Where the Cheakamus meets the Squamish above Brackendale, the big river is often grey with glacial silt while this one comes in clearer, because a dam high in its valley steadies the flow. When the Squamish is out of shape, the Cheakamus can usually still be read, and its winter
steelhead have a name for out-fishing the bigger river.
It is two rivers joined by a reservoir. The top half rises under a glacier in Garibaldi Park, runs through Cheakamus Lake and down past the south end of Whistler into Daisy Lake. At the dam much of its water is sent through a mountain to a powerhouse on the Squamish. What is let down below the wall drops through a canyon of rapids and a waterfall, and comes out in the valley above Brackendale as a salmon and steelhead river.
The lower river is the one most people mean, and the place to start. Coho run from September with the peak around the turn of October into November, chum come in the same autumn, and winter steelhead are best from March into May. Through the winter,
bull trout, cutthroat and rainbows feed until the freshet. Squamish Valley Road gets you there, at its first bridge or from the north end of Paradise Valley Road.
The Whistler stretch, from the lake outlet down to Daisy Lake, is small, fast and easy to overlook from town. It holds resident rainbows and bull trout, and in late summer and early autumn small trout and char come up to a dry fly. Trails follow both banks from Cheakamus Crossing.
The lake is the walk-in. A logging road off the highway at Function Junction climbs to a trailhead, and from there it is about 3 km on foot to a lake that holds rainbows and
Dolly Varden, the char said to grow large.
When you know this one, follow its clear water down to where it slides into the grey Squamish, and keep going.
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 dam the river runs about 26 km to the Squamish, and the first of it is relatively tame before the canyon takes over with strong current, fast rapids and one sizeable falls. In the valley it settles into pools and runs you can wade at most tailouts with chest waders, crossing to fish up or down. Mid-river snags, sandbar drop-offs and ledges are the things to watch for. The dam also changes the flow from time to time, so the river you parked beside may not be the river you leave.
Salmon hold in the big pools and slow runs. Steelhead hold in the tailouts, where the water slows before the next drop, and the bull trout sit deep below the spawning salmon, waiting on loose eggs. Above Daisy Lake the river is steep, with stretches of continuous whitewater and little room to wade.
How to fish it
On the lower river in winter, fish an egg pattern slowly through the tailouts and seams below where salmon spawned; if that draws nothing, change to a big streamer or a leech for bull trout and swing it deep. For steelhead, a two-handed rod lets you swing a fly across the wider runs: down and across, mend to slow it, step and repeat. Fish one fly at a time; if the swing goes untouched through good water, change to something darker or heavier before you move on. Coho rest in the big pools and slow runs, so fish the fly slowly there. Don’t bring light trout gear to the lower river: a steelhead or a big bull will take it.
Above Daisy Lake, a single dry fly fished in the pockets and slower edges in late summer is the move. When the rises stop, change to a small nymph or a small streamer and fish it close to the boulders.
Access and safety
For the lower river, turn west off Highway 99 north of Squamish onto Squamish Valley Road and fish from the first bridge, or take the right fork past it to a second bridge for more water. Paradise Valley Road gives the best bank access from its north end. Check the regulations for any closure on the lower river before you fish it, especially in spring. The canyon is no place to wade: an angler has drowned wading the fast water below the dam. The Rubble Creek Landslide Hazard Area, along the river below Daisy Lake, is a high-risk slide area, and anyone fishing there does so at their own risk. Wildlife is plentiful in the valley.
For Cheakamus Lake, turn off Highway 99 at Function Junction, just south of Whistler; the road to the trailhead runs 7.5 km to a parking lot, then the trail runs about 3 km to the lake. Check the regulations for the lake itself, and for Daisy Lake, before you fish either. A campground on the shore and another further along at Singing Creek both need reservations all year. Black bears are active in spring, and there is no garbage service, so pack out everything.
Regulations
Bait is banned on the whole river, and Region 2 requires a single barbless hook in all streams. Wild trout and char from streams must be released, and so must all wild steelhead. You need a Conservation Surcharge Stamp on your basic licence to fish for steelhead, whether you keep the fish or not. The creeks that feed the Cheakamus, the Callaghan among them, are closed to fishing all year as tributaries of the Squamish. The rules list no closure for the river from Daisy Lake up to Cheakamus Lake, or for the headwaters above the lake; check in-season changes before you go. Salmon rules are set by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.