Rain, rain, rain and more rain! That was the theme for the month of May and June seems to be looking to continue the trend...

I woke up this morning to thunderstorms and heavy downpours here in Cascapedia, Quebec. For those of you who do not know, I live a stones throw from the Cascapedia River. From anywhere in my log cabin I can see the river and it is high at the moment - high and dirty! Not so dirty that you cannot fish, but dirty just the same.

Despite the fact this high water will prevent some anglers from enjoying their opening day on many of Quebec's salmon rivers, one thing is for sure, June will not see any low water periods this year!

The question remains, have the fish arrived yet? My bet is yes and I would guess that they are going to cruise right on up the river in short order. The swallows have arrived which is usually a good indication that the salmon are not far behind. My theory that our fish have arrived is also based on the fact that they have been catching bright fish since May 17th on the lower Matapedia and Ristigouche Rivers.

I have spoken with a few people about the situation down in the town of Gaspe and it has been a mess over there. High water since the opener on the 25th has made it almost impossible to fish there. To date I have heard of no catches being reported. I have, however, heard that Frank and a few of his buddies are getting quite good at cribbage!

So, I imagine you all want to know "what do the rivers look like after the floods this year"? Well, the short answer is, I have no idea. I have been too afraid to put a canoe in the water for fear that some rogue tree would sweep me away! No, I do not think I will be canoeing until the water comes down a couple of feet! But to answer the question many have asked me, my experience tells me that the two floods we had this year will have indeed changed our rivers a lot. I can tell you that you can expect BIG changes on the Petite Cascapedia River, with less serious changes on the Cascapedia and Bonaventure. The reason is simple; the Petite changes so much due to its unstable nature and the Grand and the Bonnie less so due to their more stable river beds. I expect the Bonaventure will have changed in a few spots but nothing like the Petite which seems to change its' flow and direction almost every single year for the last 15.

I can say that getting to the branches on the Petite Cascapedia will be a challenge, at the very best, this year. We lost a bunch of bridges due to the flooding and many of our roads are washed out or totally gone in these more remote areas. I am not exactly sure what the plans are for repairing these roads and am still awaiting a reply from the ZEC on this issue. I will keep you all posted if I find out about any closures. 

So that is it for now. Check in again in a few days for another update as I will be doing my best to keep this blog updated this year.

Screaming reels to you all,

David