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[Droolpool69420]

What fish live in the Brunette?

Anyone have any recommended lures or baits to throw?

Are there any crayfish in the river and would you eat them?

Is the Brunette river clean to eat from?

[Darko]

What fish live in the Brunette?

Anyone have any recommended lures or baits to throw?

Are there any crayfish in the river and would you eat them?

Is the Brunette river clean to eat from?

there are fish, small trout, pikeminnow, sunfish, bass, shiners. Any small lures should work. worms/shrimp. There likely is crayfish but not edible imo the small fish like sunfish are alright tho.

[Blood_Orange]

I've caught lots of different fish in there over the years but it depends on the year and the season, to a large extent. I'd discourage fishing in July and August because the water temps are so high that C&R fishing could kill the trout. Used to be nonstop largemouth bass in the summer months but they all died off 5 or 6 years ago and I haven't caught one since.

I've caught rainbow, cutthroat, and bull trout, crayfish (on hook and line ), black crappie, sunfish, largemouth bass, pikeminnow, mountain whitefish, and a peamouth chub-related fish that I forget the name of at the moment. Also juvenile steelhead, coho, and chum in the spring months. Spotted a lynx or bobcat in there a few years back, and there are tons of birds: Ana's hummingbirds, herons, kingfishers. There's lots going on in there, despite all the road water and pollutants being washed in, the illegal dumping of paint cans and other chemicals, the runoff from the XTL warehouse, and the homeless camps where people use the river as a toilet. Please be gentle on the poor river

Finding the right spots is more important that what you're throwing.

Yes there are crayfish. I personally wouldn't eat anything out of there because of the pollutants mentioned above. Some people do, though.

Remember, no retention of wild trout. No fishing or retention for any type of salmon. Good luck!

[Droolpool69420]

Just did a quick trip to the river and caught two bass and one pikeminnow.
Do you personally recommend any lures?

also what pollutants were in the river? It looked fairly clean

[Blood_Orange]

I usually drift bait because the river's so thin and shallow that there aren't many places to get a good retrieve. Single cured eggs work well in the fall/winter/spring. I've also had good days in the spring with cured krill when targeting the cutthroat that come up to eat the salmon fry. In the summer, worms work well (as they usually do...).

Too bad the bass are back. Inevitable, I guess.

Pollutants from the road, as the drains discharge directly into the river. What specific chemicals are in there, I couldn't say. There are also some old dump sites that are washing in to the river from the bank. Have you been to the part where the bottom is littered with pieces of old ceramic sinks and toilets? There's also a stretch that is full of old bricks and bottles. Interesting history! There's also a pool where the bottom is littered with dog poo bags (like in that old Dexter episode where they find all of the bodies he dumped in the ocean). I've seen so many gross things in there over the years that I don't want to put any of it in my mouth

[Droolpool69420]

Geez that is disgusting
Do you think flies would work?

[Blood_Orange]

For sure flies would work. Bass eat anything so if you've figured out where they're hiding then you'll do well

What were you using for bait/lures today?

[Droolpool69420]

Today i threw a spinner to catch the first bass and a crappie jig under a float to catch the pikeminnow

[RalphH]

so what have people mentioned; trout(rainbow, cutthroat), large mouth bass, sunfish. I don't know if the bass are resident or just drop out of Burnaby Lake from time to time. While I never seen crayfish (the species is signal crayfish), i have seen them in Bryne Creek  so as both streams have similar histories over the last 100 years or so I would guess they are there.  They must be in the watershed above Burnaby lake which was not as heavily damaged. As signal crayfish can live for more than 20 years I wouldn't recommend eating them given the low water quality.Fishing for salmon is not permitted and there would be no hatchery trout excepting the odd one dropping down from Deer Lake. It was once a prolific salmon creek with a sizable steelhead run. Both were extirpated by the 1960s.  Both were reintroduced 20 years later but have have not done well. You'll see chum most often coho rarely and steelhead are rumoured but not confirmed to be there though the stocking was suspended long ago

From what I understand Brunette Creek will be placed under the lowland stream spring closure (April 1 to June 30th) starting next year to protect any steelhead and cutthroat smolts migrating downstream at that time. Surprisingly the stream gets a lot of angling pressure. I saw a number of dead, likely from c&r cutthroat smolts in the creek a couple of years ago, which I photographed and sent to Fish and Wildlife.

You can use any sort of legal bait or lure but only with single barbless hooks. Judging from what hangs from the tree branches spinners are popular as is bait fished under a float.

There used to be a major waste landfill (garbage dump) where the current large church is on Cariboo Road. If you walk the creek access road immediately downstream of the #1 hwy bridge you can still see and smell the leachite seeping out the high bank sides. I shudder to think of all the toxins and heavy metals that must be in the sediments at the bottom of Burnaby Lake.
 

[Lunk Louie]

Back in the early 60's me and my little buddy used to fish the Brunette and it's small tributary, Stoney Creek. In the day there were all the species mentioned and the cutthroat used to abound in the meandering Stoney creek back when the area was still wild and undeveloped save for the few along Bell Ave/Noel Dr......it was a fabulous area for us two young fisherkids and nobody else used to fish there that we ever saw. The land around where Stoney flows under the Lougheed used to be farmland and the hole at the south side of the bridge used to be a deep swimming hole for the local kids. Now the entire area is a metropolis of apartments, townhouses and of course Lougheed mall....and Stoney Creek is virtually discernable amongst all the overgrowth and civilization nowadays if in fact it even exists north of the Lougheed......probably just a trickle these days. Lots af fun was had fishing for cutties, crayfish and tracking the mass numbers of deer and bear that used to abound...that said the Brunette system has endured alot of abuse over the decades and although some of the salmon species are trying to reestablish their foothold.....I personally would like to see an indefinite NO FISHING ban on both the Brunette and Stoney ....today this is a highly sensitive and delicate, endangered environment IMHO.

[jimstone]

as a new to b.c. 12 year old in 1970 one of the neighborhood kids took me fishing in the Burnette just on west side of Hume park. took home 6 coho i scooped out of the creek with a plastic laundry hamper. my dad was so impressed he took me to Army and Navy and bought me my first rod and reel

[danielk]

Jimstone I can picture that hahaha a kid running  up and down the river scooping up fish.    You made me laugh.  So hard hahaha.   They good old days.    I hope this river can get some help. It would be a good story if they could get it a bit more lively.          And where are you fishing for the bass on it ?     Above Hume park ?     Or below the sky train beside highway ?  I live very close to it.  And I’ve never wanted to fish it since the salmon are pretty much extinct in that flow.  But I would def try and target the bass to help out the system.