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Author Topic: Fishing in Smithers  (Read 2774 times)

breaker_1113

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Fishing in Smithers
« on: August 23, 2012, 09:26:41 AM »

Hey all,
I have a week off at the end of September which i have dedicated to fishing the Smithers area for summer steelhead.  This will be my first trip ever up there and i was seeing if anyone could give me some advise.  Im not looking for secrets sports or anything of that matter but just a general idea of where to go and what river to fish.
We are going to be going up in a car and camping/lodging at motels and we will be on foot the whole time.  What i was wondering is which river up there has the best road access and easiest to spey on.  I was originally thinking the Bulkley but i know the kispiox, babine, morice are all near by.

Would someone be able to give me some advise.

thanks in advance.
PM's are always welcome.
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Fisherama

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Re: Fishing in Smithers
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2012, 11:14:55 PM »

I worked up there for a couple of months last fall and fished when I could.  I can try to offer some advice although my experience in this area is limited...  All of the rivers you mention are great for spey.  I spent most of my time fishing the Morice and Kispiox and can comment on those rivers.
 
Most of the Morice can be accessed along the Morice FSR, although the river is probably best fished by drifting from run to run.  It can be quite time consuming locating runs then bushwacking to get to them, nevermind the density of bears in that place, which is extremely high based on the amount of scat along the FSR.  If you choose to fish this river and decide to head up the FSR on a week day, be sure to have a CB radio programmed with the proper frequencies (PM me if you need these) as the road becomes quite narrow up top and the logging traffic is very heavy.  From what I recall coho fishing should also be great throughout September/October.

I fished the Kispiox a couple of times and wasn't able to connect with any steel (which apparently are some of the largest steelhead in the world) but I fell in love with it nonetheless.  The river is small compared to the others you mention and has a lot of very fishy looking water, good for walk and wade.  The river can also be accessed by road along much of its length.  If you don't find any steel in this river there's also a good population of bull trout that are not shy.

The late September/early October can be very wet up there.  The following website can be great to check in on which rivers are fishable and which are blown out: http://www.noelgyger.ca/current-fishing-reports.htm.  If you only have a week, I'd probably recommend sticking to 1 or 2 rivers and learning how to fish them in the little time that you have.  From my experience, this is steelhead heaven, but steelhead fishing is still steelhead fishing and you have to put in the time :).  Hope this helps.     
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breaker_1113

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Re: Fishing in Smithers
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2012, 01:40:40 PM »

Thanks a lot for the info Fisherama!
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