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The past week of Fishing
Posted 07 August 2018, 8:47 am NDT
A beautiful day for a trip up the steady on this high water. Guest photo.
(larger version)
We hosted an all new group from July 30 - Aug 4th, and that is always a lot of fun. Especially when we had novice anglers and travel writers in the mix and we were able to treat them to the special experience that Eagle River offers.
Mike, a novice angler was guided by Nelson and had a phenomenal week. He was a steelhead angler who had tried a couple weeks of salmon fishing on the Gaspe with no success. That soon changed. He was hooked into 4 and lost 3 but released 1 in his first evening with us. He remarked two things: The incredible abundance of fish even though guides were telling him conditions were tough, and the incredible fight! That first evening set the stage for a great trip for Mike. On his last day he said to me: "I passed on a fishing trip to Russia to come here, and boy I sure don't regret it!"
Blair and Andrew were on the water with guide Hedley. They also had great success. Hedley, being a bit spoiled by the Eagle's bounty, said, "the fishing is a bit slow." His guests were quick to respond, "Slow! We've caught more fish here than 4 years fishing around home! This is fantastic fishing!"
Steve was on the water with guide Bob. He also had a great trip hooking plenty of fish. It really helped that he was a seasoned angler who knew how to pick apart a piece of water. Steve had enjoyed many of the the Rivers in Newfoundland and Labrador and was quick to remark that we had a special place with a special team of guides and staff. Thank you for the kind remarks, Steve, because that is what we strive for.
Corey and Livia joined us as travel writers on assignment with the Atlantic Salmon Journal. They were sent off with guide Beatle. This young duo had seen many salmon fishing destinations in their travels for work and pleasure. Beatle treated them to great fishing and a shore lunch of flummies and smoked trout at the top of the steady. We have sent Corey and Livia away with a challenge. A challenge that culminated in their own minds while here. To tell the story of how special and different this place is among salmon fishing destinations. They have to put it into words and photos so I know I can't wait to see the end result. No pressure guys!
The river during their stay remained very high and cool at around 60F. Historically high for this time of year and while we figured fishing would totally fail, we were wrong. The sheer number of fish moving through on the high water provided some good action and our guides focused on getting guests in key high water pools. Literally chasing salmon into the alders on times. For guests to be having success of 3-5 fish a day, we figure the number moving through had to be truly astounding.
The counting fence data for Sandhill River would support that notion. The count to July 29th has the Sandhill at 3302 fish. WAY above the 5 year generational of 2449, and just 129 fish below the 1998-2017 average of 3441. Anecdotally we know that the fence went in very late on the Sandhill this year and was placed during a peak grilse run and would have missed about 70-80% of the large fish. (599 fish were counted in the first 3-4 days of the fence being set up!) So, Anecdotally, we know that 100's, if not over 1000 fish were missed by the fence, and the totals for 2018 are badly understated. Put it all together, and the Sandhill River is having one fantastic year and is well above the 1998-2017 average!!
The reports from outfitters throughout Labrador have all been very good. I have spoken with many of them and they all reported excellent fishing, the best in years. We are happy with where this is going however will remain cognitive that the atlantic salmon faces many challenges, and we will always do our part to conserve and protect this resource. For us, it is all about a balance of conservation while utilizing the resource to create a sustainable economic benefit and seeing a lot of smiles on the faces of our guests.
We are closing up early this year, due to the turmoil caused by DFO by giving us very past due announcements on regulations in 2018 and a mid season review that led to a lot of uncertainty. It made getting anglers to commit on a booking very difficult. We want to encourage anglers to look past the mess that DFO has created in this province and realize that we have one of the best atlantic salmon resources in the world today and we are eager to share it with you. We hope to get issues with DFO resolved in the coming months as they have treated NL in a manner differently than Quebec and the Maritimes which is also under their jurisdiction. We have the healthiest resource right now, and the least amount of access to it. I will leave it at that because the 2018 angling results and count data is very positive so we will work on positive change! :)
Soon, we will tally up our season and post an end of season review here on the blog. We also may go back and do some late season fishing in Early September so we will definitely post on that if it happens as well.
Mike, a novice angler was guided by Nelson and had a phenomenal week. He was a steelhead angler who had tried a couple weeks of salmon fishing on the Gaspe with no success. That soon changed. He was hooked into 4 and lost 3 but released 1 in his first evening with us. He remarked two things: The incredible abundance of fish even though guides were telling him conditions were tough, and the incredible fight! That first evening set the stage for a great trip for Mike. On his last day he said to me: "I passed on a fishing trip to Russia to come here, and boy I sure don't regret it!"
Blair and Andrew were on the water with guide Hedley. They also had great success. Hedley, being a bit spoiled by the Eagle's bounty, said, "the fishing is a bit slow." His guests were quick to respond, "Slow! We've caught more fish here than 4 years fishing around home! This is fantastic fishing!"
Steve was on the water with guide Bob. He also had a great trip hooking plenty of fish. It really helped that he was a seasoned angler who knew how to pick apart a piece of water. Steve had enjoyed many of the the Rivers in Newfoundland and Labrador and was quick to remark that we had a special place with a special team of guides and staff. Thank you for the kind remarks, Steve, because that is what we strive for.
Corey and Livia joined us as travel writers on assignment with the Atlantic Salmon Journal. They were sent off with guide Beatle. This young duo had seen many salmon fishing destinations in their travels for work and pleasure. Beatle treated them to great fishing and a shore lunch of flummies and smoked trout at the top of the steady. We have sent Corey and Livia away with a challenge. A challenge that culminated in their own minds while here. To tell the story of how special and different this place is among salmon fishing destinations. They have to put it into words and photos so I know I can't wait to see the end result. No pressure guys!
The river during their stay remained very high and cool at around 60F. Historically high for this time of year and while we figured fishing would totally fail, we were wrong. The sheer number of fish moving through on the high water provided some good action and our guides focused on getting guests in key high water pools. Literally chasing salmon into the alders on times. For guests to be having success of 3-5 fish a day, we figure the number moving through had to be truly astounding.
The counting fence data for Sandhill River would support that notion. The count to July 29th has the Sandhill at 3302 fish. WAY above the 5 year generational of 2449, and just 129 fish below the 1998-2017 average of 3441. Anecdotally we know that the fence went in very late on the Sandhill this year and was placed during a peak grilse run and would have missed about 70-80% of the large fish. (599 fish were counted in the first 3-4 days of the fence being set up!) So, Anecdotally, we know that 100's, if not over 1000 fish were missed by the fence, and the totals for 2018 are badly understated. Put it all together, and the Sandhill River is having one fantastic year and is well above the 1998-2017 average!!
The reports from outfitters throughout Labrador have all been very good. I have spoken with many of them and they all reported excellent fishing, the best in years. We are happy with where this is going however will remain cognitive that the atlantic salmon faces many challenges, and we will always do our part to conserve and protect this resource. For us, it is all about a balance of conservation while utilizing the resource to create a sustainable economic benefit and seeing a lot of smiles on the faces of our guests.
We are closing up early this year, due to the turmoil caused by DFO by giving us very past due announcements on regulations in 2018 and a mid season review that led to a lot of uncertainty. It made getting anglers to commit on a booking very difficult. We want to encourage anglers to look past the mess that DFO has created in this province and realize that we have one of the best atlantic salmon resources in the world today and we are eager to share it with you. We hope to get issues with DFO resolved in the coming months as they have treated NL in a manner differently than Quebec and the Maritimes which is also under their jurisdiction. We have the healthiest resource right now, and the least amount of access to it. I will leave it at that because the 2018 angling results and count data is very positive so we will work on positive change! :)
Soon, we will tally up our season and post an end of season review here on the blog. We also may go back and do some late season fishing in Early September so we will definitely post on that if it happens as well.
