Most people who drive up Harris Creek are going to see a tree. They pull off at a small wooden sign that is easy to miss, walk a short path to a Sitka spruce the loggers left standing when they first cut this valley in 1893, and look up. Beside the same road, in the lower creek below Hemmingsen Creek, coho lie finning in the deep pools in November, waiting on the next rain.
Harris Creek is the San Juan River’s big side creek. It rises in the hills toward Lake Cowichan and runs southwest beside the Pacific Marine Road, the old Harris Creek Main logging road, to meet the San Juan just below a bridge near Port Renfrew. The upper creek is wild water, a run of drops, rapids and falls; the lower creek is much calmer. The rules close everything from Hemmingsen Creek upstream all year, so the creek a fly fisher means is the lower one.
Start at the mouth. Coho coming up the San Juan turn into Harris Creek, and some hold under the Harris Creek bridge for weeks before they move on. A rough four-by-four spur just before the bridge runs down to the last big corner of the San Juan and the place where the two waters meet, and that confluence pool is the first one to fish.
The lower creek, from the bridge up to Hemmingsen Creek, follows the road, which makes it easier to look at than to reach. The way down is often a bushwhack through head-high ferns, and the first run you hit may not be worth the scramble. Walk past it. The deeper pools are where the coho sit, and
steelhead use the creek too.
The upper valley is for looking. The spruce stands near the creek bed about 20 km from Port Renfrew, on the right as you drive northeast toward Lake Cowichan, with a fence around its roots and a short path that a wheelchair can manage. It towers over the second growth around it.
Below the confluence the San Juan carries on to the bar at Port Renfrew, where these same coho first gathered on the tide.
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
This is a rain-fed coastal creek. It comes up fast with rain, and high water makes a good swing hard to find. As it drops and clears it settles into pools and runs you can read from the bank. Fish hold in the deeper pools and at the confluence, where the creek’s water meets the San Juan’s and a running fish can rest before choosing its way.
The valley was logged early and the forest along the creek is mostly second growth. Elk move through the valley bottom.
When to fish it
The whole creek is closed from 15 July to 31 August.
Coho push into the lower creek below Hemmingsen Creek once rain lifts the San Juan, and the deep pools there hold them into November. Steelhead come in with the San Juan’s winter run, which peaks from February to April; look for them in the same lower creek, from the mouth up to Hemmingsen Creek.
Time your visit to the rain. Too soon after a storm and the creek is high and coloured; a few dry days later it is back in its pools and the fish have settled.
How to fish it
One fly at a time, on a single barbless hook. A single-hand rod with a floating line and a short sink tip covers a creek this size.
At the bridge and the confluence, stand above the pool and swing a pink leech down through the soft edge where the current slows. Coho that have held a while get stale; if they ignore it, change to a smaller, darker leech and slow the swing, or come back at first light. In the lower creek, approach each pool from below, low and quiet, because fish in clear, slow water see you long before the fly. Cast across the top of the pool and let the tip carry the leech down to them.
If the water is up, fish the tailouts and inside edges where a fish can get out of the push. If it is low and clear, go smaller and fish early. Fish one good pool well, then walk on to the next.
Access and safety
From Port Renfrew, take the Pacific Marine Road toward Lake Cowichan. It crosses the San Juan, passes the Fairy Lake recreation site, and follows Harris Creek up the valley; it is paved now but still carries logging trucks. Fairy Lake is the handiest campsite, first come first served, and it floods in heavy rain.
The four-by-four spur to the confluence is rough enough to bottom out an ordinary car. Pick your way down from the road where you can see the bottom, and wade only where you can see your feet. Fuel and phone signal are scarce, so fill up and carry a map. Bears and cougars live in this country.
Regulations
The all-year closure takes in Hemmingsen Creek itself as well as everything above it, so know where that creek comes in before you fish anywhere up the valley, the stretch by the spruce included. Every stream in Region 1 is single barbless hook and bait ban, all year. Release all wild steelhead, all wild trout from streams, and all char, Dolly Varden included, and carry a steelhead stamp on your licence if you fish for steelhead. Salmon rules belong to Fisheries and Oceans Canada; check its notices and the in-season changes before you go.