It was the 15th of July in the Early 1950ies and my Fraser River Salmon Gillnetting family in the lower North Arm were noticing the Corkline floats of our Early 9 inch Spring gillnets were just bobbing slightly on every drift !

Granddad said Big Sockeye going through , change nets ! ! We immediately  hand pulled into the stern of our boat the” Puff” 60 fathom of 5 and three quarter inch. Sockeye Net . On every low water “Slack” tide for about a week we pulled in really big Green Backed Sockeye and a  few Steelhead from our hand made nylon mesh gillnet !  About the 21st of June the run had passed and we went back to gillnetting for  Early Fraser River Chinooks” Spring Salmon ” ! My grandfather said this strange early , early run of big Fraser River  Sockeye, were probably a distinct unknown  North Arm Run of  Pitt Lake Sockeye ! These early run N. A.  Sockeye and Steelhead came in great numbers in 1947 and 1948 and Granddad caught them in the tidal channels of the Point Grey Booming grounds, including Musqueam Channel !

After 1952 the sockeye and steelhead run did not come back, the North Arm by then was heavily polluted by sewage and chemicals and most the  salmon migrating through the North and Middle Arms were effected .

There was one exception, that was the Early Stuart Lake Sockeye Run, who for hundreds of years  took the North and Middle Arm Fraser River Estuary migration route home !  But I will never forget those” Mysterious mid June Sockeye “ that paid for our tickets to immigrate to Canada, from Nottingham England !

Terry ” From the North Arm of the Fraser River”