47^ Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



through a deep gorge, provides angling from the time the fish start to wander in the 

 adjacent sea, from June onwards through the summer and fall. But the Southwest 

 Margaree, which arises from the large shallow Lake Ainslie in relatively low country, 

 has warm water and, in contrast to the Northeast Margaree, is populated by alewives, 

 eels, and white perch; here Atlantic Salmon sometimes provide a little angling at the 

 beginning of the season; otherwise they are not seen ascending the river until the water 

 becomes cool in the fall, toward spawning time. 



It has long been known that runs of certain stream fishes are more or less definitely 

 associated with floods, freshets, or spates; sometimes artificial freshets have been used 

 to bring Atlantic Salmon up from the sea. For example, in 1888, in the Grimersta 

 River, Scotland, water from Loch Langabaht was held by a six-foot dam at the mouth 

 of the lowest of a series of four lochs. For a long time the fish had gathered at the head 

 of tide (in a very dry season), and when the dam was broken they swarmed up the 

 river (2y). In the Moser River (Nova Scotia), during the dry summer of 1942, sharp 

 but not large artificial freshets brought double the expected number of Atlantic Salmon 

 and brook trout from the sea (jO: 257). Artificial freshets,* however, have not been 

 used regularly, for this procedure is rarely feasible. 



The spring runs in the Maritime Provinces of Canada are usually at their height 

 in June.' Most of the rivers tributary to the Bay of Chaleur and around the Gaspe 

 Peninsula have early runs, as do those on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, al- 

 though the runs there are slightly later.^" The Miramichi in central New Brunswick 

 "has both early and late runs. The small rivers of the coast of eastern New Brunswick, 

 the Nova Scotia rivers of the Northumberland Straits and the rivers of Prince Edward 

 Island have fall runs only" {i^: 225-230). In the Koksoak River, tributary to Ungava 

 Bay, northern Quebec, a summer river run has been reported as occurring sometime 

 between July 25 and the end of August, and sometimes there is a late run in September 

 (J9). At or near their northern limit in the western Atlantic, they enter a river near 

 Kapisigdlit (inner Godthaab Fjord) in southwestern Greenland in both July and Oc- 

 tober (5j). In England, gravid females may ascend rivers from late autumn until 

 after Christmas, and some of them may remain in ice-free rivers for 12 months or 

 more prior to spawning {l2l\ 122). 



The distance they run upstream to spawn depends on a number of factors such 

 as the length of the river, presence of insurmountable falls and man-made obstructions 

 (p. 485), available spawning sites, etc. The fish that enter the river the earliest usually 

 go the farthest upstream before spawning. In large rivers, as in the St. John system, 

 this may mean an upstream run of more than 200 miles and of many months spent in 

 fresh water before spawning. Fish entering later travel lesser distances, and very late 



8. Hayes {56) has discussed the results of observations and experiments on artificial freshets and other factors as con- 

 trolling the ascent and populations of Atlantic Salmon in the La Have R., Nova Scotia. 



9. It has been reported that, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when Atlantic Salmon were still running 

 in the Connecticut River, the river migration began about April i and was at its height in May, though occa- 

 sional fish were taken as early as mid-January {23). 



10. The early-run fish are much more desirable for the angler than the late-run fish, both because they rise more 

 freely to the fly and because they are much more desirable on the table. 



