By Canadian Press

B.C. recreational anglers get rare chance for sockeye, amid bumper salmon run in the Fraser River

Aug 21, 2025 | 1:01 AM

Chilliwack-area fishing guide Dean Werk says he was getting calls last week from keen anglers wondering if this would be their year.

“Do you think there’s going to be a salmon opening, Dean?”

Now they have the answer.

Amid bumper returns of millions of prized sockeye salmon, Fisheries and Oceans Canada issued a rare notice on Tuesday opening recreational fishing for the species on a stretch of the Fraser River for 11 days, from Friday until Sept. 1.

The joint Canada-US Pacific Salmon Commission predicts a sockeye run on the Fraser of 9.6 million fish, which would make it the biggest return since 2018.

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Anglers can keep two sockeye per day from a non-tidal stretch of the river from the Mission bridge upstream to Hope.

Werk, who has spent decades on the river and wears multiple hats on fishing associations and advisory boards, said the recreational opening is something to be celebrated, even if he wishes the window to fish was larger and businesses got more notice.

“People are going to go to the river and just go fishing, and that should be a huge win and a celebration, you know? So seeing these salmon runs come back in these numbers really excites me,” he said.

The last time there was a recreational sockeye opening on the Fraser River was in September of 2022.

Sockeye runs are cyclic, with fish usually returning to spawn four years after hatching. There are peaks every four years, which the commission calls the “dominant cycle.”

The commission says in a report issued last week that the forecast for 9.6 million sockeye this year “is the largest run size observed since 1997” excluding those dominant cycle years.

Werk said the opening will provide an economic boost for communities along the river and its tributaries including Chilliwack, Hope and Mission.

“You are going to see an influx of people come into these communities and buy up many things, whether it be gas, whether it be a coffee, whether it be a Subway (sandwich), whether it be fishing tackle,” he said.

But he said the DFO decision should have allowed fishing sooner and increased the bag limit to four fish per person.

He said the short notice meant there was not enough time to prepare and advertise the rare opportunity to interested anglers.

“Over the last bunch of years, everybody in the world thinks the Fraser River is closed for business. That’s what they think because we can’t even market to do this when we’re having huge runs of fish coming back. It’s an imbalance, and the government needs to do better,” he said.

Earlier this month, representatives of multiple organizations including Werk wrote an open letter to DFO’s area director Steve Gotch calling for fishing to be opened.

“Opening this fishery immediately would have little if any measurable impact on late run fish, generate between $17 and $31 million in expenditures, increase funding for conservation through licence sales, and most importantly, provide food security by putting locally harvested salmon in British Columbians’ freezers,” the letter says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2025.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press