There be Rainbows on the Squamish!

The heavy record rains and sub-hurricane winds of the past week sent the Squamish River like all north shore rivers into flood.  It rose over 4 meters (more than 12 feet) in a matter of less than a day, twice!  December on the coast can be like that and it wreaks havoc on the fish and the fishing  opportunities, however I was determined to do anything other than going to the mall and facing the Christmas chaos.  

Since we are rapidly approaching the shortest day of the year there was not a lot of urgency to get up, well, at least getting up at 07:00 is not the usual start time for a day of fishing and the later I got there, hopefully the lower the river would be.  As I headed up Howe Sound on the Sea to Sky highway I started to have misgivings when I saw how muddy the sound looked at a time of year when it should have some of the clearest water and the rather large number of logs floating in the water......the Squamish River, was to blame and I was wondering if it would be fishable????  

Pulling into the town of Squamish, it was comforting to see that it was still pretty quite and sleepy looking and after a fuel up of gas, coffee and a pastry I headed up to the Alice Lake-Squamish River Valley turn off.  The sky was clearing and it felt like the valley was starting to breath after the pounding of wind and rain of the previous week with the low angle sun starting to warm the mountain tops and revealing fresh snow on the lofty coastal mountains.

The road in held some tell tale signs that it might be a tough day fishing, not the least of which were the multi-streaming waterfalls cascading off the hill sides and the flooded ditches.  When I got to the end of paved road, the saw horse barriers staring back at me at the start of the gravel road were not optimistic looking.  One had been pulled aside so I forged on up the road but the mud in the trees and the washed out gravel of the road was only the start as someone had placed a pumpkin on top of a log that lay partly across the road as an organic orange pylon warning of rough stuff to come.  Luckily, the water had receded except at km 4 Up to 5 Up where water crossed the road and happily, a coho was swimming amongst the trees in a channel of clear water.

The coho was a welcome sight but it seemed that there weren't nearly the number that had been there last year when they were in the stream into the start of February.  Still it was a hopeful sign.

The eagles for which Squamish and Brackendale are famous for were there, but not nearly in the numbers of last year and the concerning fact is that the month of very heavy rains and high waters seems to have washed most of the salmon carcasses away.  Last February, hundreds to thousands of eagles were fighting over salmon carcasses  that littered the shorelines and coho were still spawning in late January.  This year, the eagles were perched in trees or rising in spirals as they rode the developing thermal drafts starting to up the valley as the sun warmed the mountain sides. Very few were finding the salmon carcasses they need to feast on till late winter.

Another reason the eagles in were hanging in the trees was likely the very large amount of wolf tracks which criss-crossed everywhere.  One sand dune was obviously a broadcast hill for the nightly wolf sing-a-long.  The wolves had discouraged the deer as there wasn't a track in sight but the moose cows and calves were still in the area.

The main stem of the river was back within it's bank but could have dropped a meter before it reaches it's optimum fishing depth and clarity.  The muddy water was clearing enough to fish but there were no takers so I moved to the side channels and smaller streams which had cleared.  The coho were there and the males were getting red sides and hooked noses and some of the females formerly silver sides were still just greying.  After some half hearted follows of my fly, I decided to focus on the chrome torpedoes that were cruising the edge of the pools or lying in wait down stream of the spawning coho.

I tied on a salmon colored egg pattern about a meter below a strike indicator float and the first drift was only half complete when the float dipped below the surface and the battle was on.  (Click here for a You Tube Clip)

The sun continued to rise and the objective was to look for areas down stream of spawning coho where the current would drift the loose eggs into waiting mouths of rainbows trout that looked like sophomore steelheads.  The rainbows had full fat bellies and were very acrobatic with multiple cartwheels and runs that made the reel sing!

Not to be outdone, eventually some bull trout fell to the lure of the drifting egg pattern and their beautiful colorations provided some unique photos and some nice fights, though the rainbow trout were larger and most aggressive.  Click here for a battle You Tube.

As the weather is trending to a spate of dry and cooling days with snow creeping down from the mountaintops the Squamish River should continue to drop and clear.  If some late run coho come in then the rainbow and bull trout will continue to compete for the drifting eggs.  Anyone with a good egg pattern, may have some good winter fishing to help break up the seasonal feasting and a good reason to escape from the shopping malls.

Tight Lines.