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.

My friend and I decided to go Atlantic salmon fishing last week in the Miramichi. I am still fairly new to salmon fishing as I have focused on trout, smallmouth bass, and chain pickerel fishing so my friend has been giving me tips on what to do if I hook a salmon and what flies to use, which I will write about in a bit. He picked me up bright and early at 4:30am. When it comes to fishing I do not mind getting up early. It was a beautiful morning when we got to the water. We walked onto the river right at a hole he has fished many times in the past. It was my first time at this spot. I started fishing the hole from the back at while he was getting rigged up.

I really enjoy watching fish hit lures and flies on top of the water so it is no secret that when I am fly fishing for trout or salmon I love to use dry flies. I started using different dry flies (which I will write a section about) At this hole I kept switching up every once in awhile. I was also using different wet flies. When my friend was ready he started fishing the top of the hole that had some rapids. Within five casts he had a grilse on! I was a little ways away so I just stayed there and watched. He fought this fish for a few minutes and then it got off. For me, it was exciting to see a grilse get hooked that early and to watch him fight it for a few minutes. We fished the hole for quite awhile with him raising another grilse but it did not take.

We decided to walk down the river some as he has never done that before at that location. We walked probably for 10 minutes and came across a nice run. It did not look terribly deep but we thought it was worth a try. I had a green machine on and floated it down beside a big rock that was sitting in the middle of the run. I did this a few times and then my line went down and I realized I had a salmon on. He jumped out right away and spit my hook. It was very excited but disappointing at the same time. I brought my fly in to make sure everything was alright and casted out to the same spot again. To both of our amazement I got another hit right away. This time I fought this Atlantic salmon for a good ten minutes and had it within a foot of the shore and it spit my hook out. Again I was very pumped up for having the salmon on that long but was again disappointed that I had it that close to shore and lost it.

We continued down the river but did not really see any other water that was worth fishing so we made our way back to the original spot where we started. My friend put his fly down the middle of the run and a very nice salmon hit his fly and must have jumped three feet out of the water, which was awesome to see. Unfortunately it spit the hook. After fishing here a bit longer we decided to leave this area and try another spot farther down the river.

After a 15 minute drive we made it to the next hole. It was a nice long run with lots of deep water. After casting my fly out a handful of times a salmon came up to take a look but did not hit the fly. It was nice to see there were some Atlantic salmon holding in the pool. My friend had a quick 10 minute nap and then jokingly said it was time for him to catch a fish. He worked his way to the back of the pool and got a strike. This grilse was very active and must have jumped out of the water five or six times. He was able to land it fairly easily after it finished jumping. He said I should wait awhile to let the pool settle down and then try it again. I decided to fish the top part of the pool and then about 15 minutes later I tried where he caught his. I was not paying the greatest attention when I got a strike. It hit basically the same spot as the other one. My friend did an excellent job coaching me as I tired to land this Atlantic salmon. This is how he coached me. This may help for any other beginners out there. He told me to always make sure my line was tight. He said when I felt or saw my leader wiggle that meant it was going to make a run. He was right as after every wiggle it did make a run. He said to let it run and then to reel in as soon as it was done running. He also said that if it jumped to let the head of my rod down. This let the line go slack during the jump. I followed his instructions and about fifteen minutes later I landed my very first Atlantic salmon. Let me tell you that it was an awesome feeling. I am certainly getting hooked on salmon fishing and a day like we had certainly helps with that. Overall, we caught 2 grilse and hooked into seven fish and saw a handful of others.

I hooked into two of my Atlantic salmon using the very popular green machine salmon fly. Here is a picture for anyone unfamiliar with the fly.

This fly if very popular on the Miramichi.

A few other dry flies that I used on the day were the Green Bomber and the Brown Bomber. Both are pictured below.

Now the salmon fly that I caught my very first Atlantic salmon on was a Carters Bug. It is an excellent dry fly for fishing salmon. It is big like the bombers above. I am certainly going to be picking up more of them.

This is the fly I used to catch my first salmon.

As I am in the process of adding to my collection of salmon flies I have been searching the internet to find some salmon flies that are decently priced. I do support our local people who tie flies but I am also going to buy online if I can save some money. The other day I did find an online store that I gave a try. This online store sells trout and salmon flies along with other items.

I was very pleased to see that they have a very good selection of trout and salmon flies. Even though I wanted to buy a handful of trout flies I did focus of buying salmon flies. Their sidebar has these flies under steelhead/salmon. I also decided to look under the heading bass flies and I did decide to buy some of those flies as I think they would work for fishing salmon as well.

When I was finished placing my order I bought a total of 13 salmon flies, with me buy multiples of some same flies. Not one of the flies cost more than a dollar (US) and shipping to Canada for fishing flies was only $2.88, which if you ask me is an excellent deal.

The store is located in Arlington, Texas but that did not scare me away because of their very low shipping cost. I received an email the other night saying the order was shipped so I will post again post a comment to this post when they arrive to say how long the order took to arrive and what the quality of the flies is like. I am sure they are going to be just fine.

So, if you are someone who likes to go salmon fishing and are always looking for places to buy salmon flies online, why not give this company a try. The name of their company is The Angler’s Dream Fly Shop. Give their name a click and give them a look.

If you are new to fly fishing you may be interested in these ebooks called Fly Fishing From Scratch and Fly Fishing Mastery.