After a big autumn storm the Squamish and the Cheakamus turn to chocolate. The Mamquam is usually the first of the three to clear. It runs right through the town of Squamish, blue with rock flour off the ice above it, and when the bigger rivers are out of shape it is the one with fishable water and fish in it: sea-run bull trout, cutthroat, coho, and in odd years pinks.
The river comes in three parts. It starts on glaciers and an icefield east of town and runs down a long mountain valley holding only resident fish. Then it drops into a gorge and over a big plunge falls beside a powerhouse, a hydro scheme regulating the flow. Below that it slides out of the hills and through town to meet the Squamish, and that bottom stretch is the river most people mean.
The town water is where to start. It runs past the golf course and the spawning channels, under the highway and down to the confluence with the Squamish, where fly anglers line up on sunny days. Pinks come in late summer in odd years. Coho and chum follow from October into December, and big sea-run bull trout come in behind them, as they do across this valley, to eat the eggs and the flesh of spawned-out chum. You can walk to most of it from one trailhead.
The canyon water below the falls holds rainbows, and it is worth a look if you are happy scrambling. Reach it from the end of Powerhouse Springs Road; the trail down below the falls is steep and eroded.
The upper river is the long shot: rainbows and bull trout reported for a good distance above the powerhouse, in water few people walk far enough to find. Nobody has written up its best runs, which is half the point. Before you fish the canyon, the upper river or any water above the railway bridge in town, check the regulations for that part of the river.
And when the Mamquam itself runs high, the bar on the Squamish just below the confluence is the place to stand.
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.
Glacier water keeps the Mamquam cold and tinted blue-green even when it is low. The town stretch was dyked in the 1920s and runs fast between its banks, with fish holding wherever a gravel bar or a boulder breaks the current. Restored side channels behind the dyke now carry spawning chum, pinks and coho; leave those to the fish and fish the river. In winter the river runs low and clear, and the fish crowd into the few deeper runs.
Fish and forage
Sea-run bull trout are the prize, and some of the biggest in the Squamish system come from this river. Cutthroat are more plentiful here than on the bigger rivers next door. Rainbows live in the canyon and above it. Coho, chum and pinks spawn in the lower river, with chinook and late steelhead too. The trout and char eat salmon in one form or another all year: eggs in autumn, flesh in early winter, fry in spring. A big fly suits the char most of the year.
When to fish it
The rules list no seasonal closure on the Mamquam’s own listing; check in-season changes before you go. In odd years, August and September bring pinks to the lower river and the confluence. October through December is the best of the town water, with coho, chum and the bull trout following them. Winter is slow but not empty: low, clear water and a few good runs that can give up a big sea-run fish. Spring brings cutthroat chasing fry and the tail of the steelhead run. Freshet in early summer can run the river high and coloured. After autumn rain, the Mamquam is the river to check first.
How to fish it
Most of the time, fish a floating line with a long leader of seven to twelve feet and a tippet of four to eight pounds for bull trout. An egg-sucking leech, a rolled muddler or a stonefly nymph will take fish almost all year, one at a time on the line. For bull trout, start with the leech, as big as you dare, swung or dead-drifted close to the bottom along the seams below bars and boulders. If nothing comes, change to the stonefly and dead-drift it slower and deeper, which is also the fly for cutthroat and rainbows. In deep slots or higher water, go to a sink tip with a short leader of three and a half to five feet and keep the fly near the bottom. For pinks, use a small pink fly on a slow swing through the soft water at the edges. Work down a run in steps, and don’t step in below someone already fishing it.
Access and safety
For the town water, drive north on Highway 99, turn right onto Mamquam Road and follow it to the trailhead just past the golf course, before Mashiter Creek. A network of wide gravel paths and smaller trails runs beside the river through the spawning channels and down under the highway bridge, with side trails to the edge of the water. For the falls and canyon, take the Mamquam forest road to the end of Powerhouse Springs Road. The road is passable without four-wheel drive but full of potholes.
The river is fast and cold even in town, and its flow is regulated upstream, so wade with care and stay out of the water when it is up. Black bears range through the valley, and the salmon draw wildlife to the river, so carry bear spray.
Regulations
The Mamquam has a bait ban, and as in every Lower Mainland stream you fish a single barbless hook all year, with one fly on the line. Wild trout and char must be released, and that includes every bull trout. All wild steelhead must be released, and you need a Conservation Surcharge Stamp on your basic licence to fish for steelhead at all. The tributaries of the Squamish River are closed to fishing, with the Mamquam among the few exceptions, and the Mamquam’s own side creeks, Mashiter and Ring creeks among them, fall under that closure. The status of the river above the railway bridge is one to check in the current regulations before you fish there. Salmon rules for coho, chum and pinks are set by Fisheries and Oceans Canada; check them and any in-season changes before you go.