Salmon Are Like A Box Of Chocolates

I'm back far too quickly from the long week ends trip.  The colors are changing, the temperature is down and the river is just full of salmon this year.  Every major holding pool has fish in the upper river.  The lower pools are not doing well at all.  Seems like the heat and low water of August pushed the fish that would stay in the lower pools higher up river.  As the season gets closer to spawning time new fish will arrive and some will drop back to the place of their birth.

The Matapedia is a Salmon fishermen's river.  Understanding the conditions takes the time to learn what the possibilities will be.  In my thirty years of angling there it still can take me a little bit of time to unlock the door.  This trip was no exception.

Over the past two weeks the night time thermometer has already hit 32 and the valley has had it's first frost.  The river was reading 51 degrees in the morning and only making it to 55 degrees by the afternoon.  The dry fly fishing I fantasized about was not going to happen.  I did try but there were no takers.  The smallest fly that was working only needed to be a size six.  This was a bit larger than I expected.  The fly of choice turned out to be the orange shrimp patterns like Alley's Shrimp, Pot Belly Pig and General Practitioners.  I hooked three fish on my Orange & Black and all Orange Generals.

If you were to look at the statistics for Matapedia you would find that in a great year like this the average is 1 fish for every 4 rod days. Most years you can expect to fish for six days per salmon.  Then look at the statistics and you will see that right now the average is running one salmon for every two days.  Very good indeed.

The river will fish well right now through the close at the end of the month.  If you have any questions on the Matapedia and surrounding area please sen me an email.