I've lived beside this beautiful river for 21 years and nothing has changed with the heavy silting of it every time it rains.
If anything, it's gotten worse. Those gravel operators up river ( Cewe's + Allard's etc. ) have been doing a great job at
destroying this river. However, the blame should not be solely on them. The government and other powers to be have
done very little to put pressure on them to change their ways ( they should have been fined BIG TIME long ago and or
shut down until they figured out a way to release clean water from their tailing ponds ).I've walked across one of the bridges
in the summer when the river was dead low and clear only to return an hour later and notice that it had turned to mud from
the gravel pit operators of course. What a disgrace!
On a brighter note, two years ago I took a look at a small run just through the trees from my house and noticed about
75 to 100 chums spawning in it ( what a great surprise ). Hopefully when the time comes, there will be a decent return
from those fish. Although I have only fished the Coquitlam river a handful of times since moving out this way, I did catch
and release a beautiful 8 lb steelhead doe a couple of years ago. To all, if you do fish this river and happen to catch a salmon
or steelhead, hopefully you will do the right thing and release them unharmed........... tight lines!