PPS Destinations Report
Flowers River
Lodge, Labrador, Canada
Date: July 20 - 27 - 2003
Speaker: Dr. Chris Travis, Laguna Beach, CA, USA
Topic: Current Topics in Prosthetic Dentistry
Reported by Ernst 'Ernie' Schmidt
With a sense of adventure and prospect of catching the prized Atlantic Salmon, eleven of us travelled to the 'edge' of the North American continent. We spent the week in the remote area in a quiet and comfortable fishing lodge on the banks of the Flowers River. Following is the report for our week. If you have any questions, please contact me at pps@shaw.ca.
The official starting and assembly point for our trip was in Goose Bay, Labrador, where we all assembled a day in advance of our intended travel to the Flowers River Lodge. As we were coming in at different times, the lodge operator had planned to shuttle us in groups over the course of a day and half, with the first group going in one or two days earlier. It turned out that this plan backfired, as the weather turned bad at our destination, grounding all small-aircraft flights along on the coast. As a result, we did not get to our destination until the evening of the intended day with two of our group not getting in until the next morning. This was nip and tuck with the weather and had to be accomplished with the aid of a helicopter that was chartered, without compensation, by our group. This caused a bit of hard feelings among the members because it was felt that the operator should have compensated us for the cost of flying us in with the regular aircraft, the twin otter. Like I said, had the original plan worked out, it would have been to our advantage but, alas, the weather did not co-operate. I should point out, that some of us spent up to two days in Goose Bay and easily saw all the sights to be seen. There is very little road available to anyone renting a car, however, our host, Jim Burton, was gracious enough to loan us his vehicle while we toured the area. My big disappointment at Goose Bay/Happy Valley was that the huge military base was very quiet as low-level military flight training was at an all time low.
Once we finally arrived at the lodge
and settled into our comfortable cabins, we quickly realized just how remote the
area is. During our flight, we must have passed over 100kms without any
sign of road or habitation. This is something I have not encountered in
any part of the world with the exception of the high arctic. The weather
began to break and we were treated to the beautiful scenery and panoramic view
from the lodge balcony. Before we left, we had our anticipation levels
whipped into a frenzy with the report of big fish entering the river ahead of
the anticipated time. We were told that we could expect non-stop action
during our week. Our reality check came when half of our group failed to
catch a fish during the entire week. The other half caught one or two
grilse with only three of our group catching salmon. Pete Esposito (the
Mongolian taimen slayer from Mass.) caught a 21 pound salmon on his first day
and Chris Travis (Laguna Beach, CA) hooked and lost all five at the same spot.
The next day, fewer were hooked, however, Maddy Tacy (Sunnyvale, CA) managed to
hook and fight a fish that was estimated at over 30 pounds. In fact, the
guide, Gary, thought it might have been larger than his biggest and might have
been over 40 pounds!!! All those at the run got to see it, however, it did
come loose before it could be landed. After that initial flurry of
activity, we all had tough fishing with one take every two to three 
days.
Hans Schumacher (Heiloo, Holland) did manage to catch two nice salmon towards
the end of the week. I fished hard during my week and was glad at least to
have caught two grilse during that time. I could tell by the expressions
on the guides faces that they were bitterly disappointed for us. In any
event, that's fishing and you can't predict mother nature. The anticipated
catch rate would have been around 60 to 70 fish for that week.
Although, the main species of fish was the Atlantic Salmon, the river also saw migrations of Arctic Char, entering the river to spawn, as well as very small brook trout. Several times during the week, I witnessed a peculiarity among these brook trout that I have never seen with any other fish species. While fishing, small brookies would hold downstream of your waders. If you took your finger and dipped it into the water, these fish would come up and bite the tip of your finger. Not just once, but 10-20 times. One had the impression that they were immensely hungry. In fact, I was told by several of the guides that this allowed Newfoundlanders, working in the woods, to simply grab a meal by doing this and then scooping the fish on shore with the hand. Believe me, it had to be seen to be believed.
One of the amenities of the lodge was that it owned its own Beaver floatplane. This meant that it could be chartered for day trips from the lodge. Several of our members took advantage of this and did day trips to remote Brookie lakes as well as trips to the mouth of the Flowers River. At the coast, Pete and Lance Hazelton (Vancouver, BC) saw icebergs, surfacing whales and experienced good sea-run brookie fishing. These fish were two to four pounds and were eager takers, inhabiting the estuary of the Flowers River. I did not take part in the fly-outs as I had in mind to climb one of the local mountains near the camp. After a brief morning of fishing, Cecil (one of the guides) and I set out to climb the peak behind the lodge. This required navigating a half-kilometre up a small creek immediately behind the camp, crossing a fair bit of swampland and then scrambling up a steep wooded slope where we gained access to the treeless dome after crawling/climbing up the last bit of rocky esker. Once we got there, we were on top of the world!!! There were no trees and the view was fantastic. Where ever I go, I always plan to climb to the top of a mountain and this was up there in scenery and wilderness experience. Cecil shared his knowledge of the natural history of the region including its flora and fauna. We found several caribou 'sheds' (this describes the antlers that the caribous shed during the winter), ptarmigan and unusual rock formations left behind during the last glacial age.
Most evenings during the week, we assembled in the VIP cabin for our daily CE. Chris Travis is a prosthodontist from Laguna Beach, California. We got first-rate information on current topics in dentistry in a very relaxing atmosphere. As Chris is a well known lecturer, he gave us the cutting-edge information we need to help us progress in our daily work.
During the rest of the week, we began to see a few fish trickling in, some of them trophy fish over 20 pounds. On the last day, many of us started to see fish moving and I managed to raise four fish in the last afternoon. Once we were ready to fly back, the weather turned again, leaving us uncertain if we would be able to catch our flights the next day. Three of the group drew straws and flew back in the Beaver while the rest of us waited to see if the weather would co-operate. Eventually, the twin otter arrived right on time and we were able to make it back to Goose Bay for our connections with ample time remaining. I should point out that although the weather patterns were very unusual for that time of year, one of the 'problems' with this venue is geographical. Being only 15kms from the coast, limited visibility is a problem when North Easterly winds bring in the coastal summer fog.
After thinking about the unusual weather patterns and run of fish, I realized that these same patterns seem to have crept into the adventure traveler's itinerary over the past five or so years. Whether you attribute it to global warming or cyclical weather patterns, I have noticed that many of the venues we have visited lately suffer from extremes. Weather it be hotter or colder than expected, drier or wetter than expected, it seems to be getting harder to find conditions just right. Although I was disappointed not to catch more fish, I no longer go on a trip with expectations as I did ten years ago. Maybe this is just me getting older. On top of all this, travel is not what it used to be. Today's traveler has to be prepared to arrive earlier, be delayed by weather and possibly miss his/her return flight. Airline scheduling cannot be relied on either as witnessed by my recent unintended two-day stay in Toronto during my trip back from France (August 14th, 2003).
With regard to the lodge and its operations, I give high marks to the scenery and the wilderness experience. Obviously, there is nothing we can do about the fishing, however, several members grumbled that they felt we were 'sold' a less-than ideal week. The lodge is comfortable and cooking was good (excellent baking!!!). No alcohol was provided at the lodge and it was left to our group to arrange our own. Jim, the lodge operator/owner was very helpful in purchasing the alcohol and transporting it to the lodge. On the bright side, we had some control over the quality of wines we drunk. The bottom line on this trip is that had the fish showed up in good numbers, all would have been great. As it stands, there are mixed opinions by the attending members with regard to this operation. Some felt that we were just the victims of unusual circumstances and other felt that we were not fairly dealt with. Again, good fishing would have solved all of this. Personally, I would like to go back someday as I enjoyed the wilderness experience and feel that the lure of the Atlantic Salmon still calls me.
In any event, we all agreed that we had a great time. This had everything to do with group dynamics and the fact, as Rod Wentworth (Redmond, WA) puts it, "with a good group like this, we were going to have a great time no matter where we were". I think that about sums up the PPS experience.
If you have any questions about this trip or Flowers River Lodge as a venue, please do not hesitate to call on me at pps@shaw.ca. Please view the thumbnails to see more pictures of our trip.
Ernie Schmidt
