Elsie Reford and her Guides

Fishing on the Metis River was invariably done with two guides. Fishing was usually from canoes, requiring a guide in the bow and the stern to pole the canoe into place and help land the fish when required.

Elsie Reford’s favourite guides were Lewis Eden and Douglas Berchervaise. Both from Gaspé, at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, they moved to Metis for the summer. They were housed in rooms at Estevan Lodge and later at the Price Brothers house at the mouth of the Metis River.

Eden and Douglas (as they were invariably referred to) fished with her for decades and brought luck as they did on this day, when she caught eight spectacular fish. They appear in many photographs, helping her catch a fish and then displaying her trophy for posterity.