Salmon/Steelhead Fishing in N.W. British Columbia

Just back from 4 days of fishing in the Terrace/Kitimat region of NW BC. Mid August give you a chance at catching all 5 of the Pacific salmon species along with Steelhead, dollies, cutts and rainbows. Our first stop was where the Copper River runs into the Skeena. After catching a bunch of Pink Salmon on an 8 weight fly rod I pulled out the spey rod. After donating a half dozen flies to the Skeena River fish gods I walked back up the Copper river. After a few more pinks I finally tied into a sizeable fish, and after a 10 minute battle I finally landed my first Steelhead.

She took a Blue Moon fly and taped out at 31 inches. My buddies made me buy a round later that night to celebrate my first Steelhead.

The next day we fished the Kitimat River which is famous for its big Chums, last year we tied into some huge 40 and 41 inch Salmon. This year we caught a bunch of chums but nothing over 38 inches. Last year I also caught a 41 inch Chinook and I was happy when I surpassed that fish with this 42 x 24 beauty (37pounds).

The following day we found things slow on the Skeena so we headed back to the Kitimat. We were having fun catching a bunch of fish when I had a big hit and the fish headed upstream. This brute took out 200 yards of line and was leaving a 3 foot rooster tail as the line ripped thru the water. We couldn’t believe the size of the fish when we finally landed it, the tape read 49 inches and the girth was 31 inches. Looking up a conversion factor of width X girth X girth X 1.54 / 1000 = weight the Chinook was an estimate 72 pounds. The killer fly was a Chartruese Medusa.