120 ROD CREEL 



CHAPTER XXII. 

 ALONG THE KETTLE VALLEY LINE 



THE COQUEHALLA 



TO get to this river you can either take the evening train 

 on the Kettle Valley Line, or go by the Canadian North- 

 ern during the day, to Hope, where there is an hotel of the 

 rough and ready sort. The hotel is ten to fifteen minutes' walk 

 from the best fishing water. Hope is on the Fraser River just 

 to the west of the Cascades, and is a charming spot, as the 

 scenery is splendid and the climate more bracing than on the 

 coast. 



The river is a noted one for fishing; it is of quite a large 

 size and only during the very lowest stage of water can it be 

 crossed by wading. 



During August and September the water gets to its lowest 

 stage and about this time there is always a run of rainbows 

 and cut-throats, some of them running to quite a good size, 

 and nice fly fishing may then be had. Dolly vardens are in the 

 river more or less all the year, but after the summer freshets 

 just begin to subside, generally from the middle to end of June, 

 there is an extra good run and nice baskets of these fish may be 

 had by spinning with a minnow, either Devon, Phantom or the 

 natural fish. A few echoes run in the fall, but it is not favoured 

 by spring salmon. It is, however, for steelheads that the river 

 is famous, and for these fish there are few streams its equal. 

 The run lasts quite a long time, during the greater part of the 

 winter, away on until the freshets in May put the river out of 

 condition. Probably March and April are the best months. To 

 get the best steelhead fishing, you want to catch the river when 

 it is quite high with a bit of colour in the water. "When the 

 water gets low enough to be bright and clear, some of the best 

 reaches are not deep enough for the fish to lie in and they have 

 then to get into the deep pools and are inclined to be fastidious, 

 However, fish are subject to do queer things, especially so in 

 the Coquehalla. You can fish the famous Steelhead Pool and the 

 Rock Reach with the water in perfect condition and only catch 

 an odd fish, and under absolutely similar conditions of water 

 and weather you can fish it again and be playing fish all the 

 time. Then again, when the water is too low you may get the 

 same agreeable surprise I did once. I arrived there about 11 

 o'clock, and a friend, who was going to put me up, met me 



