Seasons

"About the fisheries and seasons at Quesnel Lake”

Northern Lights Lodge is located on Quesnel Lake; the deepest fjord lake in North America just outside the 1859 established Cariboo Gold Rush town of Likley British Columbia (coordinates 52°37'0.07"N / 121°33'49.69"W). Its location in the Quesnel Highland, a transition zone between the Cariboo Plateau and the Cariboo Mountains, is in the only temperate rainforest in the world and gives it its unique climate.

The Coast Mountains to the west of the region tend to protect the Cariboo Region from coastal rainfall, creating a drier continental four-season climate with summer month’s temperatures averaging between 60 - 70 degrees Fahrenheit during daytime hours. However, this is mountain country and thunder storms can develop in the afternoons and drench the countryside. For the most part, expect cool to crisp mornings, partially cloudy to bright mountain-sunny days and fresh nights – perfect for sleeping. Anglers should dress in layers and have their raingear handy at all time ready to adjust varying weather conditions.

"The Mitchell River and Blue Lead in the fall are the biggest producing rivers for Dolly Varden, as well as big 'bows. The Quesnel River, Cariboo River, Horsefly, and Mitchell all have big rainbows, and the Mitchell, Mathew, and Cariboo have big rainbows and dollies too. The Mitchell closes the end of September, but the others stay open into November. All of our rivers eventually end up in the Quesnel River, which flows into the Fraser River. The Fraser River is one of the biggest salmon-producing rivers in the world. One of the reasons the trout get so big is because of the salmon. In the spring and summer the trout feed on the salmon fry and then in the fall they feed on the eggs and flesh. Of course, to go with that we also have excellent dry fly fishing.

The year starts off with the salmon fry coming down the rivers into Quesnel Lake. This spring fishing is May and June. We are now fully into our spring fishing using fry patterns, flying ants, early May and Stone flies as June starts. We take lots of big trout in the spring varying in size from 2 pounds to 5+ pounds or better (last spring we had 3 well over 12 pounds in the spring).

There is excellent dry fly fishing on the Quesnel River in the last half of June – mayfly and big stonefly hatches. There is also good dry fly on the Cariboo, Horsefly, and Mitchell rivers all season. After the opening of the rest of the rivers on July 1, they all offer good dry and wet fly angling. The end of July to end of August is excellent for both rainbow and Dolly Varden. By August 18 the sockeye salmon are starting to show up on the rivers and the premier rainbow fishing starts.

This runs right through until the end of November. September and October are some of the best months for big rainbows and dollies. Most of the rivers are accessed by jet boat or drift boat.
For a small, walk/wade stream, we recommend Little River, with trout ranging from 10" - 14" on average. It is an excellent gin clear stream for a day off from the larger rivers. It is also an excellent place to start the kids or beginner fly fishers. This stream also gets big dollies and king salmon later in the summer. On the smaller Quesnel Lake tributary streams, like Blue Lead, the rainbows will run about 1 to 2 pounds. The Upper Cariboo, about 1 hour from the lodge, is accessed by jet boat- it's a good sized river - fairly big water, rainbows average 1- 3 pounds, dollies 3-4 pounds, excellent Chinook (kings) in August & Sept, fishing from jet boat and walk & wade.

The Penfold River is a smaller stream that runs into Mitchell River, and can be fished the same as Mitchell River - jet boat and walk 'n' wade, rainbows and dollies as in the Mitchell. Spanish Creek is a quick 20-minute drive from the lodge, and a fun little walk ‘n’ wade creek, with good numbers of 12-14 inch rainbows. Great little dry fly stream."

With over 40 lakes within a 15 mile radius of the lodge, our still-water options are wide open and extensive. Whether you're fly-fishing from drift boats, pontoon boats or float tubes, your well-experienced guides will share their knowledge and take you to some great fly-fishing waters that offer exceptional sight casting with dry flies to large trout.

We generally kick off the season with our guided still-water fly-fishing program from mid-May to mid-June with chironomid and caddis fly patterns, then later overlap with damselfly and callibaetis mayfly patterns matching their current life cycle forms. The still-water fishing is an option throughout the season and is a nice change of pace from fishing moving water for a day or two.