Anne Vitale
08-30-2007, 08:30 PM
I spent last week on an unnamed island in the middle of British Columbia’s Skeena River. My only time away from the island was a day trip to fish the near by Copper River. That meant I ad 5 full days where in I could fish until I dropped.... if I was dumb enough to do it. However, there was no way I could fish that much. My right arm and shoulder were painfully sore as early as the middle of my second day on the island. Too many large salmon....chrome bright coho, sockeye, and pinks. Mixed in were a sprinkle of steelhead and a chinook or two. I have only had 3 confirmed chinook hookups in my life. One on the Feather River, a couple of years ago, that I got to hand and the other two on the Skeena last week. All three left me with knuckles too sore to use my hands effectively for hours. I hate chinook hookups. :?
The trip was hosted by Jeff Bright through the Nicholas Dean Lodge out of Terrace. Jeff just got us there but it was Dustin Kovacvich and his crew that set up the camp, cooked the meals and handled the landing of the fish.
The spring snow run off had left the Skeena high and off color. That didn’t seem to matter much because as the river dropped noticeably each day, we caught fish consistently. The secret fly was simply a nuber 4, R90 hook wrapped with pink or red chenille and a wing of red or pink marabou. Some folks went fancier but that was more for them then the fish.
As it turned out there was a strong run of coho and pink salmon this year and not many steelhead. In a whole week I only had one steelhead on and none to hand. The one steelhead I saw caught was 41 inches long and 20 inches around. That comes to 22 lbs on most charts. I heard tell of a smaller one caught by Jeff but didn’t see it.
The big coho more then made up for the absence of steelhead. They were not only plentiful, they were tough acrobatic fish that ran 10 to 15 lb.. When you combine that with fresh tough less acrobatic sockeye almost as big, it was a week to remember.
I don’t have any pictures of fish to share just yet (I’m waiting for my friends to send me them):roll: but here are a few shots to give you some idea of the place. The camp was called Hell’s Gate Camp because it was on the Hell’s Gate section of the river.
Here is a shot of the mountains flying into Terrace from Vancouver. The pilot said we were at 23, 000 ft. http://www.avitale.com/BCGlasiers.JPG
Here is a shot of the camp
http://www.avitale.com/HGCamp.jpg
Although you can't tell from this shot, the section of the Skeena seen here is about 200 yards wide and only a side channel to the main stem. This shot was taken from camp and is the gravel bar we did most of our fishing from. It ran for about a half mile up river as well.
http://www.avitale.com/HGGravelBar.jpg
A shot of Dustin holding court after lunch
http://www.avitale.com/EatingLunch.jpg
The trip was hosted by Jeff Bright through the Nicholas Dean Lodge out of Terrace. Jeff just got us there but it was Dustin Kovacvich and his crew that set up the camp, cooked the meals and handled the landing of the fish.
The spring snow run off had left the Skeena high and off color. That didn’t seem to matter much because as the river dropped noticeably each day, we caught fish consistently. The secret fly was simply a nuber 4, R90 hook wrapped with pink or red chenille and a wing of red or pink marabou. Some folks went fancier but that was more for them then the fish.
As it turned out there was a strong run of coho and pink salmon this year and not many steelhead. In a whole week I only had one steelhead on and none to hand. The one steelhead I saw caught was 41 inches long and 20 inches around. That comes to 22 lbs on most charts. I heard tell of a smaller one caught by Jeff but didn’t see it.
The big coho more then made up for the absence of steelhead. They were not only plentiful, they were tough acrobatic fish that ran 10 to 15 lb.. When you combine that with fresh tough less acrobatic sockeye almost as big, it was a week to remember.
I don’t have any pictures of fish to share just yet (I’m waiting for my friends to send me them):roll: but here are a few shots to give you some idea of the place. The camp was called Hell’s Gate Camp because it was on the Hell’s Gate section of the river.
Here is a shot of the mountains flying into Terrace from Vancouver. The pilot said we were at 23, 000 ft. http://www.avitale.com/BCGlasiers.JPG
Here is a shot of the camp
http://www.avitale.com/HGCamp.jpg
Although you can't tell from this shot, the section of the Skeena seen here is about 200 yards wide and only a side channel to the main stem. This shot was taken from camp and is the gravel bar we did most of our fishing from. It ran for about a half mile up river as well.
http://www.avitale.com/HGGravelBar.jpg
A shot of Dustin holding court after lunch
http://www.avitale.com/EatingLunch.jpg