Re: South thompson chinook
Back in mid July I spent several days cruising the big and little holes in Little Shuswap lake and I saw a lot of fish that I presumed to be early run chinook. This is repeatable year after year. My new outboard engine developed a fuel/vapourizer leak and was out of commission nearly a month getting the part so I was unable to track the peak or decline of this run.
When I got back to the water, it was opening day for chinook in the South Thompson river up to the green can buoy in LSL. Needless to say, the fish on the sonar screen were sparse. Far and few between. My neighbour and I went out several times, pulled plug and spoon, with and without flasher. Of course, fishing in LSL is a synchronized event with as many as two dozen boats cruising the big hole which really is not all that big. The nice thing is that you get to see when someone catches a fish. That nice thing was once in the few times I went out.
The local indigenous group employ a commercial netter and they lay a few sets out covering the two narrow channels the fish use exiting the river. I cannot remember when this fishing method started but it was within the last 5 or 6 years. Before that, locals, if inclined would spread their own. This system is also deployed on Kamloops lake and probably to a greater extent than here on LSL.
I watched the group pull their nets here a few times and they were not hauling fish in, one or two here or there. (Apparently they are doing better with the sockeye now.)
The real testament to how crappy the fishing was would be my neighbour that resides behind me. He and his wife went out 25 of the 38 days that were open. Their hours were usually 5-6 hours at a time, much like mine and everyone else. Anyhow, my neighbour and wife only managed 6 fish in that entire time. For the rest of us, it was an exercise in futility and a waste of the licence cost.
Before the commercials became involved, the fishing was much better.
Oh, DFO’s presence was none to be seen. Usually they would zoom up river in their jet boat or fly overhead, but I didn’t see them then or now.
This is the Adam’s river peak year. The last great run was in 2010, 2014 and 2018 were greatly diminished by comparison.
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