ASF Rivernotes 2 Oct 2020

The end of September is a time of shifting priorities in the world of Atlantic salmon – both for the species itself and for the conservationists protecting it as they move quickly to complete restoration and research activities.

This week’s Rivernotes reflects this, with more of a photographic coverage, and with a few comments as well regarding the Atlantic salmon on the European side of the North Atlantic Ocean.

As October rolls in, it is still too early to give definitive observations on the state of the runs for the year and the outlook for next. But we will try by next week to give some “starter notes” in that direction.

Charles Cusson, ASF Director of programs in Quebec plans to have an overview of the Quebec salmon season next week.

At the moment, a great deal of rain would be helpful, but there are certainly considerable numbers of salmon around, in a wide array of rivers, which is most encouraging.

A week ago Christopher Minkoff of Montreal visited some of the Gaspé rivers, particularly the Grande Rivière.

Minkoff’s observations included:

• He had never seen the water so low
• On the Grande he noted that U.S. anglers, that make up the majority of those on the river in September, were not able to come in 2020 due to the Covid-19
• The salmon themselves were quite plentiful
• The Atlantic salmon were both energetic and in great health

The inability of U.S. anglers to wade and cast in the Grande this year is an extreme negative for both conservation of Atlantic salmon and the health of the local economy of the region. Many are employed as guides, cooks, camp managers and others whose employment supports the local towns and villages.

The extra sets of eyes that anglers provide help to reduce poaching, and to alert concerned locals of irregular activities on the river.

But the river remains, and undoubtedly will be as enticing in 2021 as any other recent year.

In a phone conversation, Christopher Minkoff said he considered himself fortunate to be out on the rivers. The day following his return to Montreal, the city was placed under covid related restrictions.

Paul Elson has a few observations from his recent outings on the Little Southwest Miramichi and Northwest Miramichi:

We haven’t had any rain, so things are still low and clear.

I have been fishing lower down in the rivers in the mornings hoping to see some kind of run com in. So far it’s not looking good and I have been seeing just the odd salmon.

We’ve had a minor heat wave the last three days and water temperatures have gone from 10-15C to 18-23C. There is some rain forecast in the headwaters of the Little Southwest Miramichi this week, so hopefully we will get enough to make a difference and increase flows and water levels.

Taylor Main says of conditions on PEI:

Despite a small, short-lived increase in water levels after Hurricane Teddy last week, all our streams and rivers are back near base flow levels. I haven’t been hearing of, or seeing, any Atlantic salmon around yet, which is not uncommon for this early into the fall.

The Beaver Baffler

In recent years the price of beaver pelts have dropped substantially in North America and few people are trapping beavers.

As a result beavers and beaver dams are becoming more and more numerous on many of our smaller streams throughout Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

Such dams often impede fish passage, and up until now the preferred action has been to remove the beavers and tear out the beaver dams.

However, beaver dams play a very important role ecologically on our river systems and the dams benefit fish and other wildlife species.

The dams allow nutrient enrichment of streams, create new channels and new habitat for juvenile fish and waterfowl, and creating important riparian zones along our streams.

Most recently, the concept has emerged of finding a solution to the issue of fish passage around these dams instead of removing them.

ASF’s Director in NL, Don Ivany, recently agreed to partner with Victoria Neville of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to field test a new fish passage device that can be installed in beaver dams.

Referred to as a ‘Beaver Baffler’, the device was designed by the Beaver Institute in the USA. However, to install the device Don and Victoria needed a few extra hands to help out so they approached SPAWN President John McCarthy who was eager to get involved. They also recruited Dan Gillard, a local trapper in Western Newfoundland who has a wealth of knowledge about beavers and their habits.

Chelsea Boaler, who also works with WWF, rounded out the team.

Earlier this week the crew travelled to the upper Humber River to install the device in a beaver dam.

This dam was located on Deadwater Brook, which is a major spawning tributary located on the Upper Humber River. A number of adult salmon were being held up just below the beaver dam – trying to get upstream to their spawning grounds.

The installation of the device went fairly smoothly considering it was the first one the crew ever installed. Beaver Bafflers such as this one have been used successfully on streams in other areas in the past, including in the U.S. Pacific Northwest region.

For now, this is a pilot project and the device will be monitored closely to see how things work out.

If it is successful, more ‘beaver bafflers will be installed at dams throughout the province in the future. So stay tuned!

Jennifer Noll, Maine DMR

We finally received more than a passing shower, but it hasn’t been reflected in the water discharge flows in Sidney, ME yet. According to the USGS gauge, the flow is now reading 2,330 cfs, which is between minimum and lowest 25 percentile flows for this date over the last 34 years’ worth of data. We will hopefully see an uptick in flows shortly. The temperature at Lockwood this past week has been 17-17.5 degrees Celsius. One female salmon was caught at Lockwood yesterday and was moved to the Sandy River.

As for the Sebasticook: very few fish are moving upstream. Juvenile alosids (group that includes shad, blueback herring and alewives) are moving downstream. Flows are up but still logging medians by quite a bit (per Nate Gray, DMR).

One new Atlantic salmon caught at Lockwood on 29 September.

Lockwood fish lift (mainstem Kennebec) total catches for 2020:
River herring: 143,259
American shad: 180
Sea Lamprey: 45
Atlantic Salmon: 51

One additional salmon was moved to the Sandy River after capturing it in the ledges at Lockwood during fish stranding removal at the flash board replacement on Wed., 22 July, 2020.

Accumulated Atlantic salmon catches are at the third highest for this date in the last 10 years.

Alastair Gowans, noted Scottish Atlantic salmon fisherman and instructor, says:

Our salmon season starts on some rivers in January, quite early in comparison to most countries.

During the peak spring fishing time from March 23 until May 29 we were in “lockdown” due to Covid-19 restrictions. When the rivers opened again travel distances for anglers were limited to five miles for a time which restricted fishing but those who could reach a river were often rewarded by good sport, in some cases exceptionally good sport as the fish had not been disturbed and took well.

After the initial bonanza, rivers quietened down to something more like normal catches.

Then in July grilse started to appear in numbers – better numbers than for several years.

On the whole they were healthier, with fewer of the skinny, emaciated creatures that featured in past years and possibly with a slight improvement in the weights. This year’s grilse run was significantly better than the previous five years at least, and this was reflected in catches reported from many rivers,

Additionally, the runs of grilse continued into August but indications are that the number of fresh grilse entering rivers in September has slowed down.

There are still a few decent two sea winter salmon entering freshwater and most of these fish are now between 14 and 20 lbs.

We have had the first frosts of Autumn which will start to affect the salmon behaviour towards spawning and probably make the coloured fish more aggressive and eager to take a fly.

Fishing on many rivers continues until mid-October, and some until the end of October and a few including the Tweed until Nov. 30, so the season here is not over yet.