Chilliwack River

The Chilliwack is the Fraser Valley's workhorse steelhead and salmon river. It drains Chilliwack Lake and runs west through the Chilliwack River Valley to Vedder Crossing, where it becomes the Vedder River, then the Vedder Canal on its way to the Fraser. A big hatchery near Slesse Creek puts winter steelhead, chinook, coho and chum back into the river every year, so there are fish to catch most of the fall and winter, an hour from Vancouver. Wild steelhead and wild trout go back, and the hatchery fish carry a clipped adipose fin.

Winter steelhead come from December to April, hatchery fish first and wild fish building in March and April. Swing a fly or drift a float through the tailouts and pocket water. Read the Vedder Crossing gauge: the river fishes best on a drop between about 30 and 70 m³/s, gets low and clear under 20, and blows out brown over about 150 after a big Pacific storm. Chinook arrive in September, then coho and chum from October into early December. Coho hold in the slow frog water and take small streamers and egg patterns. The upper river below Slesse Creek is boulder and pocket water along the Chilliwack Lake Road. Below Tamihi Rapids it opens into longer runs and gravel bars, and below Vedder Crossing it runs between dykes.

The Chilliwack is busy, and on a weekend in peak season you will share runs. The river above Slesse Creek is closed all year, Slesse Creek to Tamihi Rapids closes April 1 to June 30, Tamihi to Vedder Crossing closes May 1 to June 30, and the Vedder below the crossing is fly fishing only in May and closed in June. Salmon openings come from DFO and change through the season, so check the fishery notices before you go. Fred's Custom Tackle on Vedder Road posts reports, and the Chilliwack River Valley has forest recreation sites for camping.