Atlantic Salmon (Gaspe, QC, Canada)
- This topic has 16 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated Oct 5, 2006 at 4:36 pm by
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i recently took my first big fly fishing trip to Gaspe, QC and fished the York, St. Jean & Dartmouth rivers for 6 straight days. i had an absolute blast, but, only landed one fish and it was unfortunate that i ended up foul hooking it in the belly, on a dry fly. the fish missed my bomber and ended up going over my leader, so, when i set the hook it was foul hooked. my guide said that that almost never happens. conditions were poor. they hadn’t received any rain in a long time so the water was extremely low and there weren’t any fresh fish from the ocean. all in all it was a great trip and i’m definitely going back in june 2008. being a beginner, i learned more in those 6 days from my companions on the trip and the guides than i’ve learned in the past 6 months. i definitely agree with everyone to do whatever your guides says and really pay attention because you can learn a ton. i read about how hard it is to catch these beasts, but, i really didn’t realize that it was going to be that hard. it was exciting when you get a 35 to 40 inch atlantic salmon to follow your fly, but disappointing to see it not end up taking it. so all in all, i raised 6 fish, landed one by foul hooking, ate a lot of steak and salmon off the grill, drank a lot of beer, and created some long lasting friendships with new fellow fly fishermen. what a blast. if anyone ever has a chance to go after this tough fish, i highly recommend it. here are some pictures. no, that is not me with the fish, actually, none of the photos are of me. the other members of my trip took pictures of me and i don’t have them yet. it was a 45 inch 28 pounder caught by a fly fisherman from montreal. HUGE fish!
Steve, owner of our local fly shop, Lake Erie Ultimate Angler, and friend casting to 25 or 30 Atlantic Salmon on the Dartmouth.
Zach,
you aren’t kidding! one evening around 7:00 pm i was fishing a pool all by myself with 40 or 50 atlantics. my guide started to yell, “oh shit, oh shit,” this is when i realized a very large “V” behind my fly line following it as i was stripping my fly. it was amazing. like a shark hunting it’s prey. i was so excited that i started to strip my fly faster and faster. it didn’t take it. on the next 2 casts, it followed again in the same manner but didn’t take. it was both exciting and disappointing all at the same time. these fish are BIG! definitely going back!
Paul
Alright, here’s a question. Atlantic Salmon are salmo trutta, just like brown trout. In fact, they are to brown trout what steelhead are to rainbow trout (both onchorynchus mykiss.)
Sea-Run Rainbow = Steelhead
Sea-Run Brown = Atlantic Salmon?Sorry to distract from your question, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it. I knew they had talked of classifying browns as salmon, but I didn’t know that they now consider non-anadromous atlantic salmon to be brown trout.
How is a landlocked atlantic different than a brown trout?
Not trying to split hairs… just confused. After all, it’s just a name. Any fish biologists in the house?
Ah, that makes sense.
Strange but true – Fish and Game caught an Atlantic Salmon in one of the offshore test nets outside of our river mouth this season (Unalakleet River – Norton Sound – a little South East of Nome). So far as I know, it’s the only documented case of Atlantics in Northwest Alaska. They’re apparently becoming more and more common in SW Alaska and BC.
I might find some real use for the spey rod in our river fifteen years down the road.Are there fish farms over there that they might escape from?
BTW I will bring the spey rod tomorrow and if all else fails we’ll find an open spot and do some casting.
Farming salmon in Alaska is currently illegal. This was done to protect commercial fishermen from being undercut by farmed salmon being sold as “Alaskan Salmon.”
Further information here: http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/special/as/as_faq.php
Zach – I’ll bring my spey rod tomorrow too, it’s an 8/9.
Back to the discussion at hand: Paul can you recommend a fly for me to catch these things with once they do start spawning in our river a couple decades from now?
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