I'm new to salmon fishing (I fished near Campbell River this past
August). I'd like to go again for a few days in August or September
of 2002, to do some salt and some fresh-water fishing. Where do the pinks
run on even-numbered years?
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they do. Generally from Courtney north,the best runs are in even numbered
years. Some rivers have runs in both years but the dominant run is usually
in an even numbered year. South of Courtney pinks in even numbered years
are all but unheard of.
The Puntledge, Oyster/Black Creek Cambell, Trout Creek, Eve and the rivers
around Port Hardy have runs of Pinks
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Hey Ralph,
do you, or anyone else know why they don't run in even years south of
Courtney, I'm wondering if this is a recent happening (ie last hundred
years) or if historically there were runs in both odd and even years.
Seems kind of genetically risky to have no overlap.
Cheers
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I heard somewhere that a landslide killed the even yeared pink run.
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I heard the same thing. A landslide on Fraser in the canyon? Dont know if
its true though. That wouldnt explain the why the Squamish, Vedder and Harrison
have only odd numbered year runs.
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If there was a landslide in the fraser then it would effect the whole river
which means effecting those rivers.
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In the early 1900's there was a massive landslide on the Fraser near
Hell's Gate. Read your history books if you don't beleive me. I
doubt it collapsed the pink fishery as it is still around in abundance as
evident this past year.
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Ross, if thats what happened, how would rivers in the Lower Fraser watershed
be effected. I can see the Thompson and area rivers being effected but not
the lower Fraser tributaries. What about the Squamish, Its not even part
of the Fraser watershed.
Thanks
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The landslide affected all species of fish that move up river past Hells
Gate. I would imagine depending on the season and the water levels would
determine at the time, how many of the fish got up past hells gate without
the fishways between the years 13' and 44'
If I recall correctly, the landslide severely limited Pink Salmon from moving
past hells gate until the fishways were constructed. Once the Pinks could
move up past the hells gate (through fishways), they eventually
recolonized the Thompson and Seton Rivers. If any of you fished the Thompson
this year, you'll notice the numerous Pink Salmon carcasses that littered
the river (as well as quite a few Chinook carcasses too, good to see).
Regarding the Pink salmon odd/even phenomenon.
Unless there is something more recent, you might want to pickup a copy of
a book titled "Pacific Salmon Life Histories." In that book it outlines
the various transplants that have been tried to establish Even year runs
into rivers with only odd year runs and vice versa. I wonder if the odd/even
year runs on the Eastern VI streams are a result of attempted transplants
that never made it or?
Esstentially the only info I can give you is that there have been attempts
to introduce Even year runs into the Fraser River and some rivers in washington
with very very little success. No self sustaining run.
The thing I don't understand about Pinks is how they have managed to
survive with such a distinct set out Life History. I mean Pink eggs take
the longest to hatch, they (their eggs) are primarily placed in
the same place every two years and they spawn at similar times and enter
the river similar times. They also spawn ahead of Chum in the mainstem of
rivers before a lot of the fall floods. I think the only thing they got
going for them is that they return after only 2 years so they don't
incur a lot of the mortality that a fish that spends a lot of time in the
chuck does. On an evolutionary scale, many scientists consider Pink Salmon
to be the most highly evolved of the Pacific Salmon. Go figure..
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It's not known. I don't know if native oral history had anything
to say on the lack of fish in even numbered years. The big Hells Gate slide
occured in an even numbered year and impacted sockeye (the Adams River
run was underway at the time) and killed several million fish. A passage
was blown through the rock with a couple of weeks.
There is a huge 'paleo' (old) landslide near Popkum that
is thought to have blocked the river there several thousand years ago.
Interesting to know that the Skagit system also has no pinks in even years.
I think this is true for all of Puget Sound and perhaps the Olympic Peninsula
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There are still smaller even numbered year runs around here. By no means
are they as big as the odd year runs. With the amount of fish we saw in
this past year's run (est. 10 000 000 fish) would lead you to
believe that there would be numbers of pinks every year.
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there are no Pinks in the Fraser in even numbered years. if you ever see
any call DFO
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from DFO website
""The Fraser River pink salmon spawn in odd years, hence most of
the total species production occurs on the odd year cycle. The even year
abundance is insignificant and there are no directed fisheries on pinks
in even years.""
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