Late March, early April is my favourite time on the Squamish River. You really have to work and that work is only rarely rewarded with fish. The run of wild steelhead is small but the steelhead themselves are the largest in the Lower Mainland rivers.

Every spring, I bump in to other steelheaders who only fish here, away from the crowds and the ensuing madness of other streams. Its like being part of a secret society, whose only aim is to truly enjoy quiet and solitude. Its all the more remarkable because its exactly 1 hour from my home.

Some of my grandest moments in steelheading are from this very spot. It's funny to think that so few of them actually involve catching fish.

Jonathan Barlow