by Chris Hopkin

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It's that exciting time of the year when we're on the brink of a whole new season of salmon fishing. Who knows what the year will bring. One thing for certain in my case and hopefully yours, we'll be treated to some memorable and productive fishing expeditions.

Generally the news looks good for 1997 with 20 million sockeye and 10 million pink salmon expected to head for the mighty Fraser before fall is over. Some are saying this year's run of sockeye could be even larger. (As we're all getting a little smarter, I very much doubt this will precipitate another massive commercial fishery near the mouth.)

Chinook returns to the Fraser system last year were excellent (160,000 chinooks above Hope), which looks promising for the future as well. Retention levels for chinook on the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Charlottes have been restored to two per day, four possession as a result of reasonably good returns over there.

I've ventured across to the sunny eastern shores of Galiano Island twice since returning from Maui, and the results have been favorable (trips a lot of fun too). There are a ton of small four- to five-pound springs over there, down about 130 feet just waiting for a flailing herring strip or white hootchie. This bodes well for Georgia Strait chinook stocks later on, as these slightly undersize 22-inchers move into their rapid move into their rapid growth period (assuming they find enough of those tasty nutritious herring). last time over we got seven fish but only one made the 24.5-inch keeper grade.

The other six were still fun to catch. We were fishing in about 150 feet of water causing a few rock cod to jump on for the ride. Unfortunately we don't always see them hit the downrigger, resulting in a fair bit of inadvertent non-fishing time (one needs to check these lines frequently, particularly using strip. I tend to get sidetracked at times by the wonders of nature. I'm told it happens on the golf course as well.)

Hearing a couple of bald eagles perched amongst the tall trees along the shore, I flung the more waterlogged rock cod off the bow about 10 meters from the boat. Those eagles must have had pretty slim pickings lately, as they swooped down for the lift-off before the floating fish got past the stern of the moving boat. Wanting to capture the action on video, I managed a perfect record, being a split second too late on all three occasions.

The survival rate of undersize salmon caught and released has always been a subject of controversy. One thing I'm convinced of; if there's a sea lion around, he'll make short work of slow moving, trauma-recovering, just released spring salmon. About 3 minutes after we released a reasonably active non-gill damaged spring a group of cackling gulls drew our attention to a sea lion thrashing about with a similar sized fish in his mouth. I don't think our fish made it very far.

Of course you won't get the riveting, unabridged, first hand experiences described in these columns, but a pair of informative and interesting outdoor shows are happening over the next two weekends. The Vancouver Sportsmen's Show opened at the PNE Coliseum on Friday. It's open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 to 5 p.m. At Tradex in Abbotsford the Fraser Valley Boat and Sportsmen's Show runs from March 7 to 9 inclusive. Call 683-4766 for details.