Lagrève River

When I first read Internet rumors about a 12-pound fly-rod brook trout caught in Quebec, I was in disbelief. The all-tackle record (from 1916) is 14 pounds 8 ounces, and all the IGFA fly-rod record catches are between 8 and 10 pounds—and these represent some of the largest fish ever caught on the world’s best brook trout rivers. Twelve pounds would be the biggest recorded brook trout ever caught on a fly rod.

As it turns out, Jeff Turner’s fish [See “Newscasts” in the Sept. 2007 issue. The Editor.] never became an IGFA record because he did not weigh the fish on a certified scale (he didn’t go there looking for a record) and instead of preserving the fish on ice, he released it. According to a common length and girth formula () Turner’s 28.8-inch trout with an 18-inch girth weighed approximately 11.6 pounds. The interesting part of the story is that the fish was not caught on a large streamer or lemming pattern as many large brook trout are, but on a #14 Parachute Adams.

Turner, who fished the Lagrève River in Northern Quebec with his father and brother in early September 2006, said a Parachute Adams was the hot fly all week and the best day of fishing was cold, rainy, and windy. They caught dozens of brook trout per day between 3 and 5 pounds, but Turner says they also caught many fish over 6 pounds on drys. Turner says a #14 Parachute Adams was by far the most productive fly during his one-week stay and there was rarely a need to resort to wet flies.

John Beaven has fished the Lagrève for many years and plans to return in 2008. He says the late August and early September hatches of jumbo Blue-winged Olives (#14) are the main event, and luckily coincide with the migration of Arctic char (up to 20 pounds) and sea-run brook trout from Ungava Bay. The char rarely take drys, but the brook trout (both resident and sea-run) rise to mayfly hatches and even take attractor drys on days when nothing is hatching.