Squamish River

The Squamish drains the Coast Mountains north of Howe Sound and is the main river of the Sea to Sky corridor. It is a big glacial river: grey with silt from late spring through summer, and at its clearest from late fall to early spring, which is when it fishes. The Elaho, the Ashlu, the Cheakamus and the Mamquam join it on the way to the sea at Squamish. Apart from the hatchery coho its fish are wild, and every steelhead goes back.

Coho arrive in October and hold in the side channels and sloughs into December. Chum spawn on the bars from late October, and bull trout and Dolly Varden follow both runs. Wild winter steelhead come from March into May, and anglers swing flies through the tailouts. Read the Brackendale gauge, which sits above the Cheakamus: the river fishes best between about 50 and 250 m³/s, and a fall storm can push it past 600 and turn it brown for days. Snowmelt lifts it past 300 in late spring, and it stays high and coloured until fall.

The bars move after every big flood, so a run you fished last year may be gone. Bait is banned all year, and only hatchery coho may be kept, 1 a day across the whole Squamish system, from September 15 to January 31. Chum are catch and release from October 30. Pink salmon come in odd years, but the river is closed to fishing for them. Bald eagles gather at Brackendale in December and January. Pacific Angler in Vancouver guides the Squamish Valley rivers.