The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Taku departed Ketchikan on schedule and arrived in Prince Rupert, British Columbia at 11:00P. I spent the night in Prince Rupert and took the Greyhound to Terrace the next morning; Gill McKean of Westcoast Fishing Adventures met me at the Terrace station. This was my third spring BC steelhead trip in the past four years.
I wasn't scheduled to fish until the following day, but Gill and I drove to the Zymacord River to fish for a few hours. Last year there had been several feet of snow along this river; this year there was no snow and trees were already leafing out. Spring water-levels in the Skeena and adjacent drainages were unusually low this year and ambient air temperatures had been up and down over the past several weeks. Low, clear water is not a steelhead's friend, and after 4 hours without a bump we headed home to watch hockey.
The next morning Gill and I launched the drift boat at Humphry Creek and walked it downstream to the Kitimat. It was overcast and cool, and the river was low and clear. I started fishing by drifting an egg pattern at the confluence of Humphry Creek and the Kitimat River, where 3 years ago I landed a fine steelhead on the last day of a cold week; there was no one home on this date. We continued downstream drifting, and occasionally swinging flies. By days end we each had one take, but neither had hooked a fish. No one we encountered on the river had landed any steelhead either. We pulled the boat out at Nalbeelah and it looked like this could be a long week.
That evening, John, my fishing partner for the remainder of the week arrived from Colorado Springs. I fished here with John the previous spring; I think this was his 12th trip to the area, or something like that. The week before, a group of twelve from Scotland fished these waters with disappointing results. Our hope was that rain would soon raise and color-up the water a little so that fish would push up into the rivers and out from under log piles.
In the morning, we decided to drift the Zymacord. It had rained lightly the previous night and the river had risen some. As John and Gill got the rubber boat ready I cast into the pool near the boat and immediately hooked and landed a cutthroat trout. A few casts later, and a few feet downstream I was into the first steelhead of the trip, a feisty "buck" that refused to come in easily. We photographed it and then quickly launched the boat. Two pools down stream Gill took a second steelhead on the swing.
The day remained overcast with occasional light rain, and the river continued to rise and color-up. Gill had another hard strike at Salvation pool and I landed a second steelhead before the day was over. A much better day, and we were guardedly optimistic that conditions were improving.
We decided to go back to the Kitimat the following morning and drift from the highway bridge to Nalbeelah, a long drift. It was raining lightly when the boat slid into the river and the river had risen over a foot in the past 36 hours. John was the only one to have a hit all day, we expected better given the improving conditions. There was some speculation that fish in the river may have moved up into the tributaries with the rising water and the lower river was now muddy.
Gluttons for punishment, we returned to the Kitimat and the highway bridge the next morning. It was clear and sunny when we started. About a mile below the launch point I hooked a good fish. It first struck my strike indicator, then turned a 180 and nailed my orange egg. It was a heavy fish, we were drifting downstream a good clip and it decided to head upstream; I was quickly into my backing. Gill slowed the boat as much as possible as the fish continued upstream. Finally it turned and I slowly gained line as we looked for slower water. Now the fish was near the boat as we drifted further downstream. Gill worked the boat into still water near a side channel where I was able to get out of the boat. The fish tired slowly and after two attempts to tail it we had a wonderful "buck" in our hands.
Not far downstream John had big steelhead hit his strike indicator on two successive casts. We were now anchored near the middle of the river at the head of a series of rapids. I cast to the far bank and immediately hooked a good fish, which was holding off the bow of the boat. We decided to stay put and see if John could hook a second fish. But suddenly my fish turned downstream and I was quickly into backing. As line melted away we had no choice, but to chase my fish. As Gill pulled the anchor, the fish turned upstream and with the combination of the boat moving down, the fish moving up and a big belly of line, the fish was off. The moral to that story is: it doesn't pay to be greedy.
We had drifted about another mile when John hooked a good "buck". It too struck his strike indicator first and then his dead-drifted egg. We got out of the boat on the far bank. The fish made several strong runs before we were able to coral it.
John landed a another fish at the take-out point; a small spunky female. In all we landed four steelhead and had 4-5 other takes for the day.
It was back to the Zymacord the next day with Gordon as our guide. We bypassed the first two pools that were occupied when we got there. John hooked a small "buck" on the swing at the next pool. Then as we started into the next, narrow pool a heavy steelhead immediately took my egg pattern near the center of the bucket. The pool was short and narrow, but the fish didn't try to leave the pool and unexpectedly turned into some soft water; suddenly Gordon had an impressive "buck" in the net!
We continued downstream and at Salvation pool John hooked and landed a small "hen" and then Gordon, fishing clean-up, took a much bigger fish; both were bright and taken swinging flies.
We continued the drift downstream. There is fast section of water above Austen's hole. It is relatively wide and shallow with a trough along river left and then drops though a series of rapids and ends with a sharp bend to the left at the face of a rock wall. We drifted eggs along the left bank. In less than two feet of water and just as we were about to drift over the lip and into the rapids a steelhead rolled at my fly and I was hooked-up. As we slipped into the rapids the fish wanted to stay in the pool above. I was into my backing when the fish finally turned. We pulled ashore at the inside of the bend at the bottom of the rapids where I got out and finally landed a nice "buck". This was the last fish of the day, which included sun, wind, overcast and fresh snow on the mountain tops.
I decided to fish a sixth day with John and Darren, another guide; it was back to the Zymacord. The day started cold and sunny. We reached Salvation pool by noon without any fish, although we had a couple of takes. We fished the pool hard and finally Darren took a bright "hen" near the tail-out swinging a fly. By late afternoon, now overcast and raining lightly, I finally hooked a small, strong "buck" near the bank, not far upstream from the take-out. We approached a side-stream on river right and pulled over to wade the pool. It was wide and fairly deep with dark water. On my second cast I hooked a heavy fish on an egg pattern that turned out to be the only female I took on the trip, and the third largest fish. John hooked up with another good fish right behind me, but lost it. It was getting late and we soon pulled out of river for the last time on this trip. John would fly back to Colorado tomorrow and later that evening Darren drove me to Prince Rupert to catch the ferry back to Ketchikan. In the end, this turned out to be my best spring, BC steelhead trip yet. I later learned that the rivers dropped again and that fishing fell off the following week.
