This has been an unprecedented mid July heat wave the likes of which we have never seen. July 8th was the last day of half decent fishing. Since July 8th, temps with humidex has been over 30C, July 10 & 11 was 36C humidex. Water temps hitting 22-24c mid day. July 12th , a new record was set that we aren't fond of, none of our 12 PFSL guests hooked any fish! July 13th was a little better with one guest managing to hook 5 in slightly cooler conditions than the previous couple of days, but overall still not good fishing for the group. As a whole, the group of 12 all hooked at least one fish during their stay with the exception of 1 goose egg. We were really rooting for him to get one last night, but it never happened. The highliner of the group hooked 9, and several hooked 4-5. These numbers are record lows for us in what should be one of the best time slots of the year.

I have to touch on this group's 'attitude' towards the dismal fishing results. It could not possibly be better. They have been a real pleasure to host (most of them repeat offenders). They are experienced salmon anglers and understand that when mother nature throws conditions like this at us, there is just nothing we can do. Several times this week they hing up the rods and just went for a swim and a cocktail to try to beat the heat. We are thankful for their understanding and looking forward to seeing them again for what will hopefully be a triumphant return!!

The outlook: It's not good, though it has cooled a little overnight and Sunday & Monday is looking like mid 20's C instead of the mid 30's we have been experiencing. We need the water to cool down. It got back to around 70-72 early morning yesterday. This morning we have a little cool fog and expect it is likely 69-71F or 21C. The only thing we have going for us is the flow in the river is still quite good at 200m3/s. The water level for fishing is actually very good. I drove in the estuary yesterday at 8am on a half down falling tide and seen more fish than I have ever seen down there in brackish water. They were jumping and skimming the water everywhere in the deep water inside the bar. During a season I might see two of three fish jump out there. Yesterday I seen 50+ at one time and fins and tails at the surface everywhere. They are stacked in but saying 'No' to this warm water. A few are coming in, but a lot are hanging out in colder tidal water. We have a new moon this week. Those tides may encourage more to come in. All in all, I'm not expecting a great week of fishing. It is too warm and I don't think it is going to cool enough to make the fish active. But there is some hope and the forecast and tides would lead me to think it should be better than this past 5 days.

There has been some chat around warm water protocols and will DFO close the rivers in Labrador? It has never happened here on Eagle. There is a protocol in place and with other aspects of the water conditions taken into account such as forecasted air temperatures & water flow along with water temp, the powers that be make their decisions. I think the flow is healthy enough and the next few days cooler enough that we will get by for the time being. I also personally think the Atlantic salmon has it's own warm water protocol, they become inactive and very hard to catch. One that was successfully hooked and released yesterday was a two minute retrieval and a 5 minute revival. No time for posing with these fish out of water for a brief snap these last couple days. It's about fighting them and handling them as little as possible and giving them the time needed to recuperate.

Stay tuned, we will know soon enough what is in store on the upside down record breaking season.

-DL