Prior to my fishing adventure in the Magdalen Islands, I had never gone fishing before. My travel companion on this particular trip was VERY keen to head out on the water and try and catch a few fish, so I decided to give it a try. I booked the activity with Excursion en Mer and they provide all the equipment needed. One of the attractive things about our excursion is that it happens in the late evening, so you are spoiled by some amazing views as the sun sets. At the time of booking, they recommend that you call in the afternoon prior to your excursion to make sure that it’s not cancelled due to turbulent water. I liked this detail, because you don’t want to travel across the island to discover your activity is not taking place. On the evening we went out, we were about 10 people on board and the water was super calm! Nevertheless, there were a few people who experienced motion sickness due to the light rocking of the boat. My advice is to take an anti-nausea tablet just in case, because it can really spoil the experience with your head overboard for 2 hours!
As far as the actual act of fishing, it was surprisingly straightforward. You just had to slide your bait up and down gently to attract the fish, which is predominantly makerel. I caught two fish and I was quite pleased with that. Luckily the captain was nice enough to remove them from the line for me since I didn’t feel comfortable doing it. The other people on the boat had some better luck, with some of them catching up to ten fish. As the fish were caught, the captain cleaned them and threw the guts into the water for the birds that were patiently waiting… just a tad intimidating (see picture below!)
At the end of the trip all the fish that was caught is split among the participants, but many did not want to take home so we left with easily a dozen fish. They were excellent on the BBQ and you really can’t find fish any fresher than that! Overall, I had a wonderful time being out on the water, trying out a new activity, and chatting with the captain about fishing in the area and tales of snow crab fishing! As an aside, I am totally obsessed with the show Deadliest Catch and have so much respect for what those workers do.
If you want more information, check out Excursion en Mer’s website: http://www.excursionsenmer.com They do tons of activities beyond fishing, so I am sure you will find something that suits your need!
