Below the Telkwa River in late August,
steelhead that entered the Skeena a month earlier settle into runs that move at walking pace, and a deer-hair fly dragged across the surface, a touch slower than the current, can bring one up. It may come up twice and miss before it takes. The Bulkley’s name rests on that habit: wild fish up from the Pacific that will still look up.
Get the shape first. The fishable Bulkley starts at Houston, where the Morice comes in from the south, bigger than the river it joins, and gives up its own name. Above that meeting the Bulkley is closed to fishing all year. Below it the river runs north and then west to the Skeena in three parts.
The first is an easy-gradient river from Houston down past the rural community of Quick to Telkwa, gentle enough for a canoe or a pontoon boat, with roadside access and a recreation site at Quick. Two bridges split it into three drifts of about a day each. Start here: it is the easiest water on the river to reach and to read.
The second runs from Telkwa past Smithers to Moricetown. The Telkwa River joins at the top of it, and after heavy rain it turns the Bulkley brown below the junction while the water above stays fishable. If the river at Smithers is the colour of tea with milk in it, the fix is often a short drive back upstream.
The third is canyon country. At Moricetown the river squeezes through a rock gorge and over a falls where Wet’suwet’en fishers still take salmon from the rocks with gaffs and long-handled dip nets. Below it the Bulkley drops through two more canyons, hard to reach on foot and fished mostly from jet boats, past the Suskwa and under a single-lane suspension bridge hung high across the gorge at Hagwilget, to the Skeena at Hazelton.
When the whole Bulkley runs brown, the Morice is the river to try, since it usually stays fishable through rain; the Telkwa and the Suskwa wait along the way, each with rules 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
From the Morice down to the Skeena the river is closed from 1 January to 15 June, so its season runs from 16 June to 31 December. Steelhead enter the Skeena in late July and reach the upper river, up toward Quick Station Road, by mid to late August. From then until mid-September, between the CNR bridge at Barrett and the Telkwa River, fish sit shallow and the surface fly is at its best. The third week of September, when the aspens and cottonwoods turn yellow along the Telkwa High Road, is often more productive than the first.
In October the water cools and fish drop deeper, so sink tips take over from the Telkwa River down; mid-October into November is when the biggest fish are said to turn up. November on the lower river toward the Suskwa is a gamble: good in mild, dry spells, frozen or blown out in others.
Access and safety
Highway 16 follows the river from Houston to Smithers. The Bulkley River recreation site at Quick lies west of the highway on West End Road, with tent sites and a boat launch nearby. From the Morice to the CNR bridge at Barrett there is no angling from boats from 15 August to 31 December, so use the boat to move, beach it at the head of a run and wade down through it.
Telkwa has a summer boat launch by the river, and Smithers has a launch and a municipal campground at Riverside Park. Below Telkwa the river gets rougher and public access thins, and jet boats reach most of the water.
Moricetown Canyon sits beside Highway 16 north of Smithers. There is no angling from boats in the canyon or within 100 m downstream of it, all year. The canyon runs beside the Wet’suwet’en village of Witset, and reserve land there may not be entered or crossed without permission. Below the canyon, jet boats are the practical way in, and Highway 62 crosses the Hagwilget bridge into Hazelton.
Grizzly bears use the gravel bars, so keep food out of reach. Weather turns fast at this latitude, and late in the year the river can freeze or flood.