Two Sore Backs

We had pre-booked an Airbnb near Inverness, thinking we would stay there while golfing. As it turned out, we played golf a bit earlier than planned and stayed at the resort, but we decided to keep the reservation anyway. There’s lots to explore near Inverness.

With Val’s encouragement, I reached out to a few guides in the area and was lucky to get one, on very short notice, for a day on the Margaree River.

The Margaree is a world-class Atlantic salmon river. It’s fly fishing only, barbless hooks, and catch and release – perfect.

Sean, who is in the photo below, is recently retired from the Halifax police force and lives in Pictou Landing, 200k from Inverness. He was on the road by 3:00 am to pick me up that morning.

Sean had advised it was getting late in the season for the summer run, fishing would be tough, and had given me the option of trying for speckled and brown trout on lighter tackle. I decided to focus on salmon

I learned the wet and dry fly techniques that locals use, the flies they prefer, and Sean knew the access to all of the upper river pools where we were likely to find salmon.

We skipped a couple of the very popular pools close to the road, which already has fishers on them, opting for ones that you need to hike into.

The fishing was slow, as expected. I caught a small speckled trout ( we call them brook trout in the west) but it was a while before I saw a salmon.

It was fun though. I was learning a lot, working on my rusty casting, the river was amazing with beautiful pools and plenty of room to back cast, and we were in the Margaree Valley which is just stunning. Imagine fishing here in October, when the fall colours are at their peak!

After checking out a few pools down river, we moved up to Tent Pool.

We were the only ones there, so I was able to move slowly down river, covering all the water. There were a series of rocks close to the far bank, the last of which was sticking above the surface. It looked like the perfect spot for salmon to rest, away from the current.

Sean laughed at all of my false casting, but I wanted to get the fly to what I thought was the right spot.

The fly I was using was really simple – called a Green Slime. Basically a green fly with green maribou tail. I was using a floating line with a sinking leader, and the technique is to cast downstream at 45 degrees, let out some line to let the fly drift and sink, mend it and then let it swing as the current pulls the line tight.

I got lucky and it all worked out. Just as the fly started to swing, fish on!

It’s too bad we didn’t get more of it on video. It was about 15 lbs. and it jumped twice. I got it up to the leader, but then it made a slow run across the pool (they are impossible to stop on this light tackle), turned around a rock, went downstream, and then broke off. Damn.

As we left the pool, another guide and his two clients were arriving to try their luck. The guide’s name is Robert Chaisson and he’s a local legend. For those interested, here is a great video about Robert and the Margaree. It was cool to get Robert’s congratulations, even though I hadn’t landed the fish.

We moved on to a few more pools. They were gorgeous, but no luck.

And this was the last pool of the day, accessed from Sean’s friend’s property. Amazing.

My day on the Margaree was awesome. Sean was a fantastic guide, it renewed my enthusiasm for fly fishing, and I can hardly wait to get out on the rivers near Vancouver!

Combine a day or two on the Margaree with a few rounds of golf at Cabot, and you have the trip of a lifetime.