Cassidy Lake Pickerel Fishing 2011 Part One

Casey landed his first pickerel and had the biggest grin on his face. Not sure if it was because it was his first fish of 2011 or because it wasn’t me with the first fish.

Ha, maybe a little of both. I sure hope it’s not a sign of things to come for 2011 as he just kept catching them and smiling, a lot.

Casey was using minnow baits with blood red hooks and what a huge difference it made to the fish catching.

I didn’t have any lures with the blood red hooks and they just weren’t interested at all.

He kept offering me lures, even ones with red hooks but I don’t like losing other people’s lures so for a time I just said thanks but didn’t use them.

Well after Casey’s 7th fish to my zero I was willing to lose one of his lures. Errr I mean use one of his lures.

Finally I hooked into a monster. Well maybe not a monster but I am sure it was all of 12 maybe 13 inches, it just thought it was bigger.

Fishing Tip of the Day: If you haven’t given blood red hooks a try yet you don’t know what you’re missing out on. Casey was smart and started replacing the hooks on his baits at least a year ago.

You can be sure I will be ordering some red hooks to replace my existing hooks.

I will tell you that if you invest in lures with blood red hooks or buy new blood red hooks for your lures you just might get a whole lot more action.

Casey couldn’t seem to do anything wrong Friday, even though it was Friday the 13th.

Even though I started catching pickerel they were few and far between for me. Casey on the other hand just kept catching them.

A Great Day of Pickerel Fishing

I was still determined to catch some pickerel on lures without red hooks. After all I fished for many years before red hooks and did great.

Well I did manage to catch a few more using a perch pattern and ended my day with 7 pickerel and a sun burned face. It really looked like I was most embarrassed about getting my butt kicked

I believe that Casey landed 25 pickerel by the end of our day. So he caught the first fish of the day, the most fish of the day along with the biggest.

I am already looking forward to my next trip to Cassidy Lake. I had kind of forgotten about the lake once we started pickerel fishing the Chipman, New Brunswick area.

I guess there’s just not enough time to fish all the places I love as often as I would like.

Maybe I will get more fishing in once I retire in a couple of years.

Casey, thanks for the great day of fun and I love what you’ve done with your boat. It’s going to be an awesome summer.

Related articles

• A Chain Pickerel By Any Other Name (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Cassidy Lake Pickerel 2011 (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)

It was a very long winter and I didn’t get out much at all so when Casey emailed me to see if I was up for a little fishing trip to Cassidy Lake I forgot all about the long winter.

I’ll tell you it didn’t take long to respond to his email. I want to just email the word DUH!!.

Cassidy Lake is actually the first lake I fished for chain pickerel and is where I landed my personal best at 24″.

My fishing buddy for that day was Roland who had never fished pickerel, he hadn’t even seen one before. Beginners luck allowed him to hook into a 26″ pickerel as his very first catch.

Twenty years later and I still haven’t beat or matched his first pickerel.

It’s been more than 20 years since I fished in Cassidy Lake. After I sold my boat and started using a canoe I found I got trapped in the back end of the lake way too many times once the wind picked up which was most days.

I think I got about 3 hours sleep Thursday night. I just kept looking at the stupid clock all night and was up by 4am checking my fishing gear.

So glad Casey had the same problem and showed up early.

So We Were Off To Cassidy Lake, Friday 13th, 2011

It drizzled and rained all the way there but once we made the turn and headed down the hill towards Cassidy Lake the liquid sunshine stopped and I think the clouds even got a bit lighter.

Gloomy Day on Cassidy Lake New Brunswick

We pulled into the boat launch which was just a path when I used to fish here. So much easier to lauch a boat now.

As soon as I stepped out of the truck I was so glad I had my winter clothes. The wind was quite chilly. I immediately put on my neoprene waders, my toque and even my gloves.

Casey did all the safety checks and we launched the boat. Our first day of fishing for 2011 had begun.

Casey’s Fishing Boat

Once we were on the water, away from the shore the wind didn’t seem nearly as cold. Not sure why but I was certainly happy.

Note: I didn’t catch a single fish using my favourite red worm I write so much about, but more about that after I get some rest.

Pickerel Fishing Cassidy Lake New Brunswick Part Two

Related articles

• A Chain Pickerel By Any Other Name (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Tying A Few Flies For New Brunswick Chain Pickerel Action On The Fly (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• The Spring Fishing in New Brunswick Itch (thejoyofflyfishing.com)