September report 2014

September salmon fishing report

AS most of you know by now, 2014 will go down as a difficult year just about everywhere in the world. Late and low returns were the norm for many places in the world and here in the Gaspe Peninsula, things were not much different.

Here is the lowdown for 2014 on the three rivers we mainly fish:

The Cascapedia River (Grand) probably faired the best out of the three with what the river managers would say a decent run. Exact numbers are not yet available but if we compare catch statistics from 2013, we are pretty much on track. Good news for sure. Fishing for the third week of September was quite good on the main stem of the river but tough fishing conditions due to low water has stalled things up in the branches. Will report more after our group of 10 finishes this week.

The Bonaventure numbers are a bit troubling but not disastrous, the count, as of the 15th of September was 1040 fish, 665 MSW fish and 365 grilse. There would have been almost double that number of grilse had they not been bonked on the head by non-conservation minded anglers. Shame, shame, shame in such a difficult and critical year.

The Petite Cascapedia River reported 149 MSW fish and 39 grilse. That is pretty scary if you ask me but who am I to say? In addition to the salmon there were over 130 trout counted on the main stem, sector B. There is not much to say after offering numbers like that. It is truly sad, especially for me who grew up fishing this river. It is my sacred church and I fear that these numbers will not increase by much unless some intervention on the governments part is done.

With such low numbers here in our area the only thing I can suggest to all anglers is this; release ALL of your fish big or small. It is the only sure way to know that we have made a difference. I could go on and on and lecture, however, that song has been sung and I am getting quite tired of the sound of that tune. People KNOW what is right and wrong, especially with the state of our populations world wide. Some of us will have to smarten up if we want to continue to fish in the future.

That is all for now, back to swinging!

Cheers

David