When the Salmon Show Up: Canada Delivers a Season to Remember

In a year when salmon anglers across much of North America were tightening limits and lowering expectations, something unexpected happened up north.

The fish showed up.

While the 2009 season opened under a cloud of concern—poor spawning returns in 2008 had forced strict regulations across much of the northwestern United States—Canadian waters, particularly in British Columbia, told a very different story. Where Washington delayed its opener and parts of Oregon and California shut things down entirely, British Columbia anglers found themselves in the middle of a season that felt more like a throwback than a recovery.

Limits held steady. Rods bent often.

And by the time the season wound down, it was clear that Canada had quietly carried the torch for salmon fishing in 2009.

The rebound was fueled by strong returns of large Chinook—better known to most anglers as King salmon—along with an abundance of Coho, or “Silvers,” that kept the action steady from start to finish. In places like Ucluelet, the fishing bordered on the kind of stories that usually get told with a raised eyebrow.

According to charter operator Sam Vandervalk of Salmon Eye Charters, there were days when anglers could catch and release 200 to 300 Coho in a single outing. That’s not just good fishing—that’s the kind of pace that keeps your arms sore and your grin stuck in place long after the boat is tied off.

It also kept businesses afloat in a year when many were bracing for the worst.

“Like everyone else, I was concerned about how the economy would impact business,” Vandervalk said. “But the salmon fishing in Ucluelet was so good that we were about 20 percent busier than last year. Despite the downturn, we stayed virtually full all season.”

That kind of performance doesn’t happen by accident.

While Fisheries and Oceans Canada had forecast a better year than 2008, the actual returns exceeded expectations. Still, for those who know these waters, the strong showing wasn’t entirely surprising. Certain stretches of British Columbia’s coast have built a reputation over decades for consistency—places where, even in lean years elsewhere, the fish seem to find their way home.

“We weren’t surprised,” Vandervalk noted. “We have a lot of good years. In fact, an old guide out of Sitka used to send his friends up here because of how dependable the fishing is.”

That kind of endorsement carries weight in a world where word travels fast and expectations run high.

Looking ahead, early forecasts for 2010 are calling for another solid year of salmon returns, and many charters are already filling their books. If the trends hold, anglers may once again find themselves looking north when they want to stack the odds in their favor.

Because in fishing, as in most things, there are good years and bad years.

And then there are those rare seasons when everything lines up—the water, the bait, the migration—and the fish remind you why you came in the first place.

In 2009, while much of the continent waited and wondered…

Canada went fishing.