Alex and I continued our cross-country journey and were headed up into the Rocky mountains. This time, we skipped the popular stops around Banff and instead took a southern route over the Crowsnest Pass. The views rivaled anything you would see in the national parks and we didn't have to share with the huge crowds.
 |
| Similkameen River |
The first series of fishing stops were in the Columbia and Similkameen river systems in southern BC. There were a bunch of local sculpin and dace species I had yet to catch, species found nowhere else in Canada! It took a bit of searching, but I finally found some good Torrent Sculpin spots in fast water. It was cool to see how the different species occupied their niches; Torrent in the fast water, and Prickly Sculpin in the slower pools.
 |
| Torrent Sculpin |
We also found some great spots for some sucker fishing in different parts of the Okanagan valley, with tons of Largescale Suckers hanging out in crystal clear water. It was a ton of fun sight fishing them on light tackle, but I never did run into the Bridgelip Sucker I was hoping for.
 |
| Largescale Sucker |
We ended up staying in the Okanagan a little longer than planned, and only made it down to the Greater Vancouver area very late in the day. Which was probably a good thing, because the Chilliwack Walmart is not a great place to sleep. We had time for one last stop on the Chilliwack River where I could find another Sculpin species, the Coastrange Sculpin! It was a quick stop so I didn't wear my waders and soon regretted it in the freezing cold water. Thankfully, I was able to stay in the numbing waters long enough to catch this one small individual :)
 |
| Coastrange Sculpin |
Photos taken and fish released, it was time to catch up on some sleep.
The next day, it was finally time to start thinking about some bigger fishes. Namely, the White Sturgeon, the biggest of freshwater fishes! First, we needed to catch some bait. I tied up a small slip-bobber rig and started drifting a small chunk of nightcrawler along the shore. It wasn't long before I caught enough small Pikeminnow to serve as bait. We also caught some cool by-catch, a rare Leopard Dace, some Peamouth, and the biggest Redside Shiner I've ever seen.
 |
| Redside Shiner |
 |
| Peamouth |
 |
| Leopard Dace |
We then baited up some heavy duty bottom rigs and got to waiting for our real query to come by. A couple of hours later, one of the rods finally started bouncing! I picked it up, set the hook, and it quickly became obvious that this was a very big fish. For some reason, it seemed to be swimming towards shore so I quickly pulled back some line. Then, once it got to shallower water it turned around and went on a crazy run. It just kept going until my line caught on something and snapped. I never got to see that fish, but it had to have been a giant.
We also tried another spot closer to Vancouver with a fellow lifelister I met on Instagram. I never caught anything but he was lucky enough to pull in this beautiful specimen.
 |
White Sturgeon
|
I fished hard until sundown, but I guess my sturgeon just wasn't meant to be. Better luck next time!
The next part of the trip was a lot of hiking with only a little bit of fishing mixed in. I'll spare you the details, but it was some of the best hiking I've ever done. The highlight was an arduous trek in Kananaskis country from the Tent Ridge Horseshoe through to Smutwood Peak.
 |
| Tent Ridge Horseshoe |
 |
| Smutwood Peak |
 |
| Sarrail Ridge |
I did manage to catch one new species between all the hiking. We had finished our hike up to Garibaldi Lake early enough to drive back to Squamish and fish the Pink Salmon run. It didn't take long for me to catch this gnarly male.
 |
| Pink Salmon |
We ended this portion of the trip in the Northern Rockies, with a helicopter tour of Mount Robson! Of course, I still had one last special fish to catch... another sculpin. The Spoonhead Sculpin is a species that is usually only found at the bottom of deep glacial lakes, but for some reason it also lives in the cold mountain streams of northern Alberta. I've failed at catching this species multiple times in the past and, as far as I know, no one has ever caught one on hook and line.
I wasn't going to give up without a serious effort though, and so I dragged Alex from stream to stream for hours. I poked a small chunk of worm under every rock I could find, and eventually I pulled up the fish in the picture below.
 |
| Spoonhead Sculpin |
I quickly messaged some friends for an ID confirmation, until I was positive of having caught the target species. It must be my favourite catch from the trip :)
 |
| Garibaldi Lake |
