It’s been a few days since returning from the Margaree Valley in Cape Breton Canada, where four friends and I spent 10 days in search of Atlantic Salmon. We had been to the Margaree River this past Spring and caught no Atlantic Salmon. We were aprehensive at best about catching fish during this fall trip but there is once thing for certain, you must have your line in the water to have a chance. As the saying goes, the Atlantic Salmon is many times the fish of three thousand casts. It seemed that the reports coming from Greenland, Newfoundland, Gaspe, etc. were true and the numbers of Atlantic Salmon just weren’t there this year. Our plan seemed easy in theory. Rather than spending hours standing in one spot hoping for some luck and casting to stale fish. We decided to take a more offensive approach. We would start each day at the bottom of the river where it dumps into the Atlantic Ocean, and fish every pool that had any signs of fish and cast and move. The bone crushing and gear breaking rocks were unforgiving and left us all eating Advil by the end of each day. We Caught five Atlantic Salmon during our trip using this cast and move method with both spey rods and single handed rods. The fished ranged in size from a 22″ shiny grillse to a thirty eight inch Atlantic Salmon. They often refer to the fall run of Atlantic Salmon as the Strawberry run and is usually a run that brings in some large male Atlantics. The big run just wasn’t there this year but we still had a great ten days of fly fishing. The fish we did catch and the company of good friends and evening stories over good food will send us back once again in the Spring. The latest Atlantic Salmon Journal forecasts a slow Spring run but if you fish hard enough you increase your probabillity of catching one regardless of low numbers.
Good stuff Greg, those salmon are a tough one to get on the board. Glad to see that you and your clan had some luck. Time to get down and chase the silver bullets just southwest of you until the spring.
Nice post Greg! That is one place on my list I have to cross off. Glad you and your buds had a ton of laughs and beached some nice AS. Glad to hear you did some running and gunning up there too. Next trip, bring something a little stiffer than advil.
greg — nice work! like joey says, don’t put away the sticks just yet … you might want to bring the spey, single handers and switch rods out to the great lakes tributaries and “cast & move” for some steelhead just like you do for the atlantic salmon .. though the water is cooling a bit and more so with each passing day, the steel will still take a swung fly (i think you caught one once on your spey rod? but that was spring and “warm” water, if i remember correctly?) … anyway, be sure to bring the single hand rod or your switch rod too and some egg patterns and some indicators …. cuz as you know, the spey rod can be a good tool and it has it’s time and place .. but for a variety of different reasons in the great lakes, it’s often the case that .. the swing ain’t the thing .. and in the great lakes fisheries it seems to have become more of just a novelty and a fad than anything else .. so, bring all your sticks … but, certainly don’t put any of them away .. you and kenny and pat should make a steelhead trip .. you guys would have a blast ..
I always bring a few different rods on any trip but the rods I bring are, historically for me, the rods that have the highest chance of catching my target species. Because of variables in water temp., river width and depth of water, I usually stick to regular rods as opposed to swinging a fly almost hopelessly through the water. The reason for this is simple, I use what works the best for the outcome I’m looking for. Fish in the Northwest may have different patterns, due to water temp. , etc.. I have cast a great deal with my Spey rods and find like my other rods, they have specific conditions under wich they are the perfect rod.
greg, congrats on the leapers. It has been many years since I fished up there, but I have fond memories of my time on that water. Thanks
yup exactly … not so sure why the spey thing became such a frenzy over the last couple years .. marketing i think … but, i think it’s dying off a bit … or, at least, going back to what it was (just a tool for certain applications) prior to the big marketing bonanza … till this day, i still think alot of people think of “spey” as having to do with the rod … hence, you see a bunch of guys with 13 foot rods walking around rivers that don’t even demand the full cast of a single handed 7 wt. rod … i don’t kow if you have one .. but i got what they call a “switch rod” .. it’s perfect for steelheading and maybe even some of your applications up in gaspe, margaree and here in maine, etc… it is a double handed rod 11 foot … and is just what it says “switch rod” .. so, i slap a floating spey line on it with modular sink tips if necessary for swinging flies .. or when i want to nymph i put on an indicator setup .. and fish it as i would a single handed rod … but regardless of rod whether its my 7wt single handed rod, 7wt switch rod or 13 foot spey rod … i am always using spey casts and can always catch fish on the swing … not so sure why or when a “swung fly” became associated with just spey rods? i’ve caught a ton of fish on swung flies with all sorts of rods of various lenghts and weight … and, to be honest, i often like an indicator setup on my switch rod or my spey rod with an “egg type streamer fly” because i can fish it both ways .. i can dead drift it down getting the benefits of a vertical drift via the indicator and at the end of the drift i can swing it and get the vertical motion i want for a swung fly … and on my last trip i got lot’s of fish both ways .. dead driting and on the swing … whippa’s egg fly that we use for steelheading works well for this application because when dead drifted it looks like an egg .. and when swung it looks like a micro streamer … fish like it both ways …. actually, whippa can verify it, i was actually HOLDING my fly fine in my hand last trip and talking to whip on the other side of the river … a fish crushed the fly and tore the line out of my hand …. maybe that’s another option too .. no rod at all … just fly line, leader and a fly … 🙂
What a wonderful trip that must have been keep up the great work Greg and it was a pleasure to fish with you in Maine
Alex
Nice Post Greg about fishing salmon this year on the Margaree.We are located on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick .This year was also not one of our better years for Atlantic Salmon with the exception of July and Sep and Oct being so so.But on this river with our location on the lower stretch of the Main Southwest Miramichi we have a good chance most of the year from April the 15th till Oct the 15th ,but this year the numbers were down.however we sometimes like you said fish lots of pools daily.We have access to 11 private pools so our guides sometimes will follow the fresh fish each day as they arrive in on tide this works best for early summer fish traveling up river to each pool before the fish arrive.Early summer fishing sometimes see these fresh Atlantic Salmon travel 20 Km in one day.the reason this works best in early summer is that the fish holds up more in the pools later in fall and do not travel as much giving fishermen a better chance without moving from pool to pool as much.but the guides always does what is working best at the time.