Six Nova Scotia Projects Receive Funding

-----press release----

Six Nova Scotia projects receive funding from Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation




June 1, 2009, Fredericton, NB – Groups working to conserve wild Atlantic salmon stocks in Nova Scotia (NS) will receive a total of $52,800 in funding from the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation (ASCF) this year. The Foundation announced its 2009 grant recipients today. Six Nova Scotia projects were among the 20 to be funded, which also included four in New Brunswick, four in Quebec, three in Prince Edward Island and three in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The total value of grants awarded by the Foundation for 2009 is $219,850.

“This is just our second round of awards,” said ASCF Chair, the Honourable Rémi Bujold, when the successful applications were announced, “but the Foundation is already gaining recognition as the funding agent for wild Atlantic salmon conservation in Canada. Our plan is to be a reliable and long-term supporter of salmon conservation by community partners.”

Some 46 applications were submitted by conservation, environmental, sports angling and Aboriginal groups in Atlantic Canada and Québec to fund work to be done during the 2009 season. “This shows that there is widespread and active interest in, and commitment to, conservation of wild Atlantic salmon,” said Hon. Bujold.

Nova Scotia applications were assessed and selected by the Foundation’s Nova Scotia advisory committee and its Central Advisory Committee. The $52,800 awarded in Nova Scotia includes:

• $15,000 for the Nova Scotia Salmon Association to mount a demonstration project in Beaver Bank aimed at restoring the West River, which has been extensively damaged by acid rain;


• $9,000 to the LaHave River Salmon Association in Bridgewater to improve and maintain the water quality of the LaHave River watershed through water quality monitoring and a public education program;


• $9,000 to the Sackville Rivers Association for a comprehensive watershed study to establish priorities for Atlantic Salmon habitat restoration and improvement in the watershed;


• $7,500 for the St. Mary’s River Association (Sherbrooke) to identify culverts that interrupt spawning migration and develop a restoration plan for culvert remediation;


• $6,300 to Antigonish’s Habitat Unlimited to continue its work on fish habitat restoration in Wright’s River;


• $6,000 to the Mabou & District Community Development Association for its Shea’s Brook restoration project to create a more complex habitat suitable for salmon spawning, development, and migration.
  
  “The salmon fishery is essential not only to the province’s ecology, but also to its economy, First Nations and to the growing eco-tourism industry,” Scott Cook, chair of the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation’s Nova Scotia Advisory Committee, said when the funding was announced. “These projects will contribute significantly to the reestablishment and conservation of this valuable resource in Nova Scotia.”
  
  Work on the spring 2009 projects will begin as soon as environmental conditions allow.
  
  The Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation is a volunteer, non-profit, charitable organization established with the goal of helping to achieve healthy and sustainable wild Atlantic salmon stocks in Atlantic Canada and Québec. Funded with an endowment from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Foundation has created a trust fund to promote and strengthen partnerships among groups working to conserve wild Atlantic salmon. Conservation projects and program administration are financed from interest earned by the trust fund.
  
  For more information on the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation please visit the website at http://www.salmonconservation.ca/.

Fish Farming, Young Salmon, and Sea Lice

Wow, things change. When I first heard of Aqua-culture I thought it would be the salvation of wild Atlantic salmon here in the east and the Pacific salmon in the west too. If it was cheaper to farm them than harvest them from the wild well, it would soon not make sense to send a fleet of boats out to sea for a fish that wasn’t worth much in the market place. Everything seemed aligned to favour the wild fish. Economic studies had established that a rod-caught fish was adding about $1000.00 or more to the local economies where the sports traveled. A net caught fish was what, a couple of dollars a pound? There was some protest to large scale fish farming but I really thought it was because of the employment displacement and to be expected. It turns out I might have been wrong in my initial enthusiasm. I received this link in an email today.
It is a report from the BBC's site that says bluntly that fish farms are wreaking havoc on wild stocks and could actually be the final straw that breaks the back of wild runs. I hope it isn’t true but check out the article and let me know what you think.

Here is a quote,
"In the natural system, the youngest salmon are not exposed to sea lice because the adult salmon that carry the parasite are offshore. But fish farms cause a deadly collision between the vulnerable young salmon and sea lice. They are not equipped to survive this, and they don't." - Alexandra Morton, director of the Salmon Coast Field Station, located in the Broughton Archipelago.

New Picture Added to the Web Album

Geoff Jamieson sent a great fishing picture for the web album today. He says,"The attached pic is a salmon my buddy Shawn landed this October on the West River (Antigonish) despite the dreadfully low water all the whole month of October. It was 30" long, maybe 10-12 lbs."

You can see the rest of the fishing pictures here. Send some if you have them. Nothing I enjoy more than a picture and a good fishing story.

Fly Tying Bench Therapy

Well its dark and cold and time to start the struggle against my usual winter blues. I’ve been thinking a lot about salmon flies lately, so will get set-up to tie a handful of Blue charms. This is one of my favorite flies to tie, probably because it is one of my favorites to fish. In the last couple of years I’ve been tying it in all sizes from # 16 to # 4 but the one that works best for me on any given day is a sparse #12 with a couple of strands of crystal flash in the wing. I first saw the flash added to conventional flies during a trip Gander a few years ago. It changed our trip from average to outstanding. Since then, if I’m tying up a handful of whatever pattern I’ll always add a bit of flash to two or three of them. I did some research on the Blue Charm out of curiosity, to see where it came from and who originated it but so far am no wiser. It is one of those patterns that just seems to have always been around in one form or another. I did an experiment last year where I tied a couple of Blue Charms in every colour of floss I had in my kit. I followed the recipe exactly but changed the body colour. Another variation is tying the classic pattern but with different coloured tags. The resultant flies are very pretty but I have not used them enough to announce a new killer Salmon pattern. I can say with confidence that a Blue Charm tied with a red body and two strands of crystal flash in the wing is a phenomenal trout fly for fast water. That aside, the idea behind changing the body colour was simple. I was fishing not long ago on a local river when a fellow hollered across the stream to his buddy, who was fast into a grilse, “ What are they taking?” The reply was, “Anything yellow”. I could digress into a great fishing story here but I’ll stick to the point. Part of the lore of salmon fishing is the colour preference different runs on different rivers have. It is part of the precious local knowledge that strangers usually have to learn the hard way. They don’t call salmon, “ The Fish of a Thousand Casts” for nothing. I have in the back of my mind the rivers and their colours and can rhyme off an ever-increasing list: The Medway - orange, the St Mary’s – green, the Phillip –yellow and so on. The colours sometimes change from spring to fall, from year to year and even from grilse to salmon. Heck, it may not even be true but I try to match the preferred colour for the river, run and season when putting my first fly through a pool. Now, with that in mind, another thing I think is that certain fly patterns work better than others just because of the way they are designed and built. The Blue Charm is one of these. Putting these separate trains of thought together, it makes sense to me that a fly design that is proven but tied in the particular, preferred colours of the run you are fishing should have a pretty good chance. In my mind there will come a day when a fresh run of fish has just hit the pool. Nothing seems to work until one of us remembers that the fish on this river prefer a particular shade of chartreuse that I just happen to have because of this wacky experiment. Well, one can dream.
The reality is, I’ll have to tie a few more this winter because even though I have not had the chance to try many over salmon, salmon fishermen really seem to go for them.

The serious business of salmon fishing

Here is one more story from this year’s salmon season. My fishing partner had just hooked and lost a big, big salmon. Out of courtesy, I had reeled in my line and cleared the water to give him room to play the fish before his line had gone slack. Standing on the shore, I was well positioned to offer an observation on his technique, the size of the fish and more, even a bit of sympathy. He just shrugged, stepped back into the pool and after checking his fly and leader proceeded to hook another fish. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He didn’t do much more than grunt to let me know he was hooked up again. With a very deliberate motion he made sure of the hook set. The first run was blistering. The salmon had him into his backing within seconds. Not too many seconds after that Brad was running down the shore trying to recover some line. After four great jumps and as many runs the salmon was nearly into the next pool down stream, still putting up a good struggle. Brad was making his stand on the last gravel bar before deep water. I was a couple of hundred yards away and ambling in a slow walk towards him. My pace was timed to put me there when he was ready to land the fish. A salmon has to be on my own line to make me run nowadays. I was pretty close when the fish made a run directly towards Brad from about fifty feet out in the pool. He raised his rod smartly to pick up the slack and started reeling as fast as he could. I guess he somehow hit the spool release because the next thing I saw was his reel exploding. It just flew apart. His rod arm extended out far to left. His right hand flashed and grabbed the spool in mid-air. When I think of it now it was like watching a big league shortstop picking off a line drive. He somehow slammed it all back in place only to realize he had jammed the line between the spool and the frame when the fish, which had turned by this time, started to arc his rod again.
By now this was getting pretty exciting and I expressed my support and concern by laughing until the tears came. As the fish tightened his tackle to the breaking point Brad grabbed the jammed line and by brute force alone managed to free it. The reel screamed as it released the tension. The salmon took off on another impressive run. But one more jump and some sulking were all that remained of the brawl. I managed to tail the fish without too much trouble even though I was weak with laughter. You know, my impression of Atlantic Salmon fishing when I was young was that it is a serious thing, one of the mysteries of grown men, practiced only by elite specialists who solemnly played out their dramas in the hallowed, pristine wilderness. There may be places where this is true. This place on this day was certainly not one of them.

Fall Salmon Fishing in Nova Scotia

Well, I made it out for some good old Nova Scotia fall salmon fishing this week. I let my fishing partner talk me into getting on the road by 5:30 AM. Not too tough a negotiation because there really aren’t many things I enjoy more than sunrise on a river; especially one that I know holds the promise of multi-sea-winter salmon. The weather was slightly overcast and shirt-sleeves warm. A good long chat, a couple of Tim Horton’s double doubles and we were pulling into the field beside the river. It was still dark but the first greenish streaks were starting to show on the horizon. We got geared up and walked down to see what we could of the river before the light fully broke. The water was low and amazingly warm for late October. I thought it over for a few minutes and decided on a change of tactics. The most success I’ve had in fall salmon fishing has been with sinking-tip lines and large, bright flies. Things like the flashy marabou Cardinals are usually the order of the day. Under the present conditions I decided to fish as I would in the late summer when fish are sluggish takers and usually have been laying in the pools for weeks darkening up, waiting for a freshet to carry them further along their journey. Brad, my fishing partner, stuck with the traditional fall set up. At sunrise we hit the water. I fished carefully knowing in the past I’d caught fish all along the run. Depending on the height of the water, grilse would lie in certain spots salmon in others. I’d never seen the water so low at this time of year - or so warm. Several times I felt the slight hesitation that marks the surprisingly subtle take of a big fish only to set on a floating leaf. On I went, quartering down stream, casting as close to the far bank as I could, letting the fly swing into the deeper water. It becomes almost hypnotic. Intensely concentrating on the cast, placing the fly where it needs to be and watching the drift, imagining the fly under the water, looking for any clue that there is a fish reacting to it. Then a burst of adrenaline and the intensity of the moment when your line starts to move in a way contrary to the current. Don’t think about it. Don’t wonder if you imagined it. Strike! The take was undetectable without the visual clues. I was fast into a big salmon. At the moment of contact I flashed back to a trip my brother Warren and I had taken to Labrador and the good advice he had given me. Always consciously set the hook. It’s better to lose a fish in the first few seconds than after a long fight. Better for the fish and better for you. When I felt the weight of the fish, I very deliberately set the hook again. The first leap turned my legs to water. This was a big salmon by any standard. I’d tied on a lighter leader in the semi-darkness of dawn after seeing how low the water was and immediately started doubting first my intelligence, then my knots. The initial run had me into my backing. Another big jump and I was running down the bank trying to get back into contact with my fly line. And so it went, until the runs became shorter and the jumps became slashes on the surface. Brad offered to tail the fish for me and waded out into position. Usually this is the riskiest part of the whole event. As soon as I could lift the salmon’s head I got the fish parallel to the bank and let her down beside Brad. With a move worthy of Mikhail Baryshnikov he slipped his hand behind the fish and grasped the wrist of the tail. I don’t really know how big the fish was. It was a female and I didn’t want to handle her too much before the release. One fish like that could re-populate this whole system. If you can figure it out by looking at the pictures let me know what you think.
My heart had barely stopped pounding from that great fish when Brad’s reel started to scream. The fish that leaped at the end of his line was almost unbelievable. Bigger by far than the beautiful fish I’d just landed. Six leaps and several spool draining runs later, just as it looked like he was getting the fish under control, his line went slack. That big buck just swam away. Moments later he was into another. And so the day went, I had the pleasure of tailing a really big fish for him and was able to use the lesson he had given me in the art earlier that day to make it look easy. The truth is I was petrified that I’d loose his big salmon by missing the grab when the opportunity presented.

If you’ve never tailed a big salmon trust me when I tell you: like every other aspect of the sport, sometimes you can do no wrong; other times you can.

Fall salmon season has started!

I found some neat pictures while scanning my computer for the picture of Brad a couple of posts back. Its amazing how many pictures I've collected over the years. Here is Joy Melanson with a nice Newfoundland salmon. This is on the line pool at Garia Bay. Ian Gall took the picture.

Joy has salmon fished with the boys in Newfoundland a few times over the years. The first time was at Banting Lake Lodge. We all had a lot of fish that year and Joy had a spectacular first trip. The next time we were there conditions were not quite as good. Three fish for the party and hard work for those. I was skunked on that particular trip, didn't even see a salmon although the trout fishing was amazing. Joy was of course very gracious about it. She rarely reminds me of it anymore than two or three times every chance she gets. Sometimes you can do everything you can think of and not raise a fish, other times you can't keep them off. I guess that's the appeal of Atlantic Salmon fishing. Just when you think you have it figured out you'll be given an object lesson in how much more there is to learn.

The fall salmon season opens here today. I can't wait to get out there.

New waders: refer to the quote from Koos Brandt

I was recently fishing in Newfoundland on an amazing river that runs through beautiful but difficult terrain. The shore of the river is rocky. When I say rocky I mean a carpet of stones from golf ball sized to watermelon sized stretching for miles. There were few big enough to sit on comfortably to rest your feet from the pounding they took walking or standing on this uneven surface all day and comfort became a big factor to being able to fish effectively. I mentioned in a previous post that being comfortable is to my mind one of the biggest factors in not just fishing well but to enjoying your day a field. Fly fishing takes concentration and you can’t concentrate if you are distracted by discomfort. It doesn’t take much to turn a trip from a great outing into an endurance contest. Knowing from previous experience what this place was like and the challenge of walking and fishing for hours on the stony ground I starting thinking seriously about how to best deal with the challenge presented. My last trip there I’d worn boot foot waders and boot foot hip boots. By the second day the soles of my feet were so tender that I had to be careful how I placed my feet, by the end of a week – ouch. The fishing was fantastic and worth every moment but if I could think of a solution to the difficulty it would sure be worth it.
I started looking into stocking foot waders. The logic being that if I was just going to go hiking on that sort of terrain I’d wear the stoutest hiking boots I could find not a pair of slip on rubber boots. That is one of the big advantages to stocking foot waders. The boots are separate. You can find a pair that fits perfectly and are rugged enough for the terrain you’ll be fishing. You also have the option of getting a second pair of wading shoes that are lighter or rubber soled instead of felt soled, for the different locations you’ll be fishing. In a nutshell you are not confined to a single pair of waders that are designed to be pretty good in most situations. You can instead customize your waders to be perfect for specific locations. I remember a guide I met at Grandy’s River who used Wal-Mart sneakers as his wading shoes over a good pair of breathable waders. Grandy’s has beautiful, sandy shores and bottom. Sneakers are the perfect footwear for that location. Instead of spending the money on wading boots, he could buy inexpensive sneakers and get the performance he required for that location. The perfect solution to equipment challenges isn’t always the most expensive.
What I ended up getting was a pair of Cabela’s breathable waders and their branded wading boots with felt soles. The breathable waders were a bit expensive for my budget but after using them on this trip I think it was money well spent. They are so comfortable; it is more like wearing a pair of pants than waders. An added bonus is they are light and roll up into a very small bundle for packing. The boots are like a good pair of hikers and just as comfortable. They were the right solution for this trip. It was a pleasure from start to finish. The fishing was great too.

A random thought:
We are always trying to improve our skills when it comes to fishing, especially fly fishing. Luck is certainly a factor in success but what is the old saying, “The harder I work the luckier I get”? Well that seems to especially apply to fishing. It could be as simple a thing as being willing to walk a mile further than the other fellow to get to places with less angling pressure or as complex as studying the minutia of the insect behaviors in your stretch of the stream. In fishing, knowledge and effort are both rewarded.

Fishing dry flies for salmon in Newfoundland.

Just got home from Newfoundland. What a great trip! It is not all about the fishing, although that was pretty good; it is more about the camaraderie, meeting new people and renewing old friendships. I love hearing the old stories retold with all of the same enthusiasm as if the events had happened that afternoon instead of many years ago. Its great to rehash the theories of why a salmon even takes a fly or how best to play them. My brother offered a thought on why salmon don't feed when they come into a river to spawn. He thinks its nature's way of preventing cannibalism. There are lots of parr in the rivers when the salmon are running. If it were actively feeding, a grilse or salmon would do considerable damage to the next generation. An interesting thought. Now, as to why they take a fly....
The flies that were hottest for me were a brown bug during the day cast upstream and fished dead drift. In the evening, a small black bear-green butt fished by the patent method. By small I mean a number 12 or 10. It always amazed me as the light was fading to get a strike on that small a fly. What incredible eyesight or other senses those fish have.
Fishing dry flies for salmon is about as much fun as I've ever had fishing. The rises are spectacular and the take when it comes is stunning. Its like it all happens in slow motion. Most people are so amazed the first few times they see a big salmon rising under their fly that they end up pulling it away from the fish in anticipation of the strike. Having raised a fish but not hooked it a kind of buck fever sets in. It takes the conscious exercise of self discipline to make a good cast to the same spot and wait for what seems like an eternity as you see the fish coming slowly up, mouth agape, to engulf your fly. What a wonderful experience. I released most of the fish, some intentionally, but kept a couple to use for a traditional planked salmon dinner later this summer. Hopefully the same people who were with me in Newfoundland will be able to attend so I can relive once more a great fishing trip.

"This planet is covered with sordid men who demand that he who spends time fishing shall show returns in fish."~Leonidas Hubbard, Jr.