The tide reaches a long way up the Fraser, and on Nicomen Slough you can feel it. On the flood the slough barely seems to move, and fresh coho come up out of the big river on it. On the ebb the upper water gets too thin for them to hold, and they slide back downstream, so the hours around an incoming tide are the ones to be there.
The slough is a side channel of the Fraser behind Nicomen Island, running between the island’s dykes and the foot of Nicomen Mountain. It opens to the Fraser at Dewdney and reaches back east past Deroche. Two creek mouths divide it into three parts: the lower slough, from the mouth up to where Norrish Creek comes in; the middle slough, from there up to a smaller stream called Deroche Creek; and the upper slough beyond it.
The lower slough is where to start. It is wide, almost still, open to the sky across farmland, and easy to fly fish because there is so little current and nothing behind you. The highway bridge at Dewdney is the landmark. You can walk the dykes on both sides from it, and a boat launch sits at the mouth. Cutthroat treat this water like a lake, moving in and out of the slough all winter, and it is one of the better places on the lower Fraser to find them.
The middle slough is where the salmon gather. Coho and chum come through on their way to spawn up Norrish Creek and nearby Inch Creek, and fish bound for Norrish hang off its mouth. Higher up, the slough forms runs you can fish like a small river. Small roads and the dykes get you to it.
The upper slough, above Deroche Creek, is the quiet end: a narrow channel through farmland with small creeks feeding in, reached from the dyke roads around Deroche. What it holds is unproven, and that is the reason to go and look.
When the slough is quiet, follow the salmon up Norrish Creek, or cross the dyke and try the Fraser bars nearby.
How to fish it
A floating line or a clear sink tip covers almost everything here, on a 6- or 7-weight for salmon and a 4- or 5-weight for cutthroat. Some wading helps to reach the deeper spots, and a canoe or small boat run up from the launch makes them easier still.
For coho, cast an egg-sucking leech or a salmon streamer across the channel and strip it back, slow in cold water and faster when fish are fresh. If they follow and refuse, change the colour before you change the spot. For cutthroat, try a small minnow pattern first, cast along the edges and stripped in short pulls. If nothing takes, change to a small nymph fished slowly near the bottom. On the Fraser nearby, the patterns that work for cutthroat include epoxy minnows, bead-head Woolly Buggers and wool-bodied Professors. The cutthroat keep moving, so keep moving with them. When the tide turns and the upper water drains, follow the salmon downstream to deeper water.
Regulations
Region 2 rules apply. The rules list no closure of Nicomen Slough’s own in any of its three parts. A night closure applies on portions of the Fraser, so check whether it reaches the slough, and check in-season changes before you go. Barbed hooks and hooks with more than one point are unlawful in any river, stream or slough, and your licence allows one line with one fly on it. All wild steelhead must be released, and you need a Conservation Surcharge Stamp on your basic licence to fish for steelhead, even if you release every fish. For keeping trout, check the regulations. Salmon fishing is managed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, so check its rules for coho and chum before you fish.