Two weeks ago I met why my usual buddies in Forestville, Quebec for 3 days of fishing the Laval river for sea run brookies. We rented a nice little place in the area view an awesome view on the St-Lawrence river.
Friends of mine had fished the river a couple days before and told me that there was schools of sea run brookies making their way upstream. Late september/early october is when the blue trout, as they are called around here the 10-14 inches immature sea run brookies, enter the river. The biggest trouts tends to be first one to enter the river, then the middle one and at last the blue trout. They are called blue trout because they're very silvery, almost blue when they come from the sea and they eventually get darker color as they spend time in fresh water.
Since I started fishing this river I heard tales of very big sea run brookies getting caught every seasons. While fishing the Laval I sometimes see big fish following my flies without touching it. Well this time it was finally my turn to hook up with one of thoses monsters! The fish slammed hard my montreal whore streamer and I knew instantly that it was the trophy I've been looking for the last 4 years. The fish pulled up a good 5 minutes fight before my buddy netted him. We did the offical measurements, snapped a quick picture and released the wonderful fish back to his element. II turned out that this amazing sea run brookies exceeded my personal best by 2 lbs! Here's my new personal best: 21,5 inches long, 6 lbs!
On the last day I caught another very nice brookie again on a montreal whore streamer. This one was a healty 20 inches, 3,5 lbs.
After that last catch I decided I had caught enough trouts. I stopped fishing, sat down and opened a beer while watching my friends catch trouts!
That weekend was by far the best brookie fishing I have ever done! It was a perfect way to end a wonderful fishing season.
As always, another great trip report! Those are some beautiful fish, all of them. Congrats on your personal best. It looks like beautiful country.
Wow, that is both outstanding fishing and impressive photography...was anyone else fishing the river besides you and your friends?
Sacre bleau, Sebastien - that is one fine outing -those are some beautiful trouts, too! I spent my last nite in Canada last summer at the relais in Forestville...I assume you were fishing in the ZEC de la Riviere-Laval? One of these days I've got to figure out the ZEC thing, and then the salmon thing...thanks for sharing & keep'em coming!
Yes there was others anglers fishing the river. On a week day I would say that there's an average of 2-4 anglers on the river but on the weekend it can be as much as 10-12 persons. Even when there's more people on the river it doesn't bother me too much as there's is so many pools and pocket water to fish that there's room for everyone.
You're right I was fishing in the ZEC de la rivière Laval. The ZEC system is very easy to understand if you want to fish for sea run brookies all you have to do is get there, pay the daily fees and fish! It's a bit more complicated when it comes to Atlantic salmon fishing but every rivers have a non restricted sector where again all you have to do is pay the daily fees and fish.
If you want to try your luck at Atlantic salmon you'll find all you need to know about the rivers and the ZEC system on this website: https://www.saumonquebec.com/en
Thank you, for your response, Northernfly. Also, thank you for the website with the information about the rivers, the species, and the ZEC system...it was all very interesting!
It is not like that area is far, far away from us...according to Map Quest, it is only a little over four hours for me to reach the jump off locations from Quebec City; heck, my wife and I travel for over five hours many weekends every fall just get to our favorite partridge areas around the Allagash, and we often travel over five hours every year to get to our camp on East Grand Lake.
Even though I have successfully fished in Alaska and the Yukon Territory, and have friends who have successfully fished in Labrador, I guess I have always been under the misconception, that stream and river fishing in Quebec, was difficult to do, unless you belonged to a club, had connections, had friends there, or were world class fishermen like Ted Williams or Lee Wolfe...after reading the website you gave us, I now realize it is easier to fish for salmon and trout in Quebec, than I had imagined...so again, thank you, for that information, Northernfly.