It feels like months ago that I washed down my salt water fly rod for the last time. The leaves fell, the gras was white with the first frost, and I put away my equipment, thinking I wouldn’t see it until the spring. Now, a video has me thinking I was wrong.
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This is the Margaree: a beautiful river, with tremendous character. But unlike other salmon rivers, where the water is private and, as a consequence, often eye-wateringly expensive, the Margaree is accessible – at least in price. Getting there is another matter. Situated in a heart of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, trip is an epic one; 12 hours from Boston, according to Google maps. And that’s without pitstops.
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We had been chasing tarpon — a giant fish constructed of silver dollar scales, dark eyes the size of plums, and a mouth that could swallow a basketball — in the warm, blue waters off Boca Grande. The pass at Boca is renowned tarpon water, and the coast nearly so: it’s here that Americans, who can’t be bothered (or afford) to fly south to South America or elsewhere, go to chase tarpon. All morning, we had been doing just that: driving with our guide up and down the coast in his 18′ center console boat, searching for schools of tarpon. We blazed past islands and boats and fishy looking sections, stopping here and there, with not a single fish in sight.
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River herring, due to their size, are not a sport fish. But striped bass, like so many other predatory fish, feast on herring. Though of greater stature, herring, like menhaden, are the sometimes unrecognized bedrock of the food system. Their dominance is limited to the krill, small crustaceans and small fish on which they feed. Mostly, they provide are the feed to seals, whales, cod, stripers, blues and other migratory species. That’s why it’s a concern that the National Marine Fisheries Council has listed them as a “species of concern.” As their ocean and inland spawning habitat has gradually been eroded over decades, their numbers have plummeted. So they go, so go many fish above them.
Read More >>While neither based nor produced in New England, there’s no doubt that C.F.Burkheimer’s rods are things of beauty — and, that they can huck some serious line. This is a great video, featuring background on the construction of their rods, interviews, and the obligatory slow-mo casting shots.
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