Flows into the Restigouche at the NB/QC border — functionally part of the Restigouche system. Big-water salmon fishing with multi-sea-winter fish. Green Highlander, Rusty Rat, Black Dose, and Bomber are standard patterns. Traditional wet-fly and hitched-fly fishing. Public and private beats available. The Matapédia valley setting is outstanding. June–September with July–August typically strongest. Atlantic salmon are managed under Québec's rivière system — mandatory catch-and-release of large salmon applies on most rivers, with limited grilse retention; check the river's current quota and rules before fishing.
The Matapédia falls a hundred and twelve kilometres out of its namesake lake in the Notre-Dame Mountains, cutting a north–south divide through the Gaspé highlands before it meets the Restigouche at the Quebec–New Brunswick line. For sixty-five kilometres through the Matapédia Valley it is classic Canadian salmon water — long, deep, slow-moving holding pools strung between sharp rapids, draining a catchment of some 3,900 square kilometres of Appalachian forest. Over a hundred named pools lie across its four sectors, the most storied where the Causapscal tributary enters and gathers running fish. This is a big, clear, cold river that grows large salmon — three to five thousand return each season, and fish over forty pounds are not unknown. The bed is Appalachian cobble and ledge; the famous pools are deep and much of the river is fished from a canoe, with wading on the gravel tails.
Wading: Deep cold pools — much of it canoe water
- Mixed
- Partly confined
- Pool riffle
- Rapids
