Current Skeena Test Fishery Results?????????

[Marty S]

Trying to find how to get into current Skeena test results. Ive always relied on Noel Gygers website, but ive only seen last years results on there.

http://www.noelgyger.ca/current-fishing-reports.htm

Anybody have a link for up to date results?

[britman101]

Well it looks like according to "FN0567" that the only salmon that are open to fishing on the Skeena right now are coho. Chinook salmon fishing closed once again on August 19th on the mainstem Skeena. Unfortunately the fishery notices are not well written so if you need further clarification there is a contact person that is listed there you can either phone or email. Hope this helps you out.

[GOBBLER FANATIC]

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/northcoast-cotenord/skeenatyee-eng.html

I have followed this particular monitoring for over 20 years as I fish for both Steelhead and Salmon on the Skeena system. The counts this year are very poor especially Steelhead and Sockeye - not so bad for coho - hence a limited retention fishery. If you have any further questions as to how to interpret the tables, please don't hesitate to contact me. The count records date back over 50 years so a pretty good representative sample of how things are going.
Gobbler

[biggyJ]

What do the index numbers mean?

I have tried to find an explanation online but can’t really seem to nail down a real easy to understand explanation.

What I do know
1) the numbers are generated from gill netting for 1 hour multiple times a day and at the same location.
2) a higher index means more fish entering the system.

But what exactly does a 32.7 coho or 0.82 steelhead actually mean? And then beyond this what would a good number be?

[SNAPFisher]

What do the index numbers mean?

I have tried to find an explanation online but can’t really seem to nail down a real easy to understand explanation.

What I do know
1) the numbers are generated from gill netting for 1 hour multiple times a day and at the same location.
2) a higher index means more fish entering the system.

But what exactly does a 32.7 coho or 0.82 steelhead actually mean? And then beyond this what would a good number be?

Really? It says daily on it. I'm sure it is a cumulative for the day - as in number of salmon counted per each day. And then they show cumulative overall. As it says, sockeye are calculated (guestimated).

To make a meaning, run it for the say the previous 2 years 2018 and 2017 to see what it means to you then. Excel is a great cut and paste tool if you want to compare what is happening daily.

That is a how I understand it after reading it.

[goldscud]

Looks like 3x less Steelhead at this time compared to last year. Bad news

[Marty S]

I'm just looking for up to date summary graphs like on Gygers site. They used to be updated every day or two. Just nice to gauge the health of the river. Haven't fished it in a few years, been playing in the salt.

[RavYak]

Really? It says daily on it. I'm sure it is a cumulative for the day - as in number of salmon counted per each day. And then they show cumulative overall. As it says, sockeye are calculated (guestimated).

To make a meaning, run it for the say the previous 2 years 2018 and 2017 to see what it means to you then. Excel is a great cut and paste tool if you want to compare what is happening daily.

That is a how I understand it after reading it.

If it was cumulative all the numbers would be whole numbers... The explanation at front even refers to the numbers as "calculated indices". You live up to your name with posts like this...

biggyJ, I don't see a clear explanation anywhere either. I was thinking maybe hourly average but that doesn't make sense either unless they are taking into account if soak times aren't exactly 1 hr.

I downloaded all the data from 2011 till now and ran it through paces in excel. 2019 had a very poor sockeye return(only 2013 was worse), coho return is average so far, pink return was just below average, chum just above average, chinook below average, steelhead may be the worst year during this period(2017 was similar).

[biggyJ]

Ravyak

Exactly, I understand the gist. Higher numbers = More fish.

But I was more interested in the formula used to calculate the value (I agree it’s not as simple as counting how many fish are in the net)

Lots of variables at play,
Soak time
Sq ft of net
Width of river
Time of day
Tide schedule
Sets per day

Knowing how they cone up with the number might reveal more info beyond the actual released stat.

Further: How does the cumulative index number correlate to actual fish numbers in a given year?

Steelhead test Fishery cumulative for 2018 was 180.5

Does this mean 180, 1800, 18000 Steelhead returning to the Skeena in 2018?

[RavYak]

I believe the number is fish per hour. Fish netted during the netting periods/time of nets soaking. You can’t just multiply by 24 to get total number of fish though since tides etc have too much influence and on fish presence.

It means little no matter how it is calculated, like you say too many variables and most aren’t accounted for. The key is that they do the testing the same each time which it sounds like they try to do(similar tides, length of soak, location etc).

In short bottom line netting numbers are only of value for comparison reasons not trying to calculate exact number of fish no matter how accurate you try to make the data.

That said fisheries probably has some formula that they use to estimate total numbers of fish. Without the data and understanding it is impossible to know what that formula might be though.

[SNAPFisher]

You live up to your name with posts like this...



And you live up to the "yak" part in your's, move on.

Biggy, there is an email listed on the page. Just email that person. I'm sure you will get the correct / good explanation.