Birkenhead River Fly Fishing at its Best

Birkenhead River Fly Fishing at its Best

Date:                     April 21, 2014

Location:             Birkenhead River

Technique:         Czech nymphing

Report:  

Birkenhead River Fly Fishing at its Best.  The Birkenhead River is one of prettiest rivers in BC to drown your nymphs. And April can be a special month. The air is clean and crisp, the salmon fry are beginning to emerge from the rocks and water conditions are fantastic as the freshet hasn’t yet begun.  At this time of year, the river will hold beautiful Rainbow Trout, Bull Trout and one of my favorite fish to target the Coastal Cutthroat Trout.  We arrived at the river around 9:00am after a long drive up from the lower mainland. We geared up and began our pilgrimage downstream noting multiple prime lies to tumble our nymphs through. We were entertained along the way by a river otter surfing the current downstream to his hunting grounds.  We finally arrived at our starting destination, crossed the river to position ourselves better and strung together our 11ft 4wt Czech Nymph rods. The flies we used were our own hand tied custom flies. They are heavily weighted and tied on competition jig hooks with tungsten beads. This allows us to get the flies down to the correct zone quickly. The hook point rides upward too which helps to limit snags and the dulling of the hook point.  With rod in hand, we kept low to avoid being seen in the low clear water conditions and fished our way into position to target the first prime lie. But fortunately for us, it didn’t take that long.  Once again fishing our way into the water paid off. It never ceases to amaze me how camouflaged a trout is when sitting on bottom.  The first to hand was a beautiful Rainbow sitting in 4 feet of water and about 10 feet from where I was crouched.   As the day progressed, the action continued and my son joined in on the fun.   All in all, a great day of angling spent on a pristine BC river with one my favorite fishing buddies. Here are some pictures of our day;

Mike & Callum Learmonth.

For more information about the Birkenhead River or to book a Guided fly fishing tour visit the Pemberton Fish Finder.