Year Ending 2024 Miramichi Salmon Blog

Fishing Friends –

I’m going to illustrate this blog post with some photos from 2024 that may have no relationship at all to the nearby text – but hopefully you’ll enjoy them! 

Happy Holidays!  Thank you very much for reading my Miramichi Salmon Blog, and most recently for supporting the auctions that fund the conservation efforts on the Miramichi.  I know that many of you have sent the two letters that Save Miramichi Salmon suggested to various Canadian officials both within DFO and in elected office.  I have sent the same letters myself.

With all the bad news that comes our way regarding salmon, I do want to share with you some positive information. 

The Canadian directors of Save Miramichi Salmon: attorney Alex Mills who working with the Miramichi Salmon Association was one of the driving forces to end the netting of salmon on the Miramichi 40 years ago, Karl Wilson, the current leadership of Wilson’s On the Miramichi’s more than 150 year history, and John Bagnall the fishery scientist who is also the Conservation Committee Chairman for the New Brunswick Salmon Council have held meetings with First Nations and with various Miramichi Valley stakeholders.  These meetings have been successful, and our coalition is building.   Everyone embraces SAS’s main mission, which is simply to reverse the downward trend in the population of Miramichi salmon and restore the population to the levels of the early 2000s or greater.

As we have told DFO, the first and most absolutely critical action needed is the reduction of the striped bass population of the Miramichi to 100,000 spawners.  100,000 is far above the average population of the last 100 plus years, and that population of spawners will still provide an excellent striper fishery.  At the same time, our scientists believe that at this level of striped bass spawners, and with some initial hatchery supplementation, the Miramichi salmon population can maintain itself at levels similar to what we saw in the early 2000s.

Just before Christmas we received official notice from the Minister of DFO through the Regional Director of DFO in Moncton that they are “…taking the issue very seriously…” and want to communicate more in the middle or latter part of January. 

We have responded to them that our lawsuit will be filed as planned, but that of course we can pause or withdraw it if we feel that the proper progress and guarantees are in place.

We are not being ignored!  Your letters are being heard and listened to.  We have received lots of encouraging correspondence from people within the government, and I know that they are very interested in what we have to say.  How in the name of god could they not be?  Who in their right mind wants to see the iconic Miramichi salmon driven into oblivion when it is totally avoidable?

So please bear with us.  There will be some bumps in the road yet, but I believe that we are on the right track which is to bring into the public eye the atrocious management practices that Miramichi salmon have had to endure, and to lay out a plan for recovery.  The old philosophy that “the truth will prevail” is on our side, and we will continue to fight for Miramichi salmon.

Let’s talk about a few things that are a bit more fun.  My Christmas present to myself this year was a 4-weight trout Spey outfit.  I’ve toyed with the idea for a couple of years, but one of my goals it to try and simplify my life.  I’d rather spend my time fishing than inventorying tackle – much as I like fishing equipment – but this may really fill a niche.  When I look back on 2024 one of my best times afield was a trout trip in mid-May to the Cains.  Quite a bit of that was fishing much the way we do for salmon, walking along the shoreline and fishing the structures in a run of water with streamers.  Some of the streamers I’ve found most effective are larger and constructed with highly mobile material like zonker strips and webby soft hackle.  They aren’t always the easiest to cast on a 4 or 5-weight single hander, especially with a sink tip line.  I’m hoping the small Spey outfit will help me cover the water more effectively.

Speaking of making plans for 2025 fishing, I’m happy to say that my season is shaping up.  I’ve rebooked for both the Naver and the Helmsdale in Northern Scotland for the second week of March and first week of April respectively.  Both rivers had good years in 2024.  I’m looking forward to those trips as much as my first ones I made there almost 20 years ago.  Last year I caught just one bright salmon on each trip.  None-the-less, I thought of them as successful.  Those beautiful fish taken so early in the season were a completely ample reward, though I certainly wouldn’t mind a couple more.  I had four springers one week on the Naver a few years back, and I’d love to see that again.

Many of the rivers in Scotland had an up year last year, and the populations in many of their rivers boast salmon counts that have been quite consistent over the last 20 years.  Diligent management and hatchery supplementation are their secrets.  There are lessons to be learned from their experiences.  I’m going to paste in here for you the recent e-mail written on behalf of Save Miramichi Salmon by Sir Michael Wigan, River Manager of the Helmsdale River on the northeast coast of Scotland.

******************************

From: Michael Wigan <mwigan@borrobol.co.uk>

Subject: Save Miramichi Salmon, Letter in Support from Michael Wigan, fishery manager River Helmsdale Scotland, author of The Salmon (Harper Collins 2013).

Date: 26 December 2024 at 17:52:26 GMT

To: DFO.Minister-Ministre.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Cc: jake.stewart@parl.gc.ca

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is written in support of the case made by Save Miramichi Salmon.

I am the salmon fishery manager for the River Helmsdale in northern Scotland, in post for 25 years.  We have had similar issues and my experience may help in your policy-making.

Research in Scottish rivers demonstrated conclusively that sawbill ducks — goosanders and mergansers — are specialized feeders for downstream swimming smolts in May, and on young salmon at any time of year. Sawbill ducks were predating up to 70 per cent of all smolt migration.

Our own government in Scotland has jurisdiction on this matter rather than Westminster.  For several years and again for 2025 I have obtained a license to control sawbill ducks. The number of birds is specified and the license carries significant obligations.  For example, the river workers must conduct sawbill counts over the whole mainstream river 3 times in winter.  All details are reported, such as male/female, upstream flying or downstream, OS refs etc.

This control has reduced predation on young salmon.  The salmon migration on the River Helmsdale is stable and the government has awarded the river Conservation Grade 1 status which is held by only 26 other rivers.

It is analogous to your issues with striped bass. They too were threatened by population collapse over 25 years ago.  The resuscitation of the species was achieved in both USA and Canada by tough legislation regarding fishing effort.  It was a striking conservation success and noted by conservation bodies internationally.  Bass have expanded their territory, even thriving from relocation onto the Canadian Pacific coast, which was a new coastline for them.

Now they themselves are a threat to Atlantic salmon which subsist in far smaller numbers and deserve protection in balance.

I have fished in the sea for striped bass off Massachusetts and am familiar with them.  Several times I have fished for salmon on the Miramichi, which is a fine river and a national treasure. On the Miramichi I found abundant local knowledge and a passion for the local salmon stock. An entire culture was formed about this fish and angling for it.

Atlantic salmon is a keynote species worldwide.  Its population decline is well-attested.  As a highly migratory species Atlantic salmon is especially vulnerable.  It is affected by many threats including IUU (International Unregulated and Unreported) fisheries as identified by FAO and others.

Any questions about salmon protection in Scotland I am happy to answer.

Yours sincerely

Michael Wigan

Borrobol, Kinbrace,
Sutherland
Scotland KW11 6UB

******************************

I’ll be spring fishing on the Miramichi in April, trout fishing on the Cains in May and putting forth my usual June and early July efforts at Campbell’s on the SWM.  At the Saint John MSA dinner I purchased 3 days on the Kedgwick River in northern New Brunswick.  I made that trip about 15 years ago and loved it.

I was invited to join a group the third week in August on the Whale River in New Quebec, and I’m anxious to fish there.  I have fished the other great Ungava Bay River the George, and I also fished for char and sea run brookies years ago on the Tunalik River which lies between them.   Somewhere between the end of the early Miramichi fishing and the trip to the Whale I’m also hoping to run up to Newfoundland for a few days on the Serpentine.

When we get to September my thoughts are all on the Miramichi and the Cains.  It was tough last fall, there just weren’t a lot of fish there, especially compared to what we had just a few years ago, or for that matter even the year before.  None-the-less, I loved every minute of it, and the line came tight often enough to give me hope on every cast.

So, what are the prospects for 2025 salmon fishing on the Miramichi?  We can’t honestly expect what we had in the early 2000s.  Grilse runs in 2024 were particularly poor, and conventional wisdom is that doesn’t bode well for 2 MSW

returns the next year, though I do know that sometimes that prediction is inaccurate.  Good 2 MSW runs have been known to follow poor grilse years.  Most rivers in Atlantic Canada and Newfoundland had a down year in 2024.  The exceptions were the rivers in the north of Labrador and Ungava Bay.   Clearly there were adverse conditions for the salmon during their sea migration.  Exactly what those were, though, no one seems to really know.  Theories range from overharvest of feed – especially capelin – by commercial fisheries to illegal and unreported commercial fishing activities on the salmon themselves.  We’ll just have to hope that the winter of 2025 is better for our favorite fish.

On the positive side, First Nations did hit their 50K fish quota in the Miramichi in 2024.  That is double what they have caught in any other year.  In 2025 the quota will be at least 175K bass and DFO has removed the upper slot limit for this FN commercial fishery.  I don’t know what steps may be taken to actually catch all those fish, but people are working on solutions.  The gasperaux trap nets could catch them all quite easily.  They already do, they just have to let them go.  Hopefully a deal will be struck to let them fish towards the expanded FN quota.  It would be good for everyone and all the river’s other fish including gasperaux, sea run brook trout, shad and smelts.

Coming up on Feb. 22, 2025 is the Miramichi Salmon Association US Winter Event “An Evening with the Masters.”  If you have ever thought about coming to one of these, this is the year.  We are honoring a couple of the MSA’s best long-term supporters, artists John Swan and Luther Hall.  Both these guys are also live-wires and dedicated salmon fishers.  There will be a special reception room set up beginning at 5:00 open to all event attendees where John and Luther will show some of their special salmon art.  The reception will be followed by cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, silent auction, live auction and dinner.

In addition to the artists Maine’s Bill Green, host for many years of the very popular Bill Green’s Maine will be our auctioneer.  Bill will perform the auction and circulate through the event.  It will be a great time.

The money we raise this winter will all go to supporting Atlantic salmon conservation.  Some goes to the grass roots field work of the MSA – cold water habitat, parr and smolt counting, beaver dam breaching etc.  Other funds go towards supporting the MSA’s hatchery and modernizing the facility for the important rebuilding work that we are already undertaking.  There is no shortage of need!

If you’ve been thinking of coming, please do it, we need you.  If you are a regular supporter and are definitely coming why not bring another couple along or even buy a table.

If you are in Canada, come on down, join us and warm up a degree or two on the south coast of Maine…  Portland has an unbelievable assortment of hotels for every taste and budget.  Make a long weekend of it.  We’d love to see you.

Get your tickets here: https://miramichisalmon.ca/us-event/.

Thanks for reading.  Brad Burns