08/22/2026
While many of you are fixated by the continuous decline of this year's Fraser River sockeye salmon abundance and frustrated by the lack of opportunities to harvest them, another Fraser River fishery is almost completely forgotten now after a decade of closure.
Bar fishing for chinook salmon in the non-tidal portion of the Fraser River between Chilliwack and Hope used to be a popular summer pastime. The Lower Fraser used to open for chinook salmon fishing on May 1st until November, but the best chinook fishing happens in July and August when water level is more suitable for bar fishing. This technique involves using a heavy setup that can withstand casting weights up to 16oz. The weight anchors on the river bed, and a spin n' glow trails several feet below the weight. As chinook salmon swim upstream, one would occasionally be attracted by the spin n' glow and strike. There is a lot of waiting around, but when that bell on the rod rings, everyone would sprint to it.
Around two decades ago, that opening window began to shrink. May and June became off limit, due to conservation concerns on Upper Fraser chinook stocks. The fishing in July and August remained very productive, because the target fish were the Shuswap stock which continues to be very strong.
My last bar fishing outing, shown in these photos, was in early September 2015. This fishery, has been shut off since, for reasons that defy logic. The catch rate in this fishery has never been high, getting one fish per outing is considered quite lucky. It's also very selective, incidental catches of sockeye salmon are rare. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, have kept this fishery closed, because managers are concerned about incidental catches of non-target species. When incidental by-catches were not an issue, the reason became low abundance of chinook salmon, which in fact just wasn't true. What has been more likely, is that bar fishing setups are obstructions to First Nations' FSC gill nets as they drift downstream. This could easily be ressolved, there is enough room on the river for everyone to share.
In the past ten years, I've lost count how many times this has been brought up at the SFAC meetings. I don't foresee any changes to this, the permanent closure seems to be the default management approach preferred by the department. Resource managers come and go, and current new resource managers aren't even aware of past existence of this fishery.
25 years ago, there were fierce debates on the legality of sockeye flossery and if we should only allow bar fishing on the Fraser. 25 years later, a legit, sustainable and selective fishing technique is non-existent, while the only barking by this community on social media is about when we can go flossing and foul hooking a couple of sockeye salmon to bring home.
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