Photo credit: Loon Bay Resort
Cariboo Chilcotin region
Sheridan Lake at Sunset.
Fishing the Cariboo Chilcotin
The vast Cariboo Chilcotin Coast region extends west from the Interior Plateau over the Coast Mountains range, and out to the Pacific Ocean to include the Central Coast archipelago. High glacier-capped pinnacles, dense temperate rain forests, arid interior range lands, and expansive seascapes are all part of the region’s diversity.
The area is steeped in remarkable and stimulating history. For thousands of years, First Nations have occupied the region, their heritage and legends preserved in living tradition. Long before Lewis and Clark, Alexander Mackenzie, with fellow explorers and native guides, reached the Pacific Ocean overland in 1793 — his audacious trek now marked by a commemorative cairn at a low headland in Dean Channel.
It was the Cariboo gold rush during the mid-1800s that prompted European settlement in the region, accelerating with the construction of the Cariboo Waggon Road. Long sections of the road remain much the same as in the 1860s, while modern Highway 97 has incorporated other sections of the original route. After the gold rush, pioneering families established farms and ranches atop the sweeping, grassy bench lands of the great Interior Plateau overlooking deep river gorges that gouge through the towering Cariboo and Coast Mountains. Today, the district’s rich natural resources form the economic livelihood for miners, loggers, and fishermen.
Williams Lake & Area
Connecting Williams Lake in the interior to Bella Coola on the coast, the Chilcotin Road (Highway 20) passes through the traditional territory of the Tsilhqot’in nation. The route exemplifies the unflinching pioneering spirit of the people who — when the government at the time refused — built the road themselves, defiantly naming it the Freedom Highway. Travellers looking for freshwater or saltwater fishing adventures in the great Central Coast archipelago can drive in via Highway 20, fly in, or use B.C. Ferries’ Discovery Coast service from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island to Shearwater, Bella Bella, Klemtu, Ocean Falls, and Bella Coola.
The Cariboo Chilcotin Coast offers superb fishing in cool, clear, fertile waters that produce prolific insect hatches. Far from major population centres, there are some 8,000 lakes and over 17,000 kilometres of streams where you will frequently find that you are the only angler enjoying the idyllic solitude of the surrounding woodlands and snow-blanketed peaks.
There is splendid freshwater fishing for aerobatic rainbow trout, pretty eastern brook trout, Dolly Varden, trophy lake char, whitefish, and great-tasting kokanee. All species of smaller trout and char will attack trolled lures with abandon. Spin-casting with small spinners or spoons, or drift-jigging small lead jigs, are also very effective....
Pick up your copy of West Coast Sport Fishing Guide for detailed location information and fishing forecast reports from Daniel Wei and Suzanne Clouthier.