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2003 Fly Fishing Season News

The Grey River Lodge fly fishing success story continues!

The 2003 Atlantic salmon fly fishing season was another great success at Grey River Lodge, with full camp for almost all our season and an extremely smooth summer of operation once again.                                                   

Despite a late and cold spring, arrival at our lodges saw quite low water levels to start the season. As was then expected, our runs were late entering the river. First guests arrived on June 13 and while fishing began slower than normal, there was action each and every day following the first landing on June 14. It was reported that most rivers also experienced late run arrivals this year, which thought to be partly due to heavier than normal spring off-shore ice-packs, as well as the low water levels. Due to this, a higher than normal percentage of fishing action was achieved in July this year.

Action did not really heat up until June 24, when the main body of salmon began entering the pools near our lodges. Heavy rains of June 20 brought the river to a very good level for fishing, and while still not high, it did bring a fair number of fish into the river. The rain, however, proved to be very local and did not affect the upper reaches of the Grey River system. As a result, water conditions returned to very low levels in only a few days. It was the 2^nd week of July before there was any improvement in water levels, but good water temperatures helped ensure continuation of acceptable fishing action for most of this period, although our Salmon Brook area did not show the very high quality of angling to which we have been accustomed. While there were more fish in the pools near Salmon Brook Lodge than the previous year, the low water made enticing them to a fly much more difficult. At The Forks Lodge there was more angling concentration in the pools downstream from the lodge, as the low water made this larger section of our river system much easier to fish, and much more favorable to traveling.

The seasonal totals for 2003 showed 239 fish hooked at our lodges, with 169 being landed or released. Once again this year, many fish were released. As the numbers indicate, quite a high percentage of fish hooked were lost in the fight, which is full indication of the power and wildness of Grey River fish. The largest fish of the season was a 31 inch fish taken at Cable Pool in the lower section of The Forks area. A larger than normal percentage of fish hooked were very fresh, with many having sea-lice still attached. During the course of our season, and even through to later in July, there were very few older, darker fish taken. It would appear, as was the case for the past couple of years, the salmon did not seem to remain in the pools long, but appeared to move through fairly quickly, especially in The Forks area. The abnormally low water conditions proved to activate some new pools, particularly in the lower section of the main river, which created an interesting atmosphere of trying to locate new resting areas for the salmon.

While there was some excellent dry fly action as usual, the wet flies seem to outperform the dries, probably due to the overall cooler water. The Blue Charm would definitely have been the #1 fly, but Thunder & Lightening rose to the top in July and a Brown Bug was also quite good. The Green Machine gave occasional action, but was not as effective as some other years. As expected, Bombers (Orange & Brown mostly) usually worked best during periods of warmer water conditions and gave some exciting surface action.

With the lower water levels, there were more day hiking/fishing adventures, mostly to the downstream area at The Forks, but also in the lower Salmon Brook region, as well as from Salmon Brook Lodge itself. There were a number of hiking/sightseeing treks from both lodges, which proved to be very enjoyable, as usual. Included in this was one return hike between The Forks Lodge and Grey River town, with an arranged open boat to transport the hikers the 7 miles from river mouth to town. Once again this year there was one hike between the 2 lodges.

June provided mostly sunny weather with associated cool temperatures, often lowering to single digits Celsius overnight, and for the first week there were several frosts. July gave many foggy, cloudy mornings and evenings without much in the line of precipitation. This helped maintain good water temperatures throughout most days and provided a large number of very comfortable days on the river for fishing. Overall, mosquitoes and black flies were less of a problem with the cooler and/or foggy weather, which was appreciated by most.

Despite a season of many foggy travel days, transfer of guests by helicopter was tremendously smooth and on schedule. There were no overnight delays and all guests met their airline connections and other travel arrangements with no problems. Full credit must be given to our very professional pilots of Canadian Helicopters Ltd., who provided all guests with safe, enjoyable and often quite entertaining flights to and from the lodges. As usual, there were the regular sightings of moose, caribou and bear en route.

We continue to be especially proud of the high number of novice anglers that continue to be successfully introduced to fly fishing at our lodges. We also continued our hosting of all ladies groups this summer, as well as a number of couples. Once again, overall guest satisfaction in the wilderness fly fishing experience we provide was extremely high, with a large majority of this year’s clients already reserved for their 2004 Grey River fishing. This is no small testament to the quality of fly fishing experience we provide. The fact that we have continued to maintain the same experienced and friendly staff throughout most of our existence has been a large factor in this regard.

Also, check in at  Photo Gallery for a pictorial sample of some of our fly fishing action or at 2002 Season Summary for details of that summer's fly fishing story.

If you have not already made your Grey River reservation, please do not hesitate to get in touch at your earliest convenience. A number of excellent openings are still available for our 2004 Atlantic salmon fly fishing season, but it is expected to be full long before opening day.

Come fish with us soon.

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Last modified: 01/11/05