Good News for the Medway!

It's hard to grasp the richness of the Medway in bygone times. Early settlers journeyed on foot, by oxen, or by canoe. They traveled on paths made by native people who knew the land and the water, and where to find food. The first flyfishers found the river thick with life. During its heyday, the Medway was one of the finest Atlantic Salmon destinations in Nova Scotia, and one of the first of Canada's great rivers to be introduced to American flyfishers.

Nels Vaughan, Irving Hirtle, and Dave McKinnon were guides when Laurie Mack operated his salmon and moose-hunting camps on the Medway. They fished 'High Rock' and 'The Rolls', 'Sunken Pool' and 'The Gravel Bar' and knew every pool from Mill Village to Greenfield. Sultan of Swat - Babe Ruth, and American writer, Zane Grey, were among the well-heeled who came from south of the 49 to enjoy the sport.

"Salmon fishing - a despicable habit, afflicting those who are unencumbered by the necessity for work and burdened by the virtue of patience." - Random Phrump

The lore of salmon-fishing is a tradition that has been preserved through story-telling. Sadly, 1997 was the last year that flyfishing for salmon was permitted on the Medway River. I have been mourning the loss ever since - not so much the loss of angling opportunity as the virtual extinction of a vibrant local community and significant body of knowledge gained through human experience.

The Liverpool Advance (December 26, 2007) reported that 10,000 sea-run Speckled Trout, 7,000 Atlantic Salmon parr, and 270 sexually-mature gene bank salmon were recently released into the Medway River according to Medway River Salmon Association President, Darrell Tingley. The conservation group has reached agreements with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, McGowan Lake Fish Hatchery, and the Coldbrook Biodiversity Facility that aim to restore and protect traditional fish populations in the Medway. Tingley says they plan to begin liming the Medway in 2008 to offset low pH conditions caused by acid rain. Local residents are quietly optimistic that some day a Catch & Release season for Atlantic Salmon will be the result. Here's to that, my friends!
Good Luck and Good Fishin'!
-Random Phrump

Photo by W. R. MacAskill, "Medway River 1933" Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management.