Hi gang, Jim Corrigan here to address several questions that arose in response to my Gaspé fishing report.
Mark asked:
“If I understand you correctly, you hooked 13 and landed 6 salmon between two of you in 10 days. You said you had a "great salmon trip". My question is: Are these numbers normal, good, poor or very poor?”
Yes, those were the numbers. You ask a good question, but I’m not sure I can provide a very enlightening answer.
I was referring to the whole experience when I said that we had a ‘great salmon trip.’ Typical of the Gaspé-town rivers, salmon were clearly visible in many of the pools that we fished. We saw some absolutely breathtaking monsters in some of the pools. We learned some new things about each river – things that will help us on future trips. We saw Woodcock and Ruffed Grouse on our way to the pools on several different days. We drove east under one of the most spectacular rainbows that I’ve ever seen. We met some interesting people and got to hear some wonderful river stories. We paid our respects to several dear friends on the Gaspésie. We were very lucky in the 48 hour draws, and got to fish some of our favorite spots on three beautiful and historic rivers that we truly love. The cloudy, rainy and cool conditions meant that we could fish longer into most days and still feel that we had a decent chance. We each lost fish after long struggles and multiple jumps. We hit a run of hot Sea Trout and had about 30 minutes of crazy action. We each hooked a large salmon and we both caught some beauties! We threw our lines well and had no serious fishing injuries. We fished and roomed together for nearly two weeks and did not have a single argument or tense moment. Independent of fish caught, these are things that make a trip ‘great’ for us.
From a catching perspective, we have done better in other years, but also have done worse (nearly 0fer) on several trips. Last year, fishing roughly the same pools, Axe and I brought 11 salmon and grilse to the net in four days. That works out to better than 1.0 fish caught per day for both of us, and must be regarded as exceptional fishing – in every meaning of the word.
I’m not sure that the words ‘normal’ or ‘average’ are applicable across multiple salmon trips to the Gaspésie. Based on luck in the water-allocation lotteries, one may be fishing premium sectors on many, few or no days on any given trip. The numbers of fish in the pools, water levels and weather conditions will all profoundly affect the chances of getting hookups. So, we like to assess the efficiency of a trip in terms the choices we made of water to fish, then how we handled the ‘fishy hand’ that had been dealt to us on the day. On these terms, we probably had an ‘average’ trip – as mentioned by Mr. Thrasher.
With respect to our breakoffs, Salar-1 asked if we were using Rio tippet material. No, we were on ‘Orvis Super Strong’ mono, but neither of us blame the product for our misfortune. My big fish found some woody debris on the far side of Moose Bogan. I’d had it on for about 10 minutes, and it gave me several ponderous jumps. The fish decided to go up the far shore with its nose into the bank. It found a submerged branch that we didn’t know was there, and wrapped me. I leaned on it and broke it off. Axel lost his big fish on an awkward, close-in jump … the fish fell solidly on his line before he could release the pressure. So, I’d call it bad luck and/or operator error on both fish – no fault to the tippets.
Funny, I lost a very big fish last year that purposefully bored into a woodpile and hung me up on a tree. Is this something that bigger fish tend to do? I’ve caught a number of 12-16 pound salmon out of brushy pools. They usually fight it out in the open water.
Finally, Salar-1 got it right – if you enjoy a trip for its own sake and don’t worry too much about catch rates, there are no poor Atlantic salmon fishing trips.
Thanks to all for the interesting responses!
Jim