DEAN RIVER EXPEDITION

[Sharphooks]

I’ve always considered myself first and foremost a steelheader. I’ve been chasing steel since the mid 70’s and during all those years, I’ve only missed one or two trips up to Skeena Country and get as much time in on my home waters as water conditions and regs allow....there are way more months in the year open to fishing steelhead then there are to fishing salmon so there’s that.

Meanwhile, when I fished the THompson River in the 80’s and 90’s, I used to hear stories about the Dean River—-how those were the only other steelhead in the world that could hold a candle to Thompson fish as far as taking your reel down to the bare spool on just the first run.

But as soon as I heard that the only way to get a piece of the Dean steelhead was to stay in a lodge, I mentally crossed that river off my list. I’m just not a lodge kind of guy. I fish to be alone and getting jetted up and down a river in somebody else’s boat ain’t being alone

So this past July I had a friend ask if I wanted to partner with him in a DYI trip to the Dean: we’d charter a helicopter from Hagensborg and they’d drop us off on the river and we’d camp and fish for a straight week. I was all in on that approach and signed on.

In retrospect, just getting to the airfield to meet the chopper was a huge ordeal....fires everywhere which meant lots of extra driving due to all the detours. Then there was highway 20 out of Williams Lake down to Bella Coola. That was an adventure in itself—-pea-soup fog, driving through thick clouds while dodging logging trucks on hair-pin corners while negotiating a 15 degree grade. Yikes—- aside from being an engineering masterpiece, it’s a genuine contender for pucker factor....and guys drag their boats up and down that hill—-crazy.

The guy I went with didn’t mess around when it came to bringing gear:

I had a rod case, my reel collection, a tent, and a few packages of smoked fish for the bears...otherwise I travel light

Here was our camp site for 8 days.

Due to fires everywhere, the upper river was shut down to DYI campers so we ended up in a spot that we hadn’t planned on. But it turned out to be on a productive hole.

My partner had 7 or 8 trips to the Dean already under his belt so he knew what those fish wanted and out-hooked me in the fish department. When I finally figured out these fish liked dry flies, I caught a few. Amazing to see them boil the skin of the river and suck your fly down!

This was my partner’s first fish: It took off down stream and a guide helped him get it by bringing him to the other side of the river via jet boat which explains the net

Wow, what a specimen!

I brought out the sinking line to get a bit deeper and hooked a few fish, one of them which took me to the spool of my reel before I had a chance to even get out of the river. It went over the lip of a set of rapids and that was it . I mentioned to my partner that I hadn’t had a fish like that in over 15 years. I have a nice battle scar: a crease in my knuckle where the running line cut me almost to the bone on that run

It reminded me of a Thompson fish I hooked below the Black Canyon downstream of Ashcroft back in the good old days. The fish took my fly at a sprint then proceeded to peel off 200 yards of fly line and backing on one long uninterrupted run that was a stone-cold wonder to behold. I remember thinking the only way I could have gotten near that fish would have been to have had a Kawasaki 500 powered up on the beach waiting for me with dirt tires

The sinking line also bought me a nice chinook: It was heartening to see all the chinook in the hole we were fishing....I couldn’t help wondering if maybe I hooked this same fish this summer in Dean Channel

The down-side of the trip: a fire just upstream. When the wind came up it was like smoking a pack of Marlboros every day

This particular day was towards the end of the trip once the fire ate up most of its burnables——you can see it still smoldering off in the distance
It’s the only picture I have of me casting... I guess there’s an up-side of fishing with a partner——they can document whether you’re a crappy caster or not...ha ha

All and all, a very cool trip. The heli ride over and back was phenomenal—-flying over the towering granite domes of the Kitimat Range was amazing—-unbelievable country!

Would I go back? Probably not. Too much jet boat and chopper activity —— I’ll stick to canyon cutting on foot or going up to Skeena country and taking my chance with the dwindling Region VI fish. But it was an amazing experience for me, especially seeing the Dean Channel and Kimsquit from the air

 

[rockdog]

As always, I enjoyed reading your story. You have posted some great write-ups over the years.

 

[Sitkaspruce]

Thanks for sharing your trip!!

Worked in that area for a few years, love the Bella Coola Valley and the whole area.

Have you fished the Sustat River? Was lucky enough to work up that way as well and got to fish the Sustat for springs and steelhead. Amazing river to fish!

Cheers

SS

 

[Fisher_dude]

I worked up at the lower Dean river lodge for 2 summers when I was 17-18. I loved it up there. Dunno why I ever left.

 

[Hyde-N-Seek]

Awesome write up as usual. It’s my bucket list. One day lol

 

[Sharphooks]

Thanks for sharing your trip!!

Worked in that area for a few years, love the Bella Coola Valley and the whole area.

Have you fished the Sustat River? Was lucky enough to work up that way as well and got to fish the Sustat for springs and steelhead. Amazing river to fish!

Cheers

SS

No, never fished the Sustut River. I heard it was an amazing place to fish back in the good old days. These days, it’s suffering mightily along with the rest of the Skeena tributaries. Only a handful of fish have been counted crossing the weir this year, as in single digits!

 

[Sitkaspruce]

No, never fished the Sustut River. I heard it was an amazing place to fish back in the good old days. These days, it’s suffering mightily along with the rest of the Skeena tributaries. Only a handful of fish have been counted crossing the weir this year, as in single digits!

Yeah, I got to fish the Sustat in the mid 90's to mid 2000. I have a few pictures around someplace. I worked in the Minaret area off and on and stayed at Suskeena Lodge with Wendy and Floyd Boyd. We would help Wendy and Floyd around the camp when we had time off and he would take us out on the river for fishing trips. Mainly after springs, but the odd steelhead as well.

They sold the Lodge to a guy who I ended up guiding moose, goats and bear for. He never really used the fishing side of the program, so he let Wendy and Floyd sub lease it off of him. He sold it to someone who, I heard, was not a fishing person and looked at it as nothing but a money maker. That didn't last long! Now I see that the Talka Nation has bought it and injected some money into it.

There used to be a run of 25000 springs into the Bear River system. Now it is in single digits???

Cheers

SS

 

[Sharphooks]

The single-digit weir count on the Sustut I mentioned was for steelhead. That was a few weeks ago—I’m sure it’s improving as we get into September but the Skeena overall is shaping up to be the 6th WORST steelhead return in the history of the Tyee catch index so I’m sure the Sustut will also feel the pain of a severely depleted steelhead run

I’m guessing the chinook returns are better. It seemed like pretty much everywhere on the West Coast showed good chinook returns compared to past years. I saw rolling chinook in every hole I fished on the Dean River and the catch results from this summer in the salt chuck seemed good everywhere all over BC and Washington State