Sockeye Numbers

[castie2504]

Sockeyes numbers way down from the projected, only 100k over Bonnie. 350k forecasted, damn shame, especially since we’ve been spoiled the last couple of years. I’m hearing the limit is going to be cut in half to 2 /fish a day after today’s meeting up at state. Let’s hope the run is just late but it’s not looking very good right now.

[Stein]

Spilt Milt on YouTube had a good video on it, didn't sound positive at all.  From his perspective, there was nothing to indicate the run was late.

[Chesterdog]

I was just up at the Baker Lake dams last week and they're expecting a record 60k return of Sockeye with a 6 fish limit on Baker Lake.

[pianoman9701]

Baker sox are an incredible success story. In the late 70s, they were down to runs of fewer than 100 fish.

[Chesterdog]

pianoman9701- I was given a tour of the hatchery at the upper baker dam and it's pretty state of the art.  The main hatchery rears the fish through manual insemination, but they also have these gorgeous, fabricated gravel beds with a portion of the fish breeding naturally in pools of river water.   

[pianoman9701]

It's a great set up. In addition, the breeding areas of the lake are aerated. At one point, the water in the lake had little oxygen. So part of the recovery plan was putting in aeration pipes.

[Stein]

It's certainly one of the more beautiful places to catch a fish.