Dean River Lodge - British Columbia

Chinook on the Hook

Last year when I fished the Dean, the local guide kept telling me about the awesome Chinook fishing. He said he didn’t care if he ever caught another steelhead, his game was early season Chinook on a fly. While the tourists come for the steelhead, the locals target Chinook. Sounded good to me so I flew to Blackwell’s Lodge on the lower Dean the last week of June.

I have never had so much fun fishing in my life. There was none of that peck-peck, maybe I had a bump, hit or miss steelhead take. There was no question when a Chinook hit. I’ve never had a fish hit the fly so hard. If the "tug’s the drug" then I was in overdose heaven. Once they hit, the Chinook usually went for a long run and I had to either high tail it down the beach to keep up with them or jump in the boat to go after them. It was exhausting but worth it when I managed to actually land one. The biggest I brought to shore was 32 pounds and it was a real struggle.

A nine weight spey rod with a 650 skagit head and a 15 foot T17 head was the most efficient way to cast. Big and chartreuse seemed to be the fly of the day. The fish like to hold in the quiet seams out towards the middle of the river but they can also be found in closer. With the high water this spring, there is a new channel to the ocean that was a hot site. When we hooked fish in there, there was almost no chance of landing them but it sure was fun to hear the line ripping off the reel.

My total for the week was nine Chinook landed out of 22 hooked and three for three on steelhead. I also broke one spey rod and lost one spey line. There was nothing easy about this fishery.

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