ASF Rivernotes 25 September 2020

A hurricane or extra-tropical storm can bring the best of times or the worst of times for an Atlantic salmon. Or perhaps make little change at all.

This summer and autumn has seen near record droughts everywhere from New England’s rivers to those of Newfoundland. Lately some of the rivers in Newfoundland have been filling up with generous rainstorms, but not the rest of the area.

Some of the rivers important to Atlantic salmon have significant flows and levels even in those times of droughts. But some Atlantic salmon populations are in rivers that have little water if the rainstorms of late summer and early fall do not materialize. Many of the Northumberland Strait rivers in Nova Scotia have Atlantic salmon that await the rains in order to make a dash from the ocean to spawning areas. These rivers often do not have the pools, underwater springs or lakes along the way where Atlantic can “stage” before continuing upstream. These Atlantic salmon are imprinted with the need to make the dash.

Same goes for many of the runs in the inner Bay of Fundy, and in a variety of other areas.

Teddy came along this week, and there was hope that it would be the deluge to fill the rivers.

No one wanted TOO much water – where the force of the current can carry heavy loads of silt that can partly clog gills and destroy pre-existing pools.

But Teddy seems to have been on the low side.

On the Northeast Margaree gauge the ultra-low .2 metre height only made it up to a .8 metre level before beginning to drop back.

Teddy failed to have any impact in Maine, where drought conditions remain critical. On the Restigouche and the Matapedia, Teddy had no real impact at all.

There were areas where Teddy did fill the rivers to overflowing.

Margaree

The Margaree River may have cooled down, but the levels are still low.

Taylor Main reports on Hurricane Teddy’s impact on PEI rivers:

Hurricane Teddy thankfully didn’t bring the destruction we saw from Dorian roughly one year ago.

Unfortunately we did not see the rain either. Central regions of the province received around 55mm of rain which tapered off to 25-30mm near the ends.

Most of the rain came as a steady event on Tuesday but with no more in the long range forecast it looks like levels will continue to be low. We should start seeing our fall run of fish entering our rivers in early October.

Northwest Miramichi

Paul Elson has been out along several of the branches of the Northwest Miramichi recently, especially noting the occasional Atlantic salmon – and extreme low water:

Seeing the odd fish in the pools, but they are glued to the bottom with lockjaw.

Hurricane Teddy brought about 10mm of rain to the Northwest and Little Southwest Miramichi and didn’t get much of a raise, maybe an inch.

I have not seen any new fish entering the river at this point.

I’ve being trying everything to try and raise the fish off the bottom, including fishing #16-18s with no luck in the last two weeks.

I’m certainly not spending a lot of time on the water with these conditions – not like I normally would – and probably will not unless we get significant rain or start hearing of fish being hooked.

Striped bass are being caught in the area of the river near Miramichi City.

Jacquet River

The Jacquet is a beautiful river in northern New Brunswick located north of the Nepisiguit and south of the Restigouche. It typically gets most of its salmon run in the fall after a big rain. The extremely low water this season explains the low numbers on the graph so far but we’re paying attention to what happens on the Jacquet after hurricane Teddy passes through this week.

The rains that come with Teddy will hopefully bring an excellent raise in water to the desperately low NB salmon rivers. There are a variety of smaller salmon rivers in northern NB that get the bulk of their salmon run in the fall and rely on these fall rains, such as the Bartibog, Tabusintac, Benjamin, and others lesser known but all beautiful.

Nepisiguit

The Nepisiguit Salmon Association reporting on the Pabineau First Nation’s Counting Fence has 161 grilse and 103 large salmon to Sept. 17

Some Gaspé rivers have benefited from an influx of water from last week. Very low water conditions continue for many rivers but offset by decent angling results. Current forecast is predicting more rain a few days before the season ends on September 30th.

The data used for the Quebec river notes are sourced from various river websites, social media and Quebec government sources. Information can change without prior notification regarding prior year comparative figures.

La plupart des rivières demeurent en condition d’étiage, mais certaines rivières gaspésiennes ont bénéficié d’un « coup d’eau » la semaine dernière. Cependant, les pêcheurs sportifs bénéficient d’un bon succès de pêche et les prévisions météorologiques nous donne espoir d’une fin de saison offrant de meilleurs débits.

Les données utilisées dans ce rapport proviennent de divers sites web, des médias sociaux et de sources gouvernementales québécoises. Les informations peuvent changer sans avis au préalable en ce qui concerne les comparatifs des saisons précédentes.

Rivière Matane River

Nine days are left in the 2020 season as of September 21st, a total of 2,666 fish migrated through the fishway (1,653 salmon and 1,013 grilse). Best total since 2016.

With eight days left in the 2019 season as of September 22nd, a total of 1,930 fish had been counted (1,213 large salmon and 717 grilse). Comparatively to September 23, 2018, 1,942 fish had been counted migrating into the river (1,056 salmon & 885 grilse).

To date to September 21st, 846 fish have been landed (274 salmon and 99 grilse released in addition to 158 salmon and 315 grilse harvested.

To September 22nd, 2019, 686 fish were reported landed comprised of 225 large salmon and 47 grilse released, 131 large salmon and 283 grilse harvested.

In 2018 to September 23rd, 475 fish had been reported landed (160 salmon & 54 grilse released, 261 grilse harvested). Abundance was insufficient to allow harvest of salmon.

La Matane se maintient très bien en date du 21 septembre, un total de 2 666 poissons ont migré par la passe migratoire (1 653 saumons et 1 013 madeleineaux). Meilleur rendement depuis 2016.

Comparativement au 22 septembre 2019, lorsqu’un total de 1 930 poissons avait été dénombré (1213 saumons et 717 madeleineaux). Comparativement au 23 septembre 2018, 1 942 poissons ont été dénombrés par le biais de la passe migratoire (1 056 saumons et 885 madeleineaux).

À ce jour, au 21 septembre, les pêcheurs ont signalé la capture de 846 (274 saumons et 99 madeleineaux relâchés en plus de 158 saumons et 315 madeleineaux capturés.

Au 22 septembre 2019, 686 poissons avaient été capturés, dont 225 saumons et 47 madeleineaux relâchés, 131 saumons et 283 madeleineaux capturés.

En 2018, l’abondance était insuffisante pour permettre la récolte de saumon, au 23 septembre, 475 poissons ont été capturés dont 160 saumons et 54 madeleineaux relâchés, 261 madeleineaux récoltés.

Don Ivany, ASF Director of Programs in Newfoundland and Labrador writes:

Most rivers on the Island of Newfoundland closed to angling on Sept 7. The exceptions are the Humber, Gander, and Exploits Rivers, better known as the ‘Big Three’.

The lower sections of these three rivers remain open for a Fall Fishery until Oct 7.

In Labrador, all rivers officially closed to angling as of Sept. 15, and will remain closed until next season. Also, by now most fish counting facilities in the province have been closed for the season.

The latest DFO fishway counts, up to Sept 20th are available online at DFO’s web-site at:

http://www.nfl.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/nl/salmoncounts

Like most folks in NL, we were on edge for the past week or so wondering just how much rain Hurricane Teddy would drop on the province.

Now that the hurricane has passed through this region the short answer is that we received quite a lot. As a result, water levels rose sharply on most rivers throughout the province during this past week and in many cases reached extreme high levels.

The exception to the extreme high water were rivers in the western Newfoundland region. This region received far less rain and for the most part only reached medium to high levels.

The Big Three Rivers

The Humber River was spared much of the rain from the hurricane. As a result, the water levels on the Lower Humber River remain fairly good for angling, and the water temperature is cool, at approximately 13 C.

However, while the water level and temperature have remained good on the Lower Humber River the fishing has been rather slow during the past week.

Eric Crantford, who is an experience lower Humber angler, reports that he fished the river this past week and while there are still a few large fish around in this area they are difficult to entice to the fly. This could suggest that these are fish that have been in the river for a while and have seen a lot of flies drifting over them, since there was little evidence of any bright fish showing.

SCNL Board Member, Ken McLean fished the Gander River late last week and reports that the river was high at the time and still rising.

During his outing he only saw one salmon jump for the day. Ken believes that with all the high water at the time, a few fish were moving through the system but weren’t holding up.

Since Ken’s outing on the Gander last week, water levels on this river continued to rise sharply and are now at an extremely high level, running at about 160 cubic meters per second. Since the Gander River does not usually drop quickly the high water levels currently being experienced will likely persist for the next week or so making for very poor fishing up to the end of the season.

Not exactly what fishermen like Ken McLean and other anglers who participate in the annual fall fishery on the Gander were hoping for. But most seasoned angles have learned to take the bad with the good.

On the Exploits River, water levels rose a little during the past week but overall remain fairly stable on the lower section since water flows on this river are controlled upriver for hydro purposes and are released slowly. Reports indicate that there are still a few fish around but generally the fishing as been spotty during the past week.