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Salmon Fishing in Newfoundland

Home pool in good water after a rain. Two days later, after more rain, that tuft of grass to the right of David was under water. The rock you can see close to shore was also under water. ...and the fishing was easy...well, not that easy but it was good.

an empty camp overlooking home pool

This simple, small black fly tied in a #10 and #8 hook was my most productive, even in high water. Other productive flies were of course the blue charm and a white winged blue charm and a silver bodied blue charm, (for lack of a better description). All tied with moose hair wing except the white wing where I used calf tail. I don't fish the 'hitch' like most in Nfld and I catch plenty of fish with my fly under water much to the surprise of most Newfoundlanders. Our guide Gord says the advantage of fishing the hitch is that you always know when you've raised a fish. True that! Locals tend to fish a short line and kind of hunt for taking salmon. They're looking for a fish who'll either take right away or one who will raise to a fly. A raised fish is very likely to take if you carefully tempt him back. The short line means you are always in visual contact with your fly and that's a good thing. On a larger pool I will often fish a longer line, carefully sweeping the pool and often the first indication of a taking fish is that wonderful feeling of my line going tight. I know I miss fish because I don't see them rise to my fly. Oh well, maybe next year I'll start using the hitch on a short line.

All images below shot with the Lumix GF1

Good thing we're using barbless hooks! David takes a fly in the ear.

A word on barbless hooks. I really thought I'd lose a lot more fish using barbless. Not so! I am a complete convert after this trip. Removing a barbed hook from a fish you want to release can sometimes be quite a chore. With a barbless hook I would simply run my hand down the leader until I reached the hook and simply remove it and watch the fish swim away having never been out of the water. Never had to touch the fish. You've gotta love that.

Crossing the pond with our fearless and very capable guide Gord Thatchell

Another topic of conversation on our trip was the phrase, 'a jumping fish won't take'. Well they sure will where we were! I'm talking about fresh running grilse. Locals will see a fish jump and literally go after it. If its a fresh fish that may have just arrived in a pool it will often take. I experienced this on this trip. I saw a fish jump in a bend in the river hundreds of yards away. I knew fish will sometimes take in this area so I walked down and started fishing. After a few minutes the fish jumped again giving away its lie. I was then able to carefully present my fly and got a good raise out of him. I changed my position so I could more carefully present my fly, it was a tricky current, and as soon as he saw that fly again, WHAM! He took it hard. It was a rocky pool full of fast currents and a challenging place to land a fish. Fun, fun, fun.

Crosby's pool - this fish had lots of sea lice still attached to its back. A sign of a very fresh fish. I had grilse go into my backing at least twice and a couple of others come close. That doesn't happen often with grilse!

Back at the camp - wild salmon just tastes better

David had a habit of asking people how they liked their moose cooked, it being a real staple in Nfld. Moose pie, moose stew, ribs in the oven, in a frying pan with salt and pepper - lots of pepper, but then the bomb shell......MOOSE BUNS! Moose buns? 'Ye takes yer moose meat, covers it in cheese whiz, wraps it all up in bread dough and ye deep fries it'. There's one for the food network.

You never know what you'll see out the camp window. Lots of moose this trip and a couple of caribou too. A family of loons and lots and lots of song birds. Unending songs.

The Torrent River

Atlantic Salmon, Salmo Salar, known as The Leaper.

The Torrent River has an underwater viewing chamber built into its fishway which allows fish to bypass the falls. The gashes on these fish are from hitting rocks as they try to jump the falls. www.torrentriver.ca