Imagery: Esri

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Waters

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British Columbia

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Skeena River

River

623 km

Main stem

Species recorded

In August the steelhead that will winter in the Babine, the Kispiox, the Sustut and the Bulkley are all still in one river, and the lower Skeena around Terrace sees every one of them go by. Plenty of them are big, and none has a dam to climb. The Tsimshian and Gitxsan names for this water both come back to mist.

Get the shape first. The Skeena rises south of the Spatsizi Plateau and runs a long way through mountain country with few roads before it gathers its big tributaries around Hazelton. From there it turns southwest down a valley it shares with Highway 16 and the railway, squeezes through Kitselas Canyon, widens at Terrace, and runs its last stretch to the sea near Prince Rupert as a wide river the tide reaches into. That makes four parts, and each one fishes differently.

Start at Terrace. On Ferry Island, in town, you can fish the Skeena from the bank without a boat, and two clearer rivers come in close by: the Kalum below town, the Copper above it. Steelhead start showing in late July, are well into the river by mid-August, and keep filling the holding water through the fall, with coho beside them in autumn.

Below Terrace the highway follows the river to the coast, and the side rivers give you the ways in, with launches at the Exstew, inside Exchamsiks River Provincial Park, at the Kasiks where the tide starts to reach, and at the Khyex where it takes over. Most of this is jet-boat water, and the tributary mouths are where to look.

Above the canyon is the middle river, the one a wading angler comes north for. Between Kitwanga and the mouth of the Kispiox the Skeena runs long cobble bars, and when the mainstem clears enough to fish, fall puts steelhead on them on their way to the tributaries.

Above the Babine the river runs through country few roads reach. Leave it until the lower river has taught you how the Skeena fishes.

The Bulkley joins at Hazelton and the Kispiox just above it, and every fish on a Kitwanga bar in October is bound for one of them or for water farther up.

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.

No live gauge

No gauge readings are available for this water.

Season

Driving directions

Water and habitat

The mainstem is the highway every Skeena salmon and steelhead uses to reach its home river, so for most of its length the fish you meet are on the move. They travel and rest far to the inside of the runs, in close over cobble, along seams out in the river and down the long tailouts, which means the fish are often nearer the bank than you would wade. The long, sweeping runs suit a fly swung on a long line. After rain it colours, and a dirty Skeena fishes hard; then the clear water at a tributary mouth is where fish and anglers both end up.

Fish and forage

Wild summer-run steelhead are the reason to come. All five Pacific salmon run the river, and the Skeena’s sockeye run is second in Canada only to the Fraser’s. In spring, on the open water below Cedarvale, trout and char feed on emerging salmon fry, and Dolly Varden and whitefish turn up at the side-river mouths.

When to fish it

On the river below Cedarvale, which takes in Terrace and everything down to tidewater, the rules list no closure; check in-season changes before you go. That is where the year starts: winter steelhead from early March, when the bank ice melts, until freshet in late April, and chinook arriving from April. The summer run then keeps building into November.

From Cedarvale up to the headwaters, the Kitwanga bars included, the river is closed to fishing from 1 January to 15 June. From the middle of September to the middle of October is the best of it, and colour decides each day: when Hazelton is borderline, the water lower down around Kitwanga and Cedarvale can be fishing.

How to fish it

A two-handed rod and a sink tip is the standard kit; a floating line earns its place only now and then. Begin each run with an unweighted fly so it can swing in over the shallow inside, where the fish lie, without hanging bottom. Start at the head, cast across and a little down, mend once, and let the line come round until it hangs straight below you. Take two steps and go again.

When that draws nothing, change depth before you change water: a heavier tip, a weighted fly, a slower swing. Late in the year cold fish won’t move far, and a big, heavy Intruder-style fly on a sink tip, fished slow and deep, is the answer. Early fish in low, warm, clear water will sometimes come up to a skated dry. If the river colours, fish closer in and work the seams at tributary mouths. For coho, carry a Clouser; on one lower-river tributary it took fish that ignored egg patterns. Fish one fly at a time on a single barbless hook.

Access and safety

Highway 16 runs beside the river from Prince Rupert to Terrace and on toward Hazelton, and Highway 37 crosses it at Kitwanga. Launches change from year to year, so ask in Terrace before you trailer a boat to one. Some of the favourite spots at Kitwanga are reached across reserve land, and the regulations say not to enter Indian Reserve land without permission, so ask first or find another way down. Kitselas Canyon, upstream of Terrace, is a big river forced into a narrow gap; leave it to boaters who know it. Anywhere on it, the Skeena is too big and cold to wade carelessly.

Regulations

The whole Skeena and its tributaries carry a bait ban, and every stream in Region 6 requires a single barbless hook. All wild steelhead must be released, and fishing for steelhead anywhere in BC takes a Steelhead Conservation Surcharge Stamp. A province-wide no-fishing-for-steelhead period, 15 May to 15 June, lists Skeena mainstem waters among its exemptions; read the regulations for how that applies to your stretch.

Two parts of the mainstem are Class II classified water, which takes a Classified Waters Licence on top of your basic licence; non-residents need a separate one for each section. Skeena River 2 runs from the Exchamsiks River to 1.5 km above the Kitsumkalum mouth and is classified from 1 July to 30 September; the Steelhead Stamp is not mandatory there unless you fish for steelhead. Skeena River Section 4 starts 1.5 km above the Zymoetz mouth and is classified from 1 July to 31 December, with the Steelhead Stamp mandatory through that period. Inside Section 4, non-guided non-resident aliens may not fish on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 July to 31 December in two zones: from the Shegunia River confluence to the Sedan Creek confluence, and from the Chimdemash Creek confluence to 1.5 km above the Zymoetz.

The freshwater regulations don’t cover tidal water, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada sets the salmon rules for the whole river; check both, and in-season changes, before you fish.