/tofino way we got very few whites.
Swiftsure had plenty of whites too, but there were so many juvenile/small fish we only fished there if everywhere else was completely dead. Swiftsure was a good place to fish at this time of year, lots of nice coho there at this time of year. Always loved fishing in the fall, nice fish, short days, usually nice weather till the equinox, (butterflies were the ticket this time of year).
Swiftsure had plenty of whites too, but there were so many juvenile/small fish we only fished there if everywhere else was completely dead. Swiftsure was a good place to fish at this time of year, lots of nice coho there at this time of year. Always loved fishing in the fall, nice fish, short days, usually nice weather till the equinox, (butterflies were the ticket this time of year).
