Kokanee not Bass

--Just an FYI--for next few weeks I will be fishing the okanagan river channel, the one every one floats down in Penticton.
--this is a research project .. the objective is to catch kokanee that have been tagged before entering the channel
--so far last two days 1000 kokanee have been tagged and already 3 have been sited in the area we have to fish startng sunday.
--this is going to be good casting practice as we are site fishing and trying to catch the tagged fish.
--will be interesting if we get any by-catch such as smallies, carp, trout that might be eating the kokanee or eggs.
--the river is closed to fishing this time of year so the fishing is with a permit only and will be monitored by both MOE and First Nations fisheries staff.
--the kokanee won't be feeding but we feel we can get reaction and defensive strikes

hey larry let us know how you make out

--was on the river a few hrs this afternoon...
--good news we can see the tagged fish starting to show up in the spawn area.
--I wasn't fishing today just observing will be fishing tomorrow morning.

--we're working fishing in shifts as someone has to record data as other anglers fish.
--most kokanee only around a pound not as big as I have seen in the past however this is only first week that they have been in the river so maybe larger fish will arrive later.

--have a few numers for you on the kokanee
--runs size estimated under 30000 which is conscidered a small run... can be double that in a good year.

-- 1275 caught using recreational angling gear
-- 37 tagged fish caught
-- 437 volunteer fishing hours... two anglers put in over 80 hrs each

--of those netting... 3000 fish netted and tagged.. of the tagged fish they recovered 28... this was an issue in the past as they needed 35 tagged fish to meet statistical significance... with the addition of the 37 tagged fish caught by volunteer anglers they exceeded their expectations.

--in the initial set up the researchers felt we needed to catch 8 tagged fish in order for the project to be successful.
--some researchers and fishers predicted we would not catch any fish except by snagging.
--a significant number were snagged (as this was for sampling we were allowed to snag under the terms of the permit) but the vast majority were caught... many on single barbless hooks on spoon, spinners and flys
--as this volunteer experiment exceeded expectations and has proved valuable it is likely the use of anglers for fish sampling will continue and because of the number of fish caught and released with single barbless hooks they may expand the program to other species and areas.
--Note: no bass caught or seen in the channel but several trout, suckers and one white fish caught.
--the PR we got from this project was to me the hidden value... as we were in the public view we discussed the project, the fishing in Skaha and the Channel.
--it was an eye opener the number of people who did not know the Channel is an important spawning area.. or that Skaha is a great multy species fishery.