On a calm evening on the Nation Lakes you can hear fish jumping along the shore of a lake you can have to yourself, a long way past the last cell signal. The Nation is a river that keeps turning into lakes. Its short river sections, where one lake drains into the next, are the parts most people paddle straight through, and they’re the ones to stop on.
There are three parts to the river. Above the lakes it’s a small stream in the southern Omineca Mountains, the part you’re least likely to see. Then it runs through a chain of four lakes, Tsayta, Indata, Tchentlo and Chuchi, joined by short stretches of slow, winding river. Below Chuchi it becomes a real river again, running east for more than a hundred kilometres to the Nation Arm of Williston Lake.
The lake chain is the place to start. It’s an old canoe route, now a provincial park, and the river sections between the lakes are easy current with fallen trees reaching out over the water.
Rainbow trout live in the lakes, and the moving water at an outlet is where you’d expect them to come to feed. The last section, between Tchentlo and Chuchi, can be free of log jams and is the easiest of them to fish from a canoe.
The lakes are big enough to have a fishery of their own.
Lake trout and
bull trout live in the deep water, and the rainbows in them grow large. Most of it is trolling water, but a fly fished along the drop-offs at dusk will find rainbows.
The lower river, from Chuchi down to the reservoir, is the part that stays a question. The watershed still holds grayling, which is more than most rivers that run into Williston can say. A gravel road toward Germansen Landing crosses the river, and another forest road reaches it lower down. Not much has been written about fishing it, so you’ll be working it out for yourself.
Go for the chain in late summer and fish every outlet on the way through. When you come out at the Chuchi end, follow the Germansen Landing road to where it meets the river.
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.
How to fish it
In the river sections, fish one fly at a time from a canoe pulled into the inside of a bend. Start with a size 12 or 14 Elk Hair Caddis drifted down the deep outside edge, close to the sweepers. If nothing rises, change to a small beadhead nymph and let it drift close to the bottom. At a lake outlet, anchor or beach above the lip and swing a small olive leech or Woolly Bugger across the current where it speeds up. On the lakes in the evening, fish the same leech slowly along the edge where the shallows drop off. If you find grayling on the lower river, start with a small dry in the tailouts, then a nymph near the bottom when they won’t come up.
Access and safety
The chain is about 260 km north-west of Prince George, by way of Fort St. James. From there, take the Tachie road 40 km to the Leo Creek Forest Service Road, follow it 68 km to the Driftwood road, then go 54.5 km to the Fall-Tsayta road and turn right for about 5 km to the north-west end of Tsayta. You can also reach the water at the south-east end of Chuchi, on the north side of Chuchi, and at the north end of Tchentlo. Chuchi Lake Point, at the east end of the lake, has a launch and a campsite, and the road in is narrow and winding. A lodge on Chuchi runs shuttles between the two ends of the route.
The first river section, from Tsayta to Indata, has log jams you’ll need to portage around, and sweepers on every section reach well out over the current. The route takes five to ten days end to end. Rustic campsites are spread along it, and on Tchentlo there’s a boat-access site near the river mouth and hot springs close by. There’s no cell service, so carry extra fuel for the long gravel drive. Grizzlies and black bears both live here, so hang your food.
Regulations
The Nation River has no listing of its own in the BC regulations, so the regional rules for the Peace region apply. Streams carry a year-round bait ban and you must use a single barbless hook. All fish caught in streams must be released from April 1 to May 15, and rainbow trout from streams from May 1 to June 15. Every Arctic grayling and every bull trout goes back. BC allows only one artificial fly on a line. The lakes have their own rules, so check the regulations for each lake you fish, and check for in-season changes before you go.
From the reservoir end, the Nation Arm leads back to the Parsnip, which this river joined before the dam.