British Columbia Fishing Blog

When Capilano River‘s water level spiked to the extreme yesterday due to the heavy downpour, I was getting pretty restless knowing that many coho salmon would be making their way up the river. After last month’s licence mishap, I really wanted to catch some coho salmon for dinner. Even though it had stopped raining overnight, I didn’t want to be on the river bank before dawn in case the level had not dropped. It is never good start of a day when you walk to the river in the dark only to find it unfishable.

I woke up this morning and found the river level had dropped to very fishable level, so I was somewhat disappointed, thinking that I may have missed a good opportunity. Nina and I decided to give it a go this evening to see if some fresh fish would move into our favourite spot.

We arrived at 5:00pm. As we walked down to the spot, a lady was walking back up. “It’s a good day to be doing that.”, she said. “They’re jumping everywhere!”

Hearing that just made us even more excited, but at the same time I knew the fishing was going to be pretty frustrating. There have been many trips in the past when I stood by the river watching countless splashes but only to come up empty handed.

When we reached our spot, they were indeed jumping. Not only they were jumping, they were finning and they could be seen moving along in the shallow water in 2s and 3s at a time. Some were so close to where we were standing, I could have scooped them out if I had a landing net with me. Seeing that many fish just made me more anxious to get a line in the water. Because of the bait ban in place between August and October, we were limited to artificial lures. I set up Nina’s float fishing rod with a blade at the end of the line, while I armed myself with the usual spoon on my spincasting setup.

The water condition was perfect. The height was just right, the flow was just at the right pace, and it had a tea colour to it. One couldn’t really ask for a better condition for coho salmon fishing. We tried our offerings for twenty minutes or so, while fish continued swimming by us. These fish were obviously not slowing down to take a peek at our presentation.
Meanwhile, other anglers had showed up at our spot, but they were not as prepared. Lacking a pair of waders when the river is flowing high is never a good idea, our newcomers were limited to fishing at a few less desirable spots.

After not showing any result for awhile, I changed the way that I presented the lure a bit. Instead of casting blindly to where fish were jumping, I decided to cast not too far away from fish’s travelling lane and allowed the spoon to swing across so hopefully one would notice and attack it. That strategy paid off shortly when a small coho jack swam up quickly to hit the spoon just before it reached the shallow water. It was one of the smallest coho that I have ever caught. I brought it in without any problem and gently slipped the hook off so it could go back right away.

Not long after, another fish tapped the spoon while it was crossing the travel lane. The tug was pretty light so I did not set the hook hard enough. It was a much bigger fish judging by the size of the flashes in the water and the bend of the rod. Not surprisingly, the hook was spat out seconds later. I should have brought a stiffer spinning rod.

At this point, Nina wanted to try something else. The blade was just not working. I decided to put a jig with a rubber grub tail on for her. Perhaps something out of the ordinary would trick them to bite.

Within a few casts, her float dove and she was into a good fish. It almost looked like a snag at first as the rod was bending fulling while the fish stayed deep down. After holding its spot for awhile, it finally started running and leaping a couple of times. It was a pretty big fish, but was it a coho salmon? At first, Nina yelled, “Bull trout!” Highly unlikely I said. As it came closer to shore, I assumed that it was a coho salmon judging by its chrome body, but was still not entirely sure. When the fish finally reached my hands, I could see the absence of the adipose fin. I then noticed the fully spotted square tail. “Summer steelhead!”, I said. Nina looked on with disbelief.

What were the odds? With hundreds of coho salmon swimming around, a summer steelhead was the last fish that I thought we would encounter. This is a good reminder that every fish needs to be identified correctly before it is kept or released. In the Capilano River, both hatchery marked and wild steelhead are required to be released. Knowing how precious this fish was, I made sure Nina kept it fully in the water while I fetched the camera out of the bag. After a few snaps to capture the memory, Nina opened her hands and it slowly swam back to the pool.

We fished until dark this evening and watched more coho salmon splashing around. Nina of course was pretty satisfied with her first ever summer steelhead, while I was bummed about my coho salmon as usual. Nina said, “I guess there’s no dinner tonight.”

Overall, it was another fantastic outing, without having to go too far away from home. It’s lucky to be an angler in Vancouver.

If you enjoy fishing, then you probably find August to be a tough month in British Columbia. It is tough not because of a lack of fish, but because there are too many options to choose from. Salmon are returning to all the rivers, lake fishing is still reasonably good, but what we really enjoy doing is travelling to the interior part of this province for some excellent fly fishing in trout streams.

After our success last August, we decided to visit Fernie once again and experience the fly fishery that the Elk River system offers. Those who fish in British Columbia are very fortunate because there are not too many places around the world where you can access a world class fishery without paying much. It is a world class fly fishery for a few simple reasons – Its breathtaking setting, the lack of angling pressure and of course, the amount of fish!

For the third time, we are calling the Red Tree Lodge our home away from home during our visit. Situated in the heart of Fernie, it allows us to travel to all our fishing spots without much effort. What we really like about the Red Tree Lodge is its large shared kitchen. There is nothing better than being able to cook up a fine meal for yourself after a long fishing day. Red Tree Lodge also caters out-of-town fly fishermen who want to do a guided trip on the drift boat in its summer packages.

The fishing this year was a bit more challenging than last year. Just like everywhere else in BC, this was partly due to the higher river level. On our first day, we found it hard to make a fish rise for our dry fly, but nymphing certainly worked well. We visited some of our old spots where they were productive last year. Many spots have changed slightly, but it did not stop our fishing partners Carlo and Shane pulling fish out from there.

Our main target species was westslope cutthroat trout, which is unique to this part of the province. They are generally 12 to 16 inches long, but every now and then a 20 incher would make an appearance.

Mountain whitefish seemed to be in good abundance this year. Although they look similar to a carp or other minnow species, they are in fact salmonids. Quite often we would come across some slots where a school of whitefish congregated and they definitely would not let a nymph pattern passing by. On the 2wt rod, these deep divers can put up a pretty good fight.

The weather was fantastic for the most part, except the odd thunderstorms that would make us take a detour. The summer weather in the East Kootenay can be rather unpredictable. While fishing under the sun and catching plenty of fish on our third day, a dark storm rolled and was unnoticed until the first drop of rain came. Within minutes, hail and lightings were also coming down so we had to run back to the car for refuge.

One of the highlights during the trip was our drift down the Elk River. Drifting is a pretty common way of access this river system as it maximizes your fishing time by taking you from one run to another on the boat. This year, we brought our Outcast Power Drifters, which are one-man inflatable boats designed for this purpose. Both Nina and I were excited but also anxious, as we had never drifted before. We were assured by our companion Carlo, who is experienced in boating on moving waters.

After some hesitation, we finally did our drift on the fourth day. The experience was indeed very refreshing. While the entire ride was mostly smooth, there were a few little funny episodes caused by the lack of coordinations in my arms. That being said, we made it in one piece. The boat was surprisingly stable and comfortable throughout the ride. Rafting from one run to another between fishing sessions is actually a very refreshing change, I can definitely see myself doing that again.

On our fifth day, we also visited the Kootenay Trout Hatchery. This trip was not entirely for pleasure, but we were on assignment for the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC. One of the tasks that we had to complete was to produce a couple of video features for the society on some of their projects in this region, which will be available for viewing later on this month.

I had never been to the Kootenay Trout Hatchery and was glad that we did it. This little gem is more than just a hatchery, but a tourist attraction. Prior to entering the hatchery, you’re greeting by a pond of large rainbow and brook trout, which can be fed. The visitor centre has a display of aquariums that house freshwater fish species from British Columbia, as well as a tour of the hatchery operation. The hatchery also has a “learn to fish” pond filled with trout, which is open to visitors anytime for fishing.

After our visit to the hatchery, we decided to do as much fishing as possible since it was our last evening. Fishing in the evening hours can be hot. The hatches are peaking, the water is shaded, trout become fearless and aggressively take flies on the surface. We walked to some of the spots where we had luck catching them on nymphs and they were definitely active. Every few minutes, a fish would sip down a Mayfly or other insects as they landed on the water. We ended our final day by experiencing the best dry fly fishing that we’ve had all year. On our way back to the lodge in the dark, both deer and elk had come out to play.

Overall, this has been another memorable trip with good friends and fish. This was our third visit to Fernie and it certainly will not be the last. We will be releasing several video features on this trip in two weeks from now, so please stay tuned for those!

Since everyone has had some success lately on the Capilano River, Nina and I decided to give it a go as well. Surprisingly, I haven’t been to the Capilano River since 2004, even though I live so close to it. This is mostly due to the dreadful Lions Gate traffic at 7 or 8am on the way home from fishing that we’ve always had to endure.

This morning we dragged ourselves out of bed at 3:30am and were on the road at 4:15am. As we crossed the Arthur Laing Bridge, something popped up on my mind. I had forgotten to buy salmon conservation surcharges on our freshwater fishing licences! It was too late to turn around to do it, so today turned into a mandatory catch and release fishery. The dream of a delicious coho salmon dinner suddenly vanished.

We arrived at the parking lot at 4:50am and hit the trails shortly after that. The hike in the dark was quite an experience without a flashlight, and bear spray (more items that were forgotten at home). Eventually we made it down to our spot, when we could start seeing our fingers.

The early start was definitely worth it. The river flow was just perfect, high enough for fish to move in. The sky was cloudy, and it drizzled occasionally. The air was as fresh as it could get, you cannot ask for more at a fish spot that is just outside of a densely populated city.

After preparing our rods and bait for about ten minutes, we were ready to fish. I immediately spotted a fish rolling at the tailout, which was a pretty good sign. After a few drift, Nina had her first take down but failed to hook up. On the following cast, it was my turn to see the float disappearing. I set the hook and the the kicks on the rod felt pretty good. It was a pretty small fish, around 1 to 1.5lb. It came in shortly after being hooked and of course it was released after we had a look at it.

The next little while was pretty uneventful, even though I thought the fishing was just picking up after hooking one so soon. We saw the odd risers and the float dipped a few times, but I was quite certain that they were small trout biting. The odd bigger coho salmon would show their fin in front of us, as they moved up from the riffles downstream from where we were fishing. Fish were definitely moving up occasionally, they were just not so interested in biting.

After patiently drifting through the run for an hour, Nina decided to take a break. I started playing with the float depth by fishing a bit deeper to see if that made a difference. It didn’t, for me anyway.

Nina returned to fishing after awhile and I made her to change the float depth as well. She had a good take-down but managed to miss it again. With two pieces of roe to go in the bait box, I decided to lay the rod down and bait her rod while having the camera ready in case she hooked a fish. She continued fishing through where I thought the fish would be biting.

Finally the float went down once again, but she missed it again after yanking the rod. I thought she was going to reel it in to check the bait, but she kept letting the float drifting further downstream. Right at the tailout, where I had hooked the fish, her float went down again. This time, the fish was not so lucky, it was solidly hooked and the bend in the rod suggested that it was a good sized fish.

Nina kept the tension on while slowly walking her way back to the bank. She had to watch the slippery round rocks, where she took a semi-dunking earlier. The fish didn’t show itself until it was guided to the shallows. It looked to be around 3 to 4lb.

After fighting it for a couple of minutes, it gently slipped into Nina’s hands. I took a few photos before painfully watching it (dinner) swimming away from her hands.

Nevertheless, it was a fine morning, considering that I have been skunked more often than not in the past when fishing on the Capilano. Hungry, sleepy and slightly cold from standing in the water, we decided to call it a day at 8:00am.

The lesson of the day is, don’t cheap out, buy your licence’s conservation surcharges in advance! Or you’ll turn into a conservationist like me.

Like many of you, I love this sport, and consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to participate in so many fishing opportunities. It is my way of communing with nature, letting go of the stresses of my normal life, and spending time with friends and family. Developing an interest in fishing is probably one of the most precious gifts I received from my father, one that was not given without hardship.

He endured the 2:00 am wake ups of an overly excited child who could not sleep, being told after a ½ hour row that his protégé needed to return to camp to pee despite fish activity all around the boat, being handed his favorite fly rod, now tipless, as a result of being stabbed into the ground during the walk down to the boat, being continually harassed for the funds to purchase more gear, and always having to give up the “big one” as practice for his student fisher.

Most of you, I’m sure, will remember being on one side or the other of many memories such as these. We have shared countless quiet hours bobbing in a boat, or standing waist deep in moving waters. Now approaching 80, dad can no longer hike the rivers or flail a fly rod about all day long and is thus limited to fishing from a boat.

It had been a while since we did the chuck, so I decided to surprise him with a trip to Port Hardy. Although somewhat extravagant by my teacher’s salary, I knew that I was running out of time for a trip like this with dad, and we had both always dreamed of a trip like this.

After the 2 hour ferry ride from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo, and 4 hour drive up island we arrived at our destination. Bear Cove Cottages is 10 km south of the town of Port Hardy. Owners Wade & Shannon Dayley are friendly and eager to assist with your vacation in any way they can.

The accommodations were exceptionally clean, very comfortable, and well appointed with a fully functional kitchen. We loved it, and since Wade provided a light breakfast, and full lunch on the boat, we used our kitchen each night to prepare our dinner.

The cottages are equipped with satellite TV, Wifi (although I purposely left all my electronic devices at home for this trip), and a jetted soaker tub, so any down time can be well used. The view from the cottages was also spectacular, and we spent some time watching eagles from our deck.

Early the next morning we set out with Wade to do some fishing.

Wade’s boat is a 25′ Grady White Sailfish, powered with twin 150 yammies. Dad had always wanted a boat like this, so fishing from one was a treat, and I felt completely secure with our knowledgable captain and solid boat.

I was impressed with the fishing gear. I loved the 12 foot Rogue River Salmon rods paired with the Trophy XL Tyee reels. These were a pleasure to use for salmon. I love these single action reels for salmon. I noticed that many of the other charter boats used large level winds for salmon, which made me appreciate this setup even more.

After a run of about an hour, we settled in with a few other boats and got our gear into the water.

After arriving, the fog rolled in thick. Navigation without a GPS chartplotter and radar would have been foolish. I was glad our boat was fully outfitted. The sounder was marking many fish, and TONNES of feed.

Birds were also everywhere, feeding on the baitfish.

This is an example of the size of the needlefish that were everywhere.

To “match the hatch” we used small anchovies in UV teaser heads behind flashers. Details like trolling speed, fishing the most productive spots (we picked up a fish almost every time we went over this one spot), charging the UV heads, and getting the correct bait roll were all important, and separated the boats who were catching from those who were not.

We were immediately into fish. First a smallish spring, by Port Hardy Standards.

Then a small coho.

Then dad got into a slab. This was a hot fish, that took some serious runs.

I’ll admit it, Wade and I were worried (and Wade helped him out a bit by maneuvering the boat).

But eventually we did manage to boat the fish, the biggest of the trip!

It’s funny, this picture does not do justice to it’s size…this fish had some serious shoulders.

Of course I also got into many fish, just none approaching the size of the one my dad got.

To top off our day, we then went bottom fishing to pick up some cod, ling, black bass, a pair of 30 lb halibut, and finish our full limits.

The second day was a carbon copy of the first, except we did not retain as many fish (no need to be greedy).

This area is unspoiled. Nothing beats the rugged coastline of BC. Kelp beds everywhere attest to the clean water, and richness of sea life.

At the end of each day. Wade took our fish into town to be professionally processed, vacuum packed, and frozen. We simply picked it up on our way out on the final day.

Thanks to Wade and his wife at Bear Cove Cottages for the hospitality, expertise, camaraderie, and for accommodating my dad’s special mobility needs.

If you are fishing this area without a guide, be sure to observe the local fishing practices. Boats take turns making runs at the most productive spots, and pull out and away from the tack when they get a fish on, so as to avoid any disruption to the orderly manner in which the other boats are moving. It all works surprisingly well.

Whoever your fishing mentor is, make sure you take the time to thank them. I’m glad I did.

Unless you have been living in a cave in the last few months, you must have noticed how inconsistent the weather has been this spring in British Columbia. From one snowy day to another rainy day, the sun hardly made its appearance. To anglers who are eager to hit the lakes in Interior BC every spring, this has been a rather frustrating year. Like many others, we had been anxious to make a trip to the Thompson-Nicola region since May, but the last-minute changing weather held us back. After changing our minds several times, we finally decided to give it a go last week.

Because we’ve only been doing stillwater fly fishing since 2007, it is still relatively new to us so I’m always a bit hesitant when choosing the lakes. I decided that we should play it safe by visiting a couple of lakes where I had success in the past – One that has many brook trout in the same age class, while the other that has rainbow trout in a variety of sizes.

After driving through the misty coastal mountain range, we arrived in Merritt and the sun greeted us. The blue sky was a consolation, because the area was pounded by strong gusts. Wind is always an issue when lake fishing in this area, one simply has to deal with it by either braving the open water or finding sheltered spots.

We arrived at our first chosen lake around Noon. Only one other person was at the lake but he was not fishing. It wasn’t surprising, the wind was keeping him out of the water. We took our time setting up the boat, hoping that it would calm down eventually. That hope diminished as the gusts turned into hurricane strength. Reluctantly, we headed out to test the waters, only to be blown around as if we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. After struggling for awhile, we finally found a slightly more sheltered spot at one corner of the lake. It was time to hook a fish!

We started out by fishing with chironomid in size 14. The chosen colour was silver with red ribs. Because we were fishing in fairly shallow waters, it made adjusting the indicator depth rather easy. I tossed mine out and let it settled while rigging up Nina’s rod. Within minutes, my indicator began bobbing up and down occasionally. Thinking that it was wind, I neglected it so I could finish her setup quickly. They were in fact bites. Unlike rainbow trout, brook trout’s takes tend to be pretty light and your strikes have to be pretty precise to hook them.

Once both our indicators were floating nicely, we were excited to see who would get the first fish. Within a minute, Nina’s indicator dipped and she set the hook precisely. The rod was pulled downward as the fish headed for the deep water. Brook trout rarely jump, they often dive and hold their position in the deep. It took a couple of minutes for the fish to surface. The first brook trout, just over 1lb, was in the net.

After a few photos, we sent the fish back to the lake. Nina was into another fish not long after she sent the fly back out. By now I was getting slightly frustrated. My hookup rate was rather sad. After her third fish into the net, I was finally able to connect with one. The pulls definitely felt good after some struggles.

We ended our first day with around a dozen hookups. Although none of our catches were exceptionally big, it worked out better than we expected considering how rough the lake was.

We decided to give the same lake another try on our second day. The late morning start was even better than the previous day. Perhaps the chironomid hatch was stronger, we could not keep fish away from our flies!

Among the average-sized fish, we finally were able to find some bigger fish, in the 2 to 3lb range. These bigger fish were not much longer, but they were certainly much fatter. My biggest disappointment was the biggest fish that snapped the line before we had a chance to see it. It is always a good idea to check the leader after landing multiple fish.

We decided to end our second day earlier as we were satisfied with the number of fish that we connected with. The day was mostly sunny and the wind was lighter, beavers and loons swam around us without much disturbance. Having the entire lake to ourselves, this was definitely what quality lake fishing is all about in BC.

On our final day, we decided to visit another lake that has rainbow trout in it. Originally, I wanted to fish for more brook trout but Nina insisted that she was bored with them and wanted to catch some big rainbow trout.

We headed to a lake that we fished last year. Our previous visits were never so lucky. Each trip usually ended with only one or two catches. Because it was Saturday, there was a lot more traffic on the lake. Including us, there were 14 boats hoping to catch some nice rainbows. The morning was mild, but rather cloudy. We started out by anchoring near others, but the lake was void of action for two hours. Nearby chironomid fishers were doing just as bad, except a couple of fish that were hooked by one angler. Most boats were slowly trolling, but none were able to find a fish.

With such discouraging result, Nina wanted to move to a new spot. We decided to take the boat away from the traffic and anchored not far from where we launched the boat. Once I dropped the anchors, I noticed a rather heavy hatch happening around us. The water was 20ft deep in front of us, so I had one rod’s indicator depth set at 19ft, while the other one set at 16ft.

The move definitely paid off, because Nina’s indicator started dipping not long after we settled down. I screamed, but watched Nina’s rod sitting idly on the boat. Her mind had already wandered away after not seeing a bite for so long. By the time she yanked it, the fish was long gone. Not long after, her indicator took another dive! Again, the driver was not at the wheel. After missing two chances, Nina was ready to get the job done. The next bite again came in no time. With the rod in her hand this time, she was into the first fish of the day. It went for a couple of dives before showing some flashes below our boat. Unaware that her indicator had not released itself from the line, Nina frantically stripped in her line. Eventually the indicator reached the rod tip and she could not bring in more line. With just under 20ft of line between the rod and the fish, it was not a surprise that it came off the hook after some struggles.

I was both frustrated with seeing so many losses and encouraged by the number of bites she had. With an adjustment to my indicator depth and a switch in fly pattern, I was also into a fish quickly. The fish surfaced without much of a fight, because it was a spawner. Rainbow trout spawn in the spring, so it is not uncommon to see coloured fish occasionally.

Nina’s first fish came after I released mine, but it was also a coloured fish. Were we simply targeting a school of coloured fish? That question was answered by our next fish.

The bites were in fact rather light. The indicators dipped slightly each time. Adding a twitch to the fly after each dip, usually resulted in a good pull-down. My next pull-down sent the reel screaming. Before I had a chance to imagine how big the fish was, it leaped straight out of the water on the other side of Nina’s line. She quickly retrieved her fly, narrowly missing my line. By this point, the fish had already moved to the other side of the boat. It was a big fish, much bigger than what I expected to catch at this lake. This fish created some chaos on the boat as it circled around us. I nervously put pressure on the line, hoping the 4lb test tippet would not snap like the day before. After several netting attempts as it was too big for our net, I finally brought in my biggest rainbow trout to date. We didn’t bother measuring the fish, just admired its size. All I know is that our landing net was way too small for it.

After the beast was released, I was able to connect with a couple of more fish. Nina on the other hand, was not so lucky. With only misses and a few losses, she had to settle with one coloured fish before we headed home at 3:00pm. Nevertheless, both of us agreed that it ended well, considering other boats were not as lucky.

Even though the weather was not as nice as we had hoped for, the fishing definitely made up for it. This was definitely one of the better lake trips that we’ve experienced in the Thompson-Nicola region. For now, our boat will be packed away as we start getting ready for some river fly fishing.