This year’s Sockeye Salmon run is estimated to be a really big one.
The numbers aren’t in yet from the Department of Fisheries, but there are so many Salmon in the Horsefly river right now that they’re estimating the run will probably be two million fish.
And that’s good news for this weekend’s Salmon Festival hosted by the Horsefly River Round Table.
“We’ve seen it already because even the locals say they haven’t seen so many fish since 2005,” said organizer Dina Stephenson.
“We’ve had some years where they was barely anything in the river, and this year the river is red. There is lots of salmon.”
Big Sockeye Salmon runs were also expected in 2010 and 2014 but only saw 250,000 to just over 800,000 fish go through the Horsefly watershed.
The Horsefly Salmon Festival which was canceled due to last year’s wildfires runs Saturday and Sunday in Horsefly from 10 a.m until 4 p.m.
“We have people from Williams Lake, some people even come from 100 Mile, lots of local people,” Stephenson said.
“Sometimes it’s not all about the activities; people just want to come and see the fish because it’s pretty spectacular.”
(Files from Pat Matthews)