Fishing Reports

Here’s the summary of our 2009 season at BC West.  For detailed reports by week, click the links on the left.

The crew arrived at BC West in late May with a month of preparation ahead of them.  It always seems that a month will be more than enough time to prepare and it always goes to the very last day!  We replaced some cabin foundations, did a major landscaping project, designed a new dock for the lower river and installed a new walk-in cooler amongst a whole lot of other small projects and preparations.

Finally the end of June arrived and our first guests landed, eager to do battle with a Dean River Chinook!  Brian Rogers and Don Kauffman had been to fish with us in 2008 but did not manage to land a Chinook.  They hooked them mind you but landing was another story.  Well, 2009 was a big success.  They, along with guests over the next few weeks, all managed to hook and many landed chrome bright Chinook.

As we moved into late July, the Chinook numbers decreased and the steelhead numbers continued to rise.  Despite low snow-pack for the year, the river maintained good fishable levels thanks to periodic rain showers and some glacial melt.

When Lori Nicholson arrived with a group of anglers from Anglers All fly shop, conditions looked pretty good.  Lori had fished the Dean once before but the rest of the group were first-timers and eager to tangle with their first Dean fish.  By weeks end, they were all successful.  Kelly Lockhart, who spent the week fishing a single-handed rod while all the rest in the group wielded two-handers, was top rod for the week.  This is not to say that a spey rod is not the most effective tool for covering water but it is certainly a reminder that there is no reason to shy away from fishing the Dean or any other river if you have not joined the spey fishing ranks.

During the last week of July, most everyone was a repeat guest and had a great week in 2008.  They were hoping for more of the same in ‘09.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had different plans.  Temperatures in the area climbed far beyond their highest point in recorded history peaking at 104 degrees by midweek.  This brought a rise in water temperatures that caused the fishing to all but grind to a halt.  However, some notable fish were taken this week including a late returning chrome bright 25 pound Chinook caught by Jeff Hickman on a size six low water wet fly.

The temps began to fall in early August and fishing picked up and was quite good.  Water levels continued to drop through the month and fish continued to move into the river.  The water conditions were very favorable to skate dry flies or fish small low water wets.

For the end of the season our friends from Europe returned for a visit.  They were greeted by a number of beautiful steelhead and the first good pushes of coho for the season.  It would be hard for a fisherman to find a better offering in the same river at the same time.

We wish to thank everyone who joined us in 2009, a season that will not soon be forgotten.  Many memories were made and fish were caught.  Mother Nature threw us some curve balls but all maintained a “fun will not be denied” attitude and enjoyed their time together.  Just as it should be.