Remote fly-in lodge located at the headwaters of the Stikine River in Spatsizi Wilderness Park, British Columbia. Access over 2 million acres of pristine fly fishing for wild rainbow trout, arctic grayling and bull trout. Each day, escape via floatplane with an experienced pilot and guide to new waters. All of our fishing takes place on small, crystal clear rivers, streams, and lakes with easy wading. We cater exclusively to small parties of six to eight anglers per week and provide the maximum quantity of amenities permitted in a wilderness park, while maintaining a true wilderness fly-fishing experience.
Spatsizi Plateau, Smithers, British Columbia V0J 2N0 Canada
Spatsizi River Outfitters
10 reviews
Getting there
Somewhat walkable
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
I recently returned from an enjoyable trip at Spatsizi River Outfitters. Here are the pros and cons.
PROS: -- Spectacular scenery! -- You have access to a vast expanse of wilderness, with nobody else around. Alaska rivers can get crowded. -- Good food, nice accommodations, friendly, helpful staff. (Tennille in the town of Smithers is terrific!)
CONS: -- The guides fish. In my 40 years of fly fishing with guides and lodges around the world, the general rule -- 99% of the time -- is the guides don't fish. Here they fish. Only one guide didn't. (Thanks, Dawson.) On two of the day trips with my fishing buddy and a guide, the guide caught the biggest fish of the day. One day a guide saw a rise in the lake and said, "There's a rise! I'm going to go catch him!" And he did. Maybe the guides fishing is a Canadian thing. One problem with it is the guide might have the only net, and you have to try to land a fish by hand. -- The bathrooms are separate from the cabins. -- There are some big rainbows, and I caught a few, but in general the size of the rainbows is quite a bit smaller than Alaska or Russia.
Read more
Date of stay: August 2024Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I have been lucky to have travelled to a lot of places in the world . Never have I been anywhere with the beauty, atmosphere and fishing that you find in Spatsizi. The lodge is very very comfortable and the food is quite amazing. The truly special thing however is that you are made to feel like a guest. NOT a paying guest. The cabins are very cozy with wood burners if needed and comfortable and large beds. However it is the combination of the people running it, and all those who guide or cook or fly you, that makes this place. Yes the scenery is from a National Geographic programme and the fishing is epic, but without the people, it would be different. I simply cannot envisage never going back.
Read more
Date of stay: July 2015Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Carrie C, Manager at Spatsizi River Outfitters
Responded Jul 30, 2015
We love your photos, A! Thank you for sharing and we are so pleased you had a wonderful experience in Spatsizi! We enjoyed our week with you as well. Best and safe travels to you. Fondly, Your Spatsizi Crew
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
We just returned from a week at Spatsizi, the third week in three years with six different friends each time.
We keep coming back because Spatsizi is simply out of this world -- in terms of friendly and expert guides, excellent meals, great (and safe) canoeing, horseback riding and hiking, and of course fly-fishing. We were newbies with a rod and reel and are now avid fly-fishers, and overnighted at one of Spatsizi's two fish camps on rivers teeming with fish.
This is not a five-star place; it's much better -- in terms of authenticity and getting you in touch with the real wild and the true north. I say this because I'm bewildered by the two negative reviews from 2015. The 18 of us whom my wife and I have taken to Spatsizi are equally ravenous in their praise for the place.
What can I say, other than: "Go next year" and be ready to return from what you (yes, even you the deep world traveller) will say, it was the trip of a lifetime.
Bob Ramsay, Toronto bit.ly2Z7acNP
Read more
Date of stay: August 2019
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from spatsizi, Public Relations Manager at Spatsizi River Outfitters
Responded Aug 19, 2019
Thank you for your review and your love for the True North! Keep coming back!
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Spatsizi is an absolutely beautiful area with unbelievable lake, river and mountain scenery. However the fishing was a joke. $5,000 to catch for 90% of the time little trout fingerling's with a surly guide who thought he was the only one to ever go in a boat or fish. If you like catch and release of fingerlings then this is your place. One day for a 4 hours we had to endue a long arduous trip up a river in a blinding rain storm in a small boat with a small engine rather than what everyone else uses, a jet engine.
Lodging is rustic and dirty but if that is what one wants you will get it there. Food was very good but I have never seen where all of the staff eats the same cooking as the guests - gee who pays for that!
The most troubling issue is that they have hunted the area pretty much to exhaustion. In 8 days we saw only 2 cariboo which the guides spent 1/2 hour sighting for the next hunter to come in and shoot. No bears, no moose, no deer, one eagle and on beaver - great wildlife! Yes they make a lot of money on these great trophy hunters (primarily foreigners) whose only effort after being taken to the "perch" is pulling a trigger when the guide tells them to. The owners blame the wolves for the loss of wildlife who are coming in because the hunters have killed off all of the wildlife throughout Spatsizi, as usual.
Most amazing is that, as one has to fly in and out and even though it cost us an additional $1,000 each for hotels, cab fares and plane re connections the owners and transportation because of the plane not leaving and coming in, owners and staff get downright rude when one tries to clarify why the plane is not going in or out to at least minimize ones costs. On the last day we were told that the wind in Smithers was 35 mph and the plane could not take off from there, yet the weather report in Smithers and at the Smithers Airport only reported winds of 10 kph.
Read more
Date of stay: August 2015
Rooms
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We have been to 2 other wilderness camps owned by Reg & Ray Collingwood . This wilderness lodge is well run, clean, safe, beautiful--with great fishing every day. Cabins are equipped with wood stoves, showers, and a sink. Flush toilets are located near the cabins. Everything was clean. Staff was great. The chef did great things with food, using local food when possible. The fishing guides were knowledgeable and patient. The pilots were skilled and knew the mountains as well as weather patterns. Every flight out gave you a spectacular view of mountains, lakes, steams and wildlife. This is a great place to enjoy fishing at it's finest as well as a great family atmosphere.
Read more
Date of stay: July 2015
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Carrie C, Manager at Spatsizi River Outfitters
Responded Jul 30, 2015
We are very pleased you had such a great stay! Thank you for taking the time to write a review on our wilderness lodge. We hope to see you again in the spectacular Spatsizi Wilderness. It was a pleasure meeting you and spending time with you at the lodge and out on the water. Regards, Spatsizi Crew
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
For the third year we have returned to this remote fly-in fishing and hunting lodge in BC’s northern wilderness at the sacred headwaters of the Stikene, Skeena and Ness rivers for a week of fishing, riding, hiking and paddling.
We use the lodge as a base, luxurious in this northern clime, though even we ventured out to overnight even more remotely at a fishing cabin river on the Firesteel River where the trout are said to be thicker than anywhere else in the globe.
The staff -- wranglers, guides, chef and house managers -- are the finest, hard-working, skilled and dedicated group of young men (and one woman) that the northern part of BC can produce and they are every mother’s dream of how a child should turn out -- and I salute them. They are also exceptionally patient with city slickers who don’t necessarily cast with even modest skill, seat a mountain pony with ease in bog and dense brush, or paddle expertly in fast water.
Daily outings fill the days and in the evenings we congregate around a dinner table with world class cuisine ( a wonder when everything arrives weekly in a float plane) and deep conversations ‘til bed beckons in wood-stove-warmed cabins. This place captures your heart and then steals your soul for its grandeur of mountains, rivers and an everchanging sky. We feel welcomed home every time we return.
Read more
Date of stay: August 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from spatsizi, Public Relations Manager at Spatsizi River Outfitters
Responded Aug 19, 2019
Thank you for your wonderful review and for coming back year after year! We appreciate you!
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Fly fishing nirvana. My husband and I caught so many rainbow that we lost track. These rainbows fight and dance on the water when hooked and frequently it's a challenge to get them to hand. Excellent challenge as well as fun and exciting. Pilots take you out each morning for a fly fishing adventure to your own massive river drainage..... no one else around for miles and miles..... you might see some caribou or moose or not (since grizzlies are no longer hunted in BC they've really taken down the numbers of both). The food in the lodge was excellent and I've traveled around the world and know great cooking!!!! Everything in the camp has been flown in over years of VERY hard work. It's charming and rustic. The guides were very respectful and helpful. Listen to them and treat them with respect.... they fish these waters all the time and know what they're doing. People who love to fly fish come from all over the world for this place. Now I know why, it's just wonderful. We are even trying to go twice in one year.
Read more
Date of stay: July 2019
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Â Just remember this is a VERY remote location in the wilderness of British Columbia, NOT a five...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from spatsizi, Public Relations Manager at Spatsizi River Outfitters
Responded Aug 5, 2019
Thank you for your great review. We are so glad that you have enjoyed yourself and that you are trying to come back again. Thank you.
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
I was First here in 2015 and fell in love with the Lodge and wilderness and the people who work there. I vowed to return and have just returned. It was glorious again. The Fishing was very slightly more testing and all the better for it. The guides and pilots are still fantastic and really comfortable lodgings and good food. If you enjoy wilderness and fishing, go there!
Read more
Date of stay: July 2018Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from spatsizi, Public Relations Manager at Spatsizi River Outfitters
Responded Aug 5, 2019
Thanks for your review and we are so glad that you enjoyed your stay. But more so that you enjoyed the fishing.
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
There is no other place in the world like Spatsizi Wilderness Lodge. Fishing, wildlife and scenery are without parallel. When you combine this with the level of service and amenity that is provided by the staff then you have an experience that what we experienced; unforgettable beyond compare. We will be back as the only downside was it wasn’t nearly long enough. Thanks guys
Read more
Date of stay: June 2019Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Accommodation was okay and the scenery was great. The hosts are surly and the guides pitiful. If you like catching fingerlings or under size fish, the place to go! No wildlife as they need to charge horrendous money from a bunch of foreigners who are escorted to the site and then fire their gun. Great sport! Sorry to see such a wonderful scenic area so abused.
Read more
Date of stay: June 2017
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip:Â Don't go and save the money
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from spatsizi, Public Relations Manager at Spatsizi River Outfitters
Responded Aug 5, 2019
We are sorry that you did not have a great time and caught under sized fish. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee catching large numbers of huge fish or control natural phenomena. However, we wish you tight lines for the future!
Read more
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
No results found. • Try changing or clearing your search to read questions and answers.
There are more places to choose from in the Smithers area.
FORMERLY KNOWN AS
Spatsizi Wilderness Lodge
LOCATION
CanadaBritish ColumbiaSmithers
NUMBER OF ROOMS
8
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
Is This Your Tripadvisor Listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
