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ERIC BERGER PHOTOGRAPHY
Fishing Cariboo Chilcotin Coast
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ERIC BERGER PHOTOGRAPHY
Fishing Cariboo Chilcotin Coast
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Shearwater Resort
Fishing Cariboo Chilcotin Coast
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Joern Rohde
Fishing Cariboo Chilcotin Coast
Rivers Inlet Sportsman's Club
By David C. Kimble
Ardent anglers consider the massive Cariboo Chilcotin Coast region the heart and soul of all the marvellous places to fish in our beautiful province. Whatever any angler desires, he or she is likely to find it here. It might be casting dry flies upstream to high-jumping rainbow trout, or dropping a two-pound weight-and-bait for a massive halibut in the 120-metre (400-foot) depths of the Central Coast. It might be fly-casting your own special hand-tied fly to a gargantuan steelhead trout in the famous Dean River, or waiting – with every muscle tensed – for a 9.1-kilogram (20-pound) coho salmon to slam into your bucktail, fast-trolled just six metres (20 feet) behind your boat in Hakai Passage. Very soon after wetting your line in the superb Cariboo Chilcotin Coast region, you’ll be pinching yourself to be certain that you haven’t died and gone to the angler’s Valhalla.
There are numerous fly-in resorts along the spectacular Central Coast, from the famous Rivers Inlet to well north of Shearwater and Milbanke Sound. Visiting anglers, amazed by the abundance of salmon, halibut, and lingcod that are caught annually, will think it’s all a dream. However, the incredible fishing is real, and coolers full of tasty fillets to take home will be there to prove it.
The haunting, often surreal rainforest between the central coastline and the towering peaks of the majestic Coast Mountains is interlaced with dozens of fertile rivers and streams that are the spawning destinations of all five species of Pacific salmon, steelhead trout, Dolly Varden char, and high-jumping coastal cutthroat trout. Popular, more accessible spots on legendary rivers like the Dean, Atnarko and Bella Coola may witness numerous anglers who are hiking, wading and casting. However, a short helicopter flight up these prolific rivers offers amazing wilderness fishing from guided drift boats in hidden pools where few other anglers have ever cast their lines. And don’t be surprised if an elusive Kermode bear appears while waiting for your next salmon bite.
The Alexander Mackenzie Highway (#20) climbs up and out of the Bella Coola Valley to Tweedsmuir Park, and proceeds eastward through Chilcotin Country. Before 1953, residents of Bella Coola could only access their community by boat, and winter storms often left them stranded for months without supplies. Local residents – many of them loggers with some heavy equipment – decided to build a road up the nearly impossible 18% grade, gaining 1,600 metres (5,000 feet) to connect with Highway 20 at Anahim Lake, and thus have the ability to drive out to Williams Lake and access the rest of British Columbia. They called their humble road the Freedom Highway; however, B.C. Highways took over the maintenance of the road and re-named it after the explorer Alexander Mackenzie, who had first reached the Pacific Ocean using this route 12 years before the more famous American explorers, Lewis and Clark.
The region between the Coast Mountains and the Fraser River is called Chilcotin Country. It is known for its wide stretches of grasslands, its range cattle with real working cowboys, and numerous sawmills utilizing the wood from forests as far as the eye can see. And for visiting anglers, it’s the pristine lakes and streams loaded with hard-fighting rainbow trout, along with many resorts that cater to all their whims and desires.
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