Spring Rains are Making the Squamish Tricky to Fish

The end of March signals the slowing of steel head in the Vedder but there are still fish to be had.  Also in the Chehalis you can flog the waters of the river upstream and downstream of the the hatchery or if you are up to the effort, you can hike or paddle into the canyon and fish the deep pools.  The days of heavy rains rapidly swell the rivers so checking the river profiles on the home page of this web site will be a must before heading out.

The warmer winter weather means warmer river temperatures and that will spur on the salmon fry to hatch earlier as the number of degree-days will be higher this year than in recent years.  A degree day is a measure of water temperature x the number of days at that temperature.  The higher the degree days in a month the more energy the eggs receive and the faster they develop and hatch.  This means minnow patterns will be the go to fly if you are going after bull trout, cutties and rainbows that leave the overwintering pools or enter the rivers from salt water to start feasting on salmon fry.

Experimenting with patterns is a fun thing to do on these rainy March days but when it comes to trout that have been overwintering in deep holes since last December, the prospect of fresh salmon fry  is very tempting and pretty much any minnow may be too much for a big bull trout to resist.

Fry were already visible off the West Vancouver foreshore and in the lower end of the Squamish last weekend.  This weekend, more fry were making their appearance in the river and the Mergansers are gathering at creek mouths and choke points to start feasting on fry. 

Along with the predatory ducks, the bull trout are starting to take notice as well. This early in the salmon fry  hatch some of the trout have definitely worn off their winter fat and are very streamlined but once the salmon fry hatch really gets going they will start to pork out and gorge on any minnow (real or a fly pattern) that happens to be unlucky enough to swim by.  Four of these nice bull trout decided the above patterns were too good to pass up yesterday.  


On the Squamish River, the month of April is traditionally the best month as its late run steelhead start to move into the river.  Up to now, most fishers have been flogging the Cheakamus and some have had success with bull trout as well.  The Squamish will also start to improve with the increasing salmon fry hatch.  

The Squamish steelhead having just come out of salt water a few km back will readily slam a large minnow pattern so tossing a large minnow can result in a lucky adrenalin pumping battle.  If minnow aren't doing it for you, then using some variations of the San Juan worm above will work for bull trout or steel head so be prepared to switch to either one.

Tight lines.