The fishing begins in the town of Causapscal and goes for about 30 miles to the town of Matapedia where the river flows into the famed Ristigouche. Forty miles from its confluence with the Matapedia, the Ristigouch enters the Atlantic Ocean. The Matapedia is a medium sized river no more than 200 feet at its widest and is usually more narrow. It consists of long pools between class I or II rapids.

The fishing is public with the exception of two private segments. The first is Cold Springs just before the town of Matapedia, and the other is Glen Emma in the mid segment of the river. Glen Emma had been operated as a private salmon fishing preserve for over 100 years. The last 40 years the owner has been the province of Quebec which operates it like an exclusive private salmon fishery. There are some 100 numbered and named pools on the river of which 10 pools are on the Glen Emma segment. Only 10 persons per day can fish Glen Emma and 75 persons can fish the other 90 pools per day.

To fish you have to obtain a daily permit. These can be reserved by telephoning a single number in Causapscal. You can not reserve more than 4 consecutive days on Glen Emma but I don't think there is a limit to the other areas. You may start phoning to this single number at 8 AM EST on April 1. The estimation is that the first hour there will be more than 3000 calls attempting to get in. Apparently there is no way to game the system or let privilege, position or money get you in. You just dial the phone and hope for the best. Neil began his dialing (with the help of 5 other family members also dialing from separate phones) at 7:55 AM!

When it rang busy he would hang up and immediately hit redial. Five persistent hours later, his call was answered and he obtained for us, 3 days on public water and 4 consecutive days to follow that on Glen Emma.

The salmon begin to enter the river in May and June. The early runs are the heaviest and the fish are the largest as a rule. This is high water fishing requiring larger flies and all wet flies. Later in the summer with lower warmer water the fish may have been in the river longer, may be a little wiser and wary, but now prefer the dry fly to the wet fly.

All fishing on designated salmon rivers is for salmon only. No other fishing is allowed although there are also brook trout in the river.

Only fly fishing with floating lines is allowed. If you desire to kill a fish, your daily limit is 1 fish. If you desire to catch and release, your daily limit is 2 fish. The exception was the Glen Emma section where if you fished catch and Release you could release two grisle or one salmon and one grisle in the morning and then that afternoon fish and release one more fish. Non-residents are required to have a guide on public water although residents could fish without a guide. On Glen Emma segment, the guide automatically came with your permit price whether you were a resident or non-resident.

All of the fishing was done from 22 foot canoes although in most areas wading could have been easily done. The guide stands on the seat in the stern and controls the boat with a push pole. He then anchors with a conical lead anchor called a killick that is on a pulley on the bow of the boat. You fish from the anchored boat until the water is covered and then "drop" down to the next fishing spot or "drop".

Anyone who is truly proficient at Atlantic Salmon fishing has likely been in intensive psychoanalysis for terminal~obsessive compulsive disorder. Wet fly fishing is done utilizing the classic 45 degree across stream cast, upstream mend if flow is fast, downstream mend if it is slow and none if it is just right then allowing the fly to swing without animation to the end of the drift.

The first cast is made with about 24 inches fly line out of the rod. Each subsequent cast is lengthened by 6 to 12 inches until all of the holding water is covered or you have reached the end of your casting ability for distance. Then the fly pattern is changed and the process repeated or the canoe moved to the next "drop" and the procedure is repeated. This allows every inch of holding water to be covered. The preferred patterns on the Matapedia were the Rusty Rat, Black Bear Green Butt, and an ugly nondescript fly called the Green Machine. All are on size 4 or 6 hooks with double hooks preferred to single hooks.

This is methodical, a little boring, but it is not very tiring. Dry fly fishing, however, is an entirely different story. The "checker board" method of presentation is used. The first cast is about 15 to 20 feet and made at a 45 degree angle downstream. The fly is allowed to drift drag free for 6 feet (not 2, 3 or 4 or 5 feet but 6 feet) and then picked up and placed one foot above the site of the first presentation and then allowed to drift another 6 feet. This is continued until you are casting at a 45 degree angle upstream. At this point you strip out 2 more feet of fly line and repeat the whole process. This continues until the holding water is covered or you can no longer increase your casting distance. Then the fly pattern is changed and the process repeated or the boat maneuvered to the next "drop." This comes to one cast every 5 seconds or 12 casts a minute. This is exhausting using an 8 or 9wt. rod with a fly that is every bit as air resistant as the bulkiest bass bug. The dry fly of choice was a Bomber on a 6xL no. 2 or no. 4 hooks. It looked like a cigar butt that needed a shave and resembled nothing on the face of the earth--but salmon liked it.

So how did we do? Our first three days were on public water. We had a guide who spoke mostly French and had a nasty habit of talking on a cellular phone he kept in his fishing vest. This certainly reminded us that were not having a wilderness experience. But he was pleasant and did try hard. The water was 58 degrees in the morning but by 3 PM had warmed to 68 or 70 degrees. There had been a lot of rain so we had the unusual situation of warm water but high water. The preferred fly, however, still seemed to be the dry fly. We would fish from 7 AM to noon, break for lunch, and then return at 3 M and fish to black dark at 9 PM. In three days on public water we raised three salmon, all to the dry fly, and we missed hooking all three of them.

The fourth day was to be different. This time we were to fish Glen Emma area. This area was said to hold the large majority of the salmon in a river which this year was felt to have more salmon than the other salmon rivers in Quebec. And according to everyone Neil and I had the 4 best pools in Glen Emma for our 4 days of fishing.

Millinikik was a pool probably 500 yards long. At its head was the Millinikik River which poured cold water into the river. Supposedly it was this cooler well oxygenated water which held salmon in exceptional numbers in this pool. That morning was cool, overcast and drizzling rain. When we arrived at the river's edge you could smell fish!

My guide that morning, Danny, did not speak even pigeon English--and I didn't speak pigeon French. Through sign language and body English (avoiding with difficulty using the universal sign of frustration and disgust--the extended middle finger). I convinced him I would fish a dry fly. So we knotted on a bomber. On our second drop, my fourth cast in the checker board presentation, a salmon that was in excess of 30 pounds rolled on the fly but did not take. Two drifts later he rolled again on the fly and again did not take. By now my legs were rubber and my heart pounding. We changed color on the bomber. On the next drift the salmon lifted off the bottom and drifted down with the fly, his nose right under it, and then like a brown trout in a spring creek, sipped it in. I am sure my heart rate before the fish opened his mouth was 200 plus and then when he opened his mouth I set the hook too quickly jerking the fly from its mouth and then almost fell backwards out of the canoe. I was sick. He was not to rise again.