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When temps warm up into the mid 40’s and the water levels aren’t too high or too low, winter steelhead can light up like Peter Townsends pinball wizard. They can turn and swim downstream 20 feet chasing a fly that is whipping across a riffle. They can attack a dry fly like a summer run steelhead swallowing a bucket of water while trying to get there mouth around your fly.
Winter steelhead are powerful, and when they arrive they are in the peak shape of there lives. The rivers of Haida Gwaii are no exception and the steelhead here will go toe to toe with a Thompson River steelhead any day of the week. With high repeat spawning rates, and short lake fed rivers, our winter run fish thrive to some enormous sizes.
It’s early morning in Sandspit, Haida Gwaii, and Neil Goodwin is slowly guiding us away from the dock. The bow of his 25 foot whaler is pointed towards the labyrinth of mossy trees that give shape to the mesmeric rain forests of the Queen Charlotte Islands, where Neil lives year round.
Although catch and release fishing is a valuable conservation tool in Haida Gwaii that can lead to more and bigger steelhead in the fishery, just because a fish swims away doesn't mean that it lives to be caught another day. I have worked in Alaska for over 10 years and when I found out that this year for the first time the guides and lodges in Bristol Bay Alaska met to discuss and teach about proper catch and release tactics, so I think it is worth addressing here. I have seen guides do some horrible things to huge trophy fish
Springtime in Haida Gwaii is my favorite time of the year to experience variety in fishing opportunities. A combination of swinging flies for steelhead and stripping fry for sea run Cutthroat is right up my alley. Toss in an afternoon session trolling for chinook and halibut a few minutes from town and you will have seen the best of the islands all wrapped up in a bow for you in just one week.
Anglers fly fishing the tides at the mouth of streams and in the brackish calm water of the high tide zone should focus on fly patterns which resemble shrimp or small baitfish. Salmon fry, alevin, and smolt patterns fall into this category and resemble baitfish. Even after the tide has gone out, fish holding in this lower zone of the river are still in a "saltwater food supply" frame of mind until they begin to move to permanent freshwater.
Spring steelhead fishing on Haida Gwaii is very different than in the winter time and you really need to adjust the way you approach the waters. By this time the main push of fish have come and gone in many of the streams. However there are still large chrome fish entering the system daily. The rivers are typically much lower in the spring and fluctuations in the water level can tell you where to find the fish.
Hunkering down beside a 500 year old fallen Sitka spruce, my felt-sole shoes dig into the gravel bottom of Moresby Islands Deena River, one of the last great havens for catching fresh wild steelhead in a small stream. Fishing the rivers of the Queen Charlotte Islands is an exciting challenge that offers anglers the chance at chrome steelhead that have just entered freshwater.
