Mingan River
The bountiful Mingan River criss-crosses the Canadian Shield, tumbling 579 metres from its source 117 kilometers to the north. Including all its tributaries, the river's watershed covers an area of over 2,000 square kilometers. Its mouth on the Gulf of St-Laurent lies close to the aboriginal community of Mingan, 12 kilometers east of the village of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan.
This beautiful river, set in a granite valley where fir and spruce are king, has always been at the heart of the Innu hunting and fishing territory. Europeans have been fishing Atlantic salmon here since the early 19th century.
The Mingan River, fairly straight from its source, forms two large meanders in its last few kilometers before opening out into a vast estuary. Clay cliffs covered with sand sculpt the river's banks for the first few kilometers. When its flow is at its lowest, the salt waters of the gulf can rise up to more than a kilometer into its mouth. Some nine kilometers upstream, a monumental waterfall marks the landscape, and other rapids punctuate the river northwards.
This salmon fisherman's paradise is also a habitat for rainbow smelt, brook trout and Atlantic sturgeon, as well as northern pike, lake whitefish and lake trout. The riverbed consists mainly of gravel, pebbles and cobbles. The Pourvoirie du Lac Allard et Rivière Mingan inc, an outfitter with no exclusive rights, manages fishing on a portion of the river.
