Document Nicola River Coho Salmon Comeback This FallPhotographing the Nicola coho comeback is a perfect fall story for your blog – tranquil autumn light + real conservation happening in your backyard.Here’s how to turn your Fish in Creek page into a timely piece:1. Timing and the low-water storyInterior Fraser coho are on the Nicola from October to December. This is the tricky part: in low-water years they stack up at the mouth of the Nicola where it meets the Thompson and can’t move up until we get rain or a pulse release from Nicola Lake.For photos, that gives you two distinct looks:Low-flow congregation spots: The gravel bars below Spences Bridge and around the Nicola-Coldwater confluence near Merritt. You can safely shoot from the bank as fish hold in deeper pools waiting to move.The climb: After the first fall rains or dam release, check the clear water of Skuhun Creek mouth – about 15 min down Highway 8. That’s where the restoration story is.Don’t wade in low water. When flows are at 40-50 year lows, every disturbance matters and your photos actually show the stress better from above.2. Ethical distances – what to actually doBC guidance is simple and good for your blog to state clearly:Never enter the wetted area – no wading into redds or spawning channels. At places like Skuhun, amateur photographers are explicitly not permitted in the river to record spawning.Use focal length, not feet. 200-400mm from the bank, tripod low. For salmon, stay at least 10m back from visible redds and never cast a shadow over them.Watch for stress: If a coho stops digging, darts away, or shows its pale belly – you are too close. Back off.Wildlife around the run: Parks Canada baseline is 30m for non-predators, 100m for bears/wolves. Your tranquil bear patio scenes are the exception – during a salmon run, a bear on a carcass needs that full 100m. Use a long lens and avoid crowding.3. Skuhun Creek – your conservation hookThis is the timely angle:After the extreme flooding in November 2021, the mouth of Skuhun was cut off with a drop that fish couldn’t pass. Skuhun is one of the most pristine tributaries of the Nicola, with about 10km of cool, clean upstream habitat for Chinook, coho and steelhead.DFO’s Restoration team, Scw’exmx Tribal Council, Shackan Indian Band, the Province and Pacific Salmon Foundation rebuilt fish passage in spring 2024, in time for last year’s run. The second piece is bank stabilization – hauling in large rock and planting willows and cottonwoods to keep the Nicola from washing out the mouth of Skuhun again and to give fish resting water.All three species are stocks of concern in our area – so the fact they can access it again matters.How to blog it:Before/after structure: Your existing Fish in Creek page as “historical baseline” → 2021 flood cut-off → 2024 restoration → fall 2026 return. Embed DFO’s short Merritt video.Show, don’t tell low water: Shoot the same gravel bar at the same focal length – wide shot of exposed cobble with a tight shot of coho holding. Add water temperature context if you carry a thermometer.Credit stewardship: Lead with Scw’exmx and Shackan leadership. That frame you liked – pit houses and cultural sites eroding at High Bank – is part of the same project.Close with action: Link to Pacific Salmon Foundation and DFO’s Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative. Ask readers to stay on trails and keep dogs out of creeks Oct-Dec.Want help drafting the blog post outline with photo captions and SEO tags for kevingriffiths.ca?
Kevin Griffiths
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