The Harrison River has long been renowned for having amazing Cutthroat Trout fishing. While early springtime is best known for the Salmon fry hatching and the voracious feeding Trout chasing them, early to mid-summer can be just as good.
The Cutthroat Trout of Harrison can be both resident fish and sea going variety. The sea run Cutties will often be more silver bodied, spotted and thicker fish. The resident Trout will have far more spots, be thinner in appearance and have yellowish fins.
I typically hunt for the Cutthroat Trout in late June, all of July, and early August. The Trout I’m trying to catch are feeding on Salmon Fry, Salmon smolts, and both Pea Mouth and Pike Minnow fry and juveniles. Years of fishing for the Cutthroat has taught me the various areas where they like to ambush bait fish. I’ll often seek out days with low wind and cloudy skies. The lack of wind allows me to see the Trout busting on baitfish, which is an effective method of finding feeding Trout. The Cutthroat will be slashing and boiling on the various baitfish, causing an obvious commotion. With the Trout lurking below the baitfish, it pushes the little fish to the surface in tight schools to avoid being eaten.
As for the best lures to catch these Cutthroat Trout, a jig head with a soft plastic tail attached is my favorite method. I make various color patterns to represent the various baitfish in the river. Some days I’ll cut my soft plastic bait very small and use a small 1/8 oz jig head to represent fry/minnows. If the Trout are feeding on smolts or juvenile Chub and Pike Minnows, a larger profile bait is more effective.
For gear, I use a 7.5’ – 8’ rod with a medium light strength and medium fast action. This rod helps cast long distances and provides for a good battle with these feisty Trout. For a reel, a spinning reel in 2500 size loaded with 10-15 braided line with a 10’ leader of 6-8 lb floro is my favorite choice. It’s important to learn a good braid to floro knot to join your braid to leader. The FG knot, Alberto knot and uni to uni knot are all good choices.
As for the lure, I use a soft plastic minnow jerk bait that I make, called the Let’s Go Minnow. At full size it’s 3.5” long, but I often trim it down to as small as 1.5”. I use 1/8 oz and 1/4 oz jigs with a UV painted head with eyes to slide the plastic minnow on.
The method I find works best is to cast towards busting Trout (surface feeding) and employ a jerk/jerk pause retrieve, with emphasis on a good pause. This is by far my most productive retrieve, but I will experiment with slow up and down lifts of the rod and even a straight retrieve. While this method seems pretty straight-forward, there are many small details which will help you catch these trout. It is very important to have quality gear that can cast far. Long casts will always get you more bites. Also, it is important to be quiet and stealthy in approaching these fish. I’ll often approach the area where they are feeding, shut off my motor, and let the wind drift me towards the fish. Once in range, I’ll quietly deploy my no chain, all rope anchor as quietly as possible. Once you are anchored in place, the feeding typically will start again and you can get busy catching some Trout!
The Harrison River is a beautiful area, and the scenery is quite amazing. You can encounter Osprey, Eagles, King Fishers, seals, bears, Ravens… and maybe even hear a Sasquatch roar. Many times, I’ve seen Sturgeon up to 9’ long cruising in water as shallow as 4’ deep. Harrison Cutthroat are a favored target of fly fisherman, but it can be just as much fun and often more productive using the jig and minnow technique.
I would like to put a strong emphasis on taking care of these fish. Pinched barbs are an important part of this, and it is the law in BC to only use barbless hooks in all river systems. I also use a soft mesh net for landing fish and try to handle the fish as little as possible with bare hands when releasing them. I personally use only size #1 or #2 hooks as this avoids deeply hooking these beautiful Trout.
I would add that this exact technique I use to catch Harrison Cutthroat can be used on many waters of the province to catch Cutties, Rainbows, and Bull Trout. I have also caught Coho Salmon with this technique.
If you would like to purchase some Let’s Go Minnows and jig heads, go to the tackle shop on my website, bentrods.ca
Tight Lines & Bent Rods!
