Hoping for some more this year.

If you are like me, you can feel the excitement in the air.  No, it is not December.  It is almost April 15th and many people in New Brunswick have their fishing tackle ready to go for opening day.  The past two years I was lucky enough to go black salmon fishing on opening day because opening day fell on the weekend.  This year it lands on a Monday so I need to rely on Glenn and Chris to send me some pictures via text of the salmon that they catch.  I really wish I could go but work comes first. Glenn said we would make a trip on Saturday to give the black salmon a try.

Glenn and I also really look forward to the bass fishing here in New Brunswick.  We will try some lakes in early May and then will spend many evenings walking the Canaan River like we did last year.

I hope you all had a nice relaxing winter and I hope/know you are as excited as I am to get on the water for some nice relaxing fishing.  Keep in touch and let me know how you make out on your fishing trips.  I always love hearing about them.

Mist on the water at 6:40am

Glenn and I decided to spend the day fishing on Monday.  When I say the day, I mean the day.  We left Riverview at 12:30 in the morning….yes the morning, for the Miramichi.  We got there close to 2 am and decided to have a 2 hour sleep and then head into the hole.  We woke up close to four and headed to the spot.  When we arrived, it was still dark and not surprisingly, there was no one there.   Glenn wanted to go back to sleep but I would not let him.  It was close to 5am and it was light enough to see to get ready so we did.

On this stretch of water, the rip is pretty close so we did not have to walk far.  Being nice, I let Glenn go through the run first.  I followed close behind.  We did not have any luck the first time through so we went through the run three different times using different flies.  Unfortunately, we did not raise any salmon.  I caught a small salmon pare and an eight inch trout but that was it.  Glenn said he has seen people fishing the corner in the past so we decided to give it a try.  People came in behind us so we thought it would be a good time.  It was tricky crossing the river as they had thundershowers there on Friday and the water was up some.  When we got  to the  corner we realized that this would be a great place for some fish to be holding up.  There was a nice run with some calm water on both sides.  Again, we did not have any luck.  We did see any salmon move or jump in the 4 hours we spent there.  It needs to be said: That is salmon fishing.  You need to be very patient.

We decided to go into Blackville and try fishing from the boat for some salmon.  Did I mention we brought Glenn’s boat????  We did   The water was running quite hard here.  We only stayed about an hour as there was no action at all.  We packed up the boat and headed to Chipman for an afternoon and evening of pickerel fishing.  Yes, I had to drive and let Glenn sleep in the car.

My pickerel and Glenn's thumb.

When we arrived in Chipman, the first thing I realized was that the water was extremely high for this time of year.  The heavy rain we had the week before must have done it.  We put the boat in and fished a little cove for a bit and had some chasers.  There was a another boat around so we decided to go to the main river and explore some.  We fished along the banks by the grass and had a few chasers but we were not getting any into the boat.  We kept exploring around the river.  I finally had one on while using a bubblegum colored senko.  It is the one of me in the picture.  It was a decent size.  We kept roaming around and I caught another one but it was smaller.  IN another area Glenn finally landed his first pickerel of the day using his top-water frog.  It is a great bait as it makes a racket on the water.

Glenn and his pickerel.

We were getting tired but decided to cross over to the other side where we started.  We went to the other side of the cove and actually  started getting into some pickerel.  It gave us some much needed energy at this point of the day.  We fished around this area for about another hour and a half before decided to head home so we did not have to drive in the dark as we were both really tired.

Even though the fishing was very slow, we both had a great day on the water.

Glenn trying for some elusive salmon.

While fishing for salmon, some of the flies we used were the white-tailed green machine, brown bombers, and yellow-winged butterflies.  When we were fishing for pickerel we used different colored senkos.  We also fished them wacky-style for awhile.  We used different poppers.  I also used a diver while trolling for awhile.

Here’s hoping the water drops soon.  I hope the rest of you are having some luck on the water.

My best catch of the day.

Well, if any of you like fishing as much as I do, you must have been extremely excited for April 15th to arrive.  Glenn, Chris, and I had made plans to go black salmon fishing again this year in the Miramichi.  Last year was the first time that I have ever tried.  It was a great time.  You can read my post about last year here.  Before we went on our hopefully to be annual trip, Glenn wanted to take his boat for a test run as he and Chris had patched up some holes this spring.  He also wanted to give the motor a good run as well.  Last Wednesday evening after work we went to Cole’s Island with another guy, Kirk, to try the boat out.  Kirk bought himself a used boat (jealous) over the winter so he wanted to try his as well.  It was a beautiful night as it was nice and warm and there was no wind.  We took the boats up the system where never fished before so it was nice to see the new territory.  Supposedly it is good bass fishing up there in May and early June.  We will have to find out

The boats for the trial run on Cole's Island.

With the trial run out of the way we just needed to wait for April 15th to arrive.  We could not wait this long and went to the Miramichi on the 14th.  We stayed at Glenn’s friend’s camp again this year.  A big thank you to James for letting us stay there again this year.  It is a great place to stay because it is right on the river.  We arrived around 6pm.   We put the boat in the river and went for a ride around to check out the system.  The water levels were probably 2 feet lower than last year.  Once we were finished in the water we went to the camp and ate.  There ended up being seven of us at the camp.  It was a great evening of sitting around talking and having a few good laughs.  We went to bed at around 12:30 and were up around 5:30 to get ready to hit the water.

Chris' big catch of the day.

We went down to the boat just after day break.  As we got to the boat there were already probably around 15 people fishing from shore.  We got into the boat and made our way down the system.  Surprisingly there were no other boats on the water yet.  It was probably a couple degrees above zero at this point.  We were all dressed warm but it was still pretty chilly.  I was fine except my feet got cold.  I will have to invest in some insulated boots for fishing early in the year.

There were two different ways we fished from the boat.  One of the ways was we would cast out from the boat and let the wet flies go down the river in the current.  We would let out a lot of line, let it straighten out, and then strip it back towards us.  The other way was that we would troll.  Last year we had great luck the first way but this year we had much better luck trolling.    It goes to show that every year can be different and it is good o try different ways.

We each used different colored flies throughout the day.  Different flies produced throughout the day but ones that had a light blue worked very well.  part way through the day Chris tried one that had lots of pink on it and i think he ended up catching 4 or 5 fish with it.  At one point he let me use his road and I could one with it as well.

Glenn's big catch of the day.

We had a fantastic day on the water.  There were lots of boats on the water but we were still able to go basically anywhere we wanted to.  At times, you just wait your turn until someone is done with a spot and then take your turn. We fished until 1pm and then went to the camp for lunch (and to warm up) and then went right back to fishing.  We fished until 7pm and then packed up to come back home. Fishing wise, Chris and Glenn had very good days.  Me, on the other hand, had a very slow day.  It is important to remember fishing does not always go your way and not to get too frustrated.  I was happy to be on the water and happy to be with two good friends for the day.  Chris ended up landing 9 salmon and one trout, Glenn landed 8 salmon, and I landed 2 salmon and 1 trout.  Glenn and Chris also had a handful of other real nice salmon on but they got off before we could land them.

One thing that really caught my attention while we were on the water was the amount of ice that was on the river banks.  Even with the winter we had last year there was none last year when we were there.  This year, it was along much of the river.  At places, it was 12 feet high.  later in the day pieces were falling into the water.  At one point, a huge piece broke off and fell into the water just by us.

Ice along the river.

If you have never fished in the spring for black salmon, I strongly recommend it.  It is a great deal of fun to hook into and to land these fish.

If you got out fishing yesterday, I hope you had a great day whether you caught any fish or not.  Please leave a comment and let me know how your day went.  Now that fishing has started I will keep my blog up tp date.  Please come back and visit often.  I truly hope you have a great time fishing this season.

I was just wondering if anyone else out there is starting to get a little excited for the beginning of fishing season?  We are just under three months away from fishing season here and the conditions are not always the greatest in the early part of the season here but I must say I am starting to get excited for the fishing season to arrive.  I have been looking more online for fishing items and have started to think some about the Fly Fishing Forum that takes place here each spring.  This year it is taking place in conjunction with The Boat Show at the Moncton Coliseum.  I will be able to go look at all the fly fishing stuff and then look at all the boats I can not afford   The fishing forum is time well spent.  If you have never been there it is worth the few dollars it cost to get in.  Even if you do not want to buy any supplies it is fun to look around and talk to the vendors.  I will also like to look at the fishing boats that will be on display.  Perhaps they will take my well worked in 13 foot canoe as a trade-in???

I have never ice fished before and do keep busy with reffing hockey so doing this kind of fishing to pass some of the winter away has never happened.

I do have plans to do some black salmon fishing again this spring.  Glenn and Chris took me for the first time last spring and I had a fantastic time.  I am looking forward to the fun again this spring.  After that, it is usually awhile before I get into the bass and pickerel fishing as the conditions are not the greatest in the early spring.  I should try to do some trout fishing this year early on.

I have rambled on long enough.  I hope you are all getting excited for the beginning of the fishing season.  Also hope that everyone that comes here to read is doing well.

My first grilse of the season.

In my previous post the other day I stated Glenn and I spent a couple of days fishing in the Cains River with little luck. Glenn called me yesterday morning and said he was taking someone through his work for an evening fish and asked if I wanted to go. I was given permission and we were off and arrived at the river around 6pm. We decided to fish the Cains River again but we went to a different stretch.

When we got to the water there was one person who arrived just before us. The three of us got ready and each started our way down the river. As I was making my way down the river I saw a fish jump farther down the river and a few up above where Glenn was started to move around. I continued down the river with no luck. I used my Carter Bug, White-Tailed Green Machine, and a handful of other flies. Once I got to the end of the run I hung out there and talked to Glenn as he fished the bottom part. There were a few fish moving but not taking. I then decided to go back to the top of the run and start over. I used some streamers to see if they would work but they did not. By this time Glenn also came back to the top and started fishing behind me. It was starting to get dark so I decided to put on my Carter Bug again and stay at the top part and fish there as there were fish moving.

As Glenn and I were fishing and talking, a trout jumped just a couple of feet to my left so I thought to myself I might as well try to catch a trout and threw my fly at the same spot. As soon as the fly hit the water, what I thought was a trout hit the fly. I gave a tug and very quickly realized it was not a trout. The grilse jumped two or three times and then the battle was on I fought the grilse for a handful of minutes and finally landed it. It measured at 23 inches and was nice and thick. It was very exciting to see that line go tight and feel a very good fish on the other end of the line.
As we were finishing up fishing the person that came with Glenn, Mike, had a very nice salmon hit his fly. It jumped high in the water and threw the hook.

Well, it turned out I made a very good decision in going last night. Here is hoping for the same success the next time out.

The stretch we spent most of our time on.

Glenn and I went salmon fishing on Saturday evening on the Cains River.  We arrived at the river at around 6:15 and started fishing right away.  With the luck we have been having with the weather this year, very heavy clouds came in and the wind picked up like crazy and then the rain started with the thunder and lightning.  We got off the water and waited about 15 minutes.  The weather improved enough that we went back on the water.  Within 15 minutes the skies were clear.

When we got on the water there were plenty of fish jumping.  They actually jumped all night.  Glenn made his way down the river but I stayed where the fish were jumping.  At one point I was surrounded by jumping salmon, but so you think I could catch one…..no   We fished until dark with no luck.  We slept (stayed) in the truck over night.  Big bonus for Glenn bringing the portable DVD player to pass the time.

We started fishing Sunday morning right around 5 am.  It was the same thing.  The fish were jumping in the same area.  Glenn made his way to the run down the river and I stayed in the calm area for awhile.  I then made my way down near Glenn.  Once I got to the run, I put on a Carter Bug and put that down the run a few times.  By the time I finished fishing the run I had two raises but no fish.

Glenn was fishing on the other side of the river and was fishing just above the run.  He had three raises within a few minutes of each other.  He then hooked into a fish.  I was not too far away so I started to go to the bank so I could get up there to take some pictures( I think this is why Glenn brings me) but the fish got off quite quickly.  Glenn said he felt it was a good sized salmon.  He continued to fish up a bit more and within a few minutes he had another strike.  I did the same thing but my the time I got to the bank it got off again.  He had both hits on a Carter Bug as well.

Glenn trying his best to catch a salmon.

By this time people started coming to this same stretch of water.  At one point there were seven people fishing.  This stretch is fairly big so everyone just stayed a fair distance from everyone else.  I talked to one person who was also from Moncton.  We talked about salmon fishing and other types of fishing for awhile.  It is always great to meet new people on the water.  He was very friendly and was great to talk to.

Over the course of the evening and the next day fishing I was used many different flies.  I used lots of dry and wet flies.  Like I mentioned earlier, the only one that got the fish moving was the Carter Bug.  Glenn also used many different dry and wet flies as that is part of salmon fishing.  You have to keep changing it up as you never know what fly might get the fish to strike.

Glenn called today and is taking someone fishing tonight and asked me to go.  Hopefully tomorrow I will write a new post with at least one picture of one of us holding a nice fish.

Thanks for reading and tight lines.

Two of the guys in high water.

Well, I spent the past two Saturdays on the Miramichi salmon fishing with some friends.  It was fun to get out and try to catch some salmon and grilse, however, we did not have much luck on either day.  The main reason for our lack of production was the weather.  The first Saturday it poured on us all day long.  This made the water rise and run fast.  Glenn did hook into one grilse this day but lost it.  Yesterday, four of us went again to give it a try.  The water was still running quite hard from last week.  It did rain on us again yesterday but not as bad.  One guy hooked into a fish at the first hole but it got off before we could have a look at it.  Besides that we did not see any salmon at all.  We did catch a few small trout at a couple of spots.  Many of the holes were busy with people as I am sure they were taking the chance to fish with it not pouring as we were.

The picture shows water at a section of the Renous last Saturday afternoon.  As you can see it was very high and running hard.  For those of you that did some salmon fishing, hopefully you had better luck than we did.

Stretch of the Renous

I am almost done work(teaching) for the year and will hopefully be getting out on a more regular basis.  I am looking forward to try for some pickerel soon.  Posts will be made once I hit the water.

If you are someone who has thought about giving Black Salmon fishing a try I would strongly suggest it.  Over the winter months my friend Glenn had talked to me about taking me to the Miramichi on the opening weekend of fishing season to try some Black Salmon fishing.  He told me to mark Saturday, April 16th on my calendar.  I always do what I am told so I marked the date.  As this weekend came closer the plans were finalized.  Glenn and Chris were going up Thursday night with some people and they were going to fish on Friday and I was going to go up Friday night with one of their friends and fish Saturday.

On Thursday we received an email stating Glenn’s friend was not able to go up as he had other things he had to get done.  Glenn told me that he and Chris would drive back to Riverview Friday night, pick me up, and drive right back to the Miramichi.  I told him not to be so foolish and that I could go some other time with him as I did not expect them to drive all the way back here to get me.  Well, am I ever happy that they did.

Chris with one of his many Black Salmon.

We arrived at Glenn’s friend’s camp on the Main South West at 11pm, got settles in and watched a little TV.  The guys were tired out from the long day on Friday and I would say everyone was asleep by midnight.  We woke up around 7:30, got some breakfast and set up for the day.  We were not in a big hurry as it was -4 degrees out at 8am.  Once we had our gear ready and dressed properly we headed down to the boat.  We dressed in layers so we could take off a sweater or two if it warmed up enough.  Glenn, Chris and I went in a boat and three other people went in another boat.  It was cold out but there was no wind so it was not too bad on the water.

Once in the boat we headed right on the river.  Just a few meters down the river there must have been 10 or more people fishing from the bank.

People fishing off the bank.

We headed past them a little ways and put the anchor down by the right edge of the river.  We stayed on the right side the entire day.  We decided to put the anchor down and cast out and let the current take the fly own river.  The current was quite strong so it did not take long for the fly to get down river.  The set up we were using was wet flies, with sinking line as the Black Salmon mainly stay down this time of year.  Glenn and Chris had many different colored wet flies.  Glenn used a light blue colored fly, I was using a yellow one and Chris used the yellow one plus a few different ones throughout the day.  I am new to salmon fishing and do not know all the names of the flies.  I will talk to Glenn and comment later with the proper names.

My first-ever Black Salmon

As we started fishing Glenn had a hit on his third cast.  The Black Salmon hit as he was retrieving the wet fly.  I was obviously very pleased to see a fish on right away.  We used a net to help land the Black Salmon throughout the day.  We continued to do extremely well right away as we landed 7 Black Salmon within the first half hour.  Chris caught the second one and then it was my turn.  As it was the first Black Salmon I have ever caught I was very pleased.  At that moment I told the guys I was very glad they came back and picked me up Friday night.

We continued to fish in this area and lift the anchor and float down a few feet and then put the anchor back down.  As the boat settled we had very good luck fishing this new area as we got strikes almost every time we fished over new water.  None of us changed our flies in the morning as we were all having good luck with the flies we started with.

The guys said on Friday that they did catch some very good sized fish.  As of this time in the morning we were catching grilse and did not see any big salmon.  This did not matter to me at all because I felt catching these grilse was awesome fun.

Just a little bit before lunch we decided to do a little trolling with the wet flies.  As we were doing this I had a very good hit and I told the guys that the hit was hard.  As I started to reel in the line the fish came in quite easily but soon I started to feel a more resistance on the line.  The other fish came to the surface of the water fairly fast as well.  This one was not coming to the surface at all.  It did feel heavier then the other fish I was catching in the morning so Glenn stated that I must have a nice salmon on the line.  After a bit more time went buy the fish finally surfaced and I was very excited as I quickly realized this was the biggest fish I have ever had on the other end of the line.  It took me a little longer to get the fish in the net but we did land it.  The picture below is me with the Black Salmon, a picture I will not soon forget!  It measured in at 32 inches long.

My catch of the day!

After this we went in to the camp for lunch and to warm up.  At around 2:30 we went back on the water and we back to the same area and did the same type of fishing.  We did some casting and some trolling.  Glenn had a big afternoon as he landed two very nice sized fish.    The biggest one he caught was 36 inches.

Glenn with his biggest Black Salmon caught.

As the day finished, we each landed our limit so we could not ask for a better day.  Glenn said hit was the best day of Black Salmon fishing he has ever had.  I am certainly glad I was there to be part of it.

If you are someone who has thought about giving Black Salmon fishing a try I would recommend finding a way to give it a try.  Thanks to Glenn and Chris for the fantastic day.  It will be a day I will remember for a very long time.

With fishing season less than a week away many of us are getting our fishing gear ready for another season.  In early spring I usually try some trout fishing but this year I have been invited to go Black Salmon fishing in the Miramichi.  I have never tried Black Salmon fishing before so this experience will be all new to me.  We are going to be fishing out of a boat.  We will be trolling wet flies.  I guess the trick to this is to find out the proper depth to have the fly.  One guy I am going with said they landed a handful last year so I am hoping for the same success this year.  A couple of the guys are going up and fishing Friday but I can not get the day off so I am going up with someone else Friday night and will be spending the day Saturday fishing.  The weather should be decent with a high of 10 degrees.  I went and bought some rubber boots tonight.  I also went to the store to buy my fishing licence but they did not have them yet.  I am sure it is because the government upped the cost and they are printing new paperwork.  I always get my money’s worth so I can live with the price going up a bit.

My buddy said he has a bunch of different flies I can use as I do not have many wet salmon flies.  I will be taking my camera and will hopefully be taking some pictures of some Black Salmon that we are going to catch.  If not, I will at least take some pictures on the water.  Either way I will be writing a post about the day on the water.

Good luck to everyone who hits the water this coming weekend.  Let me know how you make out.

With the fishing season in New Brunswick ready to open in one month and one day( but who is counting?) I thought I would mention a few things I do in the early part of the season.  One thing I do is I go to a few spots and try some brook trout fishing.  In the past I have tried some smaller brooks in the Turtle Creek area but have not had a lot of luck until May.  A few years ago I did go trout fishing on April 15th in the Sussex area and caught a nice 14 inch brook trout.  I am thinking I may go back to this spot this year in the first week of the season to see what it is like.  It does depend how much snow melts before then.  The past week saw a lot of our crazy amount of snow melt.  Even though the water is still very cold it is good to get out and see what the conditions are like.

Early season at Sussex area

As I mention in my brief post last time I do have a friend that is going to take me black salmon fishing on April 16th so I am very excited to give that a try for the first time.  Last year he said they had a great time catching a handful of the salmon.  I will certainly do a post on the day.

Last year, even though it was a month into the fishing season, I did do some smallmouth bass first on First Eel River Lake.  We fished Saturday and Sunday and had a great time.  I am hoping for a return visit again this year.  It is a nice spot and has plenty of bass to keep you busy.

Early season bass fishing at First Eel River Lake

Although the conditions do not really pick up until mid to late May I am excited to hit the water.  I am sure many of you are feeling the same way I am.