In the middle of winter, when the Nanaimo runs high and coloured off the mountains behind the city and then starts to drop, the first winter
steelhead are already moving up through its lower pools. They keep coming into spring. The run is small and said to be slowly rebuilding, so the fish you find are wild ones, and every wild one goes back.
The river comes in three parts. It starts as a string of lakes far up a logging valley, drops through a long rock canyon, and then slides out through forest and farmland to an estuary at the south end of Nanaimo Harbour. Each part fishes differently, and each keeps its own calendar.
Start on the lower river. From the Trans-Canada Highway bridge down to the tide, this is the stretch that fishes through the winter, and a small regional park near where Haslam Creek comes in gives you forest trails down to gravel bars and deep green pools. Steelhead from the turn of the year, cutthroat in spring and again in autumn, coho after the first big autumn rains: most of what the Nanaimo is known for happens here.
The canyon is the stretch everyone knows, for its swimming holes and the bungee bridge, and most of it is closed to fishing all year, from the power line crossing at the swimming hole called the Bore Hole up to the mouth of Boulder Creek. Only a short piece between the highway bridge and the power lines is yours, in its season.
Above Boulder Creek the river comes out of the rock into logging country, with a gravel road running beside it most of the way to the lakes. This is small trout water: rainbows and cutthroat in clear runs, taken on a dry fly in early summer and again in autumn. It gets a fraction of the attention the lower river does, and the forestry gates keep the traffic down.
Learn the lower river in winter. Then, one June weekend when the gates are open, follow the gravel road up the valley and see what’s rising between the lakes.
Water and habitat
At the top, First and Second Lake sit right on the river, joined and fed by clear stream water. Below Boulder Creek the river narrows into rock, with pools deep enough that a sinking line struggles to find bottom, and fish stack in them when the water is low. Under the canyon it spreads into long glides and gravel-tailed pools, with Douglas fir along the banks. Steelhead and coho sit at the heads and tailouts of those pools, where fast water slows and depth gives them cover; cutthroat hang on the seams and along undercut banks.
When to fish it
The whole river is closed from 15 July to 31 August. Above the Trans-Canada bridge it is also closed from 1 December to 31 May, so the canyon water and the river above Boulder Creek fish from 1 June to 14 July and again from 1 September to 30 November. Below that bridge the rules list no winter or spring closure, except on the short piece from the Cedar Road Bridge up to the Highway 19 bridge, which is closed from 1 September to 15 October; check in-season changes before you go.
For steelhead, fish the regional park water and the rest of the river below the Trans-Canada bridge from January to April, a day or two after rain once the river starts to drop and clear. For cutthroat and coho, the same park water in late October and November, after a good autumn rain. For trout, the river above Boulder Creek in June and the first two weeks of July, then again in September and October.
How to fish it
For steelhead, swing a big black or pink intruder on a sink tip through the tailouts and the heads of runs, standing above the fish and letting the fly come across slowly. If nothing moves after a full pass, change to an orange fly, or to a weighted egg pattern dead-drifted along the bottom of the deeper pools. The deepest pools are hard to get down in; spend most of your time on walking-pace water four to eight feet deep.
For cutthroat, strip a minnow pattern or a Mickey Finn along log edges and undercut banks. Later in autumn, when salmon are spawning, a single egg or flesh fly drifted below them is the change to make.
On the upper river, fish one dry fly upstream into the pocket water and the heads of pools, and change to a small weighted nymph if nothing rises. Keep low: the water is clear and the fish see you coming.
Access and safety
Nanaimo River Road leaves the highway just north of the river crossing and follows the river up the valley toward the lakes. The regional park has two roadside trailheads, Frey Road at the north end and Fry Road at the south, with trails down to the river. Much of the land below the Cedar Road Bridge is First Nations reserve, which you need permission to enter.
About 20 km up, the road reaches a forestry gate. The land past it is privately owned and opened mainly on weekends, when weather, fire risk and logging allow, so check the owner’s access schedule before you drive. There are campsites around First Lake from spring into early autumn.
The river rises and falls fast after heavy rain. In the canyon that makes it dangerous; on the lower river it usually means waiting a day for it to drop.
Regulations
The river follows the Region 1 rules for streams: single barbless hook, a bait ban, and all wild steelhead and wild trout released. From the westernmost of the two lakes, known locally as Second Lake, upstream, including its tributaries, it is artificial fly only. Fishing for steelhead needs a steelhead stamp on your basic licence. The estuary is tidal water, outside the freshwater rules, and salmon rules come from the federal government; check both, and any in-season changes, before you fish.
From here, Haslam Creek and the South Nanaimo River are both worth a look, and down the highway the Chemainus runs out of its own canyon to the sea at Chemainus.