Outstanding start to the season!

I know that some of you have been checking here for reports and I apologize for not getting to this sooner, however, I have been very busy catching fish with my clients and friends!

Outstanding is the word that I would use to describe our season thus far. Without going into details on what my actual numbers are, I can tell you that I have been averaging over a fish a day and have had many multiple fish days. I have a total of 2-days where we have not landed fish. Like I said, outstanding!

Our largest fish to date was a beautiful Cascapedia fish that measured over 46-inches and I estimated at around 38+ pounds. Taking into account that this is was a Cascapedia fish, renowned for their tremendous girth, the fish could easily have been 40 but to be safe we called it just shy of that!

The same day we caught that big fish we hooked a total of 6 fish (one even bigger than the one we released) but only landed 2 of the 6. All of the fish were over 20 except for one that weighed in at a modest 15 pounds. This all happened on the Salmon branch where things have been going very well for just about everyone fishing there.

The day of June 14 was simply a crazy, crazy day and I spent it with someone who deserved a bit of craziness! We floated the Bonaventure River and were treated to some crazy action! It was one of those days that usually only come along once in a blue moon. To think that I have enjoyed two of them in the same week is simply amazing.

Since the middle of June things continued to go very well, especially on the Bonaventure where the river managers there counted over 1200 fish by the end of June. This is great news for this beautiful river. At the rate the fishing are entering the river, we should easily hit the 2500+ mark by mid August. Fish are just about everywhere and it is easy to fish in peace and quiet throughout the unlimited rod zones. I am not sure if the fact that the entire river is now catch and release for larger fish over 63-cm (about 24 inches), is keeping the "fish killers" away, or what, all I know is it is a welcome change from seeing blood stained rocks this time of year. Hopefully, the time of blood stained rocks will remain a thing of the past.

In the land of BIG fish, the Cascapedia River is also having a great year. If my estimate is correct, I imagine there are well over a 1000 fish in the river at this very moment. The branches, although very low up until just a few days ago, has been producing on a consistent basis as has the main river. The fact that there is no more netting at the mouth of the river is certainly proving to be making a huge difference in the run this year. As if we all did not know that already - duh.

The Petite Cascapedia is not as hot as the Bonnie or the Cascapedia; however, things are going fairly well just the same. There seems to be a decent number of larger fish, however, only a few pools are actually holding fish due to lower water levels. As a matter of fact, the Petite has been down since the season opener there on the 15th of June. I have been up to the East branch in search of some big brookies and am glad to report that there are a decent number of fish there. The sad thing is, I am not the only one who knows this and the slaughter of some of these fish has been going on since the end of June. Hopefully we will be able to pass a new regulation next year reducing the bag limit from 5 big trout a day to 1-3 a day. Common sense should suffice, however, there are still many who do not understand just how fragile, unique and precious this resource is. If you care about the future of this resource, write the ZEC and tell them how you feel. You may want to suggest a C&R sector and a reduced bag limit on both branches. If enough people write them, I am sure that the message will be heard!

Ok, so that is it for now. I hope that you all are enjoying you season wherever you are. If any of you have the time, I would suggest jumping in your car and hitting the Bonnie!

More reports to come!

Screaming reels to you all

David