September 30th, 2022

Oct 3

This past week we hosted a couple of terrific groups of anglers from both the UK and the US. Most folks were returning clients and it is always a pleasure to see folks return year after year. To be honest, many of these folks are like family to us, and they feel the same way which is why Country Haven is a special place for our guests and staff alike. This time of year most of our guests are Spey fishing ans swinging wet flies including streamers and shrimp patterns like Ally’s Shrimp and Cascades. Particularly effective this week though were lesser known patterns to us, the Kinemony Killer and Silver Stoat flies which are more typically used on Scotland and other European Rivers.

The fishing was variable this week and the first half of the week was particularly challenging as we were still contending with high water from the prior week. In spite of this, a few fish were hooked and landed but as the week went on, the conditions slowly improved, as did the hooking and landing of fish. Our successful guests were mostly hooking mature salmon, both hens and bucks, although there were several grilse landed as well. However for every fish landed it seemed that we lost an equal number of salmon but overall it was a productive back half of the week.

Great news is that we are now into cold mornings and comfortable days which are ideal for salmon fishing and the trees are in their full fall glory which is an added benefit for our guests. The river conditions are now almost ideal with excellent levels and water temperatures that are ranging from the low to upper 50s F and we are starting to see a few more fish showing. As any salmon angler knows, you have to be determined and always hopeful when targeting Atlantic Canada and although not all anglers are successful every year, when you do finally hook a salmon, you will never forget it!

This week we have another group of US anglers arriving, hosted by Tight Lines Fly Shop in New Jersey and we are happy to welcome back many returning guests once again as well as a few first timers to Country Haven! Things are certainly feeling fishy out there and the river is shaping up perfectly for what we hope will be good fishing until the end of our fall season on Oct 15th!