Recreational anglers will have a rare chance to try and catch sockeye in the Fraser River for the first time in three years as officials forecast a booming salmon return.

“The current estimated run size of Fraser River sockeye is about nine million fish, which is the largest since 2022,” said Adam Kaiser, senior salmon advisor with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and chair of the Fraser River Panel.

“Fraser sockeye return in a series of cycles, so every four years, a new cycle returns. For this particular cycle line, it’s the largest we’ve seen since the late 1990s.”

Kaiser said there was no single factor behind the large run, but said combined efforts by provincial, federal and First Nations authorities to restore habitat, to hold harvesting to sustainable levels and to restore fish

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