From Art Lingren's Kispiox Journal, a flavor of the "old" days. Hope this isn't a copyright violation, I guess this is a review quote to make you want to read the book.

"By the mid-1950’s, fly-fishing for Kispiox steelhead had its disciples. They were not many, most, if not all, of those early fur-and-feather tossers were of American origin from Washington and California. The earliest Fisheries Branch creel survey done in 1974, that collected data on gear type, showed that at that time, 70% of Kispiox anglers used lures and 30% used flies.

Those early fly-fishers persevered, searching the slower-moving runs with the fly. Some were rewarded with a very large fish. Despite the fact that lure-fishers dominated the fishery, things changed over the next fifteen years. Many lurefishers left when Field and Stream discontinued its contests after 1977. Too many fishers were into catch and release and many of the trophy hunters stopped seeking that elusive world record, and by 1989, when catch and release became the rule on the Kispiox, most of the lure-fishers had left or switched to fly-fishing. At that time, creel statistics reported that the lure-fly gear ratio had been reversed. Now, 80% of Kispiox anglers were using flies and 20% lures. Fly-fishing is now the method of choice by the majority of Kispiox anglers.

However, just as the spin-caught, world-record of 1954 brought the hordes of spin fishers, the Field & Stream’s fly-fishing contest drew many fly-fishers to the Kispiox. This was especially so after George McLeod took a 29-pound, 2-ounce world-record steelhead on the fly in 1955, which was later eclipsed by Karl Mausser’s 33-pound steelhead in 1962.

George McLeod put together some of his recollections about his first trip, the river, its fish, and his world record. He writes:

My first trip to the Kispiox was in 1955 during the last week of September and the first week of October, with friends who had fished the lower river in 1954.

Four of us chartered a float plane to fly us from Smithers to Stephens Lake, near the headwaters of the Kispiox system. With two seven-man rubber rafts, we spent six days making the trip downstream to the Rodeo Grounds at 17 mile bridge. We went through a lot of rough water and had to do a number of portages around very bad rapids and falls. On the second or third day, we fished about half the time and caught plenty of Dolly Varden to five pounds, 11 to 15 inch native cutthroat, some coho, but no steelhead. Heavy rains on the third and fourth days caused the river to rise and muddy, washing out the fishing. When we reached the big falls, coho and some steelhead were ascending the cascading rapids. With the river unfishable, we made long drifts over two days. With the worst water behind us, we reached the Rodeo Grounds in the evening of the second day, the last hour of the drift in total darkness. It was a tough journey with little fishing, but we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

We made camp at the Rodeo Grounds and heard from friends that the fishing had been good earlier in the week before the river went out. The weather turned cold and on the next day, October 3, the water started to drop. By late afternoon there was two feet visibility and I caught an 18 pounder below camp. Bait fishermen also took 4 fish. On October 4th, we drive up river three or 4 miles, but we found we were on the wrong side of the river to fly fish, with the exception of one hole. We hooked three, landing two before heading back to camp for lunch at 1 pm. At 3 pm Webb Thompson and I drove up to Wookey’s place and parked at the edge of the road. We walked across a small field to the river and found a beautiful flat stretch of water. We stood on a low bank, admiring the drift in front of us, when a fish broke water in mid-stream. We rushed down the bank into the water and started fishing. On my fifth cast I hooked a fish, which I landed down the gravel bar near the tailout 20 minutes later. Webb lost one while I played mine. Every few minutes, a fish would break water along the 150 stretch in front of us. We had found a glory hole and continued to hook fish until dark. We hooked nine, landing six to 22 pounds."

Those are the tales that dreams are made of. Thanks for sharing and if it's any consolation to your law breaking misbehavior, I'll go ahead and buy the book.

It reminds me of a certain stretch of NW water that I love to hike into. I've still yet to see another angler on the trail, much less in the river.

Thank you for posting this. Although I am a gear thug, I could probably recite the book's every word. Trey Comb's first and second volumes of "Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies" are further masterpieces on the subject. Both authors will certainly incline you to appreciate the fine art.

One of my favorite stories is Ken Mcloud's of the truly massive creature that although netted twice, got away in his favorite "high water" spot. I believe I saw Ken's fish a few years ago in a clear tailout below Marty Allen's place. Maybe it was just in a dream............

Danny,

You may be a gear thug, but, you are a gentleman, scholar, and judge of fine whisky.

I'll have to check out this Art Lingren guy. Thanks for the post there Salmo g.

Sounds painfully familiar.

I am making my way through Bob Hooton's "Skeena Steelhead". In it, much of the discussion is about the century of mis-managment of the steelhead. But he does have some neat chapters on the birth and growth of the sport fishery on each of the tribs, such as the Kispiox. The fishing "back then", even after the commercial fisheries had clobbered the run, must have been simply amazing.

Bob notes, too, that the watershed wasknown for abundant 1-3 pound 'bows, tons of Dollies, and coho that have similarly "vanished".

I just ordered Hooton's book to go with a book I have that discusses all Skeena fish and tributaries more generally. Looking forward to that read.

The wild bows which are generally in that 2-3 pound range seem to be coming back. Although normally it is fairly easy to tell the difference between a juvenile steelhead and a rainbow, many races of steelhead up there stay in the fresh water twice as long which allows them to literally get 1-3 pounds ( believe it or not) before they migrate out. I believe this helps them to have a greater chance to survive the rigors of the ocean environment and make it to adulthood. Just my 2 cents.

I think you'll find Bob's book very interesting. Like many of our problems with fish here, it is fairly easy to ID the problem but wicked hard to do anything about iy.

Has anyone read Buzz Fiorini's book "Flying over Rainbows"?
I've heard it has some great early stories of flyfishing the Skeena system.
I believe he was one of the first to use planes to access fishing in thar area.

Who was that Stam? A lot of the old regulars who fished there were acquainted. I'm still impressed by the dedication of those old timers who fished there when access wasn't so easy. I can drive from my house to Houstin, where the Morice becomes the Buckley, in 15 hours. It was a much longer trip in the 50s and 60s.

Yeah, I think the "pics or it didn't happen" phrase hadn't been invented then, and most wouldn't have cared about it if it had been. So he would have been a contemporary of Ken's then. I don't think anybody from that generation is still around; none that I can think of anyway.

Sg -
The only one I can think of that fished the Skeena country in that period that still is around is George McCloud though there may be others that I have not had the pleasure of crossing paths with. He tells some great stories of his trips with his Dad there and elsewhere in the PNW.

Curt