Capelin are small fish that come to our beaches every year to spawn; it can be difficult to accurately predict their arrival which is why I’ve created this Capelin Calendar: a place to check if the capelin have arrived in Middle Cove.
Sharing information
During the season I will visit Middle Cove beach regularly to check out the situation, but undoubtedly many people will see the capelin roll before I do. If you have fresh capelin information, please share it here, it’s as easy as leaving a response below.
Spawning dates
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Capelin data
The 2005-2008 dates used here come from a flickr search, from 2009 on the information is based on personal observation. Read more about capelin on this blog.
Middle Cove beach at 8:50AM: No sign of capelin.
Outer Cove beach at 9:00AM: Capelin are away from the beach.
A lone fishermen casting his net into the surf at Middle Cove, without much luck.
At Outer Cove, the capelin can be seen from the bridge, but they aren’t rolling.
Outer Cove beach at 5:30PM: Capelin just off the beach.
I just got back from Outer Cove where I got soaking wet chasing capelin around with my camera. When I got out of the water, a fisherman got in and got himself a few cast net worths of capelin.
Did you like eating capelin, Sander, or are you more content to take photos?
Amazing that they are still around.
I don’t eat them so I am happy just taking pictures of them. Last year there were so many capelin it was hard not to get a good picture, now it’s not so easy, even though they are still here there are much fewer of them.
Outer Cove beach at 1:00PM: Capelin just off the beach.
Just got back from another wet trip to Outer Cove. The capelin are few, but they’re there, cruising the surf and the cold waters beyond. Halfway through my stay on the beach three Humpbacks showed up in the cove.
Middle Cove beach, 10AM to 12:30PM: Capelin just off the beach.
I spent my morning on Middle Cove beach, where impressively large schools of capelin were cruising the surf. The sun was out, the waves were small, it was a beautiful sight.
The seabirds were very active, picking capelin out of the water left and right. A few fishermen were there too, one man with a cast net showed up and filled 4 buckets in 5 minutes without much trouble.
As you may have noticed I’ve been letting the calendar slide for about a week now, nobody else seems interested too much either. No doubt this is because this year’s rolling was decidedly lacklustre, a poor echo to the 2011 capelin bonanza.
Nonetheless, a big thanks goes out to everybody who was interested and helped keep this capelin calendar up to date, you’ve been very kind and helpful, thank you!
Most likely, this was the last summer of capelin-checking for me, because I will be living elsewhere next year (don’t know where yet).
Thanks again!!
Sander
(newfoundsander)
Hi
They were at Sandy cove last weekend. And leading tickles too.
Good news Nancy, thanks for sharing it here
Sander, Thanks for all the information and a fun place to check it out!
Thank you too Jimmy for your contributions!
Lots of capelin in Witless Bay today, not rolling, but everywhere in the south side of the bay and close to shore on Beaches Path. Many seabirds were diving and catching capelin with great ease.
They were still there today, but further west into the bay.
Nancy …if you are in Gander, drive down to the Harbour Breton area.(Deadman’s Cove) Capelin typically rolling in during early July.
Thanks a lot for the information.