Rivernotes, Uncategorized
Rivernotes July 9, 2026
Phil Monahan
July 9, 2026
Editor's Note
by Phil Monahan
Welcome back to Rivernotes, our weekly roundup of news and information from around the world of Atlantic salmon—Québec, Atlantic Canada, and Maine.
Reminder: The row of buttons you see above will help you find exactly what you're looking for. Simply click a button and you'll be whisked directly to the section you want to read.
This week, we've got some excellent fishing reports mixed with tales of high or warming water, news about conservation efforts in several provinces, and some very cool research gadgetry.
The Inaugural Orri Awards
Last fall, the North Atlantic Salmon Fund UK (NASF UK) announced the first recipients of its Orri Award, a community-based salmon conservation grant launched in autumn 2025. Named for the founder of NASF, the late Orri Vigfússon, the award recognises local initiatives combining sound conservation practice with community engagement.
At a ceremony last month, the inaugural winners of the award—Ribble Rivers Trust and River Cree Hatchery & Habitat Trust—received £10,000 in match funding to support practical river restoration projects.
"The Orri Award fills an important funding gap for small organizations," said Murdo Crosbie of the River Cree Hatchery & Habitat Trust.
Applications for next year's awards will open this autumn.
Dry-Fly Leaper
Everybody loves a surface eat, and Cameron Costello from Onemorecast Outfitting in Corner Brook, NL, posted this cool, short video last Friday. I love the way the fish attacks the fly.
Angling Reports
We received several great photos and stories from around the region this week. It seems that wherever there was cool, wadable water, anglers were finding good fish.
ASF Anglers on the Restigouche
ASF president Nathan Wilbur has been on the Restigouche with a few directors this week. He shared a corker of a fish that ASF Canada director Jim Lawley caught on a dry fly Monday morning. "I was with him," Nathan wrote, "and what an incredible experience to see such a fish."
The next day, ASF Canada Director Rachel Baxter joined the club by landing a gorgeous salmon, as well.
Nova Scotia
Advocacy
Last week, Nova Scotia Program Director Matt Russell appeared on the CBC News program The National to voice concerns regarding the proposal of two power plants in the headwaters of the East and West Rivers in Pictou County. This is the continuation of long-standing opposition from ASF in support of our local affiliate, the Pictou County Rivers Association. (Matt appears at about 3:04 in the video below.)
Angling Forecast
This past week has been a hot one, sending many anglers to the beach to cool off rather than to rivers in search of salmon. Nonetheless, Cape Breton's salmon rivers have remained busy. Fortunately, the forecast for the coming days suggests cooler temperatures and some much-needed rain. That should provide welcome relief for the rivers, where water temperatures have been climbing.
Anglers continue to report a good number of fish throughout the river systems, with fish well distributed across much of their range. That said, many have also noted that getting salmon to take has been a challenge. While catch rates may have slowed during the recent stretch of hot weather, the improving conditions ahead should give both fish and anglers a boost. Here's hoping the forecast delivers. Best of luck and tight lines to those fortunate enough to get out on the water.
Québec
Un printemps tardif
Les premières données de comptage aux passes migratoires du Québec reflètent un début de montaison plus lent qu'à l'habitude : au 1er juillet, 187 saumons avaient été dénombrés à la Mitis, 110 à la Matane, alors que la Jacques-Cartier, la Rimouski et la rivière à Mars comptaient chacune une trentaine de saumons. La Jacques-Cartier a toutefois connu un premier pic de montaison cette semaine, permettant aux biologistes de la Corporation du bassin de la Jacques-Cartier (CBJC) d'implanter les premiers émetteurs acoustiques chez des saumons adultes. Ces suivis permettront de mieux comprendre leurs déplacements et d'orienter les efforts de conservation.
Belles histoires à raconter
Pendant ce temps, plusieurs pêcheurs profitent déjà de belles conditions sur certaines rivières de la Gaspésie. Cette semaine, Amélie Thériault arborait fièrement sa toute nouvelle casquette de l'Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) lorsqu'elle a remis à l'eau trois saumons en trois jours sur la rivière Bonaventure, dont deux le même matin. Pour elle, toutefois, les vraies réussites ne se comptent pas seulement en saumons.
« J'aime autant voir quelqu'un vivre son premier saumon que d'en prendre un moi-même. Ce qui me rend le plus heureuse, c'est de transmettre cette passion et le respect de la rivière à mes enfants et à mes amis. »
Chaque été, la famille loue un chalet à Bonaventure, où les vacances s'organisent naturellement autour de la rivière. Son père a transmis à Amélie l'amour du saumon il y a plusieurs années. Aujourd'hui, c'est à son tour d'assurer la relève. Son conjoint a découvert la pêche grâce à elle, tandis que leurs fils grandissent eux aussi au bord de l'eau, une sortie à la fois. Pêcheuse chevronnée, Amélie pêche presque toujours avec une canne Spey, mais n'hésite pas à sortir sa switch lorsque les conditions s'y prêtent. Quant à sa mouche préférée? Sa réponse fait sourire : « La meilleure mouche, c'est celle qui est dans l'eau! »
Au fil des ans, son engagement s'est étendu bien au-delà de la rivière. Anciennement administratrice de la Fédération québécoise pour le saumon atlantique (FQSA), elle est aujourd'hui membre du conseil d'administration de la Fondation pour la biodiversité et la faune du Québec (FBFQ), instructrice bénévole en lancer à la mouche et collaboratrice de longue date de l'ASF et de la FQSA, elle consacre une bonne partie de son temps à transmettre les bonnes pratiques de pêche, de remise à l'eau et de conservation des rivières à saumon. Et lorsque les cannes sont rangées pour la journée, les histoires continuent. Autour d'un bon repas, puis d'un feu en soirée, famille, amis et pêcheurs refont la journée, comparent les mouches gagnantes et racontent les combats avec les saumons qui, avec le temps, deviennent toujours un peu plus impressionnants. Pour Amélie, ces moments de partage font tout autant partie de l'expérience que les heures passées sur la rivière.
Québec (English)
Québec Program Director Caroline Côté details the slow arrival of salmon in some rivers and shares some success stories from the Gaspé Peninsula.
A Late Spring
Early fishway counts across Québec suggest a slower-than-usual start to this year's salmon run. As of July 1, just 187 salmon had been counted at the Mitis fishway and 110 at Matane, while the Jacques-Cartier, Rimouski, and Mars rivers had each recorded about 30 salmon. The Jacques-Cartier River, however, experienced its first significant pulse of migrating salmon this week, allowing biologists to surgically implant acoustic transmitters in adult Atlantic salmon. The project will provide valuable information on salmon movements and help guide future conservation efforts.
Great Stories Already Unfolding
Meanwhile, anglers are already enjoying encouraging fishing on several Gaspé rivers. Last week, Amélie Thériault proudly wore her new ASF cap as she released three Atlantic salmon in three days on the Bonaventure River, including two on the same morning. For Thériault, however, success isn't measured only by the number of salmon landed.
"I enjoy watching someone catch their first salmon just as much as catching one myself," she said. "What makes me happiest is passing along that passion—and respect for the river—to my children and my friends."
Every summer, her family rents a cottage in Bonaventure, where life naturally revolves around the river. Her father introduced her to Atlantic salmon years ago, and today she is passing that tradition on. Her husband discovered salmon fishing through her, and their sons are now growing up on the river, one outing at a time. An experienced angler, Thériault fishes primarily with a Spey rod but enjoys using her switch rod whenever conditions are right. Ask her about her favourite fly and she'll answer with a smile: "The best fly is the one that's in the water."
Over the years, Thériault's commitment has extended far beyond the river. A former director of the Fédération québécoise pour le saumon atlantique (FQSA), she now serves on the board of the Fondation pour la biodiversité et la faune du Québec (FBFQ). She is also a volunteer fly-casting instructor and a long-time collaborator with ASF and FQSA, dedicating much of her time to promoting responsible angling, proper catch-and-release techniques, and Atlantic salmon conservation.
And when the rods are put away for the day, the stories continue. Around a good meal, followed by an evening campfire, family, friends, and fellow anglers relive the day's adventures, compare the flies that worked best, and recount battles with salmon that somehow grow a little more impressive with each telling. For Thériault, those shared moments are every bit as important as the hours spent on the river.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador Program Director Kim Thompson details how high water is affecting anglers, and highlights an important smolt-tagging operation underway on Newfoundland's west coast.
Reports of high water levels in western and central Newfoundland are encouraging for salmon populations, but they are creating challenging conditions for anglers.
On June 25, Deer Lake Power opened the spill gates at Main Dam to allow a controlled release of water from the Grand Lake Reservoir. The increased flow over Main Dam, through Junction Brook, and into the Upper Humber River has resulted in elevated water levels throughout the Humber system. These conditions have made angling difficult and, in some areas—particularly near the spillway at the Trans-Canada Highway crossing in Deer Lake—nearly impossible. Anglers are encouraged to monitor updates from the Town of Deer Lake and Voyent Alert for the latest information.
High water levels and slow salmon returns are also being reported in central Newfoundland. Following a recent trip to the Gander River, angler Chris Warford shared the following observations:
"Water is very high and cold, and it's windy—with hopefully better days in the forecast. Not much sign of any fish, but my buddy and I did manage to tag a couple with another in our group who hooked and lost one. Happy to say my fish was the first fish caught at the lodge so far this season."
Meanwhile, angler and guide Cash Canning experienced some success navigating high water on the Exploits River near Bishop's Falls. (See the photos above.)
In the Community
Dr. Craig Purchase of Memorial University of Newfoundland and his collaborators (including Parks Canada) are in the midst of tagging salmon with acoustic transmitters in Gros Morne National Park, for the FCAS funded project “Salmon movement in Western Brook part 1: adult transit through temperature extremes created by the coastal plain and fjord lake.” As part of this work, numerous visitors to the Western Brook picnic area and at the Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station are being educated about salmon biology. Dr. Purchase’s tagging project on the Exploits River has been delayed due to extremely high water, but it should start July 11 if morning temperatures are cool enough.
Check out the slideshow below, featuring images from the tagging work on Western Brook. All photos by Dr. Craig Purchase.
Upcoming Fly-Tying Event
Learn to tie the Dirty Bomber! Join Paul White for a fly-tying workshop for both children and adults. Participants will learn how to tie both a Dirty Bomber and a traditional wet fly.
The workshop will take place on Thursday, July 23 from 1:00–4:00 p.m. at the Torrent River Salmon Interpretation Centre in Hawke's Bay. To register, call 709-248-4066.
New Brunswick
New Brunswick Program Director David Roth finally landed his first salmon of the season, and he shares updates from rivers that are beginning to see warm-water protocols.
Since last week's update, river conditions have changed considerably across New Brunswick. The first prolonged stretch of hot weather, combined with warm overnight temperatures, pushed several rivers toward their thermal limits. As a result, the warm-water protocol was activated on the Miramichi and Nepisiguit rivers toward the end of last week. While these measures can be disappointing for anglers, they play an important role in protecting Atlantic salmon during periods of elevated water temperatures.
Fortunately for me, at this time of year much of my work takes me to the Restigouche watershed, where cooler conditions have kept water temperatures within a favourable range and angling opportunities have continued.
I entered the daily draw for a Crown Reserve stretch on the Lower Kedgwick and was fortunate enough to be selected. ASF's COO, Robert Otto, joined me for the outing. It proved to be another valuable learning experience, as Robert had fished the stretch before and generously shared plenty of advice on reading water, fly presentation, and overall angling technique throughout the day. His pointers certainly paid off, as both of us landed our first salmon of the season during the morning session.
With the ice finally broken, I returned to the Restigouche system for my annual Crown Reserve trip to Crooked Rapids on the Upsalquitch River. The good fortune continued. Within the first few hours, my angling partner, Danny Sears, landed a beautiful salmon, while I was able to bring a grilse to hand. Thanks to the cool nights and the consistent rainfall we have received over the past several weeks, water temperatures remained favourable and river levels continued to provide excellent conditions for both fish and anglers.
The action carried over into the following morning, with the rest of our party quickly reaching their two-salmon catch-and-release limit. As we drifted downstream by canoe to scout water for our final morning, we spotted several dozen salmon holding throughout different parts of the stretch.
Maine
It's the busy season for project managers, and there's an update on a culvert project in the Penobscot watershed. Also, things are slowing down at the fish lifts in the Kennebec and Penobscot watersheds.
In Maine, our project managers are gearing up for the start of construction season and the busy weeks ahead. Last week, project manager Cat Morse and Josie Cornell, this year's Jed Wright Fellow, made a visit to Stinking Brook, a small tributary of the Pleasant River in the Penobscot Watershed. This summer, ASF is constructing a new bridge to go over the brook, where a perched, crumbling, granite box-culvert currently sits. A perched culvert is one in which the outlet sits higher than the downstream water level, creating a waterfall or vertical drop that blocks fish migration.
The Pleasant River provides abundant coldwater habitat for Atlantic salmon, as well as native brook trout and sea-run alewives. The area of the project site falls within critical salmon habitat and is adjacent to documented spawning and rearing locations. The visit allowed ASF to survey the upstream habitat and measure woody debris around the site. Trees felled for the project will be used for erosion control, components of the streambed reconstruction, and adding habitat complexity back to the stream. A little fly-fishing break also provided a great way to survey!
Marine scientists with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, discuss the summer slowdown at the Milford and Lockwood fish lifts.
The Dog Days of summer are upon us. Regretfully, our rivers are warming, too: the Penobscot reached temperatures approaching the mid 80’s on the Fourth of July. Due to the heat, we have suspended handling fish at the lift and have reverted to using video to count fish. As of [Sunday, July 5] the salmon count stands at 1,236.
Meanwhile, 83 Atlantic salmon have been captured to date at the Lockwood fish lift in Waterville, at the first dam on the mainstem Kennebec River. This is almost as many as the last two years combined, and the first salmon showed up on May 15, one of the earliest dates since the fish lift opened in 2006. However, the water temperature is nearing the threshold for discontinuing lifts for Atlantic salmon (24.5℃/76F).
Research
The Research and Environment team details a new water-monitoring system, as well as a trip to Finland to share ASF's work on thermal restoration.
Building Smarter
Water-temperature and water-quality data save salmon—not in the abstract, but in the specific, place-based, decision-ready sense. This data can tell us where coldwater refuges are holding fish through an August heat wave, or data can flag a thermal threshold being crossed in real time. The problem has been getting enough data, in the right places, without exploding our budget.
Graham Chafe, ASF’s Senior Biologist, decided to wade in. What followed was a steep learning curve: a field biologist teaching himself a new discipline. Along the way, ASF leaned into the DIY community, where open-source designs, shared failures, and hard-won lessons cut years off the development curve. Starting from a microcontroller board built with water-quality monitoring in mind, the team added sensors, custom code, and field-ready enclosures at a fraction of what commercial units cost.
The resulting monitors transmit in real time where cellular coverage allows, feeding data directly to a visualization platform accessible from anywhere. Where cell coverage fails, LoRa long-range radio allows stations to pass data relay-style down a river corridor until one hub connects to the internet.
This is the first season of deployment. The goal is a network of stations, updated several times daily, monitoring right in the heart of Atlantic-salmon habitat across the North American range. This is what it looks like when a conservation organization stops waiting for the perfect tool and builds one.
Cold Matters in Finland
When the organizers of this year's International Habitat Restoration Workshop needed someone to lead a session on thermal ecology, they reached out to ASF. That invitation speaks to the value of something we have been building deliberately: a body of work from VP of Research and Environment Valérie Ouellet’s research portfolio that reframes how the restoration community thinks about what salmon actually need from their rivers.
The core argument Val brought to the event in Oulu, Finland, is one we have been making on other rivers, and it is almost uncomfortable in its simplicity. We restore structures such as wood, passage, substrate, and riparian buffers, and we do it well. But we almost never map the thermal habitats. A beautifully restored channel reach means nothing to a salmon holding in a cold-water refuge in August because the mainstem is sitting over 24°C (75°F), and there is no thermally connected corridor to reach spawning habitat. We have been investing in recovery, but there is more to do when it comes to thermal restoration.
Airborne thermal infrared imagery changes that. Thermal imagery reveals coldwater patches, thermal pollution, and where the broken processes are that no model would have predicted. That data drives a prioritization framework about where to protect, enhance, mitigate, that finally puts thermal habitats at the centre of restoration planning. This is the expertise Val went to share with colleagues in Europe because we need healthy and thermally diversified habitats across the range of Atlantic salmon, not just in North America. She came back with a long list of potential collaborators and ideas on how to use thermal imagery for salmon conservation.
