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Fishing in British Columbia

Click a region to explore top fishing spots, species, and local tips.

British Columbia has over 20,000 lakes and thousands of kilometres of spectacular Pacific coastline. The province offers world-class salmon fishing — chinook, coho, sockeye, pink, and chum — in coastal rivers like the Skeena, Dean, and Fraser Rivers. Interior lakes including Kootenay, Okanagan, and Shuswap provide excellent rainbow trout, kokanee, and burbot fishing, while the remote lakes of northern BC offer trophy lake trout and Arctic grayling in pristine wilderness settings.

Topographic map — click to view full size

Lower Mainland & Vancouver

Fraser River salmon/sturgeon, Howe Sound, Capilano, Seymour River

Vancouver Island

Salmon, halibut, steelhead, trout lakes, Campbell River, Port Alberni

Haida Gwaii & North Coast

Remote salmon, halibut, steelhead, pristine wilderness fishing

Thompson & Okanagan

Steelhead, rainbow trout, kokanee, Kamloops trout, Thompson River

Kootenays

Trout, char, sturgeon, bass, Kootenay Lake, Elk River

Skeena & North Central

Skeena River steelhead/salmon, Babine Lake, Bulkley River, Kitimat

Cariboo & Chilcotin

Rainbow trout lakes, pike, Fraser headwaters, remote wilderness