Flyfish Fanatic

First off i would like to apologize to all of you who read my blogs. I have not updated it in some time due to Christmas and the holidays, you all know how that can be.

Skagit River

This is a great river system and it is one of the most beautiful places in B.C. I have spent many days on this river and have fallen in love with it, the scenery is marvelous not to mention the fishing. This river starts out in the Manning park area of B.C and meanders through plains and valleys until it reaches the border with the USA.
Coming from Vancouver, turn off highway #1 just before the town of Hope and head south until you reach a small road called Ross lake road. Turn right onto this road and head south for about 5-8kms, you will follow a creek called silver hope creek until you reach Silver lake. From this point you follow another creek for about another 15kms seeing the creek from time to time on your right and left. You will then reach a sign that tells you that you are entering Skagit Vally Park, not long after this you will reach a small bridge that crosses the Skagit for the first time, this is called 28 mile bridge. This is where the good fishing really begins, from this point on the road winds thru the valley and crosses the river dozens of times and there are many different places to gain access to it. I personally have found that the best fishing is from Ross lake to a place called strawberry, there are many good runs and pools in this area and this means there are places for fish to hide and rest.
The river holds two different fish species, there are rainbows and there are Dolly Varden. If you want to target Dolly’s you should try near the lake at a place called Chitinton Bridge, this is a suspension bridge that crosses the river here. There is a large deep pool under the bridge that holds large Dolly’s and is your best bet, not to say they aren’t in other places in the river to catch them. I it’s Rainbow’s that you are after then try any of the runs and tailouts that are throughout this system. These fish are very hard fighters and will take run after run so be ready for them, they will test even the more experienced fisherman. The flies of choice in this river are many, for dry fly action try a Tom Thumb or a Green Drake, for wet fly action try a pheasant tail nymph or a hairs ear nymph. I fish both of these from a full floating line unless i am in the deep pool under the bridge, then i us a floating line with a sinking tip. For the beginner i suggest fishing with a strike indicator until you are more comfortable with this technique then you can switch to none.
This is a great river and you will enjoy fishing this gem. A few words of advice though, this is a very secluded area and because of this there are a lot of bears in the valley so keep a close eye out for them. One other thing, if you don’t care for mosquitoes stay far away from here, at times there are so many of they it feels like they are going to carry you away. Remember to read your regs before you go fishing, this river has a few regs that you will need to know.

One other note not to do with this river, i have just finnished writing a book on fly-fishing basics for the beginner. Keep an eye out on this blog for the release date, it will only be a e book for now and we will see how things go from there. It will be at least 4-5 weeks before all the editing is done so if you are interested keep comming back to check for updates on the date of release.

Wishing everyone tight lines and tons of fish

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