Exploits River

The Exploits is the longest river on the island of Newfoundland, running from Red Indian Lake past Badger, Grand Falls-Windsor and Bishop's Falls to the Bay of Exploits at Botwood. It carries the island's largest salmon run. That run was built: dams once blocked the river at Grand Falls and Bishop's Falls, and fishways and decades of enhancement opened the upper river to salmon. The count at the Bishop's Falls fishway now runs into the tens of thousands of fish a season, most of them grilse.

It is big water. Below Grand Falls the river is wide and fast, and the power dams at Grand Falls and Bishop's Falls set much of its flow, so the gauges above Grand Falls rise and fall with Red Indian Lake's releases as much as with rain. As a rough guide from the Charlie Edwards Point gauge's summer record, the river fishes well between about 175 and 260 m³/s, and over about 360 it is high and pushy. Fish the edges, the tails of the rapids and the pools below the falls from shore or with a guide's boat. Grilse take small wet flies and hitched flies, and the river fishes best from late June through July.

The lower main stem from Stoney Brook to Exploits Bay is Class 6: two salmon a season under 63 cm, and 3 released a day. From September 8 to October 7, subject to DFO's in-season review, that reach stays open for catch and release. The river is closed from Stoney Brook up to the Grand Falls dam, and below the Bishop's Falls dam on both banks. The mid-Exploits from the Grand Falls fishway to Red Indian Lake is Class 2, and the watershed above the Red Indian Lake dam is catch and release only. A non-resident needs a licensed guide or a resident relative. Grand Falls-Windsor and Bishop's Falls have the services, right on the river.