In autumn the channels beside the lower Seton fill with spawning salmon while mountain goats pick along the cliffs above. Somewhere in the green water of the river beside them are the trout and char that follow salmon. It is a river you can walk the whole of in an afternoon, from a dam to the Fraser, and a lot of fish pass through it.
The Seton comes in two pieces with a lake between. The upper piece is a short river between Anderson Lake and Seton Lake at Seton Portage, fed by two mountain creeks. The lower piece leaves the foot of Seton Lake, meets a dam a few hundred metres down, takes in Cayoosh Creek just below, and runs east to the Fraser at Lillooet. Much of the lake’s water never reaches it: a canal beside the river carries it to a powerhouse on the Fraser. Locals still call the lower river Cayoosh Creek, the name it carried all the way to the Fraser until 1950, so expect both names on the ground.
The lower river is the one to fish.
Rainbow trout and
Dolly Varden are caught in it and around the lake’s outlet,
steelhead and salmon run up it, and BC Hydro has built spawning channels for
pink salmon along its banks. A campground at the dam and a picnic area with paths beside the channels put you on the water within minutes of town, and an easy walk along the canal, which runs the same way as the river, links the dam end to the Fraser end.
The upper river at Seton Portage is the one most people never see. It is short, reached by road or by the shuttle train along Seton Lake, and what lives in it is unproven, so it is a stretch for a curious afternoon.
Start at the dam campground or the picnic area on the lower river in September, and walk downstream toward the Fraser.
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
Below the dam the Seton is a small, fast river whose size depends on what the dam lets go, which ranges from a trickle to a strong flow. Cayoosh Creek adds a lot of water just below the lake. Trout sit at the edges of that current: in the seams where faster water meets slow, behind rocks, and in the tail of each run. The spawning channels and the river below them are where salmon gather in autumn, and where the trout and char that eat their eggs and flesh hold close behind them.
When to fish it
On the lower river, June through August is trout water: fish mornings and evenings, as summer heat around Lillooet can be fierce. September and October are the heart of it, with salmon on the gravel and trout behind them, and chinook and coho in the river. The rules list no closure on the lower river from June through March, so the winter months are there for anyone happy to fish short, cold days for trout and char; check in-season changes first, and check the steelhead rules before you fish for steelhead.
The upper river at Seton Portage is worth a look in the long days of July and August.
How to fish it
Fish one fly at a time. Through summer, start with a beadhead nymph in size 12 or 14, cast upstream and dead-drifted along the seams so it ticks near the bottom. If the fish won’t take after a few drifts, move rather than change. In the evening, change to an Elk Hair Caddis and swing it across the tail-outs.
Once the salmon spawn, change to a small egg pattern, drifted at the depth the eggs roll, just downstream of spawning fish. Stand on the bank or in the run below; don’t wade on the gravel where salmon are spawning, and leave the channels themselves to the fish. For Dolly Varden, change to a dark Woolly Bugger or a Muddler Minnow, the standard on neighbouring coastal rivers, and swing it slowly through the deepest water. If that doesn’t touch fish, fish the same fly on a slower swing and closer to the bottom.
Access and safety
The dam campground, about 6 km west of Lillooet, sits at the head of the lower river and is first come, first served. The picnic area 3 km west of Lillooet has paths along the river and the spawning channels. Near the mouth, a parking area off Powerhouse Road leads to rocky shoreline at the Seton and the Fraser.
Dam releases change the river quickly, and the current at the lake’s outlet is swift. Stay off low ground when the water is rising. The Fraser at the mouth is big, cold water; don’t wade out into it.
Seton Portage is reached by road or by the shuttle train along the lake; call ahead for the train’s schedule.