Hi Folks,

I have been asked about a 100 times (as is usually the case at the end of each season) how my season was this year. In a word it was Superb! It has been nearly 30-years since we have seen runs and water levels like we saw this year. Although there were certainly a lot more fish around, especially in the Cascapedia and Bonavenure Rivers, the contstant medium to higher water levels made for perfect conditions for salmon to chase and take a fly!

It is sort of funny because we really do not have exact numbers for fish counts due to the higher water levels. The fact that there was so much water made it nearly impossible to do a diving count on most rivers this year, so, we have to rely on our own observations and catch stats to deduce that there were a ton of fish in most of our rivers.

Not only were there a lot of fish being caught this year, most of them were big! I had 3-times more 30+ pound fish this year than grilse and 5 times more 20-pound fish than grilse. That tells you something about the quality of the fish that returned this year!

Why was it such a good year? Probably a bunch of reasons that combined to make it great but I think the most important factor, at least for our local rivers, was the end of netting at the mouth of the Cascapedia River. This not only helped that specific run, but also, the runs for the Petite and the Bonnie. Of course the Greenland license buyout also had a lot to do with things on a worldwide level, but I stick to the premise that no netting at the mouth of the river is probably the biggest reason we had such a great season. Combine those two factors with near perfect water levels and it made for the DREAM season!

Will it happen next year again? I cannot say for sure, however, all indications would lead us to believe that 2012 should be just as good. Could I hope for better? You bet! Bring on the fish and great water levels for 2012!~

Screaming reels and frowning rods to you all!

David