A half-liter of pure bottled water - that's what Steve was stewing about. Or was it the fact that I'd been having a successful Atlantic Salmon fishing trip, and my brother had yet to land a fish? Actually, I was pretty sure that was it - I didn't find out about the water until later...
We had signed up for some "roughing it" in North Shore, Quebec - a week of Atlantic Salmon fishing on the Old Fort River, without a guide. The Bilodeau brothers had acquired a lobster fisherman's summer camp on Rocky Bay and were offering reduced rates to anglers who didn't mind a little work mixed in with their fishing. They preferred to book parties of four, but because we were able to confirm at the last minute, Steve and I ended up with the whole place to ourselves.
There is no road to Rocky Bay. A 45-minute boat ride in the fog, brought us to the camp, where four anglers were packing to leave. They had not had much success with the salmon, and blamed it on the water being too high. Three days of steady rain had put the river up in the woods. They amused themselves by catching sea trout at the mouth of the river and drinking a bit of rum and whiskey - a lot of rum and whiskey, judging by the empties they left behind. They also left a liter of bottled water. It was only half-full, but I stashed it in my duffel bag next to a bottle of single malt scotch that I had brought to celebrate our angling prowess, or drown our sorrows, as time would tell.
Dwight and Jason Bilodeau had no time to show us the boats or the pools. They still had to pick up four anglers on the Napetipi River, and get them to the airport at Blanc-Sablon in time to catch their flight. Someone would stop in later that day to "show us the ropes", they assured us.
"Oh, by the way," one of the departing foursome mentioned, "there's no motor on the boat at Second Pool. We left it on the riverbank - we couldn't get it to go."The Camp
"Oh, yeah," said another, "that two-way radio in the camp doesn't work either - I think it's the battery."
In Baie des Roches, where Jacques Cartier landed during his exploration of the "new world", were seven buildings - each one shimmed and blocked up on the granite boulders. They were clustered on the hillside with rocky, sometimes steep, passages between them, and planks laid down across the wet spots. The main building, plastered with brick-red asphalt roofing on the exterior, was a one-story dwelling with wood floors and walls. A small deck ran across the front. Through a low door, there was a kitchen, three small bedrooms, a sitting room and an indoor toilet. There was an old wood-fired kitchen range and a tabletop propane stove with two burners - only the left one worked. Outside, a water hose constantly dripped brown water from a spring somewhere in the rocky hills above the camp.
More of our Atlantic Salmon adventures in North Shore, Quebec to follow...
Good Luck and Good Fishin'
RP
Photo by Steve Dobson: "The Camp at Rocky Bay"
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