I did a week with my brother at Nicholas Dean earlier this fall. Great lodge, food and guides. We caught plenty of fish. Down low on the skeena the fishing is a bit different. In the lowest sections you are basically waiting for fish to swim past. You stand in one spot and spey cast over and over. Not really stepping through a run like traditional steelhead fishing. Depending on the species of salmon swimming up river you could catch salmon or steelhead. The day we fished that low we caught a handful of Coho, no steelhead.
There are also several tributaries that we went up to fish single hand fly rods for Coho salmon. Tribs were beautiful! Enough Coho to have just a really fun day.
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Another tributary we fished had steelhead and Coho. We each hooked steelhead but didn’t get them to hand.
One day we fished the main stem of the Skeena above Terrace, where we fished for steelhead the traditional way, stepping through the runs Spey casting. We did catch steelhead on the Skeena.
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We also spent a day with the Dustin (head guide) in a local bay fishing for Halibut, Pacific Cod, Rock fish and salmon.
The price of fish he trip was very reasonable in my opinion. There was as also an option of a helicopter ride to a Skeena trib known for surface oriented steelhead. I think it would cost an additional $3,000 to do that for a day (divided among the 2 or 3 anglers who go). We didn’t do that, but from everyone who did, it’s worth the price.
Here’s my take…if you want to experience a lot of variety in your fishing, something new every day, Spey casting one day, single handers the next, with a little ocean fishing thrown in…Nicholas Dean was awesome! I’d go back in a heartbeat. If you want to swing flies for steelhead all day, every day of your trip, I’d be looking at the tributaries up river and try to get in with a lodge that fishes those tribs. I think you’d get a completely different experience if than fishing low down on the Skeena.
As for the lodge itself…great. No complaints. I’ve heard really good things about Skeena Spey lodge as well. I don’t know what their fishing program is though.
Jake
