Peace River Canoe Float ((Pic Heavy))

[Saltmania]

Hi everyone. Last week my wife and I spent four days floating on the mighty Peace River. We had an absolute blast. We paddled the 140km reach from Clayhurst Bridge north of Dawson Creek in BC to the Dunvegan bridge north of Rycroft and Grande Prairie.

The river pushed us along at an average of about 6 km/hr and was very calm and peaceful for the most part though it is a BIG river.

The Peace River valley is a very unique and interesting habitat with the south facing slopes(north bank) being very arid and dry with fascinating sandstone erosion patterns. Hoodoos, sage bushes, and even cacti were common which was a little strange seeing this far north. The north facing slopes were lush with forest and foliage.

Wildlife was plentiful with many beavers, eagles, mule deer, and elk sighted along the way.

The only disappointment was the lack of fish. We fished hard for many hours without any results. We tried just about everything and everywhere including parker minnows, plastic baits, jigs, bobbers, spoons, spinners, dead stick. We fished the main channels, back eddies, foam lines, pools, stream confluences and more. The water was pretty silty, with visibility about a foot but I still was expecting at least some action. Any suggestions? :)

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[Saltmania]

http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m514/saltmania/Peace%20River%20July%202012/peace15.jpghttp://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m514/saltmania/Peace%20River%20July%202012/peace16.jpg

[BeeGuy]

Is that a fish finder I see?

Did you mark anything?

[DiabeticKripple]

My dad told me the pulp mills Awhile ago killed the fish in there

[CantThinkOfAName]

Awesome pictures.
Sorry, can't help you with the fishing.

[Okotokian]

Looks and sounds like a great trip. I envy you. That's a pretty small canoe for two adults, large dog, and gear for 4 days!

[Saltmania]

Is that a fish finder I see?

Did you mark anything?

Indeed. In some of the deeper pools (6-8m of water) I got some rare blips on the sonar at about 3-4m deep but my sonar is pretty crap, so it may not have been fish ;) I use it almost exclusively just to tell depth and water temp.

Our anchor wouldn't hold us over those big pools so unfortunately we couldn't fish them for long.

[Saltmania]

Looks and sounds like a great trip. I envy you. That's a pretty small canoe for two adults, large dog, and gear for 4 days!

It's true - the molded seats and benches waste a lot of cargo space. However, it's very comfortable and stable and with some planning and clever packing we were able to fit everything we needed with room to spare. It's a heavy canoe at ~80lb empty so I wouldn't want to portage it :scared0018:

[jim summit]

:):)My dad told me the pulp mills Awhile ago killed the fish in there

Way down stream from the pulp mills we are catching 12lb walleye and pike up to 26lbs. Some of my best fishing has been on the good ole Peace River.
Water still higher than normal now but by fall it'll be fish time....:)

[pickrel pat]

My dad told me the pulp mills Awhile ago killed the fish in there

this is not true. ive caught many fish between the town of P.R and carcajou.

[Speckle55]

Nice pic's .. the rivers are very high now but

here is a tip try a bell weight and then two flys off your line at the creek mouths and fish abit down stream where they come in.it should bounce down the river with the flys being up above the weight .. its a type of drift fishing

if you have any Raps that are 4 to 6 ft down type then have them on at all times when going down river ..

so how you make a spinn cast drift rig is weight on bottom then come up 6 inches or a foot and make a double loop .. so make a loop in your line then make a circle and pass your line through it twice and you will have a loop in line to put hook off.. do that loop again a foot or so up line .. now that you have loops done ty a fly on a piece of line and have about 5 inches out and put a double loop at end of line .. then take that loop and fly and stick loop through one loop on your rod line and weight then stick your fly through that loop that you just put through your rod line and pull so it should be a Fly on your rod line sticking out now.. then do the same with the other loop on your rod with another made up fly and loop .. those made up flys and loops will come off your main line if you push backwards..

also remember this is the Dog days of summer so it will be slow just keep fishing the fish are everywhere in rivers now feeding so you never know .. when drifting just keep bottom bouncing even with a jighead and twister tail

.. hope this helps

David:)

[Saltmania]

here is a tip try a bell weight and then two flys off your line at the creek mouths and fish abit down stream where they come in.it should bounce down the river with the flys being up above the weight .. its a type of drift fishing


Thanks David. We were doing pretty much exactly as you suggested. While drifting, most of the time I was bottom bouncing a jig with a minnow or twister tail. For a while I tried a fly rig exactly as you described except used 3-way swivels instead of tying loops in the main line since the swivels seem to tangle less. For flies, I tried san juan worms, mickey fins, stonefly nymphs(the stonefly hatch was on bigtime), wooly buggers, and some others.

Most of the streams were completely dry but a few still had a trickle. The river itself dropped over a meter over the four days we were out. I'm thinking the fishing would be much better late August once the water clears up.

[Topwater]

My dad told me the pulp mills Awhile ago killed the fish in there

My sister used to test the discharge water at the peace river pulp mill and she said the water the they put into the peace is way cleaner then the water they take from the river.

[Speckle55]

Thanks David. We were doing pretty much exactly as you suggested. While drifting, most of the time I was bottom bouncing a jig with a minnow or twister tail. For a while I tried a fly rig exactly as you described except used 3-way swivels instead of tying loops in the main line since the swivels seem to tangle less. For flies, I tried san juan worms, mickey fins, stonefly nymphs(the stonefly hatch was on bigtime), wooly buggers, and some others.

Most of the streams were completely dry but a few still had a trickle. The river itself dropped over a meter over the four days we were out. I'm thinking the fishing would be much better late August once the water clears up.

Dog Days of Summer yep but still keep at it!!! big fish if you get lucky.. those bulls that are there are 10# plus .. good luck.. and sometimes thats fishing as you know..

David

[Albertadiver]

Really makes me want to do another multi-day canoe float. Haven't done one in about 3yrs! Maybe in september we'll try one.

[Topwater]

I grew up in the town of Peace River and although there is fish in the river it is very difficult to fish due the size and volume of water. Through the town of Peace River the river averages 6 mph lol. Best bet is to fish near feeder creeks etc. I had my tournament boat on the river and had a issue with my big engine, it was all we could due to creep up river with both the bow mount and stern mount electric trolling motors wide open (36volt 101 lb/thrust). They don't call it the mighty peace for nothin. My advise and it's not easy for me to say because I love that river would be to float/paddle a different river if fishing is a big priority

[simmered]

Looks like a great trip. Did my first canoe river trip this year and plan on many more! great way to camp!!!
Thanks for sharing

[Traps]

I recognize some of the photos, especially that hoodoo. We saw a golden perched on it last year as we came around the bend. The photo would have been awesome if we had zoom. We are hitting up the river in the beginning of August, hope it clears up a little by then.

[Bigwoodsman]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Looks like you had a great time even without the fish action.

BW

[Saltmania]

I recognize some of the photos, especially that hoodoo. We saw a golden perched on it last year as we came around the bend. The photo would have been awesome if we had zoom. We are hitting up the river in the beginning of August, hope it clears up a little by then.

We saw a golden as well a couple clicks from where that picture was taken. Lots of balds and a few hawks too. Have fun!

[Abbydel]

So. . .this might be an obvious question (or indeed, just a stupid one! haha) but I'm curious of the logistics of your trip (I'm wanting to do something similar). If you spent a few days floating down a river. . .how did you get back to your car at the end? Or did you paddle back upstream? (kidding on that one of course :P)

Again. . .sorry if this is a stupid question lol

[Saltmania]

So. . .this might be an obvious question (or indeed, just a stupid one! haha) but I'm curious of the logistics of your trip (I'm wanting to do something similar). If you spent a few days floating down a river. . .how did you get back to your car at the end? Or did you paddle back upstream? (kidding on that one of course :P)

Again. . .sorry if this is a stupid question lol

No problem. Glad to help. There are a few options.

What we did was load our truck and had friends of ours drop us off at the launch, take our truck, and then pick us up four days later at Dunvegan.

It worked out since they had relatives to visit in Rolla right near the launch and are just awesome super accommodating people.

Otherwise, you can coordinate two vehicles and leave one at the destination then drive to the launch, but that adds a bunch of driving back and forth.

One other option is to hire a shuttle to pick you up and take you back to your vehicle. Some cab companies do this.

[Saltmania]

Or did you paddle back upstream? (kidding on that one of course :P)

It blows my mind that the voyageurs and explorers of the past did just that day after day not to mention the 180lb of fur bundles they each had to carry on portages. They must have had freakishly powerful biceps and upper backs. If I remember my history from school, mostly small short men were picked for canoe balancing purposes. Alexander Mackenzie paddled upstream that same reach we floated down in his famous trek to the coast. Amazing.

[topgun2269]

looks like quite the trip!!!! Must have been very relaxing! I love the dog with a swim vest on!!!! very cool beautiful pics...

[johann_seb]

The only person I know that had great success fishing that stretch ( in terms of then-edible bull trout) used to live by Cotillion and she used rotten cabbage on a barbed pickerel rig. Not all that ethical, but she never took more than she ate, and imo the bulls have more than made a comeback since no one's takin' em any more.

[Alberta Bigbore]

Excellent photos. Looks like a fun trip.

[jackrabbit000]

Still an awesome trip even you though didn't catch any fish. Still better than going to work...nice pics.

[Cal]

It blows my mind that the voyageurs and explorers of the past did just that day after day not to mention the 180lb of fur bundles they each had to carry on portages. They must have had freakishly powerful biceps and upper backs. If I remember my history from school, mostly small short men were picked for canoe balancing purposes. Alexander Mackenzie paddled upstream that same reach we floated down in his famous trek to the coast. Amazing.

The first moose hunt I did I went down a small river to nowhere and then tryed to bring the moose back up river. We went 30 km downriver in about six hours, it took us 3 hard 9-10 hour days to get back upriver even without a moose! We killed a moose about a 2 hour padle from the truck, real happy we didnt kill it 30 k downriver!

On a mid September elk hunt on the Athabasca from Hinton to Whitecourt we met two guys canoing upriver, they had put in at Lake Superior in May and were trying to make it to the Oregon coast for Christmas! I asked how many kilometers they could do in a day and they said about 10 if they paddled 12 hours... about the distance you can cover going downstream without even paddling in 1 1/2 hours... absolutely crazy!

[KegRiver]

I fish downsteam of Peace River and I have no problem catching fish. But fishing the Peace is not like fishing anywhere else I've fished.

You can catch fish on a unbaited lure late in the year, but spring and summer, the main river is pretty much a bait only proposition.

By early summer the feeder streams like the Smokey and the Notikewin are clear enough for unbaited lures. Yellow and red or White and red are the best bet. Spoons or jigs will work. My favorites are Len Tompson 5 of diamonds and twin tail rubber jigs in Yellow and Red, or solid White.

For bait, I choose beaver meat or chicken gizzard. With water that murky you need lots of scent in the water.

The best places are the top end of back eddies and the mouths of feeder steams.

When bait fishing this rive, patience is essential. It can take an hour or more to get one bite, but the results can be well worth the wait.
Walleye to 12 pounds are possible below the town of Peace River and Pike to 20 pounds or more are caught in the river every summer.

Or you could target Goldeye. Goldeye will hit almost any small lure, but I have my best luck fishing for them with #8 hooks on a pickerel rig baited with beaver meat and suspended a foot or two under a float.

This setup drifted through a backeddie or in a stream mouth with usually catch all the Goldeye I want. If the water is especially murky, I will fish this same rig on the bottom, in which case it's a sit and wait proposition.

That is the thing about the Peace. You kinda have to know when, where and how to fish to catch anything. Fanning the water is seldom effective.

There are plenty of fish in the river, but it's a big river that can and does change character from hour to hour and from one mile to the next. Add to that the fact that for a good part of the year the water is murky at best, and can be down right muddy, and you have a serious challenge trying to catch fish in most of this river.

[KegRiver]

It blows my mind that the voyageurs and explorers of the past did just that day after day not to mention the 180lb of fur bundles they each had to carry on portages. They must have had freakishly powerful biceps and upper backs. If I remember my history from school, mostly small short men were picked for canoe balancing purposes. Alexander Mackenzie paddled upstream that same reach we floated down in his famous trek to the coast. Amazing.

For anyone interested in what it was like for the Voyageurs, GeoTourism Canada, www.geotourismcanada.com/ has been running a York Boat trip down the Peace River from Dunvagan to Fort Vermillion for a couple of years now.
They are always looking for people interested in making the trip.

This is a bit of what it's about.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5466/7178794567_df334385e4_b_d.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7211/7364027210_84c82f7134_b_d.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7100/7364023180_4baec4aea3_b_d.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8145/7178800971_f5c5fbd6b3_b_d.jpg

I took these photos at Notikewin park a few weeks ago.

[Flyfisher87]

A buddy of mine did a similar trip on the Churchill river a while ago. He did the portaging thing, stayed along river and even caught a few fish. I would like to do that same trip. A lot of history there as well.

[Saltmania]

I fish downsteam of Peace River and I have no problem catching fish. But fishing the Peace is not like fishing anywhere else I've fished.

You can catch fish on a unbaited lure late in the year, but spring and summer, the main river is pretty much a bait only proposition.

By early summer the feeder streams like the Smokey and the Notikewin are clear enough for unbaited lures. Yellow and red or White and red are the best bet. Spoons or jigs will work. My favorites are Len Tompson 5 of diamonds and twin tail rubber jigs in Yellow and Red, or solid White.

For bait, I choose beaver meat or chicken gizzard. With water that murky you need lots of scent in the water.

The best places are the top end of back eddies and the mouths of feeder steams.

When bait fishing this rive, patience is essential. It can take an hour or more to get one bite, but the results can be well worth the wait.
Walleye to 12 pounds are possible below the town of Peace River and Pike to 20 pounds or more are caught in the river every summer.

Or you could target Goldeye. Goldeye will hit almost any small lure, but I have my best luck fishing for them with #8 hooks on a pickerel rig baited with beaver meat and suspended a foot or two under a float.

This setup drifted through a backeddie or in a stream mouth with usually catch all the Goldeye I want. If the water is especially murky, I will fish this same rig on the bottom, in which case it's a sit and wait proposition.

That is the thing about the Peace. You kinda have to know when, where and how to fish to catch anything. Fanning the water is seldom effective.

There are plenty of fish in the river, but it's a big river that can and does change character from hour to hour and from one mile to the next. Add to that the fact that for a good part of the year the water is murky at best, and can be down right muddy, and you have a serious challenge trying to catch fish in most of this river.

Thanks Keg. That's some good info. I'll be doing this trip again for sure. I'm hoping my parents will come up from Nanaimo with their Kayaks to do it with us next year or the year after.

[Saltmania]

The first moose hunt I did I went down a small river to nowhere and then tryed to bring the moose back up river. We went 30 km downriver in about six hours, it took us 3 hard 9-10 hour days to get back upriver even without a moose! We killed a moose about a 2 hour padle from the truck, real happy we didnt kill it 30 k downriver!

On a mid September elk hunt on the Athabasca from Hinton to Whitecourt we met two guys canoing upriver, they had put in at Lake Superior in May and were trying to make it to the Oregon coast for Christmas! I asked how many kilometers they could do in a day and they said about 10 if they paddled 12 hours... about the distance you can cover going downstream without even paddling in 1 1/2 hours... absolutely crazy!

While we were on the river I was thinking how effective a canoe would be for hunting big game. They're very stealthy. Some of the mulies we passed by were within 10 meters. It's like they don't even register a floating canoe even though ours is bright red. The next canoe I get will be green or sand colored for waterfowl and big-game river hunts.

[heretohunt]

I don't know what the regulations ate now for the peace but when I was a kid we fished it hard. We didn't have much gear but we used to still fish it with short lines and what ever raw meat or fish we had for bait. It was a times pretty productive and walleye pike and goldeye were the prizes of the times. My fishing partner even caught a rainbow trout that he showed me and still maintains came out of the Peace river. Almost all of our fishing was done right in the town of Peace River.
We occasionally did spin cast at the mouth of the heart river with at times good success.
I suspect that the constant change in water levels due to the dam will keep it from ever becoming anything of a fishing destination.

[Cal]

While we were on the river I was thinking how effective a canoe would be for hunting big game. They're very stealthy. Some of the mulies we passed by were within 10 meters. It's like they don't even register a floating canoe even though ours is bright red. The next canoe I get will be green or sand colored for waterfowl and big-game river hunts.

The absolute best way to hunt IMO. It adds a whole new dimension to the hunt for me, I absolutely live for canoe hunting! Hunting by more popular means has more or less become somthing I do when I cant set up a canoe hunt. Its still good but its not on the same level as canoe hunting.

[Jacek]

I fish downsteam of Peace River and I have no problem catching fish. But fishing the Peace is not like fishing anywhere else I've fished.

You can catch fish on a unbaited lure late in the year, but spring and summer, the main river is pretty much a bait only proposition.

By early summer the feeder streams like the Smokey and the Notikewin are clear enough for unbaited lures. Yellow and red or White and red are the best bet. Spoons or jigs will work. My favorites are Len Tompson 5 of diamonds and twin tail rubber jigs in Yellow and Red, or solid White.

For bait, I choose beaver meat or chicken gizzard. With water that murky you need lots of scent in the water.

The best places are the top end of back eddies and the mouths of feeder steams.

When bait fishing this rive, patience is essential. It can take an hour or more to get one bite, but the results can be well worth the wait.
Walleye to 12 pounds are possible below the town of Peace River and Pike to 20 pounds or more are caught in the river every summer.

Or you could target Goldeye. Goldeye will hit almost any small lure, but I have my best luck fishing for them with #8 hooks on a pickerel rig baited with beaver meat and suspended a foot or two under a float.

This setup drifted through a backeddie or in a stream mouth with usually catch all the Goldeye I want. If the water is especially murky, I will fish this same rig on the bottom, in which case it's a sit and wait proposition.

That is the thing about the Peace. You kinda have to know when, where and how to fish to catch anything. Fanning the water is seldom effective.

There are plenty of fish in the river, but it's a big river that can and does change character from hour to hour and from one mile to the next. Add to that the fact that for a good part of the year the water is murky at best, and can be down right muddy, and you have a serious challenge trying to catch fish in most of this river.

Tried the Notikewin park the other day got rained out as a storm was coming in so never did have any luck. I thank you for the advice though, I feel like I have something to go with now the next time I go out. I don't have any beaver meat but I am sure I can find some chicken gizzards at the IGA in Manning. Also heard salmon meat and beef work well haven't tried it myself.

Also found a nice spot on the hotchkiss, looks like a promising river might have to test it out soon. Its times like these I wish I had a quad to search for nice deep holes or eddies in some of these rivers.

[KegRiver]

I don't know what the regulations ate now for the peace but when I was a kid we fished it hard. We didn't have much gear but we used to still fish it with short lines and what ever raw meat or fish we had for bait. It was a times pretty productive and walleye pike and goldeye were the prizes of the times. My fishing partner even caught a rainbow trout that he showed me and still maintains came out of the Peace river. Almost all of our fishing was done right in the town of Peace River.
We occasionally did spin cast at the mouth of the heart river with at times good success.
I suspect that the constant change in water levels due to the dam will keep it from ever becoming anything of a fishing destination.

I believe there are Rainbow in the Peace, but mostly upstream of the Smokey.

There was a story in the Peace River Record Gazzette back about 1966 about a big Dolly caught off the pier in the town of Peace River.

[KegRiver]

Tried the Notikewin park the other day got rained out as a storm was coming in so never did have any luck. I thank you for the advice though, I feel like I have something to go with now the next time I go out. I don't have any beaver meat but I am sure I can find some chicken gizzards at the IGA in Manning. Also heard salmon meat and beef work well haven't tried it myself.

Also found a nice spot on the hotchkiss, looks like a promising river might have to test it out soon. Its times like these I wish I had a quad to search for nice deep holes or eddies in some of these rivers.


Stop by my place the next time you're going fishing. I almost always have some beaver meat in the freezer and I'd be happy to give you some.

The Hotchkiss does have some good fishing for pike and walleye, mostly earlier in the year and on the lower stretches. Further west there is Grayling in the Hotchkiss and most of the other rivers and small steams.

I've caught a few Grayling out along the Chin road, but have never tried for them closer so I can't help you much with that.

Dad once told me that the local trappers used to trap Grayling in the Miekle just below the highway 35 bridge. He said they would set their traps late in the fall when the first ice formed along the shore. He described them taking gunny sacks full, enough to feed their dog teams for most of the winter.

That was in the 1920s so I'm not sure if there are that many coming down in the fall these days, but there should be some.

I've always wanted to try for them there but I have never found the time to do it.

[Jacek]

Stop by my place the next time you're going fishing. I almost always have some beaver meat in the freezer and I'd be happy to give you some.

The Hotchkiss does have some good fishing for pike and walleye, mostly earlier in the year and on the lower stretches. Further west there is Grayling in the Hotchkiss and most of the other rivers and small steams.

I've caught a few Grayling out along the Chin road, but have never tried for them closer so I can't help you much with that.

Dad once told me that the local trappers used to trap Grayling in the Miekle just below the highway 35 bridge. He said they would set their traps late in the fall when the first ice formed along the shore. He described them taking gunny sacks full, enough to feed their dog teams for most of the winter.

That was in the 1920s so I'm not sure if there are that many coming down in the fall these days, but there should be some.

I've always wanted to try for them there but I have never found the time to do it.

I d love to try beaver meat sometime, I ll take you up on that offer soon.

The Grayling fishing sounds like fun, its been years since I caught Graying but I remember it as one of my fondest fishing memories of all time. Camping B.C up in the mountains, driving over thin wooden planks over large drops straight down the mountain side, night never came because of time of year you could see some daylight all night long, and the best part was the rivers full of fish, almost every cast was a fish on and the fight through the currents was intense. I remember even the river was dangerous as we would walk right into certain parts of it and fished right inside the river on foot. I remember walking up to this one spot that water was pouring into what seemed at the time a giant hole in the river with a few rock slabbs around the crater. It was quite deep and water never seemed to fill up so must of been going somwhere underground. Kept thinking of how much it would suck if a person fell in and weather or not a person could climb out or the 15 ft hole.

Than agian I was maybe between the ages of 10-12, so maybe it wouldn't seem as bad now. But I will never forget that trip and I would strongly urge anyone to exprienced fihsing/camping in country that untouched.

[KegRiver]

I d love to try beaver meat sometime, I ll take you up on that offer soon.

The Grayling fishing sounds like fun, its been years since I caught Graying but I remember it as one of my fondest fishing memories of all time. Camping B.C up in the mountains, driving over thin wooden planks over large drops straight down the mountain side, night never came because of time of year you could see some daylight all night long, and the best part was the rivers full of fish, almost every cast was a fish on and the fight through the currents was intense. I remember even the river was dangerous as we would walk right into certain parts of it and fished right inside the river on foot. I remember walking up to this one spot that water was pouring into what seemed at the time a giant hole in the river with a few rock slabbs around the crater. It was quite deep and water never seemed to fill up so must of been going somwhere underground. Kept thinking of how much it would suck if a person fell in and weather or not a person could climb out or the 15 ft hole.

Than agian I was maybe between the ages of 10-12, so maybe it wouldn't seem as bad now. But I will never forget that trip and I would strongly urge anyone to exprienced fihsing/camping in country that untouched.

I hear you.

I have some very special memories of fishing the upper Ram back in the early 70s. One trip I took my BIL Brian. We camped in my 1972 Toyota Corona. Let me tell you, even at 19 years old a Toyota Corona is not a good camper.
We didn't catch much, just a few 1/4 pound Cutthroats but we had fun.
At least until the last day. It was the 14 of July and we woke up to 6 inches of wet snow on the hood of our camper/car.

No matter which way we drove there were hills we couldn't climb. The snow was so deep and wet we would spin out. Finally just before dark several 4x4 pickups came from somewhere north and broke a trail up those hills.
We followed them and made it out.

I went back a few times in the following years but it was never fun, I was to busy watching the sky for storm clouds to enjoy the fishing.

But I can still remember the absolutely stunning beauty of the place.
The wild meadows along the Hummingbird. The upper Ram falls. Corkscrew Mountain, fishermen with fly rods and creels standing knee deep in the icy water. Bighorns on the mountain sides, Moose in the beaver ponds.

From time to time I think of going back, but I'm sure it's all different now.
There's probably no fish left, There's probably chalet's built on those mountain meadows and parking lots full of car around every corner.

That's the best thing about memories. Nothing gets paved over, the fish are always big and plentiful and the only people in those memories are friendly and courteous.

I think I'm getting old. Some days I enjoy the memories as much as I enjoy getting out there and making new memories.