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Pacific
Salmon
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The Pacific salmon
fishery consists almost entirely of Chinook (king) salmon with an estimated run in
excess of 20,000 each fall. Until recent years the chinook salmon were almost all
hatchery fish, but the last few years there has been a lot of natural reproduction.
The chinook salmon are stopped at the Streetsville Dam by the MNR under their fish
management policy.
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reason for stopping the chinooks is to control their numbers (due to the forage population
concerns in Lake Ontario), and to prevent trespassing problems upstream. However,
due to their life cycle the newly hatched chinook salmon which emerge from the gravel
in May leave the river before water temperatures become lethal in July in the lower
river. For this reason they have become very successful producing tens of thousands
of juvenile salmon this past spring.
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The chinook fishery
is extremely popular at the mouth of the river from late July to early October. Thousands
of anglers try their luck from the piers and boats. The first big salmon run usually
occurs between September 8th and 18th every year. During cold summers or if we have
a cold rain in August smaller numbers of fish may enter. For example, in 1992 about
300 fish ran in the middle of July.
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They all sat in the
first few pools below the Streetsville Dam (which is open to fishing until August
15th. For those of us who knew, we had a great time catching aggressive silver chinooks
up to 35 lbs. On August 23, 1997 a run of few thousand salmon ran the river and for
the few anglers that were on the river the fishing was excellent. Again, catching
bright salmon that were aggressive with virtually no fishing pressure. The chinooks
are in good numbers in Erindale Park from the middle of September to early November
when they disappear. Their runs are timed with the rains just like the steelhead.
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Coho salmon were
very popular in the Credit River but the MNR stopped stocking them in 1991. Every
year a small number of coho stray into the Credit but they are uncommon at the present
time. The good news is anglers pressured the government and the MNR stocked 40,000
coho's into the Credit this fall (1997). Those fish will return in the fall of 1999!
Can't Wait! The coho fishery was during the month of October previously, but the new
strain of coho's is from the Salmon River in New York so they may show up in September
if we're lucky.
Pink salmon are the
last species of Pacific salmon available, but they are very rare and are not targeted
by anglers. They often run in September with the first run of chinooks, but the run
is at best a few hundred.
Salmon fishing is
done at the river mouth by casting lures such as cleo's, crocodiles and other heavy
spoons. A lot of anglers also bottom fish with roe or large white marsh mellows. In
the river roe and flies are the top choices for anglers. Float fishing and bottom
bouncing are most popular with some anglers fly fishing. Fresh run fish are often
aggressive and will take bright flies readily
The crowds are heaviest
the day or two following a rain and on weekends in September, but by the middle of
October the crowds are small and there is still plenty of great fishing.
Back to
Fish of the Credit
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