A girl releases a Coho smolt into Hoy Creek at Salmon Leave Home at Hoy Creek Hatchery. (HSWS Photo)

Hoy/Scott Watershed Society (HSWS) held its annual Salmon Leave Home event on May 14, and was pleased to return to a public release of the approximately 18-month-old Coho smolts that have been living in the outdoor rearing pond since last May. This was the first time since 2019 that the public was able to assist with the salmon release, due to the pandemic.

The Society moved the event time to the afternoon to give families time to celebrate Mom (it was Mother’s Day). Weather conditions were hot with a high of 32C, but despite that, a steady stream of people came through the Hoy Creek Hatchery area. To the delight of many, wild Coho fry were visible from the footbridge.

The community had the opportunity to carry a bucket of Coho smolts to Hoy Creek for release; take a peek at the six-month-old Coho fry in the hatchery’s Capilano trough room; meet the volunteers and learn about the Society; make a Mother's Day greeting card using leaves; play the Plinko game and get salmon past predators to saltwater safety; sign a Farewell to the Coho Grads of 2023 card; sign a pledge to protect the salmon; and explore Hoy Creek Linear Park.

After a Land Acknowledgement by HSWS president, Kyle Uno, the MLA for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, Fin Donnelly provided a few words before Kyle presented Keith Kozak, the Society’s first president, with a certificate of appreciation and a gift. Keith spoke about the early years of getting the Society up and running.

The event was supported by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, with Isaac Nelson overseeing the fish release.

The Society would like to thank all its volunteers for the time spent supporting the event, and the community who came out to help. A special thank you to the event sponsor, the Fish & Wildlife Compensation Program!

Salmon Leave Home 2023 'unofficial' photo: Thanks to our HSWS volunteers who were manning our areas of the event so that some of us could gather for a group photo with our special guests.

Back row, left to right: Tyler Storgaard, Isaac Nelson (DFO), Hannah Tonsaker; Matthew Watts; Henrietta Hamming (wife of the late Chris Hamming, HSWS founder); Robbin Whachell; Keith Kozak (founding member/HSWS first president); and Rodney Lee.

Front row, Fin Donnelly, MLA; and Kyle Uno, current HSWS president.

Hannah and Aiden set the traps in Hoy Creek.

Juvenile trapping involves baiting gee minnow traps and having them soak overnight in various locations in the creek to survey what’s present in those locations. A trapping activity can provide an understanding of:

What types of fish are present in the creek?
How big are the fish?
Are they hatchery-raised fish or wild fish?
Where do hatchery released Coho end up?
Where are these fish located?
What areas of the creek do they use?
How healthy do the fish appear?

Outside of some limited gee trapping to remove fish from the lower pond prior to sediment removal, this may have been the first series of juvenile trapping conducted by the Society.

The process started back in February with the application to the Department of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO) for a scientific license to trap for fish. The Society was issued a permit in March however the unstable weather conditions through much of March and April prevented us from getting out and trapping earlier.

The time of year that trapping is conducted is important as different times of year have different life stages for fish. For example, when trapping in April, we wouldn’t expect to see Chum fry present but would expect to see Coho fry as well as Coho parr/pre-smolts. As we get to the summer months, June through August, we might start to see trout fry (Cutthroat, Rainbow). Trout parr could be observed throughout the year.

The last weekend in April finally presented suitable weather conditions for us to trap. At the suggestion of Connie Boulos, Maple Creek Streamkeepers, we used salmon-flavoured wet cat food for our bait balls (tied up with cheesecloth). The Maple Creek Streamkeepers have conducted many years of juvenile trapping to understand what’s present in Maple Creek.

Hoy/Scott Watershed Society members, Rodney, Hannah and Aiden set traps on Friday night. Locations were selected that were deep enough to fully submerge the trap as well as have slow water to prevent fish from getting trapped, exhausted and die because of water that is too fast and fish being held too long.

Then, Hannah and Rodney retrieved the traps on Saturday night and gathered data on what was captured including species identification, length, and, in the case of Coho, hatchery or wild.

Overall observations: A few beautiful cutthroat trout parr were encountered in the fish trap pool behind the fire hall. At all other trapping locations, we encountered wild Coho parr/pre-smolts that appeared good and healthy.

When trapping is conducted year over year, it can be used to get a profile of the fish present – year-over-year, helping us observe changes in the # of fish encountered, the health of fish, and trends in the size of fish encountered. This data will become part of the data record for Hoy and Scott Creeks and could be used in the future to understand the trends in fish population ranges, sizes and health.

This was only the first trapping session in the season. Added sessions are planned:

to trap the upper reaches of Hoy and Scott creeks prior to any hatchery fry releases as well as prior to smolt out-migration to see if any of the previously released hatchery fry were still present as pre-smolts in the release locations;
re-trap the existing areas to see what new species are encountered as the season progresses.
and also, to understand the prevalence of any wild fish present in those locations.

Salmon Released by the Public at Hoy Creek Hatchery

Juvenile Trapping Exercise Conducted in Hoy Creek