In late October the South Alouette fills with chum, dark fish holding over the gravel in a river that winds between back yards and horse pastures in Maple Ridge. Coho come in behind them, brighter and warier, and settle into the slow pools. It is a salmon river you can reach from a suburban street.
The river leaves Alouette Lake at a dam below the mountains and runs west to the Pitt, and it comes in three pieces. The water from the dam down to the boundary signs at the fence of the Alouette River Management Society, near the hatchery, is closed to fishing all year. Below the fence is a small gravel river through town as far as 216th Street. Below that, the North Alouette joins it, and the river slows, straightens between dykes and finishes through tidal marsh and farmland in Pitt Meadows.
Start on the middle river, between the fence and 216th Street. This is where the chum spawn, in riffles and gravel runs you can read from the bank, and where the coho hold in the deeper, slower corners under the trees. It is small water, more creek than river in places, fished with short casts and a light rod. The catch is access: much of the bank is private, so start from public ground around Maple Ridge Park.
The lower river is easy to overlook. Below 216th it runs straight and slow between dykes, and its last stretch rises and falls with the tide coming up the Pitt. The dyke trails in Pitt Meadows put you on top of it, with a trailhead on Harris Road, and every salmon bound for the middle river has to pass through this open farm country first.
Downstream, the river meets the Pitt in flat marsh, and the Pitt carries on to the Fraser. Upstream, past the closed water and the hatchery, Alouette Lake sits behind its dam.
Water and habitat
Above 216th Street the South Alouette is a clear, gravel-bottomed river of riffles, runs and small pools, shaded by trees along private yards and parkland. Chum spawn in this middle river, so in autumn the riffles fill with fish that are paired up and digging. Coho avoid that crowd and hold in slower, deeper water with cover over it, under a logjam or along an undercut bank. Below the confluence the river is dyked, slow and deeper, and the lowest part is tidal, so its level and current change through the day.
When to fish it
October through December is the season that matters, for coho and chum on both open stretches. In winter, take any steelhead as a bonus.
The middle river, from the boundary signs down to 216th Street, closes from 1 May to 30 June, along with the North Alouette above 216th. The rules list no closure for the river below 216th Street, so the river from the 216th Street bridge down to the Pitt stays fishable through May and June; check in-season changes before you go.
How to fish it
A single-handed rod is plenty for the middle river. Approach the pools from below and well back from the bank, because coho in small, clear water spook at a shadow. Cast across and slightly upstream into the slow water, let a light sink tip take the fly down, then strip it back in short pulls.
Start coho with a small marabou streamer in a muted colour. If they follow and turn away, change to something smaller and darker, or come back in the low light of morning. On nearby coho rivers, a clear sink tip helps with spooky fish, and it is worth trying here. On the lower river, fish the slack tide and the slow water off the dyke corners, where coho may hold before moving up.
Leave the paired-up chum on the riffles alone. Casting across spawning fish risks snagging them, and snagging is illegal.
Access and safety
The middle river runs through Maple Ridge, landowners own much of the bank, and some have withdrawn access. Stay on public parkland and trails, and don’t cross a fence or a posted yard to reach the water. One public way in is through Maple Ridge Park off 232nd Street; another is the horse-trail side of the river at 224th Street.
The lower river is reached from the Pitt Meadows dyke trails, which you share with cyclists and walkers.