Newfoundland

[Salmon&Permit]

Has anyone any experience of fishing for Atlantics in Newfoundland. I have found websites for two different lodges......but some first hand experience would be most welcome.
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glass bongs

[JDJones]

Used to have a freind that liked to stay at Ponds Lodge. (dont remember, but think on the Miramachi) sp. Talked to them once at a show. They seemed like nice folks. Family owned and run operation.

[wintershope]

I am planning to go up and give New Foundland a look in late July possibly.
It will be connected to a business trip, but I may get a day or two to fish and I have been researching which river will be easily accessable. It appears that once you are there and have a license you can fish just about every river that you can access.

I am also heading over to fish the Miramichi, in New BrunswicK, in July. This is a really cool river with lots of fish, but you need a guide to fish it and lots of the water is privately owned. I have found that the price for Lodges on the Miramichi is really cheap compared with most areas and the right lodge will have lots of water.

I found a really good lodge this spring when I was out for the Kelts. It was called Country Haven.

In Nothern Nova Scotia is the Margaree River. It is very close to where you would take a ferry to get to NF. It is a good fall river.

[StillInScrubs]

I am headed there for a week in August....tell you all about it when I get back.

I have a hard time with this idea of beats being from the US. NFseemed like the only place where you had access to the entire rivers, every other place seemed to stack your wallet against you, NF seems to be anglers skill versus the fish.

We'll see....

Scrubs

[mikebarrand]

S&P, sent you a PM

Newfoundland is a magical place and in my opinion true God's country. I was fortunate enough to marry a woman from there so we head back every other year. Good thing her father is an avid outdoors man! The locals I have been fortunate enough to meet are always more thatn willing to tell you where the Salmon are pooling and what flies are working....

[JR SPEY]

I've fished in Newfoundland, specifically the Lower Humber, but I did not stay at a lodge. It is an easy place to just book a guide and then stay at a motel and eat at local restaurants. While I caught some nice fish on the Lower Humber, I did not like competing for water space with water skiers and jet skies. We also spent an afternoon fishing Harry's River and that was much more to my liking. There are a lot of salmon rivers on the island (which is like the fourth or fifth largest island in the world) but most of them are best known for being grilse rivers. The reason I chose the Humber was because of its reputation for large salmon. I believe a guide is necessary for non-residents, but there is virtually no controlled water there. Despite the fact that Newfoundlanders seem to be the butt of many jokes in other provinces, I found them quite charming and down to earth. You'll like the experience I'm quite sure.

[mikebarrand]

Non residents do need a guide and I agree with you, the Lower Humber is a little too crowded for my liking. I have a certain love for The Grand Codroy and Isle of Morte rivers. It's nice to have some world class waters that do not have the lottery system.

[Salmon&Permit]

Thanks to all replies. Seems to be a lot of fishing. Am seriously thinking of an exploratory expedition in August. Need to get my head round the distances and work out how many rivers it is reasonable to expect to fish in a week. Clearly a guide would make sense, and as several people have commented, is probably a requirement. Does anyone have a feel for the costs involved.....I would rather pay a little more / travel a little further for some peace and quiet, rather than queue up and "combat" fish. Also, got to try and work out best / quickest / cheapest way to get there. Have heard about some direct flights from Gatwick, but don't seem to be able to find them on the internet.

Off to the Kharlovka in 10 days time, so need to get that out of the way before planning a trip across there pond.
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e cigarette

[SpeySteel]

I've run trips up there for the past 5 years. I used to go to a lodge called Dhoon Lodge located outside of Stephenville. Newfoundland is an absolutely beautiful place with great rivers and fishing. Most of the fishing we did was from Deer Lake to Port-aux-Basques, specifically the Bay St. George area of SW Newfoundland. There are at least 10 very notable salmon rivers including the Harry's River, Codroy, Crabbes, Robinsons, Flat Bay, South West Brook, Serpentine, Fox Island, Lower Humber, Upper Humber, etc. Above Deer Lake (northern penninsula) there are many more rivers (I haven't fished them - yet).

You will need a guide as an outsider. If you go and need a guide I may be able to help you depending upon where you're going to be in Newfoundland. You can email me if you have questions andrew@tightlinesflyfishing.com

For flies you'll need sizes 6(large for newfoundland) to size 12 and they must be single hook/barbless. For patterns I would have some very simple sparse patterns. Some good patterns would include Black bear green butt, undertaker, blue charm, black silver tip, bondatti killer, colburn, cosseboom (in different colors), silver rat, grizzly king, etc etc. Most of your standard salmon flies will work, only in smaller sizes then what you may think. When in doubt, go small.

Most of the rivers, unless you're fishing Humber, Gander, or Exploits, are medium in size. Harry's River and Codroy are pretty large as well. Single handed rods in 7-9 weight or smaller spey rods from 12.5 - 14' 6-9 weights are ideal. All floating line fishing as most of the rivers are shallow and run on the warmer side, especially during the summer months. In terms of size of fish, I know Newfoundland has a reputation as being a grilse area, but we've caught many nice salmon in the 8-18 pound range with fish to 25+. Certain rivers definately have more girlse than salmon. Some rivers may be exclusively grilse rivers, but there are many rivers to choose from, especially if there is good water. Low water will limit options.

In terms of cost, the trips I ran for 6 days of fishing were approx 2000 for lodging, meals and guided fishing. If you DIY with a guide I would expect room rates from 40-100 per night and you could probably find a guide for 75-150 a day. You could definately fish there fairly cheap, but a guide is a requirement. In terms of getting there you'll have to fly through probably a combination of Halifax, Montreal and/or Toronto. Air Canada has flights. If you have miles with American Express you should be able to transfer them to an Aeroplan account which works with Air Canada. You would probably have to be flexible though. I just booked a flight for September to Terrace BC for 25,000 miles from NYC. Just had to pay the taxes ($150).

Hope you have a good trip and if you need any help please let me know.

Best,

Andrew Moy

[wet fly]

Yesterday, I returned home from over 3 weeks fishing in Newfoundland. This is my sixed trip and by far the best year with more fish landed then the other 5 combined. I only fished 3 rivers on the west coast but traveled from the Codroy to Main Brook up north. I fished the single handed rod 90 % of the time and did not catch a fish on the 2 handed rod. A delicate presentation is very beneficial. Most of the Salmon were caught on a hitched wet fly with a few on the "bug". Newfoundland rivers have mostly grilse and I only caught a few over 62 cm. I did see a surprising number of bigger fish at the viewing window on the Torrent and at big falls on the Humber. On my last day a friend landed one about 20 pounds on the lower Humber. The main downside is that most of the rivers are very crowded and they do not rotate in the good spots.

[wet fly]

As a long time steelheader here in the northwest I had a good opportunity to compare with the Atlantic Salmon. The Atlantic salmon I caught this year were in the lower portions of the rivers and still had sealice on most of them. They are very suface oriented and would come to the fly multiple times. I had a couple I hooked after 6 rises very comparable to summer steelhead. I used many of my same steelhead tricks to get the fish back and got quite confident in getting the fish to return. The fight was much like Deer Creek fish here in the Stilly fast and jumpers. Salmon could jump higher and were a little faster but took about the same amount of time to land. I had one salmon cartwheel 12 times and about 1 in 5 took me well into the backing. A couple went over a water falls and down stream quit a distance. The guide told me to strike every time I saw a rise. I hooked several before I felt a tug. The fishing was about a good as it was here in the 1970s before our numbers declined in the puget sound. Jerry