The Quebec 2009 Atlantic Salmon Mentorship - [A series – Part 3 of 3]

Chris Chin (Proulxville, Quebec) - October 19, 2009
part 1 can be found here
part 2 can be found here

The 2009 Mentorship would never have been such a success (or even gotten off of the ground) without the help and participation of the many Instructors, Guides and volunteers.

This activity requires quite a few! As with any day on a salmon river, two anglers per Guide is really the limit for giving good service. Therefore, given the  number of participants, there were over 20 Guides and as many instructors (Mentors). For the group “the Next Generation”, there were another 4-5 Mentors for the 12 youngsters.

In reality, the Guides were not all full time professional Guides (some were). The rest were simply anglers who fish regularly on the local rivers. Further, there are no Guide associations in the region. As an example, Daniel, his partner Lise as well as his brother Mario have been fishing the Little Saguenay for over 14 years, so they were excellent references to “Guide” for the weekend.

Mario Fillion watching over Glass Pool (2003)

Boris did a Lion's share of the work to exploring the Ste-Marguerite to make sure we'd be putting newcomers over salmon (then he prayed for a week that the darn critters wouldn't move!)

Father and Son Romain and Boris Tremblay guided for us on the Ste-Marguerite – Pascal P. (Left) was in the Discovery class.

The Gals at the local cross-country ski club served up breakfast for the gang

The Mentors and Guides came from all over the Province. As the salmon rivers in Quebec are concentrated along the St-Laurence Seaway and the Gaspé peninsula, that's where many came from. Still, some such as Faruk flew in from Toronto to give a helping hand.

Dave Bishop on the Monday clinic – He was also one of 20+ Mentors

One of the Next Generation an a future Guide as well!!!

There are too many to name and I'd end up forgetting someone anyway, so I won't list them all here.
Ok, ... I will name Pierre Manseau.
He instigated this activity in 2007 and is the driving force behind its success over the past three years. I'll also add Amelie Dussault, the project coordinator at the Quebec Atlantic Salmon Federation. Poor girl started with the FQSA over the summer and inherited the logistics of this year's Mentorship at the very last minute!
A big thanks to all the Guides, Mentors, staff, Wardens, cooks, caterers and all who gave there 100% to make the 2009 Quebec Salmon Mentorship a success.

Chris Chin
Proulxville, Quebec

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