British Columbia Fishing Blog

We started our last fishing day a bit earlier, one hour earlier to be more precise. We arrived at the river bank at 10am and decided to try a spot where Carlo and Shane had some success on the first day while we were having our shore lunch. Today Nina wanted to fish, so we bought her a classified II licence. $20 per day it was, since she is not a permanent resident yet. It’s a lot more than what it costs for the rest of us, but still a bargain considering how good the fishing is and how much more expensive it is when fishing in Europe.

We first tried a run just upstream from the supposed hot spot. I rigged up a nymphing setup for her to begin with because it’s pretty easy to use. With a strike indicator, it is simply float fishing. She just had to flip and drift until the indicator dove. It only took a few drifts before the indicator took the first dive. The fish was briefly hooked. The second fish came soon after and she landed with ease. The third and fourth fish did not hesitate to bite either after the second was released, but they also quickly came off the hook.

Once she fished through the run thoroughly, we moved down to the run where we wanted to fish. White water rushed down to its head, crashing against the log jam on the high bank, forming a deep slot where it looked extremely fishy. Nina sent the nymph out, letting the white water carry it down into the deep. As it brushed against the edge of the log jam, the indicator was quickly pulled down. This repeated several times and each time a large cutthroat trout came to the river bank. After a few fish, we started seeing some rising to feed and noticed a big hatch happening around us.

I suggested that we put on a dry fly because it was likely to work. After retying, she casted the fly out and it took no time for a trout to slurp it down. Another one took it after we released the fish, followed by another one. By the end, we easily had a couple dozen takes on the surface. At one point, we couldn’t figure out why there were so many misses. After a closer inspection of the fly, I discovered the tip of the hook was gone.

While Nina was fighting one of the cutthroat trout, a large bull trout suddenly darted out from the log jam and chased the smaller prey like a crocodile. The sighting was pretty wild. Carlo and Shane arrived in early afternoon and I told them what happened so Carlo came down with his bull trout setup. After a couple of casts and fast stripping, he fooled the large bull trout easily.

We ended our outing at 3pm because this evening we decided to do something that was actually not fishing. Not sure why girls are so obsessed with horseback riding. We took an one-hour trail ride along the Elk River in Hosmer with Alpine Enthusiasts. It was nice to tour the watershed from a different point of view without a fishing rod. You can tell how confident I was by my facial expression.

This morning we started even later. Carlo and Shane decided that they would try out a different stream. We decided to stick to the same stream where we have been fishing in the last two days. There are so many options when staying in Fernie. So many tributaries of the Elk River to choose from, just the Elk River itself is already so long and it would take weeks to experience it all.

We decided to go back to the magic hole where dozens of cutthroat trout congregated and fed on the surface yesterday. We arrived and found the exact same scenario. Fish were still coming up to sip down insects. Nina set up the video camera, I stood on the high bank and prepare to make the first cast. Once the camera started working, I sent the dry fly out. At the end of the first drift, a chunky cutthroat slowly rose and sucked down the fly. I set the hook precisely, but after a few dives it came loose. I quickly flicked the fly back out. Halfway through the second drift, another good good sized cutthroat came up and grabbed the fly. Like the first fish, it too came loose after only a few seconds. Two casts, two fish, none to my hands, the morning excitement was already climaxing and we were only ten minutes into it.

The third fish took a bit longer to entice. After another ten casts or so, a smaller fish rose and took down the fly. This time it was not as lucky. It was hooked firmly and I brought it downstream for the release.

After all the drama, it suddenly died down. There was still a hatch happening but fish were not as eager to feed on the surface. We spent another 30 minutes without much success so it was time to move on and switch up the technique. I rigged up an indicator and a small nymph so we could walk and cast to see if any fish were hiding in deep slots. By early afternoon, the sun was beaming so fish were shier. We walked a stretch of river for two hours and I managed to connect with half a dozen more cutthroat trout and one brook trout. Some big ones were caught under log jams, which made the fight rather interesting. Most of these were lost after a few head shakes.

Mosquitoes are crazy this year and there is a drinking/tap water advisory in effect around here for anyone who is thinking about coming up to enjoy this type of fishing.

Casting upstream for a rise.

Lunch break.

One more day before heading back to the real world.

Day two!

This morning the knocks on the door started at 8:30am again. Carlo and Shane greeted my sleepy eyes. I told them to get a head start. Nina and I took our time and didn’t reach the river until 11am. What’s the hurry? There are lots of unfished spots anyway. We pulled up to where their truck was parked and radioed them to find out where they were. They told us that they went upstream, so we decided to go downstream.

The first couple of spots were a bit shallow but should still hold some fish. After gaining no attention with my dry fly, I decided to switch up to a nymph. It took two casts to trick a nice fish that was resting in 2ft of water. Afterward, we continued downstream and I could see a nice looking spot ahead of us. It looked nicer and nicer as we approached it. Finally when we arrived, I was beyond excited because there were fish splashing all over the run. We had hit the hot spot. The timing coincided with a good hatch so the surface feeding frenzy was extremely intense. Dozens of fish came up repeatedly to sip down whatever they could fit in the mouth. I quickly changed back to a dry fly, the one that worked yesterday.

After ten or so drifts without getting a strike while fish were still coming up around it, I realized that the fly was too big to match the hatch. The second fly was smaller but still not small enough, so it also had the same reception. The third fly was the smallest one in the box so it was my last hope. A fish sipped it after a couple of drifts but I was too slow on the strike. A few casts later, another fish also went for it but it was not as lucky. Finally we had a connection. I carefully played the chunky westslope cutthroat and brought it downstream so it would not spook the others. After releasing it, I quickly came back up for fish number two, which fell for the fly after ten or so more drifts. Fish number three sipped the fly while I was not paying attention. I only realized that I had a fish on when I saw the floating line was pulled straight below the surface. These and a few misses were only a small percentage of fish that were in the run.

Our time was cut short when a thunderstorm rolled in quickly, forcing us to scramble back to the car for refuge. The storm passed after fiften minutes and we had blue sky above us once again, a pretty typical weather pattern in the Rockies.

The rest of the afternoon we explored a few new areas with only some success. No fish photos today, all actions will be available in a subscribers’ video soon.

Day three’s weather forecast doesn’t seem so enticing, so we may just take it easy and try a few spots nearby in Fernie.

There isn’t a better time to get away from the Lower Mainland for a fisherman, one just has to take a look at our discussion forum leading up to the sockeye salmon opening in the Non-tidal Fraser to realize that. We are spending this week in Southeastern British Columbia, targeting westslope cutthroat trout, mountain whitefish and bull trout.

The drive yesterday seemed to take forever from Richmond to Fernie. With four “quick” stops, it lasted just under 12 hours. I’ve done the Richmond-Fernie drive four times now and this was the most tiring one so far. Our stay for the week is the Red Tree Lodge, which makes things really convenient because it has a big shared kitchen lounge where we can do all the cooking after a day of fishing.

This morning we woke up to blue sky and a great view of surrounding rocky peaks. Nina and I took our time after recovering from yesterday’s trek, we didn’t arrive at the river until 11am.

There were lots of photo opportunities.

Some goofball kept jumping out and ruining the photographs as if we were fishing the Fraser River.

Actually, we had to put up with Shane and Carlo since they are our guides once again.

The four of us alternated and worked each run as we moved downstream from our meeting spot. The fishing? It was fantastic as expected!

The number of fish that I connected was no where near how many Shane and Carlo brought in, but I was more than satisfied. Two of my westslope cutthroat trout were the most exciting. The first one grabbed my dry after the other two had worked through the run repeatedly with their nymphs. The second fish, also grabbed my dry after I spotted it sipping down a hatch at the corner of my eyes when I was chatting with Nina during a break. Both fish were pretty big. 16in? 18in? No idea, didn’t measure them. All I know is that they were really chubby.

Day one done, lets see what day two brings.

Last Saturday we hosted the 8th annual Fish for the Future in Steveston. This is an yearly event that we host to give something back to the community by encouraging families to take up fishing and bringing more awareness to the precious Fraser River ecosystem.

The weather co-operated. Out of all the events that we’ve attended this year, it was finally sunny for once! We estimated the attendance to be around 400 to 500 people. 150 juvenile saltwater fishing licences were issued. Almost every kid caught at least one fish. The most abundant species caught was sculpin, while some peamouth chub and northern pikeminnow were also caught. One very large northern pikeminnow was caught by a little girl near the start of the event while a cutthroat trout was caught near the end.

Many thanks to our volunteers for working so hard to make this possible. We also appreciate the BC Family Fishing Weekend Society, City of Richmond, Seymour Salmonid Society, OWL, Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC and Fisheries & Oceans Canada for their support once again.

Next year’s event will be on July 9th, we hope to see you there! This year’s photographs can be seen on this page.