By: Carlisle, Eric
ISBN: 0-88839-212-5
Binding: Trade Paper
Size: 8.5" X 5.5"
Pages: 192
Photos: 81
Illustrations: 0
Publication Date: 1990

PR Highlights: A Guide to River Angling on the West Coast.
PHOTO Highlights: 32 page b/w photo section.

Description: A detailed account of angling in the many waterways of the West Coast. Sportfishermen will over this detailed account of angling in the many waterways of the West Coast. Author Eric Carlisle has seen much growth, and decline, in this sport since he started river angling in 1961. In this title Mr. Carlisle shares his deep insight onto the skill of catching fish, even to following regulation, as well as his understanding of fish habitat requirements. All the while, he guides us to an appreciation of our wild and natural rivers and waterways.

British Columbia's coastal rivers have provided me with countless hours of angling pleasure for more than 25 years. I have enjoyed other types of fishing - trolling for salmon at Campbell River and Comox, mooching for winter chinooks and summer cohos, fly fishing or trolling for Kamloops trout and kokanee, surf-casting for perch at Long Beach - but river fishing remains my favorite form of angling for BC's salmon and sea-run trout. Unlike the flat, calm waters of lakes or many stretches of the sea, a river is a vital, dynamic, constantly moving, living entity. Whether I am casting and retrieving a wobbler or spinner, bottom bouncing a Spin-n-glow, float fishing a bait or imitation, or casting a fly, probing the flowing waters of a river remains an unending source of satisfaction. For over 20 years, my free lance angling articles have appeared in magazines and newspapers. Recently, I realized that while numerous books had been written about steelheading, not one book had been published concerning the entire BC west coast river angling scene - steelheading, salmon fishing and trout fishing. Therefore, to allow anglers and non-anglers to share some of my river fishing experiences and to inform people of the issues affecting river angling, I planned the stories I desired to relate and the topics I wished to cover and began writing. I drew heavily on my writing experience and my total dedication to river angling. My more than a quarter-century of river angling began on North Vancouver's Capilano River. Here I caught my first steelhead, coho, and sea-run cutthroat trout, and studied the lore of the river angling. Today my parent stream has become my home stream, for the Capilano is the river on which I spend most of my fishing time thought the year. The nearby Seymour River draws my attention during the winter steelhead season, at times during the summer steelhead and coho season, and frequently in the fall coho season. Although these two rivers absorb much of my angling time, I visit other streams with varying frequency. My records show that I have landed steelhead in the Capilano, Seymour, Squamish, Cheakamus, Mamquam, Powerhouse diversion channel, Ashlu, South Alouette, Chilliwack-Vedder, Thompson, Morice, Zymoetz, Salmon, White, Quinsam, Oyster, Big Qualicum, Little Qualicum, Nanaimo, Lynn Creek, Brothers Creek, Cypress Creek and in Washington State the Green, Snoqualmie, South Fork Stillaguamish, and Skykomish. Some streams such as Black Creek and Silverhope have produced steelhead hooked but not landed, while others like the Kispiox, Englishman, North Alouette, Chehalis and Coquihalla, have been totally unproductive. Steelhead many or may not have been present when I visited the Stamp, Kitimat, Lakelse, and Atnarko, but I fished these rivers for salmon rather than for the sea-run rainbow trout. Whenever I prowl the backs of a west coast river, I appreciate the marvelous opportunities BC anglers have to fish for steelhead, salmon and sea-run trout. It is my hope that this book will encourage river anglers to learn the many facets of river angling and work to enhance this sport.

Eric Carlisle has been a freelance writer and photographer in the field of sportfishing since 1973, though he has published countless articles since 1967. Eric has served on a Salmonid Enhancement Task Group and is a director, and newsletter editor, of the Steelhead Society of BC. He makes his home in West Vancouver, the locale for, and neighbor to, many a great fishing spot.