Steelhead, fall 2020

[sly_karma]

Heading north tomorrow, destination Houston. Brief report from BIL says Morice is running low but clear, smoke index 1-2 instead of the 10+ where i am. Looking forward to four days of tranquility drifting the river. Post those reports here.

 

[Samnjoe]

Fished the Bulkley 2 years ago and did well.
Have a great trip.
Looking forward to your reports.

 

[Drink]

Heading to the Bulkley on Sunday for 10 days. Looking forward to see what it brings us but not the 15 hour drive. I will assume the river will face tons of pressure as in past years. We have our pontoon boats available but no drift for us as we will only have 1 truck.
Will be boondoggling in a white Ford Pickup with a Northern Lite camper. Honk if you see us in passing.

 

[tubber]

Naked selfies and steelhead reports never leave the internet once posted.

 

[cowieslabslayer]

I’m in PG looking at end of sept trip to the Bulkley. Chatted with Mcbike shop in Smithers and they said it’s super slow right now? Coho still in the system but not much square tails yet.
Reports would be appreciated.

 

[sly_karma]

We're camping at Aspen rec site on Morice FSR. Tight lines to all.

 

[BNF861]

Counting down the days, I’m heading up solo Oct 1st for ten days.

Tyee test fishery numbers looking pretty poor, similar to last year and reports I’ve heard so far are all slow fishing. That being said, can’t wait. Beautiful place to explore and swing a fly

 

[sly_karma]

Lovely relaxing trip with decent weather and great company, but no steelhead. We covered a lot of water in the four days and spoke to a fair few people at camp and the various put-in spots and didn't hear of even one steelhead caught. I got a few small rainbows and dollies so at least I felt something bouncing around on the rod, but not what we were there for. We carried multiple rod and tackle combinations and tried all sorts of flies and lures to no avail. We also worked the usual pools for coho and saw no evidence of them either.

River levels were more medium than low, but water was superbly clear. Not particularly crowded on the river, have seen more people in the past but not deserted either. Saw a nice healthy grizzly sitting on a carcass about 200 m from the Owen Flats put-in spot, so he'll be around there for a while. Yearling black bear hanging around the Aspen site so careful control of garbage and other attractants is needed. Mountain goats clearly visible up in the alpine on Morice Peak, golden eagles and bald eagles busily working the river. Great wildlife spotting opportunities to offset the absence of steelhead.

 

[Sharphooks]

This will be the first October in 42 years that I will miss Skeena Country. It’s an arrow in my heart. I saw the Tyee numbers and thought....here we go again...but I was figuring the ratio of people to available fish will improve to the point that whoever does get to the Promised Land will have a good shot at some fish.

I have to ask—-did you spend all your time in the Houston area or did you get a chance to go down towards Hazelton? There are years when the September fish are still down at the bottom end waiting for rain. I noticed Oscars doesn’t even post reports anymore so I’m curious what the scoop is up there throughout the region rather then just the MOrice.

Thanks for any additional details you might have heard

 

[sly_karma]

My BIL lives in Smithers, says it's slow there too. We stayed on the Morice only while I was there, but this week both BILs are doing some fishing on the Bulkley. Will get an update in a few days when the Okanagan based BIL returns home.

 

[Drink]

Just returned from 9 days on the Bulkley with little to write home about other than slow and slower. Weather was good, river was clear and in good shape other than day 1 the Telkwa was blown out but down river was still fishable. Caught between essential first run which I understand was small. Left the Smithers area after a few days and headed to South Hazelton hoping to meet the next run entering the Bulkley/ Skeena system. Should have done our homework as every community or access road to the river was either barricaded or contested. Decided to head up river to the Telkwa region and fished exclusively for a few days throwing every fly known to man with 1 caught. Pontooners we spoke with were also shut down mostly but with the odd fish was being caught. Fisheries was doing their checks on Saturday and mentioned a few jet boaters down river from Smithers were picking up the odd fish. Returned to Smithers area and on Sunday evening it rained for the first time and Monday morning the Telkwa was totally blown out . Came home on Monday/Tuesday instead as we gave up. Our opinion this week going forward should be a better option.
Note: The highway prior into Houston is being repaved and no centre lines as yet so if travelling at night be extremely cautious as the the conditions were totally unacceptable for travel. We were pissed so we worked our way to Houston and spent the rest of the night consuming cocktails. Hopefully the Ministry does something about this but in my opinion be safe and travel to dusk only.

 

[Sharphooks]

Curious about the community access road being “barricaded or contested”....were these roads down to the Skeena or lower Bulkley, or both? I presume you could get into KSAN where the Skeena meets the Bulkley? Trying to get an idea of what the FN’s have done up there as far as restricting access. Thanks for details

 

[Drink]

Every corridor for access to the Skeena or Bulkley is shut down as far as we went before giving up and turning around.
Local traffic only with FN contested road blocks on all accesses. Tight as a drum so best to contact the local Information Centres for the unknown if considering the lower Bulkley or Skeena areas. Smithers, Telkwa areas is where we had access to the Bulkley for our trip. Unfortunately the fish weren't there for us and the 1 fish caught had been in the river for a while.

 

[Sharphooks]

Thanks for that, Drink... doesn’t paint a rosy picture for resource protection if all eyes and ears are kept off the river by a select few

 

[sly_karma]

Mostly open access on the Morice. Lamprey rec site was closed off but very thing else was open like usual.