Northwest Fishing Reports

Does anyone Fly Fish the Kettle River? How about put in spots for a drifter or pontoon, non negatable sections (falls, nasty rapids etc) fish species, timing?

TTFN

Cheers The chronny guy

I have never fly fished or floated the Kettle. I have fished it ( the lower river )and caught big bows in there about this time of year, I think those bows I caught are Roosevelt fish trying find a place to spawn, ( they had eggs ) its been a long time. I occaisonally fish the mouth for Walleye and once in a while pan it for gold. It is a prety nice river.

I fished the upper section (before it goes into Canada) a couple of times. Lots of trout and whitefish. I think it would be a great fly spot when the water is clear, it has pretty heavy spring runoff.

Jake.............Yes I agree. I fish the Kettle on the Can side, it is constantly getting better there. I have admired the Kettle on the US side but I dont see anyone fishing it? Access seems very good and the few ranchers that I talked to concerning fishing were all very pleasant. I have talked to the WSFW guys/ladies and they dont know much about useage or profile (floatability). There is one section called the "rock bluff" that locals talk about but dont know if its floatable. At this point I debate it is an under utilized fishery? I suspect I am going to have to strap on the boots and walk some of thes sections with my 6wt under arm and an arsonal of flies. TTFN

Cheers

My wife and I fished it one day over 20 years ago. We were pretty close to the town of Curlew. We were wet wading and fishing spinning gear with small daredevils. It seems like we were catching one after another on the swing. But that many years adds pleasure to a lot of memories. If you get a chance to fish it this year, add your comments to the River Reports forum. Pictures are alway nice too.
Good Luck,

Lotech Joe wrote:My wife and I fished it one day over 20 years ago. We were pretty close to the town of Curlew. We were wet wading and fishing spinning gear with small daredevils. It seems like we were catching one after another on the swing. But that many years adds pleasure to a lot of memories. If you get a chance to fish it this year, add your comments to the River Reports forum. Pictures are alway nice too.
Good Luck,

Joe ... your correct. The Kettle starts in BC Canada then flows south and parallels the US/CDN border in the US from Midway BC to Grand Forks BC where it joins the Granby river and flows east to Cascade falls. Downstream from the falls Christina Ck (from Christina Lake) enters the Kettle and it exits Canada to flow through Laurier, Orient & Barstow into the Columbia River at Kamloops Island (near Barney's junction). Damn that was long winded.............lol.. Did you catch any Browns? I always seem to catch a few between Grand Forks and the falls at Cascade (the only Brown trout river fishery in the interior of BC that I am aware of). When I fish it this year (and I will for sure) I will post some pics. TTFN

Cheers The Chironomid guy

I have always heard that there were some decent sized browns in there but have never had the chance to fish it. The only time that I ever spent up in that area was turkey hunting near Barstow and Dead Mans Creek. It is a beautiful area and I have always wanted to try for the big browns that I heard of, but that was a few years back and I haven't heard much if the brown fishery since. I enjoy fishing rivers mostly and would love to get back up there sometime and give the browns a shot.

Chironomid guy - last summer (2007), my son along with his two cousins, floated the Kettle from Orient to what is known locally as Intercourse Beach. I spent my time waiting for them scouting the river for good pockets. Also talked to a flyfishermen taking in a leisurely float. He confirmed as I suspected that this stretch of water would be excellent to try, as he did see many fish.

I think the Kettle could be a local gem. most locals keep it quite or fish just off of their property. We found access other than the two two above points very minimal.

Dave

chironomid_guy wrote:

Lotech Joe wrote:My wife and I fished it one day over 20 years ago. We were pretty close to the town of Curlew. We were wet wading and fishing spinning gear with small daredevils. It seems like we were catching one after another on the swing. But that many years adds pleasure to a lot of memories. If you get a chance to fish it this year, add your comments to the River Reports forum. Pictures are alway nice too.
Good Luck,

Joe ... your correct. The Kettle starts in BC Canada then flows south and parallels the US/CDN border in the US from Midway BC to Grand Forks BC where it joins the Granby river and flows east to Cascade falls. Downstream from the falls Christina Ck (from Christina Lake) enters the Kettle and it exits Canada to flow through Laurier, Orient & Barstow into the Columbia River at Kamloops Island (near Barney's junction). Damn that was long winded.............lol.. Did you catch any Browns? I always seem to catch a few between Grand Forks and the falls at Cascade (the only Brown trout river fishery in the interior of BC that I am aware of). When I fish it this year (and I will for sure) I will post some pics. TTFN

Cheers The Chironomid guy

We didn't catch any browns, but we heard they were in there. We were told you have to fish the deeper holes to find them.

Not to change the subject to much but, The Colville River holds truely Big Browns and its not that far from the Kettle. In late fall is when I get the Big, Beautiful, Spawning, Hooked Jawed, Browns. The average size fish is getting up there and I have seen double digit fish caught. My biggest Brown was just under 10lbs, my Colville River fishing partners biggest was 14.5 and I hear about it every time we go.

I have never caught a brown in the kettle, my uncle use to catch mostly browns in it back in the 70s. I do wonder why that has changed over the years, if the planting of all the rainbows in the lakes conected to it have anything to do with it.

I've never fished the Colville, PM me if you have some hot spots to share. I will put it on my list for sure. We usually catch browns in the deeper holes in the Kettle with sinking line and big flies (zonkers, bunnys etc). I snowed 4 " here today........... yesterday I though about raking the grass.... go figure. TTFN

Cheers