Rocky Bay Part X: The Final Tally

Well, I've written more Rocky Bay posts than Sylvester Stallone made Rocky movies. I guess I've milked it for all it's worth. Just a few final thoughts on the experience...

When I look back on the salmon fishing trips I've had over the last 20 years, Rocky Bay has to be one of the most memorable - not so much in terms of numbers of fish caught, but more for the intangible qualities that stay with you for a lifetime.

I'm talking about the obstacles we faced and overcame. We pushed ourselves to the limit every day, and got great satisfaction from knowing that it was our efforts and our attitudes that influenced the outcome more than the circumstances we faced.

All told, we tagged seven grilse, released eight, and lost another four, in our week on the Old Fort. That's a pretty good success rate on any river. I enjoyed not having a guide, and I enjoyed sharing the experience with my brother, Steve.

The Bilodeau Brothers have made some improvements to the camp at Rocky Bay in the years since we were there. They offer a number of packages for salmon and trout anglers. Check them out at Napetipi River Outfitters.

Good Luck and Good Fishin'!

RP

Photo by Random Phrump: Steve at Third Pool, Old Fort River, Quebec.

Rocky Bay Part V: Resolve

We were spending the morning at the camp in Rocky Bay. Steve cooked pork chops and rice, and minestrone soup. I boiled potatoes, kept the stove going, split and stacked wood. All the while, we kept one ear cocked for the sound of an outboard motor. Surely one of the Bilodeau boys would soon arrive with a battery for the CB radio.

I went to my room to lie down, and slept like a stone. When I awoke, the rain had let up, and it was mid-afternoon. No one had come to fix the radio or the outboards, but with a good meal and a few hours rest under my belt, our situation didn't seem so bad. Staring at the ceiling, I thought, "We're on our own here. This is what we signed up for. We're not going to spend the week in camp. We came here to fish, not to whine about our problems!"

It was time to have a go at fixing the motors. In the late afternoon, we took the boat to the mouth of the river, moored it, and carried a set of wrenches up to First Pool. We decided to concentrate on the 20 HP Johnson with its starter cord that would not rewind. Taking off the starter assembly, we found that the coil spring had come off the peg that holds it. Working together, Steve and I were able to get it securely back in place. A few pulls later, she roared to life. We let it idle for a while, stopped and started it a few times. It seemed to work perfectly. We were truly happy to have solved a huge problem! Tomorrow, we should be able to reach Third Pool and do some serious salmon fishing. Steve might even catch one!

Good Luck and Good Fishin'!

RP

Photo by Steve Dobson: The Camp at Rocky Bay

Rocky Bay - Part I: The Camp

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."
"Oh, yeah," said another, "that two-way radio in the camp doesn't work either - I think it's the battery."

The Camp

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"