Local anglers with “sockeye fever” may get more opportunities to hook the passing salmon, fisheries managers said Thursday.

There is talk of extending the current sport opening for sockeye salmon in the Thompson River and Kamloops Lake, said Les Jantz, Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s local chief resource manager.

Discussions are underway with the Sport Fishing Advisory Board, a panel that assists DFO with recreational decisions, to determine whether extended seasons or more liberal bag limits are possible considering the size of this year’s sockeye run.

The current season opened Aug. 22 and is set to close Sept. 20. The daily catch limit is two fish.

More than 30 million fish are poised to enter the Fraser River soon, the majority bound for spawning grounds in the Shuswap. Millions of salmon are expected to move through the Thompson River and Kamloops Lake, likely in 15 to 20 days.

Jantz said there are sport openings on the river and in the lake for sockeye already, and anglers are catching some fish. Anglers can fish the river at set locations at Walhachin and Juniper Beach, he said, as well as in Kamloops Lake.

There are also openings at Ashcroft, Spences Bridge and Lillooet. The whole river is not open, he said, in order to make it easier for fisheries managers to monitor sport anglers.

Jantz said when the big run gets here, success rates will rocket.

“It will be hard not to catch a fish,” he said.

Fisheries and Oceans usually opens the river to sockeye fishing in years when large numbers are expected to return. Over the past couple of decades, anglers have been permitted to target sockeye two or three times.

The local openings don’t draw the kind of intense fishing pressure seen on the Fraser River in the Lower Mainland, Jantz said, where anglers line up elbow to elbow.

That said, there has been more interest in the local sport season this time around, as “sockeye fever” grips the sport fishing community, he said.

Meanwhile, a Lower Mainland commercial fisherman hired by the Secwepemc Fisheries Commission to catch chinook and sockeye with his ocean fishing boat says sockeye can be seen, but he expects the big push won’t arrive until at least mid-September.

Hot weather will delay the fish, while cool weather with rain will get them here faster, said Regan Birch, who operates the Pacific Fisher 1.

He’s set to intercept the run when the fish emerge from the Thompson River into Kamloops Lake, and hopes to catch tens of thousands of sockeye with seine nets.

His boat is currently chasing chinook salmon with gill nets, catching about 40 fish a day.

Kamloops conservation officer Sgt. Steve Wasylik said anglers need to be aware of the rules. Only single barbless hooks are permitted, and there is a bait ban. Anglers cannot fish from boats. A sockeye tag is needed on your freshwater licence if you want to keep fish.

Lastly, fish cannot be snagged or foul-hooked; they must be caught in the mouth, he said.