The ‘2024 Salmon forecast is off the charts!!!

In 2023, salmon anglers around Vancouver and southern BC waters enjoyed numbers of fish that haven’t been seen in years. And in fact, Canada’s Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans recently released their statistics which reflects this historical abundance of salmon.

Some highlights:

* in the immediate Vancouver area, summer return chinook salmon (stock 4.1)  to the Fraser River in 2023 were estimated at an astounding 627,000 fish - which is about 6 times the average annual return for the past decade! In addition, another indicator stock for the fall return chinook salmon to the same river was also over twice the escapement goal.

* in the southern Georgia Strait, another indicator stock from the Cowichan River was estimated to be over three times the escapement goal, and has been well over this goal for the past several years.

In short, most of the runs of chinook salmon on the south coast of BC are very healthy and at high levels of abundance. In addition, last year also saw a great abundance of coho (silver) salmon, and huge numbers of pink salmon as well.

Bottom line - 2024 is shaping up to be another one for the record books, so if salmon fishing is on your to-do list, conditions couldn’t be much better! Be sure to book your spot early, and let’s go fishing!