Fri 8 Sep 2006
Fraser River Sockeye Salmon
Posted by DRA Webmaster under Environment
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They’re here!
Every 4 years for, we think, for thousands of years, this great run of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon have made their way from the mid Pacific Ocean on a wonderful quest to spawn in their stream of their birth.
Waiting are the fishers nets and trolling gear to end this journey, sometimes even before they can have the pleasure of smelling the sweet water of their stream of birth.
These Sockeye are computer smart; I have fished these Moon Travellers for over 50 years now and am still amazed at how the fish can for cycle after cycle do the things that mean survival of the species. The moon and tidal cycles are the most important. Full Moon week is the preparation or acclimatization to fresh water time; I call it the GETTING READY TIME. The week after full moon is the waiting for the big ebb to big flood tide and it is usually a big flood tide in the late evening; the salmon computer says now it’s time to start the river journey home. The air on the river is electric; you can literally smell the salmon on the river wind.
In my early river gillnetting years we sank our gillnets as the sockeye passed on mass by our drift; we tried to call on the marine radio for a salmon packer, to no avail; I ended up filling my old wooden skiff with sockeye and in the end I just tied up the boat exhausted. I will always remember sleeping with the smell of these sockeye in the bunk and in the morning starting the old EASTHOPE MARINE ENGINE to deliver my catch of ADAMS RIVER SOCKEYE to the B. C. Packers salmon collector.
Terry Slack
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