Hello anglers!

It has been one week since my last report and I wish I was able to tell you that a week has made a big difference, but it has not. Things remains fairly modest in the catch department on the main Cascapedia River. Things are still very slow on the Lake and Salmon branches. I have spent a total of 12-days guiding and fishing up there and can only report one fish of 25 pounds that I caught 3 days ago.

Yesterday I floated a section of the Lake branch but only saw two fish - the first two fish I have seen all season!

Water levels continue to drop rapidly, especially on the Salmon branch. There was one nice fish caught in the back-up pool on the canoe stretch yesterday, however, I have not heard of any other catches up there yet. There may have been one or two fish caught there in the last week, however, I am not aware of any myself.

I floated the entire B-sector of the Petite Cascapedia River on the 15th, which is the opener and saw one fish in Gagne pool. I floated over 10-km for one fish! Would seem that the fish are a bit late there this year. I am expecting things will pick up there in the next couple of days.

The Bonaventure is starting to report a decent number of fish entering the river. There are a few dozen fish spread out in sectors C and D and a few more in B4 and B3. I have not heard what B and A are like as I do not fish them much. It would appear that the Bonnie is getting the best run of fish out of all three rivers.

Will report more when I actually have some good news to report...

Please send us some rain... we will need it soon!

Screaming reels to you all,

David

Despite perfect water levels and no nets at the mouth of the Cascapedia, the fishing has been a bit dour these past few days. The good thing is that over the last 24 hours, more and more fish are being spotted and hooked on the main stem of the river. The fish that have been taken are all big! A few 25 and 35 pound fish have been taken with the largest being 38 pounds, thus far.

Nothing to report on the Bonaventure and Petite. Things should get going on the Bonnie soon and the Petite opens in 6 days.

Will post later if I catch a fish in the Lake branch... or not...

Screaming reels to you all!

Bishy

Two days ago the Cascapedia River was looking incredible! Water levels were perfect! Unfortunately, over the past two days we received about 2 inches of rain which brought water levels up over 2 feet and dirtied the river considerably. Despite the bump in water, which we actually needed for this early date in June, some parts of the river looked very fishable, especially as I drove through A and B sector.

On my way up river this morning I saw no boats on the river, however, I bumped into Reynold Sexton, manager of Middle Camp, and he told me that all 4 boats were indeed out this morning. Either they got a late start, or, I simply missed them on the way up! Either way, he told me that I did not miss any fish on the line... as of 3:30 this afternoon, there were no fish reported except for one pull from a guest.

I was utterly alone on the Lake branch today where I tried my luck at pool 80. The river was bloated but a few stretches looked fishable so I decided to string up my 13' 8/9 Guideline LPXe rod with a type S1 S2 sinking line with a extra fast sinking 5-foot leader and waded in, full of hope. With each swing I could just feel fish looking at my fly, however, none of them budged! The water temp probably had a lot to do with the lack of action, that and the fact that the visibility was only about 2 feet made things really tough. I took a ride to check out the Salmon branch and was blown away by how much higher it was than the Lake branch. There was no point in fishing it as it was still rising quickly.

I am scheduled to fish tomorrow up in the branches again, however, I am going to wait a day or two before venturing out again. The conditions are just a bit off for my tastes and I still need a day or two of rest to allow my back to heal before my guiding run starts.

I do expect things to pop up there over the next week or so due to the fact that there are NO NETS at the mouth of the river this  year. This should allow for a good number of msw fish to enter the river unscathed. The larger fish will usually run pretty fast up river so I am expecting the first arrivals to be in the branches as the river comes down.

I have a few reports from Gaspe and they are VERY encouraging! All three rivers, the York, Dartmouth and St-Jean are reporting fish on the move! I am sure that they too received a big bump of water over the last couple of days, however, I have no confirmed reports yet as to how high the water came up.

I am seeking information on the Matapedia and will hopefully have some for all of you soon.

The Petite Cascapedia is closed until June 15th, therefore I have nothing to report.

The Bonaventure came up a bit but not as much as the Cascapedia. I have no reports from anyone regarding fish in the river but will make some calls to find out how things are shaping up over there and will report back soon. In my opinion, things will not start to happen over there until next week, say the 8th or 9th.

If anyone has any reports, please forward them to my personal email and I will post them bishguide@hotmail.com

Screaming reels to you all!

Bishy