Fly Fishing Landlocked Salmon - Ouananiche
Last spring, I think it was may 1st, I went out with the boys for a day of flyfishing up near Mont Tremblant. We hired fishing guide François St-Louis who works for Sebastien Lord's guiding service. Francois is one of the country's foremost experts in the art of catching landlocked salmon.
We drove up to our lake really early in the morning, in fact the sun was down when we got on the boat and pulled away from the dock. This is a full service guide so he supplied the boat, the rods and the flies.
It was a very cold morning, and we were all very happy when the sun finally came up to grace us with a little heat.
We setup 4 rods, 2 13 foot fly rods on either side of the boat, and 2 9 foot rods in the back, all rods had the same setup, long tippets with special home made flies that looked like magog smelts (long purple and silver streamers).
Lines were out between 100 feet and 200 feet behind the boats, they were setup in such a way that they covered the first 20 feet of the water column, where landlocked salmon feeds at that time of year.
Everyone caught landlocked salmon that day, everyone except me!
I don't remember the exact weight of the fish we caught, but I think they all weighed approximately 7 - 8 pounds, which is very large for landlocked salmon in this part of the country. For example, Memphremagog lake ouananiche weigh about 1 1/2 - 2 pounds each. I know Lac Saint Jean has a healthy population of ouananiche, but I've never fished there so I wouldn't know for sure how big they grow them there - but if it's like their giant blueberries, their landlocked salmon size would be vastly exagerated!!
The video features my group of friends, but only at the very end. We're the group of guys with baseball hats. I'm the guy with the blue windbreaker, sunglasses and grey baseball hat toward the end. The video also features people we don't know, in fact it was shot by the guide throughout the season, so we're only there when they show the real big fish at the very end! ;-)
Enjoy!
Labels: Fishing Trips, fishing videos
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3 Comments:
Next spring, keep in mind that the first fish on the line will be yours! Can wait to repeat this great fishing experience!
Mike Walleye
Yes sir, you bet! Even though I didn't personally fight any of these monsters, I had a memorable time that day.
Wow, those are beautiful fish! I love the silver colour.
Marc, to answer the question you asked on my blog about depth for snorkelling it all depends on how long you can hold your breath and how much you can handle pressure really. It's something you get better at with experience. You can learn to "stretch out" your lungs so to speak. Non smokers have a clear advantage here. I'd say you can probably dive down to 15 feet and then it begins to feel like your head is going to implode. Depends on the person really.
The spots we cover are shallow. Ranging from about 5 to 20 feet.
About Sheep island, I know a lot of people fish that area and I've been there once or twice but I'll definitely explore that rock pile area. I know that just past the East light heading East in the channel there is a similar area. The channel turns sharply towards the South (towards Frasier pnt actually) but a natural channel keeps going East. Great early season spot. It's a heavy current area, averaging about 40-50 feet deep that comes up to a huge rock pile that comes up to about 30 feet, and like you say you can't miss it because the water is very activated. I've caught walleye there in the 5 lbs range just letting big shiners swim freely on a live bait rig. Kind of like a home-made Lindy Rig.
Cheers, Let me know how you did at Frasier point if you ended up going!
André
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