After a few weeks of strange wet August weather, several high-water events and very few anglers on the river, the water conditions have now improved and the word on the river is that good numbers of salmon are being seen and hooked. Enough chatter to even some anglers and guides back in the mood and ready for fall fishing ahead! News from an angler in the Blissfield area was that the past weekend he saw fresh fish both days while at his camp which is great to hear! We have also heard from multiple local residents who live on the river that they have seen more salmon jumping in recent days and witnessed a few anglers fighting some big salmon without the successfully landing them however!

Even few of our guides took the opportunity to get out and wet a line before the busy fall season starts! Several nice salmon were hooked but after a few jumps the salmon released themselves from the fly! Guide Colby broke the curse and finally landed a nice salmon on the Cains after losing a couple giants which seemed to know what they were doing during the feisty battle! The fly that finally held on for Colby was an Ally Shrimp!

This season and recent years the runs seem to be made up mostly large salmon and while wonderful to hook and play and for better egg deposition, grilse still plays an important role in the river system. In our opinion the low numbers of grilse being observed seems to be correlated to the over-population of striped bass in the system! There is evidence that the striped bass population consume smolt which must have impacted the grilse run and we are now hearing a similar story in other rivers in Quebec and Nova Scotia. Both provinces also now have major populations of stiped bass in their river systems and they too are starting to see the impact on Atlantic Salmon returns. The DFO policies related the protection of the Striped Bass population needs a change and the populations of other species including Atlantic Salmon and Brook Trout deserve an opportunity to coexist in these watersheds. The time to act is now and we need effective fisheries management in Atlantic Canada or else numerous native species will disappear.

Water heights and cool water temperatures in recent days have made for some terrific end to August fishing and every day will hopefully bring more fish into the system and fingers crossed set up for a terrific fall season. With some rain today and possibly into next week, river heights will once again rise but this should set up the tributaries such as the Renous and Cains for a great fall season … one that every salmon angler will be looking forward to!