Harrison River

The Harrison runs about 18 km from Harrison Lake to the Fraser, past Harrison Hot Springs, Harrison Bay and Harrison Mills. The lake keeps it clear and steady, so it rarely blows out. It is one of the great salmon rivers of the Fraser system: chum spawn on its gravel bars in huge numbers each fall, and coho, chinook, pink and sockeye pass through it too.

For fly anglers the draw is the sea-run cutthroat trout that follow the spawning chum from October into December, eating loose eggs and later flesh. Coho are in the river from October, and only hatchery coho may be kept. DFO opens chum from October 17 to November 30. Chinook are closed. Read the outlet gauge: the river runs near 200 to 400 m³/s through fall and winter, and rises with snowmelt toward 800 in June and July, when the Fraser also backs up the lower river. The Morris Creek station reads the water temperature.

Most anglers fish from a boat, and the gravel bars give bank anglers room at Kilby, along Harrison Bay and near the Chehalis confluence. Fishing is closed from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise. Bald eagles gather from November for the salmon, and the Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival is held at Harrison Mills. Pacific Angler in Vancouver guides the Harrison.