page_title: Mitis River
section_title: Fishing
hierarchical_section_title: Mitis River / Fishing
caption_attribution_description: English: Plan of Metis River, showing the pools and pockets Français&#160;: Plan de la rivière Mitis, aquarelle, encre de chine, papier «&#160;La rivière Mitis a un débit assez rapide et est peu profonde. Elle prend sa source dans le lac Mitis, situé à 55 km au sud. La rivière s’alimente des ruisseaux et des rivières qu’elle croise dans son écoulement vers le nord pour rejoindre le fleuve Saint-Laurent. Lorsque le saumon de l’Atlantique remonte les rivières, il s’arrête dans les fosses formées par les courants, les rochers et les pierres pour se reposer. C’est dans ces endroits que le pêcheur a le plus de chances de prendre un saumon à la mouche. Avant la construction des barrages hydroélectriques, Mitis-1 et Mitis-2, le saumon avait un territoire de fraie assez court, sur 4 km depuis l’embouchure de la rivière jusqu’aux chutes. La plupart des fosses se trouvaient au milieu de la rivière, là où elle était plus profonde. Lady Aileen Roberts a réalisé cette carte, dessinée à la main, illustrant les fosses qui ont été baptisées pendant deux générations. Généralement, les fosses et les entre-fosses prennent le nom du pêcheur le plus régulier, le plus prospère ou de ses conditions géographiques notables&#160;: Mill Pool (près de l’endroit où se trouvait le moulin à farine seigneurial), Fosse Sir Donald (nommée pour Sir Donald Smith), Fosse Mme Reford (nommée pour Elsie Reford), Fosse du Capitaine (origine inconnue), Fosse Farrer No 1 (nommée pour Gaspard Farrer, avocat et conseiller en investissement de George Stephen, à la Baring Brothers de Londres), entre-fosse Mount Stephen, entre-fosse Miss Scott (identité mystère), Fosse du Rock, Fosse du Pont (près du pont de la rivière Mitis).&#160;»
context_page_description: The Mitis River is a salmon river in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada. It flows to the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River.
  There are two hydroelectric dams on the river at a point where a waterfall used to prevent salmon from going further upstream. A system to capture and transport salmon upstream was installed in 1965, and the river now has a healthy salmon population along its whole length.
context_section_description: The river is one of 22 salmon rivers in the Gaspé Peninsula.
  Historians think that the Malécites / Maliseet Indians fished for eel and salmon at the mouth of the river, although they may not have had permanent villages.
  Fish are numerous, and include Atlantic salmon  (Salmo salar), longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae), Eastern blacknose dace (Rhinichthys atratulus), slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus), American eel (Anguilla rostrata) and  brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis).George Stephen, co-founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway, established the first fishing camp on the river in 1886.
  His niece Elsie Reford converted the camp into the Jardins de Métis.
  At that time salmon could only reach 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) upstream, where they were stopped by a 35 metres (115 ft) waterfall.
  Salmon were also affected until 1979 by logs being floated downstream.
  The river was opened to the public for salmon fishing in 1977.
  In 1993 it became a ZEC (zone d'exploitation contrôlée: controlled use zone), Zec de la Rivière-Mitis, managed by the Mitis River Sport Fishing Management Corporation.
  There are three fishing areas, one private and the other two open to the public, with 33 pools, mostly fished with waders.
  The ZEC de la rivière Mitis covers about 20 kilometres (12 mi) of the river.
  Lake Mitis has a large population of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush).
  Brook trout is found in Lake Mitis and in several water bodies and streams in the region.
  In May 2015 the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks of Quebec announced a sport fishing catch-and-release program for large salmon on sixteen of Quebec's 118 salmon rivers.
  These were the Mitis, Laval, Pigou, Bouleau, aux Rochers, Jupitagon, Magpie, Saint-Jean, Corneille, Piashti, Watshishou, Little Watshishou, Nabisipi, Aguanish and Natashquan rivers.
  The Quebec Atlantic Salmon Federation said that the measures did not go nearly far enough in protecting salmon for future generations.
  In view of the rapidly declining Atlantic salmon population catch-and-release should have been implemented on all rivers apart from northern Quebec.
caption: Map of the lower section of the river showing the pools and pockets (1923)
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