On the first of October the Nicola below the lake opens again after seven months shut. The hills along Highway 8 are bunchgrass and ponderosa pine gone dry and pale, the irrigation ditches are drawing less, and coho are moving up the system toward the gravel. For five months this is a trout river through dry country, with a pullout every few bends.
The shape is simple once you see it. The river rises on the plateau to the east, runs through Douglas Lake, and winds through ranch country into the top of Nicola Lake. It leaves the lake over a dam at the south end, runs through Merritt, where the Coldwater joins as its one big tributary, and then turns west for the long run down a narrowing valley to the Thompson at Spences Bridge. The lake splits it into two rivers with two seasons: above it, open from July to the end of the year; below it, open from October through February. That gives three parts to find: the upper river, the town water, and the lower river along Highway 8.
The lower river is the one to start with. From Merritt to Spences Bridge the highway follows it most of the way, and the 2021 flood that tore out long stretches of road also moved the river, so many of the runs and pools are newer than any map.
Rainbow trout and
mountain whitefish hold in the deeper water,
bull trout move through, and the Thompson’s
steelhead use it to spawn. Much of the bank is reserve land; ask before you cross.
The town water, from the dam to where the Coldwater comes in, is small and close: an hour after work for anyone staying in Merritt, and a good place to learn how the river reads before you drive the valley.
The upper river, between Douglas Lake and Nicola Lake, is the least known and the hardest to reach. It runs through cattle ranch and Upper Nicola Band land, so the public way in is mostly where roads cross it. It opens on 1 July, which makes it the only part of the Nicola you can fish in July, August or September.
Below Spences Bridge the Nicola is gone into the Thompson, and the big river is the next water down.
How to fish it
Fish one fly at a time. Start with a weighted stonefly nymph, dead-drifted deep through the head and throat of a run; mend so the fly sinks before it reaches the slot, and stand below and to the side rather than wading into the soft water where fish sit. If the small fish keep finding it, go deeper and heavier, or move to the next bigger run. Where salmon are spawning, change to a single egg pattern drifted along the tail-outs below the redds, and keep your feet off the gravel. On cold January and February days below the lake, a small nymph slowed right down along the bottom of a riffle finds whitefish. If a run gives you nothing in a dozen drifts, walk on: the next pullout is never far.
Access and safety
Highway 8 follows the lower river from Merritt to Spences Bridge, fully two lanes again since late 2025, with pullouts onto the water along much of it. The road and river were rebuilt after 2021, and the riprap banks are steep and loose; pick your way down. The Lower Nicola, Nooaitch, Shackan and Cook’s Ferry bands have reserves along the river, and the upper river crosses ranch and Upper Nicola Band land. Don’t cross reserve or private land without permission. In Merritt, the river is reachable from town streets and parks. Cold snaps put shelf ice along the edges; wade carefully, and never stand on it.