2 days Fishing the Columbia River

Day 1

The most gorgeous day fishing on the river. I am running out of way to describe how beautiful BC is but I will keep trying. Raquel’s friend Jack very kindly took me out for a few hours fishing on the Columbia river which is world famous for its Rainbow trout fishing.

We started at one spot where I tried on the fly and he used a spinner and bait. We didn’t even have as much as a nibble but I am glad we went as the view down the river was worthy of a postcard.

We then moved further up the river to Jack’s favourite spot which is a massive eddy. The Columbia river is by far the biggest river I have fished and apparently if you want to fish on the fly its best do to it from a boat. I had a quick go with the fly rod with an indicator but quickly moved to bottom fishing which is the most effective technique from the shore. We were using prawn as bait and before we were able to get the second rod set up Jack was in to a fish. Over the next 45 mins we had three fish out and lost a couple of others. Given our level of success I switched back to fly fishing as I felt it was very easy with bait despite Jack telling me it wasn’t always like this. However over the next couple hours we had no more takes with any methods. However it was a beautiful spot so we were very happy just relaxing.

Probably the biggest highlight was seeing numerous sturgeon break the surface in the river. A couple of smaller ones came up near us but there was a big one making some large splashes out in the middle and could see its big tail fin. They are protected here but you can fish for the on other rivers so definitely need to add them to the list at some point.

Jack told me all about the winter rainbow fishing and fishing for large dolley varden in the lakes which combined with the excellent back country skiing on offer I think i will definitely be back in the next month or so for a long weekend or two.

Day 2

Today I was fishing with Wayne, another of Raquel’s friends, on the opposite side of the river at Blueberry Creek.

Again it was a beautiful part of the river and the mist took longer to burn off which created a really cool atmosphere. Unfortunately we didn’t get in to any fish but it was lovely just being by the river and fishing. We were using worms on the bottom and tried a float but no luck with either technique. The fish seemed to be able to take the bait but just never got one on. We used little marshmallows again on the hooks which seems to be a local trick, no one was able to explain it to me but it worked with Jack so not going to question it.

Wayne also invited me to come back and go fishing this winter when the fishing is the best which was very kind and will definitely take him up on the offer. As we left we ran in to some people who said the best time at that spot was the evening on the dry fly which would have been awesome but unfortunately I just not have time on this trip.

Next time fishing the river I will make sure I target them on the fly as they are a good size and would be very exciting. Someone got a 18lbs fish out on the fly from that spot this week.