Restigouche River - Salmon Fishing

Salmon Fishing

The river is world-renowned for its Atlantic Salmon fishing. Fly fishing/angling has become a significant source of revenue for many outfitters in the region and a 55 kilometre stretch of the Restigouche has been designated part of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System as a result.

For more than 100 years, the world's wealthiest people have come to enjoy the river's tranquil beauty and perfect canoeing conditions to fish for salmon. Among the VIPs who have been guests at the river's fishing lodges include the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, Hubert Humphrey, Ted Williams, Lord Beaverbrook, Bing Crosby, Louis St. Laurent, Maurice Richard, Norman Schwarzkopf, George H. W. Bush, and Brian Mulroney, to name but a few.

Part of the draw for salmon fishing on rivers in New Brunswick and Quebec is its exclusivity - the provincial government's Department of Natural Resources auctions fishing leases for physical sections of the river and riverbed to the highest bidder. Many private fishing lodges have been established on the Restigouche which are owned and operated by major corporations and the wealthy. Such leases are time-limited and, for the best fishing pools, can reportedly run into the millions of dollars for fishing rights lasting for only a few years. Leaseholders must obey all provincial conservation laws by hiring their own fish wardens to patrol each leased section of the river and all persons sanctioned by a particular leaseholder to fish in a lease must hold a provincial angling license. The general public are permitted a right of navigation on the river, as per Canada's Navigable Waters Protection Act, however they are not permitted to drop anchor in, or cause any disturbance to the river bottom, and absolutely not permitted to fish in a particular lease area.

New Brunswick's wealthy Irving family has owned a lodge for many years at one of the best fishing holes on the river - the confluence of the Kedgwick with the Restigouche - and the Government of New Brunswick also maintains a "rustic" lodge in nearby Larry's Gulch which has operated as an exclusive resort/get away for politicians and friends of the government in office. William Kissam Vanderbilt enjoyed fishing on the river so much that he had a private fishing lodge built, hiring the famous New York City architect Stanford White to design and oversee construction of the property called Kedgwick Lodge and fuelling the love affair of corporate America with the Restigouche.

The Canadian business elite outside of the Maritimes haven't been nearly as enamoured with the river as Americans, although several prominent Toronto families including the Eatons did have a presence. This is largely due to geography where Boston, New York and Philadelphia were relatively close helping make the region a small summer colony.