This year’s long Spring secured future Somass River salmon runs.
More than 550,000 sockeye salmon swam upriver, relatively unhindered thanks to high water conditions.
Fisheries and Oceans manager Peter Van Will says sockeye escapement into Great Central Lake was slightly above average at 189,000 fish while Sproat Lake escapement was up by 166% to 354,000.
“It’s the second largest escapement to the Sproat Lake system on record, behind the return of 2011 which was around 382,000,” he said.
Now that most of the sockeye are in the lakes, attention in the inlet turns to chinook salmon, with the first commercial fishery of the season happening last night and into this morning.
135,000 chinook are forecast to be returning this year, with 6,000 already landed by recreational anglers.
Another gillnet fishery opens tomorrow night, and a seine opening on Wednesday.
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