British Columbia fishing guide Dean Werk says he was getting calls last week from keen anglers wondering if this would be their year.
“Do you think there’s going to be a salmon opening, Dean?”
Now they have the answer.
Amid bumper returns of millions of prized sockeye salmon, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) issued a rare notice on Tuesday, opening recreational fishing for the species on a stretch of the Fraser River from Friday.
A notice on Thursday expanded fishing for sockeye. Anglers can now catch and keep two sockeye per day from the tidal stretch of the Fraser — downstream from the Mission Bridge to the river’s mouth — until Sept. 2.
The same limit applies until Sept. 1 to the non-tidal stretch of the river from the Mission Bridge upstream to Hope, where anglers can also catch up to four pink salmon per day.
There are also angling opportunities for sockeye and pink salmon on certain Fraser tributaries, including the Harrison and Chilliwack rivers.
The joint Canada-U.S. Pacific Salmon Commission predicts a sockeye run on the Fraser of 9.6 million fish, which would make it the biggest return since 2018.
Pink salmon are set to return to the Fraser River in record numbers this year, with the run expected to begin in August. As Jon Hernandez reports, it could provide a much-needed boost to fisheries and local wildlife.
‘A huge win and a celebration’
Werk, who has spent decades on the river and wears multiple hats on fishing associations and advisory boards, said the recreational opening is something to be celebrated, even if he wishes the window to fish was larger and businesses got more notice.
“People are going to go to the river and just go fishing, and that should be a huge win and a celebration, you know? So seeing these salmon runs come back in these numbers really excites me,” he said.
The last time there was a recreational sockeye opening on the Fraser River was in September 2022.
Sockeye runs are cyclic, with fish usually returning to spawn four years after hatching. That tends to create peaks every four years, which the commission calls the “dominant cycle.”
The commission said in a report issued last week that the forecast for 9.6 million sockeye this year “is the largest run size observed since 1997,” excluding those dominant cycle years.
Werk said the opening will provide an economic boost for communities along the river and its tributaries, including Chilliwack, Hope and Mission.
“You are going to see an influx of people come into these communities and buy up many things, whether it be gas, whether it be a coffee, whether it be a Subway [sandwich], whether it be fishing tackle,” he said.
Tips for beginner anglers
Fred Helmer, who owns Fred’s Custom Tackle in Chilliwack and Abbotsford, said business shifted into a different gear when news of the sockeye opening broke.
“We go from being, at this time of year, relatively busy to absolutely insane with the volume of traffic,” he said.
“People, they’re coming in, obviously for advice. They want to know what the rules and regulations are. The phone rings off the hook, the emails go crazy, and people get pretty excited. They come in and they buy or upgrade their fishing rods, reels and tackle, and that’s kind of what makes our world go around.”
Helmer said he tried to keep his advice to excited anglers as simple as possible while making sure they understood the rules and licensing requirements.
His tips for beginners? Sockeye won’t bite lures, so try “flossing,” in which a hook is drifted on a line through the water, in the hope the line will catch in a sockeye’s mouth as it swims upstream, hooking the fish on the outside of the jaw.
Short-notice decision
Werk said the DFO decision should have allowed fishing sooner and increased the daily bag limit to four sockeye.
He said the short notice meant there was not enough time to prepare and advertise the rare opportunity to interested anglers.
“Over the last bunch of years, everybody in the world thinks the Fraser River is closed for business. That’s what they think because we can’t even market to do this when we’re having huge runs of fish coming back. It’s an imbalance, and the government needs to do better,” he said.
Earlier this month, representatives of multiple organizations, including Werk, wrote an open letter to DFO’s area director Steve Gotch calling for fishing to be opened.
“Opening this fishery immediately would have little if any measurable impact on late run fish, generate between $17 and $31 million in expenditures, increase funding for conservation through licence sales, and most importantly, provide food security by putting locally harvested salmon in British Columbians’ freezers,” the letter says.
Helmer is expecting crowds on the riverbanks as soon as fishing opens on Friday, which is one hour before sunrise. Even with the business boom, he hopes to get on the water himself.
After all, his wife loves salmon.
“Sockeye are probably rated No. 1 for a dinner or barbecue. Pinks, you know, people dismiss them, but I would recommend to people, if you get a couple of really nice pinks, they’re delicious.”
