Fly Fishing British Columibia Trip Report | Rebecca Bailey
One of our top ladies recently had the opportunity to head to Canada for the World's, and of course, that's a long way to travel without doing something extra. That's exactly what Rebecca did and she spent an extra five weeks exploring and catching some monsters. Here's a quick trip report from her to let you see just how great she got on.
After finding out I qualified for the 2023 Ladies World Fly Fishing Championships which was to be held in British Colombia in Canada, I knew I would be making a holiday out of the trip. I spent five weeks in total exploring BC and casting to as many different species as I could find.
Leading up to my trip I reached out to Matt, a local flyfishing guide on Instagram. Matt clearly knew the area well, his page toting rather large catches from Steelhead to Bull Trout - I knew I was in good hands.
Together we planned an epic 8 day trip up north and ended up driving more than 5000km in total. Matt had a few spots up his sleeve. We arrived at his favourite Bull Trout spot which he had been talking up the whole car ride but it didn’t set in until I stepped out of the car and he pointed out a massive Bull just sitting in the current.
Matt let me go first, so I nervously made half a dozen sub-par casts out of excitement but that fish wanted nothing to do with my fly, eventually I got the fly to depth and it ate! When I landed it I put it in my McLeans weigh net and it went 11lb - surpassing my PB trout by a long shot.
We spent the next 5 days catching PB after PB and exploring other tributaries of that river. It was the best fishing of my life. We ran into a few bears and had a wolf visit our camp overnight which had me appreciate camping back home a lot more.
It was hard to leave but I'll never forget the amazing fishing experience I had in Canada and would love to return again some day.
About the author
One of Australia’s female Fly Fishing trailblazers, Rebecca Bailey, is a humble, unsung groundbreaker, who always has some invaluable insights into all kinds of fishing. Catch her on Instagram here