October is a great time for targeting Steelhead and Coho (Silver) Salmon on the Skeena River and its tributaries. With the autumn colours the scenery out on the rivers is spectacular. We have been having some good fishing for big northern Coho. Here is a photo of Louis with one of the Coho he caught whilst fishing with us this week. Louis and his two fishing buddies had several nice fish on their day trip. He said he will remember this day for a long time.

Fishing for us has been going well despite high water conditions and our anglers have caught good fish most days. Howard Steiss and his son Hogan from B.C. were fishing with us for a few days. Howard landed his first ever Steelhead on their first day out on the Skeena. The next day Hogan hooked into a lively fish and was pretty pleased when he landed a super Steelhead that was larger than his Dad’s! Congratulations to Howard for landing a Steelhead on the fly on his first day ever fly fishing for Steelhead.

For Troy Adams and Marcus Ervin of Santa Cruz CA this was their 6th year fishing with Kalum River Lodge. They had a great two weeks on the Skeena River with Thomas from Germany who joins them every year.

The fly fishermen hooked into good numbers of fish most days. With the higher water the fresh feisty fish can give a good fight and be a challenge to land but as you can see from the photos the guys brought some superb silver Steelhead and large Coho to the bank. They also landed Sockeye and Pinks. (Click on each photo to see them full size).

September is a great time to be out on the Skeena River, not only for the super fishing but for the spectacular sunrises and of course the wildlife. Each day our guests watched a bear on the opposite bank and beavers swimming along just in front them.

Troy, Marcus and Thomas are returning next year – same time, same place!!

Heavy rain at the beginning of the week meant that the Skeena River has been extremely high and dirty. With these challenging conditions we changed our tactics and looked for areas where fish were moving. This paid off and our guests started to catch a variety of salmon and some Steelhead. After a few days the Skeena started to drop and as the visibility improved so did the fishing with good numbers of fish migrating up the river with the high water. Our guests Annella Campbell and David Pickering, who traveled from Australia especially to fish with us on the Skeena, caught a lot of salmon and some stunning Steelhead. Annella hooked a large Chinook on her first day and said that she had caught her “fish of a lifetime”. Annella also landed some good sized Steelhead. David, who is a fishing guide on the rivers in New Zealand, was very impressed with the Skeena fishing. He enjoyed some exciting fights with the Skeena Steelhead and landed some lovely silver fish. They were joined by Kermit Johnson from Dakota, USA, who landed Sockeye, Coho, Pink salmon and Steelhead. Here are just a few photos of our guests with some of their super catches.

Now long time guests Troy Adams and Marcus (Whitey) Ervin of Santa Cruz CA are back at Kalum River Lodge for another season with their fishing buddy Thomas from Germany. These anglers are hoping to catch some large Steelhead again this year. We will keep you posted!!

It has been a great week’s fishing on the Skeena and Kitimat Rivers for our group of four fly fishermen from the UK. They had an action-packed week and and on their best day the anglers hooked over 80 salmon. All five species of Pacific salmon along with some fresh Steelhead, Cutthroat trout and Char were landed.

First time fly angler Mike Tracey soon mastered the spey rod and landed some super fish including Steelhead and Chum salmon. Steve Lobley who had not caught a salmon before, hooked into several on his first morning. Phil Barker battled with some strong fish and landed a number of big Chum and Pink salmon on the Kitimat. Returning guest Tony Fairclough enjoyed another great week’s fishing and was already talking about coming back next year before he had finished his last day!
Here are just a few of the many photos of the fish caught this past week.

Just one day’s fishing on the Skeena river is all they could fit into their trip to B.C., but for father and son Eberhard and Martin from Germany and their friend Sören, it turned out to be a great one. They hooked a lot of fish and by the end of the day they had landed over a dozen Steelhead, Coho, Pinks and several trout. The next stop for the guys is Prince Rupert for some ocean fishing. Their Skeena river adventure far surpassed their expectations and they have said they will do their best to get back here as soon as they can.

In the last two weeks we have landed some monster Chinook on the Skeena river. These powerful fish have given our guests some great fights, some were won but many were lost. With the Chinook taking over 200 yards of line it is a challenge to bring them to the bank. Most of the Chinook landed have been 30lb plus. Longinos Valesco travelled from Spain to catch a large Chinook and he was not disappointed when on his first day he landed one weighing 58lb. His grandson, Miguel, also caught a lot of salmon and had fun fighting some big Chum salmon. Wilson Kwong landed a 47lb Chinook, his biggest one so far, whilst his friend Masami Wakabayashi landed a Chinook of around 35lb. The smiles say it all!

August is a great time to fish here for all five species of salmon and anglers also have the chance of catching Steelhead. Last year, Peter and Alan Rush from Virginia had some great fishing, and this year they returned with their cousin Matt Wiener. Our returning guest Matthew from the UK joined the boys for the week and what a week it was. We fished the Kalum, Skeena and Kitimat rivers and the anglers wrestled with several big Chinook and brought a lot of salmon to the bank. On their last day they fly fished on the Kitimat river and it was an action-packed day. Matthew hooked into over 250 fish, whilst Alan reported 180 hook-ups and Peter and Matt were into over a hundred each.

There were so many photos taken of their catches – here is just a few. Matt, who learnt to fly fish this week, said “I have never caught fish so big or so many fish in one day before. This was the most fun fishing I have ever had. I will definitely be back next year!” And we are sure his cousins will be joining him!

The Skeena river is now producing Chinook, Sockeye, Coho and Pinks. As well as salmon we are now starting to catch Steelhead. The Kalum river has been fishing well for Chinooks and our guests are enjoying the option of fishing several different rivers during their stay.

In the next few weeks an angler has the chance to catch all five species of salmon, Steelhead, Cuthroat and Dolly Varden. Here are Mike and Wayne with a couple Chinook that they caught during their stay.

We are having some great fishing on the Skeena and Kalum rivers. In the last week we have caught some superb Chinook and Sockeye Salmon. Our long time client Gerald Gumpert from Germany also landed a 20lb Steelhead shortly after arriving at the lodge. Gerald has been fishing the Skeena since 1987. First time guest, Dave Armstrong from Cambridge UK, landed 4 Chinook salmon on his first day. The largest fish being 27lb. Dave continued to catch some respectable Chinook and Sockeye through out the week. All of Dave’s family and friends are anxiously awaiting his return this weekend for a wild salmon barbeque.

Everyday more fish are entering the rivers as well as the tackle breaking massive Chinooks. It is not unusual to hook salmon over 50lb at this time of year. Our lodge record is 73lb on gear and 65lb on the fly for Chinook Salmon and 30lb for Steelhead. Kalum River Lodge anglers arriving next week will be targeting the big Chinook as this is prime time for these monster fish.

The summer King salmon season at Kalum River lodge has started. Alan Taylor, from Dorset, UK, landed a beautiful Chinook on his first salmon fishing day ever. After a tough battle and several jumps this bright silver salmon was brought to the bank. Alan was amazed at the strength of these powerful fish. Alan’s fish was released unharmed to continue its journey up the river. He remarked that his experience has far exceeded his expectations and he will be returning next year.

Another great fishing day at Kalum River Lodge.

Kalum River Lodge’s spring Steelhead is off to a fantastic start. With good fishing conditions and large numbers of Steelhead in the rivers, clients are having some very successful fishing days. The warmer temperatures and rising waters are bringing more fresh Steelhead into the rivers everyday.

Our guests at the lodge have enjoyed multiple hook ups of Steelhead most days. The average size has been between 12-14lb, however one lucky angler hooked a Steelhead that was well over 20lb.

This is a great time to battle some powerful Steelhead. Within the next couple weeks the first Chinook of the year start to arrive in the Kalum river adding to the excitement of this already superb spring fishery. With the choice of several rivers our guests can drift or jet boat to some of British Columbia’s finest waters.

If you think you would like to try our exciting spring Steelhead or fighting some powerful Chinook salmon we are offering a specially priced package. You may view these on our specials page.

It was another great week of fishing on the Kalum river. I spent a couple of days walking along the bank enjoying the warm sun whilst casting into various pools. I landed a couple of super Steelhead the first day, and was into several nice fish on the second.

Our first guests of the 2011 season arrived this week and within the first few days the two anglers have landed over 25 Steelhead. And they still have 4 more days of fishing to go! Keep an eye on this page as photos and an overview of their trip will follow at the end of the week.

Things are starting to warm up here after a long winter. The days are getting longer and the snow is slowly starting to melt. Fishing for Steelhead in the Kalum River has been excellent. The river is still very low so I was able to wade across it in several places. I hiked along the river fishing some of my favourite pools. I had only been fishing for a short time when I hooked into a powerful fish. There is nothing better on a warm spring day than feeling the power of a large Steelhead stripping line as it charges across the river. After several runs I had a beautiful Steelhead at my feet.

I continued to fish the pool and within a few moments I was into another fish, which was even bigger than the first. After another great battle my second Steelhead was landed. Returned home grateful for another superb day’s fishing. The weather forecast is for a week of sunny skies so I will definitely be back out on the river soon.

Warmer temperatures this last week has provided some great fishing opportunities. With winter finally releasing it’s grip we expect some great fishing days in the coming weeks. After a day of skiing I took a walk down to the Kalum river to check the fishing.

The water was low from the last week of colder weather. This makes for great walking with all the exposed shoreline. In a very short period of time I had landed a Steelhead and a couple Dolly Varden. I am really looking forward to the warmer days on the river to do battle with some of these fantastic spring Steelhead.

Just returned from an excellent ice fishing trip. A long time friend and client, Peter Earnst, had invited me to join him ice fishing in the lakes country. As it is about a three and a half hour drive from Terrace we decided to take a couple days so we could see more of the area. The countryside is beautiful with a rich history of early settlers pioneering the wilds of northern B.C.

We fished a couple of the lakes for Char (Lake trout), Burbot and Brook trout. Temperatures we very favourable ranging from -3 to -11C. After drilling a couple holes in the ice, my partner Deanna and I were into fish almost immediately. Within the first ten minutes I hooked into a fish, which when it reached the surface and I saw it’s head in the hole, it suddenly propelled itself out of the hole and onto the ice. It was a lovely Char of 7.5 lb. Shortly after, Deanna landed a 10lb 4 ounce Char, and hooked another fish that took a lot of line before escaping. Needless to say the Char fishing had pleasantly surprised us both and exceeded our expectations. We fished for another couple of hours and had a few more takes and Deanna landed a Kokanee (a land-locked Sockeye salmon). Later that afternoon we put out a set line for Burbot with the hope of catching one overnight.

Next morning we returned to the lake with anticipation, but unfortunately the bait on our set line had gone and no Burbot was caught. We will definitely try again next time we visit the lakes as this is a fish neither of us have caught and they are reasonably plentiful in some of the lakes we were fishing.

We went to another lake to fish for Brook trout and caught several of these pretty fish that weighed around 1 lb. However, the lure of the Char was too hard to resist, so we returned to our other fishing spot hoping to catch a larger one. After a couple of hours of jigging Deanna landed one about 5 lbs. The locals told us that the average size of the Char caught are 5 to 7lbs, however, the largest fish caught in recent years weighed in at 48lb. A fish this size would certainly require drilling a significantly larger hole in the ice than we did.

The Char were caught jigging a Tom Mack lure between 60 to120 ft of water whilst the Brook trout were caught on bait in 6-12 feet of water.

We are now back home looking forward to our spring Steelhead season which starts in less than three weeks.

Warmer temperatures have given us some good fishing opportunities this week. I hooked several Steelhead yesterday on the Kalum river. The fish in the photo was caught with one of our lodge tied special flies. With lots of Steelhead in the river we are looking forward to the start of our guiding season in March when our first clients arrive. Join us for some excellent spring Steelheading – see our specials page for the early season opener.

Tight lines

Andrew Rushton

The Kalum river has been producing some excellent Steelhead fishing this fall and winter. Despite the cold weather and heavy snow fall, warmer temperatures early this week made for some favourable days for winter Steelhead fishing.

Andrew (Owner/Guide) landed a nice Steelhead yesterday just a 5 minute walk from Kalum River Lodge. He caught this beauty after only a few casts. The Kalum is full of Steelhead at this time of year and on the warmer days nothing beats a walk along the river catching Steelhead and Char. Good fishing should continue right through to the spring.