Stand on the gravel at Puntledge Park, in the middle of Courtenay, at first light in early September, and the river in front of you can be full of
pink salmon. Schools of them cruise the shallow edges in water some anglers wade in shorts, and the people stalking them with fly rods are a sign of the season in town.
The town water is only one piece of it. Understand the shape first: the river leaves Comox Lake over a dam and runs a few kilometres of quiet water, then most of its flow is taken into a pipe at a second dam and the river drops through a canyon of falls on what is left. Below the powerhouse and the hatchery it carries its full flow again through town, meets the Tsolum, and the two become the Courtenay River. There are three stretches to fish.
The lower river through Courtenay is the place to start. From below the hatchery down to the confluence it is gravel bars, side channels and pools, with salmon from late summer into winter and
steelhead in their seasons. Park trails and city streets reach it, and it is where most of the river’s fish are.
The short middle stretch, from the foot of the canyon down to the powerhouse, is the one people pass by: bouldery water reached on foot, the first fishable water below the falls.
The top of the river, from Comox Dam down to the diversion dam, is a small clear river with the lake behind you and trails on both banks. Few people fish it, and it is worth an evening when the town water is crowded.
The canyon between, past Barber’s Hole, Nymph Falls and Stotan Falls, is where most visitors see the river, and it is closed to fishing all year.
From the town water the Courtenay River runs on to the estuary, and Comox Lake waits above the dam for its cutthroat.
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.
Water and habitat
Comox Dam sets the river’s flow, and the diversion dam sends most of it through the penstock to the powerhouse. Below the tailrace, fish up from the sea hold in the pools and seams through town on their way to the hatchery fence. The lower river is broad gravel, and its deeper bends and side channels hold coho and chum later in the run, when the pinks are spent. Above the diversion dam the river is smaller and steadier, and fish sit in the slower water behind rocks in its runs and pocket water.
When to fish it
The whole river is exempt from the 15 July to 31 August summer closure, so its open stretches stay open through the heat. The lower river through Courtenay is busiest from early September, when the pinks arrive. Chum fill it in late October and early November, and coho run on into December. After the salmon, winter steelhead come through the lower river in small numbers, and a day after rain, with the water dropping, is the one to pick. The fly-only water below Comox Dam is the place for a summer evening, when the town reach is busy.
How to fish it
For pinks in the lower river, use a 6- or 7-weight, a floating line or light sink-tip, and a small pink fly such as a Pink Handlebar. Stand off the edge of the school, cast ahead of the fish and let the fly sink to their level before a slow, short strip. If they follow and turn away, go smaller or sparser before you go brighter. For coho in the side channels, try a sparse Mickey Finn or a woolly bugger; if it is ignored, change colour and twitch it instead of stripping. Chum take bigger green or pink flies fished deep and slow.
For steelhead and trout, fish one fly at a time: an egg pattern dead-drifted along the seam below spawning fish, and if nothing moves, change to a stonefly nymph or a worm fly and fish it deeper. Above the diversion dam the river is fly fishing only; start with a small dry through the pocket water, change to a nymph if nothing rises, and move on after a few casts.
Access and safety
Puntledge Park and the Ruth Masters Greenway near the hatchery are the easy ways onto the lower river, and Lewis Park sits at the confluence. The water at the hatchery and powerhouse is closed between signs 50 m above the generating station tailrace and 75 m below the hatchery fence, about 500 m in all, and again between signs about 100 m above and below the mouth of Morrison Creek; fish the town water either side of those signs. The fly-only water starts at the BC Hydro picnic area at the outlet of Comox Lake, southwest of Courtenay, with river trails along both banks. The canyon closure runs from the diversion dam, about 3.5 km below the lake, to the base of Stotan Falls, about 450 m below the Duncan Bay Mainline; the middle stretch begins there.
Flows below both dams change quickly, planned or not, and can rise several times above normal. Sirens run along the river from Comox Dam to Puntledge Park: when one sounds, get out of the channel and off the rocks. Black bears and cougars live along the river.