The Nahmint’s summer
steelhead do something few people expect of a sea-run fish: they come in from Alberni Inlet by early summer, run quickly through the lower river, and seem to spend the summer in a lake. Then, as the summer ends, they move up the river above it. The valley they climb holds some of the largest Douglas firs left in the province.
The water has three parts, and the lake is the hinge. Below it, the lower river drops through a canyon with falls and rapids to Nahmint Bay on the inlet. In the middle sits Nahmint Lake, long, deep and cool, with a recreation site and a launch at its head. Above it, the upper river climbs over bedrock toward more falls high in the valley. The river, above and below the lake, is closed to fishing from 1 November to 30 April, so this is water for the months between.
The lower river is the steelhead’s front door, and the place to be when the summer fish are arriving. It is short and rough, with falls near the top of its canyon that stop salmon, and in low summer water can stop steelhead too, so look for fish in the pools beneath them. Expect a few wild fish in hard country.
The lake is where most people fish and where the size is. It holds big rainbows, cutthroat,
kokanee and
Dolly Varden, and the summering steelhead are somewhere in it. The beach at the recreation site runs down to where the upper river comes in, and that inflow is the place to start.
The upper river is the find: a bedrock river through old forest, and the place to look for steelhead as they leave the lake late in the season.
Start at the head of the lake, with a canoe and a rod for the inflow, and keep an eye on the river coming down out of the timber.
When to fish it
From May into June, fish the lower river for summer steelhead on their way in. Through July and August, when the river runs low, turn to the lake, where the inflow tends to fish best early and late and the fish go deep through the middle of the day. September and October are the months for the upper river, which is fly fishing only, when the summer fish start to move up from the lake.
How to fish it
The river advice is borrowed from the Stamp, near Port Alberni, where summer steelhead rise to dries and take a stonefly nymph when they won’t come up. On the lower and upper river, start with a dry drifted dead along a seam or the lip of a bedrock pool, approaching from below on a floating line. If nothing moves after a few good drifts, change to a weighted stonefly nymph fished deep through the same water, then move to the next pool.
On the lake, trolling deep is how the big rainbows are caught. With a fly rod, that means a full-sinking line and a leech or baitfish pattern pulled slowly from a canoe along the drop-offs. At the inflow, fish the edge where river water meets the lake, and change to something smaller and drabber if fish follow and turn away.
Access and safety
From Port Alberni, take Highway 4 west across the Somass River bridge, turn left on McCoy Lake Road, follow the Stirling Arm mainline and then turn onto Nahmint Main. The recreation site is on the right, beside the lake, with camping, a launch, tables and toilets; it is run by the Hupačasath First Nation. The roads are gravel with some steep, rough sections and active logging, and the junction with the South Taylor road is easy to miss. A tenting beach on the southwest shore is reached by boat or by a steep trail from the road above.
The lower river meets the sea at Nahmint Bay, a boat run down Alberni Inlet from Port Alberni. Ask in town about the current way in by road, and carry a backroad map. The canyon is all falls and rapids, so fish it from the rock and don’t wade water you can’t read.
Regulations
The Nahmint River, upstream and downstream of the lake, is closed to fishing from 1 November to 30 April. Above the lake it is fly fishing only when open. It is a Region 1 stream, so use a single barbless hook and one fly, bait is banned, and you release all wild trout, all wild steelhead and all char, including Dolly Varden. You need a steelhead stamp to fish for steelhead, even to release them. For Nahmint Lake itself, check the regulations, along with federal salmon rules and any in-season changes, before you go.