The following is an excerpt from PACIFIC REGION INTEGRATED FISHERIES MANAGEMENT PLAN - SALMON NORTHERN B.C.  JUNE 1, 2009 - MAY 31, 2010

6.1. Catch Monitoring and Reporting Initiatives

The development of an improved catch monitoring regime will continue to be a priority in the management of recreational fisheries. The Department is working with the Sport Fishing Advisory Board to develop catch monitoring standards for the recreational fishery. The standards focus on data collected to estimate catches, releases, and essential biological data for stock assessments and fishery management evaluations.

6.1.1. Initiatives to increase Coded Wire Tag (CWT) submission rates

The CWT system relies on voluntary submissions of heads from adipose fin clipped chinook and coho salmon to estimate the quantity and composition of CWTs caught by anglers. Over the past several years, submission rates have decreased for both species, but most drastically for coho salmon. Now recovery rates for coho salmon have become too low to provide sufficiently precise CWT catch estimates for stock assessment purposes; in certain fisheries, recovery rates of chinook salmon are also too low. Further, the 2005 expert panel review of the CWT system found that an increased proportion of the total catch was occurring in sport fisheries, which are more difficult to sample than commercial fisheries. To increase angler awareness of the program and head submission rates, the department is increasing promotion and advertising efforts, and communicating these concerns to the Sport Fish Advisory Board. In 2009, the Department will explore additional means of improving the certainty of the recreational fishery CWT data.

Sport catch taken on guided trips, both lodge-based and non-lodge based, is one sector of the sport fishery that has seen increased head submission rates in recent years, due to cooperation of the guides in collecting and in some cases delivering heads. In 2009, the department will strive to increase the proportion of guiding companies collecting heads to better represent their fishing activity.

EDITORS NOTE: Due to the extremely low catch rates, by sport fisherman on the Bulkley River there is no guiding, even though a significant number of salmon on the Bulkley River are tagged, the return catch rate is to low to validate information on the coded tags.

Please everyone, do yourself and everyone a favor by turning in any fish head with a clipped adipose fin. Getting this information will result in improved fishing results in the long run.