Best Fly Fishing is in Vancouver BC

The fish were thrashing the river surface as they chased millions of Salmon fry!

Antonio's junior and senior wanted to fly fish while in Vancouver at a convention. We were on the Squamish river directly northwest of Vancouver in a undisclosed area and the day started off with a bang. Antonio senior had fly fished here and there, mostly with guides so he was a bit rusty with his casting techniques. His 3rd cast and a mend and then wham! his line goes tight and a fish rips line of the reel at lightning speed, the line ripping across the river makes that searing acoustic and a 12 lb Steelhead thrashes on the surface before I could even get my iphone 5 filming it. A little bit of coaching was required and then I got to filming the experience. This fish had stamina!, but after 5 minutes it was getting close to landing it in the shallows. Then the chrome steelhead made a frenzied attempt to hightail it out of our area and that action combined with an excited angler that wouldn't let the fish take line resulted in a lost fly and fish. I see this too much I thought. I hope there's another chance sometime today for them to hook another gorgeous metalhead.

We were after bull trout and we had bull trout streamers and salmon fry patterns to choose from. I tie all our flies at home. I like olive sculpin patterns that are thick. They range in size from 2.5 - 4 inches long and I tie in a trailer hook and cut off the original at the start of the bend. Single barbless is the rule here in all BC river fishing. 1 angler has a sculpin fly and the other a salmon fry. Our first run that we fished only produced that Steely even though I was convinced that we would have multiple hookups. When fish rise I see them and I kept seeing them on the other side of the river well out of casting range(the river is almost 100 yds wide here). We continued to fish on our side making our way downstream and fishing in each run or 'fishy section' but with no success. So it was time to head back to the truck and move on.

Nice Rainbow trout

30 minutes later and we are approaching our next run after a 10 minute walk through some scenic forested wilderness. As we approach the run we can see fish thrashing, quite a few of them actually. As we don't need to spook feeding fish I make sure the guys don't wade out far and walk with a stealthy foot. Junior's first cast and it's fish on! The streamer pattern has done it's trick on a 4 lb bull trout. I film the battle and get a nice picture. Senior's got a fish on too but it's not a bull trout, he lands a beauty 4 lb rainbow! The salmon fry pattern works magic too.

20 minutes later and a few more fish too and junior hooks into something big. The water is relatively clear and I can see a large bull sulking in the current. It's got a lot of power and pump's that rod with authority. It looks big like a steelhead just because of the size but the fight is not the same. bull's have a well suited name, they bulldog you. They don't care for the surface so instead go deep and work you. They can also go for long runs too if it's a bigger fish. The bull's around here average 2-3 lbs but once in a while we get them up to 10-12 lbs. The biggest that we've heard of was 17 lbs that was caught on the upper Pitt river just east of Vancouver. After a great battle the fish comes in for a great photo.

Chunky 7 lb Bull trout

A little while later junior hooks into another great fish! Immediately this fish is jumping and making all kinds of trouble on the surface. This is either a rainbow or cutthroat. It turns out to be a Cutty of near 4 lbs which is the biggest one I have ever seen on this river. Most of them are in the 12-16 inch range and under a pound so this is quite the fish. I was just about to take it's pic and junior dropped it and it swam away. That would have been a great photo.

Back to fishing they go, dad trying to keep up with his son's success. Dad does get another fish, another rainbow about 2 lbs. The bite started to slow down a bit but I could see fish rising about 10 yards further than dad could cast so I offered to take a few casts for him. I punched one way out there and made a big mend and before I could hand him the rod my line went tight and a 10+ lb steelhead was freaking out and dancing all over the place. I tried to pass the rod to him but the fish got away. It was a great day of fly fishing but I guess a landed steelhead was not in the cards.

We had to get back to the hotel so we ended the day at 3pm. I knew I would have to write about this day and put together a video.

Watch the Youtube video here

Fly fishing in the Vancouver area offers amazing stories, successes and thrills. This is a resource that is priceless.

Brian Mack @ Silversides Fishing Adventures