I know what I’m going to say will haunt me more than once this season, but I hope it stops raining, at least for a while. During the first part of the week our rivers were running high and dirty. By Wednesday they had dropped a bit and started to clear. Just when we thought conditions were getting better the rain came once again and we were back at square one. I would say that Friday was the first day the water looked great, high but starting to clear nicely.
Camp Bonaventure was full up this week with great anglers except for two beginners, who were fly-fishing for the first time. Call it lady luck, guess who hooked up on Thursday in the high and stained water. The fish, a nice one, stayed on for a few minutes but the first jump became a long distance release. Congratulations to Ann Debard for a job well done. Thursday also put the first landed salmon in our books for the season, Karl Kliem from Germany broke the ice on with a nice 22 pounder on Poirier pool.
Karl and his daughter Steffanie with the first fish of the season!
Our good friend Sam Cross from California has been fishing with us for a number of years, Sam hooked up three times before he finally landed a nice 10 pounder on Friday. This wasn’t the last for Sam as he did manage to hook and land a few more, way to go Sam.
Sam Cross and our guide Carol with a bright silver bullet, you finally landed one Sam!
We all know that the big ones sometime get away, you don’t have to tell Patti Ferrin this. On Thursday Patti and her husband Ken were with our guide Jea-Marc when they hooked a monster! after 25 minutes on the line the fish decided to make a run back to Greenland. Ninety feet of fly line and two hundred yards of backing wasn’t enough. The fish spooled Patti , when she noticed there was only a couple of turns of line left on the reel, she held everything tight. She managed to save her line but the fish is just a memory, next year Patti!. Patti did manage to hook and release a good number this week and made up for the big one that got away.
Patti with the “Big One” on the line.
Mac and Dale Fox fish at Camp Bonaventure for four weeks each season, this year they added a fifth week, June 2nd to 9th, they are glad they did. Mac and Dale landed six this week with our head guide Mario, they also and hooked a few more that got away.
Mac and Dale, a nice start to the new season!
Over all it wasn’t a bad week granted the conditions. We did manage to hook a decent number of fish and everyone knows that the water conditions are out of the odrnary. The first week of June has been great for the past number of years, this year mother nature played a trick on us.
The Hot fly’s this week have been mostly big tubes, Sunray shadows and McPhail Piglets. the Out to lunch and magog Smelt were also responsible for a couple of hookups. If the rain can slow down, we should be in for a great week.
Tight lines,
Glenn
