Dunbar Residents Association News and Events

The Adams River Sockeye are entering the Fraser rivers mouth near Steveston especially on a hight tide and are highly visable for about 2 hours on slack tide ,all across the river south east to the Albion Wall it was solid salmon ! Still the bulk of the Sockeye run still has not entered the river !

This past Tues.the Sockeye entering was very large in numbers , gillnetters were catching about 200 fish on every set of the net . Garry Point Park just west of Steveston is a great viewing location and on any high slack tide, its really a jumping Salmon Show !

The Late Run Sockeye continue to pass through Johnston Strait still in large numbers ! My guess is the late run sockeye alone could reach 25 million !

The commercial fishermens price per. pound from a large Fishing Company has now sagged to 90 or even 75 cents ! Commercial Boats are now fishing for a big volume catch, 1’000 salmon or more at these prices, this just might pay some past bills .

When buying gillnet caught Sockeye from dock sales chose your Sockeye with care, look and ask for a Silverbright Sockeye with no fish slime on the outside skin ! The large fish with a hook nose are Males they are great for smoking and the slender Sockeye are females with roe , they are best for canning and freezing ! White looking Sockeye with bloodmarks on the skin or bloches could mean they have been in the net or on the boat for a longer period of time ! Some gillnet boats sell directly to the public for around 4$ a pound gutted at this time to try to make a profit ! Gillnet Best Buys might be around 2 days after a commercial gillnet fishery in the river has ended , then barter price with the boat owner ! Trolled Sockeye are the best , but much more expensive ! Many Seine boats at Steveston are unloading Sockeye quota catches from Johnston Strait, about 10, 000 sockeye and every short trip ends up here in Steveston Channel for shipping !

The Adams Sockeye are large and in good shape so far this year and mixed in with them are some other runs of Sockeye that are much smaller and much brighter looking , they are great and my choice for freezing ! Oh yes the North Arm of the Fraser River shows little or no sign of the Late Run Sockeye using this waterway as a river entrance migration route, with a run this size, I can only wonder why not ! !

“Terry >From the North Arm of the Fraser River”