Babine River Update

Note from Pierce received this morning:

Hello all…


Great week, great anglers, new guests too which was fun plus one harp player, Dr. Buz Bricca, and a couple of guitar players so a couple of great campfire jams, late nights, slow mornings…you know the story. The river was continually dropping and very clear which made for spotting lots of steelhead although at times they were hard to catch. Spotted a absolutely huge buck somewhere between mid thirties to forty pounds…Franco Sirtori may have hooked it and with only three raps left on the spool, well good bye steelhead.

Some dry line action but most were favouring various tips, of course, but the Skagit Extreme line continues to fish well and especially cast well. The fall colors are late this season so the river looks neon with color…see second photo. The first photo is Dave Mitchell with a fat buck landed at Beaver Flats. Still can’t fish Rude Awakening due to heavy flows but Dave was game to try it with me and we both thought better of it after a few casts.

Babine Steelhead Lodge pulled their last guests today so the next four weeks of our season will be extra special with so much river to fish.

Nick Anderson was the lucky angler of the week to land a 25 pound buck…I’ll have a photo of it in next week’s report. It’s always exciting to see the big fish in the river, and even more exciting to hook one…most of the big ones just win the battle so each week is full of those sorts of stories.

The steelhead are starting to porpoise, roll and play…but this last week some of the anglers thought they were just flipping us off for trying to catch them when they didn’t want to bite…lots of taps, bumps, grabs and plucks but no magic bullet fly to convince them to take. Lots of moving fish in the last few days as well so next week will be a new week with new fish and new excitement. The snow is not far away but the camp grounds are muddy from melting snow flakes and cold drizzle…kind of like steelhead fall weather to some and crazy to others.


Probably the best news is a good die off of wild stock sockeye that spawn just above the weir…there are lots of carcasses, much more than I have witnessed in years so the bears are showing up and all fish and wildlife are enjoying the fruits of a salmon life cycle so precious to overall eco system. Darren snuck up on a 1000 plus pound Grizzly at Boat Wreck…there are many signs that the bears are taking advantage of the dead and near dead salmon…so many rocks have the bear paw, toe and claw marks so we know we are on a wild river. A dead bald eagle was found at Joe’s Shoot…most likely killed by another eagle as we can see the constant aerial battles especially on those cold windy days when they like to fly high and soar.

Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Pierce