British Columbia Fishing Blog

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!

Last year, we put up a video of me fishing with a pole for small coarse fish in the Tidal Fraser River and there were quite a few questions about this type of fishing. Last month, we decided to have a little fun after catching lots of brook trout, by pulling out a longer pole to fish for them. The pole is between 6 to 8 meters long and can be adjusted into three different lengths if needed. Since we were catching plenty of fish in less than 10 feet of water, I decided to use a small coarse fishing float. I balanced the float with a few small split shots and tied on a small chironomid pattern at the end. I caught some fish, but as you can see in the video, bringing them in became a big challenge.

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.

A couple of weeks ago, while we were on Vancouver Island doing some filming projects for the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, we attended the launch of a new floating dock at Diver lake in Nanaimo. Diver Lake is part of FFSBC’s “Fishing in the City” program and the new dock provides better shore access for anglers who are looking for urban fishing opportunities.

Last week, we had the opportunity to fish and stay at Ruddocks Ranch. The ranch is located just north of Lytton, at the edge of the Fraser River. On the ranch property, Onion Lake holds rainbow trout up to 10lb. During our trip, we did not encounter fish that big, but we had countless number of fish between 18 and 24 inches long. The chironomid fishing was best between 10:00am and 2:00pm, while occasional damsel hatches brought on feeding frenzies late in the afternoon.

Check out the video blog above as we documented throughout our trip. If you’d like to find out more about Ruddocks Ranch, please check out this video feature.