Best of Salmon from last year.
2015 was a good year for me salmon wise. I had some goals when it came to some images I wanted to get. I got some of them and others I never even expected. June through October was spent mostly in river systems both by myself and guiding people through my Salmon Safari / Canyon Diving trips. I had people from several different countries again this year, especially Dutch and British guests. My salmon season was capped off with a fantastic 4 days guiding an amazing Italian photographer David Salvatori. We had such a great time together and managed to find all five species of 
Pacific Salmon. (see this post) In the days that followed I was able to get the footage I had been trying for several years to get. Photographing the actual act of salmon spawning has been my nemesis, eluding me until this year. I had video footage of it from one spawn a couple years ago and that was it. No photos. This year I finally got a pair of Pink Salmon on record, spawning right in front of my camera in the Quinsam River. After a two hour forty five minute wait while I froze laying in the river they actually did it. I was so happy. A few days later I had two very successful and surprising days in the side channels of the Campbell River. The Chum salmon run was in and they were on form, digging massive redds and fighting away. Again after watching a pair for two hours, laying motionless in the water, they spawned, releasing thousands of eggs and a big cloud of white milt. I got a combination of video and photographs of two more spawns over the next days. The release of these images is going to wait. I plan on publishing a book and am keeping these for it. I ended the season with some nice bright Coho Salmon in the Quinsam River. I did a monumental filming day for a TV production for Telus Optik TV ( see here) and then my season was over. All in all it was a good year for me, but a varied one for salmon in general. Some river systems around the Province of BC saw great returns, while others crashed. Various reasons have been floated for this, but one of the obvious seemed to be the very dry summer leading to low water levels in the rivers. Low water levels and hot weather obviously raises the water temperature, and salmon need cooler oxygen rich water to survive their migration upstream. See article here for more details about this.
So here are my Top Ten favorite salmon ( including 1 trout) images from 2015.
Coho Salmon Fry in the Heber River, near Gold River, BC.
Male Coho Salmon in the Quinsam River, a tributary of the productive Campbell River.
Coho Salmon starting its transformation to spawning condition in the Quinsam River.
Pair of Chum Salmon just minutes prior to the spawning event.
Two male Chum Salmon spar over the rights to a female in the side channels of the Campbell River.
A bright red Coho Salmon reflected in the surface of the Quinsam River.
A group of Pink Salmon making their way up the Quinsam River.
Schooling Pink Salmon in the Campbell River Canyon.
Rainbow Trout in Elk River, Vancouver Island.
Completion of a cycle on the Tsolum River. This image is more than just an image. It is the culmination of a great effort. This particular fish and 125 000 more like it returned to the Tsolum River in 2015 marking the first completey wild run in decades. This river was declared dead years ago and through a conserted effort spearheaded by the Tsolum River Restoration Society the salmon are now returning. 2013 saw the first fully unaided spawn in the river without any hatchery involvement. The fish that returned in 2015 were from that run, making history and also breaking records, being the largest run since 1958.
The following video I made for the success story in 2013