what's with all the dinky fish?

[SkyRiverMan]

Got a chance to fish the SolDuc this last weekend - we caught plenty of Coho's, but the majority were dinky little things - 3-4 pounders - out of about 20 coho's we caught, only one was "regular" size (8-12 lb range)....(we caught a couple Steelhead - no complaints there - smallest was about 14 lbs...).
Fishing my Home river (Skykomish) and other PS Rivers, I've noticed that the coho's this year seem pretty dinky everywhere.

We've always hooked a small fish now and then, but it seems like the ratio of small fish to large fish is disproportionally skewed this year in favor of the lil'guys. i'd be interested in hearing anyone opinion on why that might be....

In my head an average/typical coho [where i fish] is about 10 pounds - what I am seeing though are an awful lot of 4 pounders - Hope I don't have to relegate the 10 lbs fish to the "good ole days" memory pile.

Sky

[BlakeP]

I've actually been pretty confused with this year, a lot of the rivers seem to be getting returns of small fish and a lot of people are talking about small fish, but I have yet to see it. My average fish this year have been 6-7lbs, and I've seen plenty in the 10-15lb range landed. Typically from what I've seen, the Coho have always been a little on the small side till late run Coho show up in November-December.

[G-Man]

Pinks, coho, sockeye, and chinook, have all been abnormally small this year, including those running up the Columbia. You can more than likely chalk it up to the elevated water temps off of our coast putting a cramp on the food supply. It's sad when one can pick up trout in Lake Washington that are consistently larger than the silvers out in the Sound.

[spokey9]

that also explains the low numbers of fish returning.

[BARCHASER10]

Small fish this year. I've been fishing the salt since for Silver since first week of Sept. 50-60 Silvers in the boat, ave size 3-5 pounds. We've got two that were 8 1/2 pounds and those were the big ones. Best guess, warm water blob in the ocean reduced the number of baitfish, thus small fish.

[Brat Bonker]

yeah I took a trip to the cascade this year and most were 2-6# with a few 8s which was really surprising and I have notcied a lot of jacks this year too. but most other rivers I have fished its been average, one river I have been fishing recently is actually putting out really good size coho but the numbers are down, which seems to be the story on coastal and Columbia tribs is not the size of fish but size of run, hopefully the b runs make up for lack of early fish. regardless Im still getting a lot fish and some decent size ones but having to travel all over western Washington to get them

[Goldrigger1]

Interesting info I read about 2 years ago. About 5 years ago it seems a tribe and a couple of scientists fertilized a rather barren stretch of the BC coast. This to see if the plankton would respond and then shrimp and bait fish. They said the results were amazing. The area covered was large enough that it is estimated many fish die while trying to make the long passage through rather barren water.

The tribe wanted more salmon and the scientists were eager to study the air drop and results. The EPA heard about it after the fact and got real mad. Got a court order to shut it down in the future.

I have no idea if this is the reason we are seeing smaller fish, but I thought the idea and results were excellent. The cost was minimal.

[BARCHASER10]

BC is a bit more advanced than us. Quite a long time ago they started a program of returning spawned out hatchery carcasses back to the rivers which sounded like a good idea to me. It may have changed but the powers that be wouldn't do it here.

[Bodofish]

BC is a bit more advanced than us. Quite a long time ago they started a program of returning spawned out hatchery carcasses back to the rivers which sounded like a good idea to me. It may have changed but the powers that be wouldn't do it here.

It makes way too much sense to put the food back in the river. They used to sell the carcasses to a few traders that bought them for "Not for human consumption". They then got sent overseas and processes into "fish flakes". They flavor all sorts of packaged noodles if you get my drift.
I Think they should be put back to make to make more baby fish food.

[BARCHASER10]

They had to sell them. This is the US of A, it is always, all the time...about money.