Kettle River

The Kettle is the Boundary country's trout river, and it has no dams. It leaves Holmes Lake in the Monashees, runs south through the Christian Valley to Westbridge, where the West Kettle comes in from Carmi and Beaverdell, and carries on past Rock Creek to Midway. There it loops through Washington, comes back into BC above Grand Forks, picks up the Granby, and leaves Canada for good below Christina Creek. The fishery is wild rainbow trout, with mountain whitefish and some brook trout. Rainbows here can pass 50 cm, but a provincial study found the population held down by low summer flows and warm water, and every rainbow goes back.

This is low-gradient, meandering water that you can wade and walk, with Highway 33, Highway 3 and the Kettle Valley Rail Trail close by for much of its length. Flow decides everything. Snowmelt peaks in May and early June, often above 100 m³/s at Westbridge. Then the river drops fast, and by August it carries a few cubic metres a second. The river is closed from July 25 to September 15, which covers the lowest, warmest weeks, and over 20 °C is where the rainbows start to suffer. The Kettle is free of the Region 8 spring closure, so it is open from September 16 right through to July 24. In practice that leaves July, as the river comes down from the freshet, and mid-September into October as the main windows. Read the Westbridge gauge for the upper river, and the Washington gauges at Ferry and Laurier for the Midway and Grand Forks reaches.

The Kettle River Recreation Area, 5 km north of Rock Creek on Highway 33, has a 114-site campground on the river and is a summer tubing spot. Bait is banned April 1 to October 31, and every Region 8 stream takes a single barbless hook. Fishing the Washington loop below Midway needs a Washington licence. No fly shop or guide in the Boundary could be confirmed. Rock Creek is about two hours from Kelowna or Penticton, about an hour from Grand Forks, and about six hours from Vancouver.