The Nicomekl meets the sea through a set of gates. Near Elgin, a sea dam holds back the tide, and its gates open only at low water to let the river out. In autumn that is the moment the coho waiting in the salt have to slip through. If you stand on the dyke above a falling tide in October, you are watching a door open.
The river comes out of the ground in Langley and winds west for most of its length through flat farmland, then crosses South Surrey to the sea dam and runs out through tidal water to Mud Bay. The headwaters above 208th Street (Berry Road) are closed to fishing all year. That leaves two pieces, either side of the dam. Above it is a slow, narrow farmland stream fed by small creeks. Below it is a wide tidal river lined with marinas, opening onto the mudflats at Crescent Beach.
Start on the farmland stream between 208th Street and the dam. It is slow and shallow, a ditch to anyone driving past on the road bridges. In autumn it carries coho, and a few cutthroat move up it at the same time. The fish sit in the deeper bends and under the brush, and the road crossings in Langley and South Surrey are the ways down to it. Most of the bank is farmland, so ask before you cross a field.
The tidal river below the dam is a different place, full at the flood and running out over mud at the ebb, with small boats moored along it. Coho and a few chinook move through in autumn, sculpins and small flounder live on the bottom, and now and then a dogfish comes up on the tide, a shark in a farm river.
The Serpentine River drains into the same bay next door, its twin across the flats. At low tide the two of them wind out over the mud of Mud Bay toward the open water of Boundary Bay.
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.
Above the dam the Nicomekl is a lowland stream, slow and shallow, running between dykes and farm ditches with almost no drop. Fish hold where it deepens, on the outside of bends, below culverts and road crossings, and under overhanging brush, because shallow, open water gives them nowhere to hide. Below the dam the water is brackish and the tide sets the level and the current, so fish move with it.
Fish and forage
Coho are the river’s main fish, with chum and a few chinook, and a volunteer hatchery in Langley releases young coho, chinook and chum each spring to keep the runs going. Down in the tidal water, rainbow trout are unlikely.
When to fish it
Coho arrive in October and November, on both sides of the dam, and the farmland stream between 208th Street and the dam is the place to look for them in its deeper bends. From 1 August to 31 December, fishing below 208th Street is banned from 21:00 to 05:00 each day, so you lose the last of the evening light and the first of the morning.
The whole river closes from 1 April to 30 June. For the river below 208th Street the rules list no closure from January to March or in July; check in-season changes before you go, and expect quiet water until the salmon come back.
How to fish it
This is small, slow water, so use a single-handed rod and a light sink tip or a floating line. Approach from downstream and stay low and well back from the bank; in shallow water a coho sees you before you see it.
These coho patterns are borrowed from nearby Fraser Valley water rather than proven here. Start coho on a Coho Blue or a Christmas Tree: cast it across the head of a bend and strip it back slowly through the deep side. If fish follow and refuse, change to a small olive Woolly Bugger and slow down further. For cutthroat, swim a Rolled Muddler close to the brush.
Below the dam, fish the hour either side of low tide, when the gates are open and fish are on the move, and work the slack water along the edges.
Access and safety
The farmland stream is reached from road bridges in Langley and South Surrey. Most of the land along it is farmed or private, and BC’s rules forbid entering cultivated or posted land without permission. Blackberry brambles choke parts of the banks.
Surrey keeps its dyke along the south bank, between the sea dam and the Elgin Park area, open to the public, and it is the easiest way to the water around the dam. Watch the tide on the flats near the mouth.
Regulations
Region 2 streams require a single barbless hook all year, and BC allows one fly on the line. No angling from powered boats upstream of the dyke gates. Wild trout and char from streams must be released. Salmon seasons and limits are set by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, so check their current notices before you fish for coho. The provincial freshwater rules don’t cover tidal water, so check the tidal regulations before you fish below the dam, and check the provincial regulations for in-season changes.