In late April the lower Bella Coola can run clear enough to see the stones.
Pink salmon fry are drifting down the valley toward the sea, and
sea-run cutthroat work the edges to meet them. Then the snow on the Coast Mountains lets go, the river turns the colour of skim milk, and that window shuts for the year.
The river is short, and it is made of two others. Inside Tweedsmuir Park a clear river off the plateau meets a grey one off the glaciers, and from there the Bella Coola runs down a deep, flat-floored valley to tidewater at the head of a long fjord. It comes in three parts: a top stretch inside the park, a middle river where the valley opens out, and a lower valley where one side creek after another pours in.
Start in the lower valley, below the point where the Nusatsum River joins. Every creek down here carries clear water into the glacial flow, and the line where the two colours meet is where trout and salmon wait. The mouths of Thorsen Creek and the Salloomt River are the classic places to look, and the highway is never far off. This is the water for the spring cutthroat, and for coho once the leaves turn.
The middle river, from the Noosgulch down to the Nusatsum, spreads across gravel bars. It is the stretch you watch from the highway on the drive between the town and the park. Walk out onto the bars and read the edges for trout.
The top of the river, the stretch inside the park below the meeting of the two rivers, has closures nearby: no fishing upstream of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park plus Tenas Lake from 1 April to 30 June, and none from Tenas Lake to the boundary signs near Atnarko Park campsite at any time. Check the regulations for which applies to this stretch, and for in-season changes, before you go. It is the quietest water on the Bella Coola, where the clear river and the grey one have barely begun to mix.
Above the meeting the clear river keeps climbing into the park, toward its lakes and the falls on its side creeks, and that is a page of its own.
Fish in this water
Each fish is rated by its strongest evidence. A rating says how sure we are a fish is here, not how many there are, whether it is worth fishing for or whether you may keep it.
Confirmed
Recorded on this water in the last 15 years, or named for it by a fishery agency, its fishing rules or a fishing publication.
Likely
Older records here, recent stocking, a local guide or fly shop, a guide listing, or recent records on connected water nearby.
When to fish it
Late April and May belong to the lower valley below the Nusatsum River, before the melt. The window moves with the snowpack, and once the river rises and greys over it is done. February and March can be worth a look for trout on low, clear days. July and August suit the lower valley and middle river, salmon and trout both, with the colour at its heaviest; check the regulations and salmon openings first. September and October bring the coho and chum, and the creek mouths from Thorsen Creek up are where to be.
How to fish it
For the spring cutthroat in the lower valley, a 6-weight with a floating line or a short sink tip is plenty. Tie on one small fry pattern, cast across, and swing it close along the bank, letting it hang in the seam at the end of the drift. If fish follow and turn away, slow the swing and go smaller. If nothing shows at all, change to a dark Woolly Bugger and fish it deeper. On the clear river upstream a size 10 Zug Bug and size 4 to 8 Woolly Buggers do much of the work, and they travel well down here.
Salmon want an 8- to 10-weight single-hander or a 7- to 9-weight two-hander, and a range of sink tips, heavier as the water deepens. Use a short, straight leader of 15 to 30 lb mono and one bright fly; pink has a following here. Cast across, let it swing, and hold on. Keep a hooked fish out of the main current, where it is very hard to stop. In milky water, fish the near edge before you wade, because the fish are often closer than you think.
Access and safety
Highway 20 crosses the Chilcotin from Williams Lake and drops down the long grade locals call the Hill into the valley, then follows the river to the town. A ferry runs from Port Hardy, and there are flights from Vancouver. Salloompt Road gives the north side of the lower valley. There is a riverside campground in Bella Coola and an RV park in Hagensborg, with private sites on the river above Hagensborg.
Much of the valley floor is farmland or Nuxalk reserve: the regulations say not to enter or cross private, posted, cultivated or Indian Reserve land without permission. Grizzlies feed along this river through the salmon runs, so carry spray and make noise in the brush. The water is cold and fast, and crossings are hard; wade only where you are sure of your footing. Local guides drift the river in rafts. No one may angle from a powered boat on the mainstem, so get out on the bars to fish.