For four decades the river below Terzaghi Dam was mostly dry stones. Then, in 2000, the dam began letting a small, steady flow go downstream, and
rainbow trout came back up into it from below. It is a river that was switched off and switched back on, and the fish found it again on their own.
The shape is easiest to hold as one river cut into pieces by dams. It rises at the Bridge Glacier in the Coast Mountains and runs free down to its first dam at Downton Lake. Below that it is mostly reservoir: a short run past Gold Bridge, where the South Fork comes in, then a long, narrow lake held behind Terzaghi Dam. Below the dam comes a stretch you can’t fish, then the lower river, which picks up the Yalakom at Moha and drops through a canyon to the Fraser above Lillooet.
The lower river is the one to find first. Between the Yalakom and the highway bridge near its mouth it is a recovering river, with rainbows in its pocket water and salmon and
steelhead running through it, and from July into the autumn it repays the drive. The canyon keeps it in short pieces, each one found by its own way down from the road.
The upper river is the wild end: glacier water above Downton Lake, the only stretch the dams never touched.
Bull trout live up here, and every one goes back. Leave it until you know the valley.
In between, Carpenter Lake is a reservoir of its own, known for trolling and for the creek mouths along its shore. One stretch is shut for good: the rules list no fishing at all from Terzaghi Dam down to the Yalakom, so the river you drive beside below the dam stays off limits all year.
Start on the lower river below the Yalakom in September, then follow the road up the valley toward the small lakes above Carpenter Lake.
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.
Water and habitat
Below the Yalakom the river is runs, boulder pockets and short pools in steep ground, with the canyon closing in toward the Fraser. The flow is the dam’s release plus whatever the Yalakom brings, so it is a smaller river than its valley suggests. Trout sit where the current breaks: behind boulders, along the seam where a run slows into a pool, and in the tail-outs. Side channels on the lower river have been rebuilt for fish, and their edges are where young salmon and trout rear.
The upper river runs cold and fast off the icefield, carrying glacier colour in summer heat. Fish there hold in the soft water at the edges and behind structure rather than in the main push.
When to fish it
Every stretch of the Bridge River is closed from 1 January to 30 June under the regional spring closure, so away from the closed stretch below Terzaghi Dam your months are July to December; check in-season changes before you go.
July and August on the lower river are hot, and summer heat around Lillooet can be fierce: fish the early morning and the evening. September and October are the best of it on the lower river between the Yalakom and the Hwy 40 bridge, with cooler water and salmon in the river. Above Downton Lake the river usually fishes best once the summer melt eases, from late August into September. November and December are cold and short; fish the lower river on the mildest days.
How to fish it
On the lower river, fish one fly at a time and keep moving. Start with a beadhead nymph, a Pheasant Tail or Hare’s Ear in size 12 or 14, dead-drifted through the seams and the head of each pool. Stand below and to the side, cast upstream, and let it tumble back past you near the bottom. If nothing comes after a few drifts, move to the next pocket rather than change flies. In the evening, change to an Elk Hair Caddis and swing it through the tail-outs. When the salmon are in, a small egg pattern drifted behind the spawners finds the trout following them; keep off the gravel where fish are spawning.
For bull trout, change to a streamer. On neighbouring coastal rivers a Muddler Minnow or a dark Woolly Bugger, swung slowly through deep water, is the standard, and it is worth trying here. If the swing isn’t getting down, slow it with a mend.
Access and safety
Hwy 40 runs from Lillooet up the valley past Moha, along Carpenter Lake to Gold Bridge. Much of the lower river sits in a deep canyon; fish where there is a safe way down, and leave the rest. Flows below Terzaghi Dam are set by dam releases and can change, so stay off low bars when the water starts to rise.
The river’s mouth is Xwísten land, a fishing ground of the St’át’imc people, so check the regulations, and ask the Bridge River band, before fishing at the rapids on the Fraser there. Don’t cross reserve or private land without asking.
Carpenter Lake rises and falls, and when it is drawn down its upper end beyond the old Minto City site is mudflat. Above Gold Bridge you are a long way from help; carry what you need, and expect bears and cougars.
Regulations
From Terzaghi Dam to the Yalakom River there is no fishing at any time. Below the Hwy 40 bridge, about 6 km north of Lillooet, there is no fishing from 31 March to 20 June, inside the regional closure from 1 January to 30 June that covers the whole river.
Use a single barbless hook, as in all streams of the region all year, and one fly on the line. You may keep trout of 25 cm or more: no more than four trout and char a day from streams, only one over 50 cm; bull trout are capped or released as set out next. Of those, one may be a bull trout, none under 60 cm; from streams, bull trout must be released from 1 August to 31 October, and upstream of Downton Lake every bull trout is catch and release. Release all steelhead; to fish for them you need a Steelhead Conservation Surcharge Stamp on your basic licence. Salmon rules are set by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Before fishing Carpenter or Downton Lake, and for in-season changes anywhere on the river, check the regulations.
Above the dams the valley keeps going: Gun Lake and Tyaughton Lake in the hills north of Carpenter Lake, and the Yalakom up its own valley from Moha.