Sid Styles, president of the Bay St. George Salmon Stewardship Group, is hoping that with a positive number on salmon returns, anglers will be permitted to retain more fish after the mid-season review.
That review is planned for Friday and Styles said it’s his understanding the review will be based on salmon count returns on July 15, as they are done every Sunday.
He said for some reason the salmon returns were late this year in the rivers, but they’ve been picking up well in the past week or so.
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While anglers were issued six tags with their licence, up to now they were only permitted to use a single red tag that was labelled Number One. That tag has to be used by July 20.
Styles said it’s hoped that for the rivers in Bay St. George anglers will be permitted to use the second red tag.
As for Harry’s River, which is experiencing higher salmon returns than the same time last year according to DFO’s Atlantic Salmon Fishway Counts (2,165 this year compared to 2,089 last year), he would like to see that river and Flat Bay River with Class 4 (four salmon – two red and two green tags).
“But that’s only if it can be predicted conservation levels on Harry’s River will be reached,” Styles said.
He said in the past week there were more anglers on the rivers and they’ve been reporting seeing lots of salmon.
