Where: Highway 22A, 15.5 km from Trail, BC Canada
Coordinates: 49.01654, -117.6044
When: March to November
Accessibility: Easy: drive down to water except during high water
Main Species: Rainbow trout
The Waneta boat launch is a rough, but convenient boat launch that allows smaller craft to easily launch for a quick run downstream to the confluence of the Pend d’Oreille River and Columbia River, or take a quick jaunt upstream to Trimac Eddy.
It’s a great location for walk and wade anglers. To the immediate right of the boat launch is 200-yard run of prime water that culminates in a nice riffle, tailout and eddy.
Fly fishing is immensely popular. Nymphing is a good early in the season, dry flies work well in the summer, and sink lines with streamers and woolly buggers are popular in the fall. It is also a hot spot for spincasters who do well pitching spoons and spinners to holding trout.
The robust fishery teems with insects including stonefly, mayfly and chironomid hatches in early spring. Flying black ants and cicadas follow as the weather warms, then our mayfly and spectacular and prolific caddis hatches occur throughout the summer and into the fall.
There are many different sub-species of rainbow trout in the Columbia, but the Columbia River redband rainbow, Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri, is the most celebrated. The redband is believed to be a descendent of the anadromous steelhead trout that once migrated from the upper reaches of the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean and grew to more than 20 pounds. The boat launch is a great location to hook into one of these prized beauties.
About our fishing hole sponsor
Trail Daily Times. Catch up on what’s happening in the community with the Trail Daily Times. The Trail Times has been serving the communities of Rossland, Trail, Warfield, Montrose and Fruitvale since 1895. Visit them online, or pick up a copy on the way to your favorite fishing hole.
