Every autumn,
kokanee leave Kinbasket Lake in their red spawning colours and push up the Canoe River to a small creek near Valemount, where they spawn and die. The eagles and bears know when it happens. A fish-eating trout in the big reservoir below has every reason to know as well, and the river that carries the run is a quiet one.
The Canoe is the northernmost tributary of the Columbia, and it comes in three parts. It rises in the mountains west of Valemount and runs east as a small mountain river. Near town it turns south-east into the Rocky Mountain Trench, the same wide valley the upper Fraser runs down, and becomes a valley river beside the highway. Then the reservoir backs up the valley to meet it. The drowned lower river, called Canoe Reach, runs almost to Valemount.
The valley river, from the mouth of Zillmer Creek down to Camp Creek, is where to start. The highway runs beside it south of Valemount, there’s a campsite on its bank, and you can walk in from the road and fish the bends.
The lower river below Camp Creek is the stretch to find in autumn. This is where the kokanee come up out of the reservoir and turn into the creek, and where you’d expect the reservoir’s
bull trout and big rainbows to follow them in. A forest road on the west side reaches it. Fish the main river downstream of the creek mouth, and leave the spawners in the creek to finish what they came for.
The upper river above Zillmer Creek is small water, and little has been said about fishing it. Leave it until you know the valley.
Canoe Reach itself, the drowned river, is boat water on a big reservoir that sees very little angling pressure, and it rises and falls a long way through the year.
Look for the kokanee first, then fish the river below them.
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
David Thompson named the river in 1811, after wintering at Boat Encampment near its mouth, and from the 1820s until 1846 it was part of a fur-trade route across the mountains. On the floor of the Trench the river winds through flat valley bottom, with deeper water on the outside of each bend. Trout hold in those bend pools and at the seams where the current slows, out of the full push of the river. In the lowest kilometres the river slows as it meets the backed-up water of the reservoir, and that meeting point moves up and down the valley with the reservoir level.
When to fish it
From July into October is the time to come, once the spring runoff has gone through. In summer, fish the valley river between Zillmer Creek and Camp Creek for rainbows. In September and October, move down to the river below Camp Creek, where the kokanee run brings bigger fish up out of the reservoir. On Canoe Reach, the level varies a great deal from month to month, and the boat ramps can be rough when it’s low.
How to fish it
On the valley river, start with a size 12 or 14 Elk Hair Caddis drifted along the outside of the bends and the seams at the head of each pool. Come at them from below and keep low on the flat banks. If nothing rises, cut the dry off and tie on a beadhead nymph fished near the bottom through the same water.
Below Camp Creek in autumn, fish one streamer the size and colour of a kokanee, or a sculpin pattern, and swing it deep across the tail of each pool and along the edges of the run. Fish holding behind spawners feed on eggs as well, so if the streamer gets no response, change to a single egg pattern dead-drifted close to the bottom below any group of kokanee. Fish downstream of the spawners and don’t wade through them.
Large rainbows and char on the reservoir are taken by pulling plugs or bucktails to cover ground. With a fly, troll or cast a large streamer along the drop-offs near where the river comes in.
Access and safety
The valley river is easy to reach. Upper Canoe, a small fee campsite with two sites run by Recreation Sites and Trails BC, sits right on the river. From Valemount, drive 3 km south on Highway 5, turn west onto Cranberry Lake Road for 1.1 km, then follow Upper Canoe Road for 6 km. There’s a large private campground on the highway about 5 km south of town.
Canoe Reach Marina, at the north end of the reservoir, has a concrete launch, docks and 17 campsites. Drive 3 km south from Valemount, turn east onto Cedarside Road, then follow the Canoe East Forest Service Road for 21 km and turn down the 400 m access road. The Yellowjacket Creek site is on the same road, at 18 km.
The forest roads are working logging roads, so watch for trucks. The reservoir is a big, cold body of water whose shoreline shifts with the level, so give yourself room to get back to the launch.
Regulations
The Canoe has its own entry in the BC regulations. It is exempt from the spring closure that shuts most streams in the region from April 1 to June 30, but all rainbow trout must be released from April 1 to June 30. All bull trout must be released, as on every stream that runs into Kinbasket. Streams in the region have a year-round bait ban and a single barbless hook rule, and BC allows one artificial fly on a line. Camp Creek is a separate water, so check the regulations for it before you fish it. Canoe Reach is part of Kinbasket Lake, in a different region with different rules, so check the regulations for the lake before you fish the reach, and check in-season changes before any day on the water.
Once you’ve fished the Canoe, the rest of Kinbasket opens out to the south, a long reservoir with the mouths of all its other rivers waiting along the shore.