The Squamish River is a large river in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC). The Squamish and it’s tributaries offer great fishing opportunities for a variety of salmon and trout species. Chinook, Coho, chum and pink salmon run into the system for spawning. Dolly Vardens, cutthroats and rainbows (including a significant steelhead run in spring) constitute the trout selection.
I’m in Vancouver as a filler of sorts prior to heading to Alaska, so I decided to book guides for four days of fishing in the Squamish area. Local guide Logan for the first two days and Tom for the remainder.
My first day starts when picked up in Vancouver up by Logan nice and early at 7am, we head north from downtown to the Squamish river system. In barely an hour, including a coffee and food stop, we park and get ready to fish. The main target species is pink salmon. These fish run into the river systems every second year, and they appear in the thousands. As we walk out to what has been the hot spot of late, Logan explains the behaviour of pink salmon once they are up the river and why we’ll be fishing particular sections of the long runs that meander through the valley.
Fishing among great scenery.
The fish push through faster water and eventually settle for a rest where the flow is more sedate and it’s these areas where they are most likely to take a fly. They tend to congregate in quite specific spots and it’s common to go from no action to catching fish simply by moving a few feet up or downstream. The most productive method is to swing flies across & down. Most takes are late and sometimes at the very end of the swing so it pays to let the fly hang there for up to ten seconds before re-casting. Once I tuned into the required technique I was catching fish and by the end of the four days I had landed around forty of these great salmon ranging from four to seven pounds.
Female pink salmon about to be released.
The default fly colour is pink, however chartreuse and orange also work. In fact, over the first two days chartreuse worked best, and the last two days saw action mainly on pink, with orange playing a part late in the day. Flies used are simple and mostly bead chain ‘Charlie’ style flies, and sparsely tied minnow patterns.
On the Squamish in September, expect your rod to be bent often!
Logan and Tom certainly worked hard to show me the best the Squamish can produce at this time of year. As well as pink salmon, there was always the chance of a much larger Coho or chum salmon, and they had me work likely spots hard with useful tips gained through their combined forty years experience fishing the area.
A male pink salmon with distinctive jaw and hump back.
I would certainly recommend the Squamish to anyone visiting Vancouver or surrounds. With its easy driving distance from the city, spectacularly beautiful river valleys and excellent fishing, it’s pretty much a no brainer to book a guide for at least a couple of days. Personally, I’m looking forward to coming back, perhaps in April/May next time …. Logan and Tom’s tales of huge steelhead in the very places I was just fishing make me want have to at least one serious crack at these magnificent fish.
