The Peace River "Fingers"
June 22, 2010:
Nobody around to go fishin’ and the jeep in the shop means it’s off to the Mighty Peace River to fish around Hudson’s Hope. H.H. is about 1 hour drive west of FSJ. And the highway parallels the river most of the way.
I could see the river was very low (controlled by Peace Canyon Dam below Bennet Dam) and being mid morning the chances of staying low for awhile were good. That meant only one thing … head to the Fingers.
The Fingers are shelves of rock that jut out into the Peace from both shores downstream of Peace Canyon Dam for a km or so. The last set is my favourite and is usually under water. I hadn’t got out on them for 4 or 5 years so when I saw them exposed it was pack up and down the cliff (no small feat in itself).
As you can see by the photo above you’re 250-300 yards out into the middle of the river. The picture is mid afternoon when the water came up 8 inches in 5 minutes. At this point I had everything packed and ready to bolt as you never know when it might rise a couple of feet just like that! As it was the river remained at this level and I fished to 8:00PM.
It was a perfect day fishing barefoot wearing nothing but shorts and a beer. Caught over 30 a mix of rainbows and whitefish on caddis pupae, stonefly nymphs and black ant. I was excited because when there’s this many fish usually a big bull trout will crash the party and I had another rod rigged with a VI sink tip and Double Bunny fly waiting. I’ve had 15lb bulls chase little whitefish right past me in 8 inches of water before and believe me you better have a strong heart when that happens! 😯
A Nice Plump Peace River Rainbow!
Today though was just a beautiful day in a beautiful river … what more can I say. Better enjoy it before they build Site C Dam and destroy an awesome fishery. More on that another time.
Species available in the Peace River:
Bull trout
Lakers
Rainbow
Whitefish
Grayling
Walleye
Pike
Lingcod
Goldeye
Suckers
Squawfish
That’s all for now folks.
…….Gord – Flyguys North
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hi there i enjoyed the post about fishing the fingers and i was wondering how to actually get to the fingers to try them out. I was wondering if there was a road in which leads to a path to get down there or if it was a good hike to get near the area. If i could get detailed directions (if you dont mind) that would be greatly appreciated. thank you and i look forward to reading your response.
Hey Mathew,
I don’t know if you’re from the Peace region or not but hopefully these instructions will get down to where you want to be. The fingers in this Blog were on the North side of the river and access is through private property and down a serious cliff with some old rope tied off a tree. If it rains while you’re down there you could get stranded as getting up the bottom part of the slope to the rope is tricky even when it’s dry.
On a brighter note the fingers also extend out from the south side as well and there is decent access to get down to them. If you’re travelling from Fort St. John go through Hudson’s Hope on the highway toward Chetwyn you’ll cross the Peace River and once you cross the bridge there is pull off on the left side. You can park here and follow the trail down to the river. Once down you can walk up and down the shore to several different fingers.
I must stress though that you are only half a mile downstream from Peace Canyon Dam and the river can go up and down drastically in a short time. Of course going down is not a issue but you don’t want to be a hundred yards out on a finger when it comes up fast. In the past the dam will sound a horn if they see you out fishing but there’s no guarantee that will happen. I always mark a rock or put some wood on higher ground and keep a close eye on it for any signs of the river rising. The river runs high from late Sept. to the end of May and the fingers are underwater but even in the summer months when the river is lower there is no guarantee that they will above the surface on any given day.
Hope this helps.
Gord (Flyguys Northern Division)
Are the fingers on the upstream side of the bridge or the downstream? I cannot seem to locate them. Also are there any other good, foot accessible spots to fish from around HH?