Thompson River

The Thompson is one of the great steelhead rivers, and its steelhead are closed. The Interior Fraser steelhead that run up it in the fall have fallen to a few hundred fish, and the river below Kamloops Lake is closed to all fishing from October 1 to May 31, the months they are in it. What remains is a summer trout river: from June to September the big, clear Thompson holds large wild rainbows in desert canyon country, from the Kamloops Lake outlet at Savona down to the Fraser at Lytton.

Kamloops Lake settles the river, so it runs green and clear even when it is high. June is still runoff, and the river is big and pushy into July. Read the Spences Bridge gauge: the edges and gravel bars become fishable as it drops under about 900 m³/s, usually by late July, and in a big June it runs past 2,000. Wading is an edge game: the river is far too big to cross, and no one may angle from a boat. Streamers and big nymphs along the seams and eddy lines find the rainbows, and caddis bring them up on summer evenings. In odd years pink salmon run up in late summer, and the trout follow the eggs. Between Savona and Ashcroft there is an extra catch-and-release, fly-only opening in May from the CNR bridge below the Deadman River to the CNR bridge above the Bonaparte River.

Highway 1 and the railways follow the river, but steep banks, private ranches and reserve land limit access. Juniper Beach Provincial Park above Ashcroft and Goldpan Provincial Park below Spences Bridge are the easy public spots. The river runs through Nlaka'pamux territory, and reserve land along it needs the band's permission to cross. Summer days are hot and dry, so carry water.