It is a dinner and auction, the website link details last year’s event. This is the organization that gets the funds from the salmon stamps on our licenses and pursues salmon conservation projects, so it’s for a good cause.
*** About the Pacific Salmon Foundation:
Over 190 species of plants and animals depend on salmon: from algae and mosses to bears, whales and people. For salmon to survive and thrive, these genetically diverse fish need access to healthy habitat, food, good water quality and enough water in streams. Achieving healthy, sustainable and naturally diverse Pacific salmon stocks requires time, money and dedicated people.
In the past 20 years, through several programs, PSF has filled, and continues to fill, many of these needs.
PSF continues to raise funds and direct funding to grassroots, volunteer and community driven projects focused on the conservation and recovery of Pacific salmon. PSF supports research and science, then integrates this knowledge into program plans at the community and watershed level. PSF works with First Nations, private companies, educational institutions, non-profit groups, all levels of government, and commercial and recreational anglers to bring salmon back to our streams.
“Pacific Salmon Foundation’s leadership has been critical in British Columbia, and it will continue to be in the future. PSF has always recognized two things: that the salmon are at the heart of our province’s spirit and our sense of natural beauty, and also communities are the critical component in making sure we protect them, enhance their habitat and ensure future generations benefit from a relationship with salmon that is equivalent to all the rest of us.” – Premier Gordon Campbell, May 2006
**** History of PSF:
PSF was founded as a non-profit charity in 1989. The Community Salmon Program was soon implemented through part proceeds of the newly created DFO Salmon Conservation Stamp. This was the beginning of a 20 year relationship between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, PSF and BC communities.
PSF’s work over the past 20 years demonstrates clearly that investing in people, communities and capacity is the key to ensuring healthy, sustainable and diverse salmon populations today and in the future.
The Future
2006 saw PSF embark on a large multi-year initiative called the Fraser Salmon & Watersheds Program. With funding from the Provincial Living Rivers Trust, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund Society, and in partnership with the Fraser Basin Council, PSF leveraged this support and initiated several new alliances with corporate and individual supporters.
Today, PSF is working on inspiring behavior change for the benefit of salmon through the Fraser Salmon & Watersheds Program. We are playing a key role in the development of policy and salmon management in the greatest salmon watershed in the world. We are striving to be a strong supporter of innovative science and we continue to build on the impacts we have had conserving salmon. We are now working to target how people in their everyday lives can support salmon and their watersheds.
Our combined efforts have created ripples that extend beyond tomorrow. We can help salmon survive and thrive, and you can help.
***
Hope to see you at the event — help support BC salmon conservation!
Our first report of 2009…Happy New Year to the many friends of Port Renfrew Fishing Adventures around the world.2008 ended with some drama in Port Renfrew, not so much for fishing, but for weather…more snow than anyone has seen in a long time!Needless to say, there is not a lot of fishing to report of late.The clear and cold weather has offered some sunny days and glassy seas…would be beautiful fishing if you were able to get out to it (and maybe worth a shot if halibut was open for fishing).But for now, we continue to wait by the warm woodstove until the ice thaws, the fishing season opens, and we can once again get out there and chase down some Port Renfrew fish.
In the meantime, I recently got invited to tour the factory of the Gibbs/Nortac Fishing Tackle Company in Delta, BC.Gibbs makes many of the lures, nets, and other fishing gear that we rely on for our fishing efforts, so it was fun to see where it all comes from.Like most fishermen, I am an obsessive gear-head, so I was like the “kid in the candy store” surrounded by mountains of it.
Syd Pallister was my guide.As owner and president of Gibbs/Nortac for many years, he lives and breathes fishing…although with a busy factory, he unfortunately spends too much time gear making rather than gear using [and with busy times all around, that sounds all too familiar!].He’s got some pretty good fishing stories though.
The factory is housed in the old French Pavilion from Expo’86.Surprisingly big inside, it accommodates more than 30 full-time staff manufacturing and warehousing many thousands of fishing items. Several of the staff I met have worked there for 20 years or more.
I was surprised by how labour intensive it is to produce the gear we fish.Take a spoon for example – the many steps include stamping it out of sheets of brass and copper, shaping, polishing, drilling, adding split rings and hooks, and so on.The painting is done by hand with air brushes, each colour and pattern a separate pass with the air brush.In the end, the lure passes through probably 20 hands before it is finally complete…eventually to be sold for $11 at your local fishing store.
The lead jig lures are made in big molds that do many at a time.
It was interesting too to see the equipment for bending the aluminum poles into nets…with everything set up to go and with the well-trained staff, it only takes a few minutes per net.
Also impressive was the science behind all the different metal shades and colours on spoons.Through a series of electrically charged chemical baths and different sanding and polishing, a raw piece of metal is magically transformed into the variety of finishes you see out there.The process is probably reasonably straightforward if you had the time to think about it, but the science behind it seemed pretty complicated to me. I will leave this to the experts, and instead let them know how it fishes.
In the end I left with a chartreuse glow “Farr Better” flasher to try out in Port Renfrew’s watersthis summer.This flasher has a release, so that when the fish bites the flasher is no longer in-line – meaning you are fighting the fish, rather than the flasher.I expect this will work well in fishing deep for Springs on Swiftsure Bank this summer – I look forward to giving it a go.
Syd is also on the Board of the Sports Fishing Institute of BC, so he passed on some information on what they are up to.This organization speaks for all recreational anglers in maintaining and improving sports fishing opportunities in BC.They deserve your support!Check out their website to find out more about what the Institute does, and consider getting involved either by joining or through a donation.
Thanks to Syd for a very informative tour!If you’re ever in Delta, drop him an email or give him a call…if it’s a slow day, maybe he’ll take you around too.
Best wishes to you all…stay warm and think happy thoughts for the fishing Port Renfrew will once again offer up in just a few short months.
The fishing report continues much the same as previous weeks … not much to report!
Looks like we are in for a cold snap this week, the snow is falling tonight and the east wind is blowing….time to crank up the woodstove and pull some fish out of the freezer for dinner.
But on another note….Jolly Rogers posted this summer fishing video to youtube. Watch the boys from Victoria reel in a couple of nice spring salmon on a double header at Logan Creek. That gets the blood pumping….summer is not that far away!
No Port Renfrew fishing news to report this week….
But here’s a link to some pretty entertaining fishing on Vancouver Island from years back. It’s not Port Renfrew, but it gets the blood pumping! Check out halfway through #2 into #3…71 pound spring salmon from what looks to be a 12′ boat!
So here’s something else…an 85 pound chinook in the Sacramento River in California. They figure it weighed 90 pounds or more when alive. And they also figure it wouldn’t have spawned if not for the commercial salmon fishing closure down there.
Glad to see this one got back, with thousands of little monster salmon babies coming back in 4-7 years.
No Port Renfrew fishing reports to pass on this week…
But in other fishing news, we had an interesting conversation with Maurice Tremblay from the San Juan Salmon Enhancement Society. These are the folks dedicated to preserving salmon stocks in the San Juan River through operating the Salmon Hatchery.
Maurice reports it has been a good year for the hatchery, easily catching their needed brood stock with their fish trap and net at the entrance to Fairy Lake. The Hatchery needs 1,000 adult Chinook salmon, 250 females and 750 males, in order to get the required 1 million eggs. They aim to take only one-half of fish in the river, leaving the other half to spawn naturally. With a minimum of 1 million eggs, they can produce enough Chinook salmon for a noticeable improvement in returns – any less, and the “escapement” numbers are too low to see progress. [Escapement refers to how many salmon are able to escape all those chasing them and return to the river to spawn…sadly, escapement is estimated at just under 0.1%, or roughly 8 fish out of 10,000. ]
The Hatchery is located one mile above Fairy Lake on Timberwest land. The fish live in net pens in Fairy Lake for a year before they are released to the sea. Maurice draws a comparison to cattle ranching: you rear them on the ranch, then open the gate and set them free, they return later when they are mature for harvesting.
The San Juan Enhancement Society is a non-profit society, set up in 1978 as a CEDP initiative. The Society has four Directors that meet once annually, one full-time staff-member and one part-time. They seek volunteers to help on an as needed basis.
Maurice reports the support of Forest Companies is crucial to their survival, with the Hatchery located on Timberwest land. The Port Renfrew Marina is a major supporter, generously providing $6000-7000 per year in revenues from fishing derbies in recent years. As a non-profit society, the San Juan Enhancement Society gratefully accepts donations, but keep in mind it is not a registered charity – so it cannot issue tax receipts.
Maurice figures that you are fishing in the San Juan Harbour, then you might be catching hatchery Chinook. However, if you are out at Swiftsure Bank, the salmon you are catching could be from any one of 200-300 rivers on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, Puget Sound, Columbia River, or anywhere in between. That’s why the fishing is so good out there, all the fish migrating past stop to feed on their way.
It is interesting to note the Hatchery does not focus on coho any more. Maurice reports that years ago, the coho were so abundant that the Hatchery was ordered to stop producing them. However, in recent years, the coho returns have dwindled again, but the Hatchery does not have the funds or people resources to produce coho – he says “we can’t even afford to buy the fish food for them”. Speaking from a fisherman’s perspective, we think this should be a major goal for the Hatchery, to help restore Port Renfrew’s greatness as a coho fishing destination.
The San Juan Enhancement Society has been in business for 30 years and is a smooth-running operation, quietly and efficiently getting the job done, without fuss and without fanfare. We think they deserve kudos for their positive contribution to Port Renfrew’s great fishing…the efforts of the Tremblays and the other Society staff and volunteers help preserve the salmon stock for all of us, and for our children, and our children’s children.
If you enjoy fishing in Port Renfrew, then you can do your part to help too! The Society deserves your support, whether volunteering time or providing a donation. Or, if you prefer, donate some time or whatever you can to your local salmon enhancement society or projects…it all helps. A few links:
Unfortunately, not much to report … not too many people fishing out of Port Renfrew these days. Coho fishing has remained slow. A few halibut have been brought in lately.
Time to focus your fishing efforts further south, towards Sooke or Victoria. The winter weather is better, with less ocean swell, making for more comfortable and safer fishing. Sooke’s winter spring fishing has been quite good, appears to have started early this year.
DFO has closed halibut for the season early, see the notice below. Better get out in the next week and get some for the winter!
Fishery Notice – Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Subject: FN0806-Halibut: Coastwide Closure
Effective 00:01 hours October 31, 2008 until 23:59 hours December 31, 2008, fishing for halibut recreationally is closed.
This action is necessary due to the recreational fishery for halibut exceeding the recreational allowable catch. Although the recreational fishery is generally managed on the basis of a pre-season plan and post season review, there are instances in the fishery where in-season changes are required. The department will continue to manage the recreational fishery in general to meet opportunity and expectations based on pre-season plans. As those plans improve, the necessity for in-season management actions will decrease. The department will be reviewing catch figures and fishing patterns in preparation for consultation on a pre-season management plan for the 2009 halibut fishery.
An excerpt from DC Reid’s Times-Colonist article today “Where to Fish Around the Island”, related to Port Renfrew’s San Juan River fishing:
“Deb and Ashby: We’ll be fishing in the Victoria area, towing a boat for freshwater and fly fishing freshwater with float tubes. Where should we go?
Answer: The Campbell, Quinsam and Salmon rivers are now filling up with coho. Closer, the Nitinat, opens for fishing and retention Oct. 16, and to my eye had about 12,000 springs in it on Sept. 30, almost double the DFO pre-season estimate. The Stamp has coho higher up. And, on the first huge rain day, the San Juan coho, the largest on average on the island, will move up pronto to the first corner accessed from the 4×4 track just below the Harris Creek Bridge. You have arrived in the golden time of year that river anglers wait for all year long.
Steve Staley says: I am writing to tell you about a once in a lifetime catch.
On Friday, Sept. 19 at about 11 a.m., I got a six-foot white sturgeon on my line. At about noon, I got it on the beach. Now this may sound like just another sturgeon story, and your wondering what makes this note worthy. It’s the fact that this one- hour long sturgeon fight happened in the San Juan River, about one to two kilometres upstream from the bridge in Port Renfrew.
Answer: Folks, Staley’s picture is definitely a sturgeon and the water is clear, like the San Juan. The fish likely originated from the Columbia River, or, less likely, from the Fraser. It’s a long way from home.”
****
Below the San Juan River bridge is tidal waters, which means you can retain salmon — current rules are 4 salmon per day, which can include 4 coho, but only two of which may be wild (has adipose fin). Chinook is CLOSED anywhere inside San Juan Harbour.
Above the bridge it is currently catch and release only.
Not much action to report out of Port Renfrew this week. Things seem to be winding down for the season. Still a few coho coming in here and there, but not the banner year everyone was hoping for.
Still decent halibut fishing out at Swiftsure Bank and spots closer to shore…but weather’s an issue this time of year, really need to pick your days, because there’s some stormy weather.
Port Renfrew Marina reports some good news. The San Juan Hatchery got their 1 million eggs and observed as many as 5,000 fish spawning in the river. That’s super, let’s hope the trend continues, and the salmon stock stay healthy for generations to come.
Fishing in Port Renfrew has slowed down considerably….either the season is winding down, or those coho are out there waiting, and we haven’t seen them yet.
The Springs appear to have moved on, so the focus now is on coho. This weekend was Port Renfrew Marina’s Coho Derby. Over 400 entrants at $20 a rod, meant an approximately $9000 winner-take-all prize. The fishing was slow, not a lot of fish came in, but a 20.5 pounder caught on Saturday was the winning fish. The winning fisherman was Darcy Williamson , who is a lucky fella indeed — he won the $13,700 prize back in 2005, fishing in the same boat. Pretty sure Darcy will have some offers for crew next year.
Here’s a picture of Mark aka “Nitnat Junkie” with his son Zakk and a nice coho…thumb’s up for sure, Zakk!
Out at Swiftsure Bank, there are still both halibut and salmon being caught. On Friday and Saturday, Jolly Rogers caught some “chicken” halibut, feeder springs, and mid-size coho (up to 15 pounds). If you do head out there, though, keep an eye on Port Renfrew weather, because the seas can start getting nasty this time of year. Still…sunny and calm last few days, so get out there while you can!
