I’m proud to be Canadian, eh and spent it doing something I love, fishing with a friend.

Jamie picked me up and we were on the road to Chipman just before 5am.

I had everything ready Thursday evening so all I had to do was get up, grab some breakfast and be ready to jump in as Jamie drove by my house.

I’ve mentioned Jamie a few times in my posts but just in case you’re not sure who he is he’s the owner of FishingFunInNewBrunswick.com and he loves to fish, maybe even as much as I do.

Here’s a link to his Fishing Fun in New Brunswick website, be sure to check it out and let him know what you think about his fishing adventures.

Fishing Fun In New Brunswick

What The Heck Is That?

We turned off the main highway and came up over a hill on highway 10 into Chipman. Just as we came over the top of the hill I said what the heck is that, a new mountain where Chipman used to be or what.

I grabbed my camera and snapped a picture. It’s a little dark but I am sure you can see the huge fog back we were about to enter.

Even though the fog looked bad it lasted about two minutes and all was clear from then on.

Welcome to Fog Mountain

We drove through a rather quiet Chipman, well except for the guy in front of us who was moving at turtle speed. He must have known we were going fishing.

Early Morning Red Bank

We came up around the corner to the point we could see the water and it was like a mirror, my favourite water to fish. Now I was really hyper.

Jamie backed his car and canoe down to the water and in minutes we were chain pickerel fishing for the first time this year.

I drank a big mug of coffee on the drive so I needed to relieve myself and thought you might like to see the beautiful scenery New Brunswick has to offer, even while taking a leak.

Breath Taking Scenery in New Brunswick

The entire day was cloudy which helped to keep it from getting too hot which was just fine with me.

The thing I don’t care for the most when fishing is the wind, especially when in a canoe but Friday was almost wind-less making for the perfect day in my books.

Before we got in the canoe for the day I thought I would practice my victory dance.

Our day started on the side of the road at Redbank the river is on which is always my first choice before moving to other great locations along the Salmon river.

We fished there for a few hours, caught a few pickerel and then moved through the culvert to the other side.

The water was still high enough for use to run the canoe and trolling motor right through. Sure beats carrying the canoe to the other side.

Lucky for me Jamie was driving which gave me first shot at the other side, as soon as I was close enough to cast out of the curlvert.

Immediately a nice little chain pickerel smacked my worm.

Screaming fish-on in a culvert sounds pretty cool.

Usually we will fish pickerel right until dark if the conditions are right but Jamie mentioned giving the Saint John river a try at about Jemseg.

Casey and I had been there a couple of weeks ago and had a great time so I was certainly up for that, but that’s another story for another day.

We arrived back home to find it had rained hard there making us feel even better about how nice the day was for us.

I drifted off to sleep watching the fireworks over the trees in our backyard, what a great ending for the perfect Canada Day.

Friend and fishing buddy Casey emailed me Friday to see if I was up for a day of fishing Saturday.

He hadn’t quite made up his mind as to where to go, Cassidy Lake or the Saint John river and Harts Lake.

I told him I love fishing Cassidy lake but I had never fished in the Saint John river or Harts Lake in the 30 years I have lived in New Brunswick.

I’m so glad we headed to Jemseg and the Saint John river.

The water temperature is still kind of cool early mornings so we planned to leave at 9, although Casey tends to show up about a half hour early which always makes me happy.

Knowing he would most likely show up early I decided to take Jenny for breakfast as I wouldn’t see her all day but I knew I better be back before 8:30, so it was an early breakfast at Hynes restaurant on Mountain road Moncton,

Sure enough Casey was 30 minutes early.

We were both anxious to fish making the trip seem longer than it really is but finally we arrived. I believe it was the TCH bridge at Gagetown where we launched.

Launched From Under The TCH Bridge Gagetown

After a few system checks we were launched and heading across the river. Our day of fishing had begun.

Ready To Hit The Water

Once we reached the other side of the river Casey lined us up for trolling down towards Harts lake but close enough for me to also be able to cast to the shore line.

He likes to laugh at me jumping around the boat casting everywhere. He does keep an eye on the rod I’m trolling with so I don’t miss anything when my backs turned.

Tried Something New

Our last day out, at Cassidy lake I just didn’t have any luck trolling. I think I would have done better if I wasn’t changing my lure so often.

I couldn’t seem to find a lure that didn’t hit bottom and kept changing lures all day long.

By the end of the day my butt was pretty sore as Casey kicked it hard that day.

I thought about trolling and made the decision to pick one lure and stick with all day.

I love my Rapala lures so I picked one that would run at about 5 feet. That was my little Rapala countdown, about 3″ long with a perch pattern.

The plan seemed to work perfectly as I caught the first fish, a smallmouth bass and then the second fish, a small pickerel.

Then I hooked a smallie and then a pickerel while casting under the trees along the bank. I was using a 5″ red senko worm for casting to the shoreline.

I didn’t use the red senko worm all day. Where the shoreline was clear of dead or downed trees I switched to a Rapala lure that looks like a shrimp.

I’ve caught a lot of smallmouth bass using that over the years but this day it didn’t do anything. They wanted that red worm.

Breath Taking Scenery

The scenery along the Saint John river is beautiful and I’m always happy to be the passenger on these trips so I can take pictures and watch the scenery go flying by.

The picture below reminds me of a little island my brother and I used to camp on in Gorgian Bay Ontario many moons ago.

What A Gorgeous Day We Had

This picture was taken early in the day and shows a few clouds but they soon disappeared leaving a beautiful clear sky all day.

Casey, you picked the perfect day for fishing thanks.

Even the wind was on our side. Just enough of a breeze to keep us from frying in the sun but not enough to even make waves.

I think I mentioned I caught the first few fish. Did I mention that Casey?

We reached the entrance to Harts lake and moved out of the river which excited me again. Another spot I had never fished before then.

Entrance to Harts Lake

We fished up through Harts lake catching pickerel all the way although more we under 20 inches. I did catch one that went 21 inches but it was a fatty making me think it was much bigger.

As we were going through the channel into Coy lake we saw that the water was still high and a lot of trees are living in rather soaked conditions.

Spring Flooding Slowing Going Down

Some of the places we fished sure looked like farmer’s fields covered in a couple feet of water.

Coy lake didn’t seem to be very deep, even though the water was high, so I’m not sure what it would be like when the water goes down.

I think this would be a canoe or float tube lake once the water drops but I would bet the pickerel would be thick in there.

Casey practiced using his new trolling motor. That’s going to be coming in very handy as the weed start getting thicker.

At the end of our day, as we were trolling back up to the launch area I was still using that same Rapala countdown and had one smallie right after the other, all the way back to the bridge.

Mmm Victory Tastes So Good

When we go fishing we usually have a little contest where the NON winner gets the privledge of buying ice cream for the winners.

At the end of our day of fishing I had hooked and landed just over 40 fish.

I believe Casey had 24 fish so I got free ice cream, which in my humble opinion always seems to taste better.

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

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• 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)

Image by heathzib via Flickr

We’ve had a beautiful white winter this year, haven’t seen one of those in a long time. Not always much fun shovelling as it gets higher and higher but sure looked like a wonderland looking out my office window into our backyard. Sadly the weight of all that snow on some of our shrubs and bushes was just too much after it started raining and broke the branches off of them.

That’s going to require a lot of extra work come spring, might even have to replace them all. I would much rather be spending that money on fly fishing gear, hope my wife didn’t hear me type that.

On a happier note fishing season’s not far off and that always lifts my spirits, so today I’m bringing my fly fishing gear up from the basement for another season.

Fly Fishing For Chain Pickerel And Smallmouth Bass

Fishing buddy Casey emailed me the other day asking if I had flies for pickerel and bass, which I thought was curious because he doesn’t fly fish, well not yet. As I read on he said he wants to give it a try this year and my excitement level went through the roof.

I told Casey I had some that have been torn up pretty good but would be tying some before fishing season starts. Now I will tie enough so that Jamie, Casey and myself will have enough to tie into some wacky and wild pickerel in our favourite spots. My first pickerel ever was on a fly rod and it’s a lot of fun, especially from my float tube.

I have been fly fishing for smallmouth bass as well and they are a blast on the fly rod. A great fish to watch jumping all over the place. So you can well imagine I am already dreaming of our days on the water in 2011.

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• Tying A Few Flies For New Brunswick Chain Pickerel Action On The Fly (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

During the 1960s I was a kid growing up in central Ontario, Canada. I did a lot of fishing in the river that ran through the back of our farm. The only thing I ever caught there was catfish although there were some big pike in the river, I just didn’t have the gear for them.

I remember my older brother Chuck catching a huge walleye on one of his fishing trips. I was always to young to go on those trips as there was a lot of drinking. Anyways he didn’t call the walleye a walleye, ever. He always called it a pickerel.

I was actually 30 years old and living in New Brunswick Canada before I saw my first Chain pickerel and realized they weren’t the same species.

Chain pickerel are also known as “federation pickerel” and in SE U.S. they are nicknamed “jack fish”.

Caught My First Chain Pickerel on The Fly

It’s kind of cool the way I found out about pickerel here in New Brunswick as I mostly fished brook trout. I consider myself blessed to have caught my first real pickerel on the fly rod while fly fishing for trout so it was a happy accident.

Fishing A Flooded Forest on The Fly Rod

It feels like a lifetime ago I had been invited to go fishing with a fly fishing buddy. Wayne wanted to take me to a little spot he wants to keep secret. He told me we would be able to catch some big brook trout on the fly.

Once we arrived I could not believe he expected me to actually use a fly rod in there. It was a forest that had been flooded years earlier when busy beavers had blocked the flow of water and flooded a large patch of timber.

Wayne told me there was 16″ brookies within. I didn’t call him a liar however I’d been thinking it. I did become a believer after he landed the first 16″ brook trout.

Fly fishing through trees was really a brand new experience. I had fished ponds and brooks for trout using the fly rod, had even learned to deal with trees behind me just not a forest all around me.

I spent most of my time staying out of the trees but did get a few trout. As usual when it comes time to leave I usually need to get a couple more casts. Just as I pulled the fly from the water for that final cast a pencil like 10″ fish flew from the water and grabbed that fly.

I couldn’t imagine just how intense this tiny fish was. That was when I learned the difference between a walleye and a pickerel.

These days I fish Chain pickerel every chance I can. My record continues to grow from that first 10″ chain pickerel to 25″.

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When I’m fishing for smallmouth bass or chain pickerel in open water and along weed beds that drop off into deeper water I like to use crankbaits. I especially love to toss my crainbait into opening in the weeds as I am usually rewarded with a huge explosive strike in those hot spots.

I will cast to the shallows close to weeds and bring it back to the deeper water. And if the water drops off quickly I will pull it right along the edge of the weeds for really explosive strikes.

It wasn’t until I moved to New Brunswick that I experienced smallmouth bass fishing and later chain pickerel fishing. Before that it was strickly trout and salmon.

That’s when I started buying a few crankbaits, spinnerbaits and plastic worms.

Fishing Crankbaits

My fishing buddy Roland and I were in my boat on Lake George just past Fredericton, it was really windy, so the top water baits weren’t doing much so I switched to one of my brand new crankbait.

Fishing A Brown Shrimp Crankbait

I remember it was brown with some darker brown stripes going down the sides. It cast a country mile and would float until I started cranking on it. Then it would dive anywhere from 3-7 feet depending on how hard I cranked it.

On my first cast the crankbait was smacked hard and then again on my second and then it seemed like I couldn’t use it without getting strikes.

Guess how many of those I purchased?? Just one because I bought a variety of lures that day and just one of each. Roland didn’t buy one of this particular crankbait and I didn’t have one to loan him.

I kicked his bass fishing butt royally that day.

The crankbait quckly became one of my confidence baits and still is today. I went and bought another two, one for the tackle box and one I just incase Roland didn’t get a chance to buy one.

I used that crankbait until all the finish was worn off, leaving it a matte silver colour and it was still caught bass, which I found strange because I had a silver one that didn’t catch anything much at all.

Then one day I made a very long cast, probably the longest cast I ever made. It went straight across the water and into the trees on the bank somewhere. Never did find it. Guess I didn’t tie that knot as well as I thought.

That crankbait had hooked hundreds and hundreds of bass and pickerel and lasted for a few years before I lost it.

The second crankbait lasted for many years as well until one day Casey and I were bass fishing Lake Petit and on the very last cast of the day I lost it, the same way I lost the first one. The line snapped and it went so far I couldn’t find it. Bummer

A couple of years after I started bass fishing we gave chain pickerel a go and I used the same crankbait in open water along weed banks and found that they love that crankbait as much as the smallies do.

Check out the Rapala Crankbaits on FishUSA.com

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Look at Jamie’s face in the image on the left. Doesn’t he look a bit shocked to you? You will see the reason in the picture below.

I have been fishing pickerel here in New Brunswick for about 30 years now and yeah my arms are sore. Seriously though, my first experience pickerel fishing was in Cassidy Lake near Norton with my fishing buddy Roland.

His first day out and he caught a record 26″ pickerel and kicked my 24 incher out of the lead. That’s another story about an unexpected catch.

Jamie found me through my web site back in the spring 2008. He asked if I would give up any good bass fishing locations he could take his kids to. That started a relationship that has been growing ever since.

Catch of The Year 2009

It was dark when we left home and it was foggy. A very thick fog, the kind of fog that makes things look mystical. I was looking forward to stopping at the Cannan river to snap a couple of pictures. However, when we got as far as the river the fog had lifted and was completely clear.

Chipman was like a ghost town, nothing was stirring at all. We passed through Chipman and headed to our first fishing spot for the day.

We launched Jamie’s canoe from Redbank as it gave us a great starting point for hitting the coves along the Salmon river. Sure helps having a trolling motor, especially on those windy days.

We usually catch plenty of pickerel and even some perch at this spot, however on this day we paddle over to the culverts as there is usually at least one fat pickerel lying in wait.

Jamie made the first cast, only because my back was to the spot, lucky for him. The pink plastic worm Jamie had on hadn’t even hit the water when it disappeared in an explosion of water.

Jamie had hooked into a huge smallmouth bass, in a spot I have only ever caught pickerel. We were both shocked, surprised and laughing like fools. He fought it for a little bit and then landed it. He had a new record. Show off.

The first cast of the day and Jamie kicked my butt.

Jamie is so excited he wants to scream, I know it.

I’m still jealous and probably will be until I manage to catch a big bass for myself in this spot.

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Didn’t really think we were going to get another day on the water but Casey got Jamie and I together again at French Lake. One of my favourite places to fish pickerel.

Jamie, Myself & Casey Pickerel Hunters

We were not really sure what the weather was going to be for Sunday but the forecast on the Weather Channel said to expect rain and winds of 20km.

It’s also the end of September so I packed clothes for every condition and thanks to Casey’s reminder I brought gloves. Well it started out cold enough I had on a sweater and my winter jacket and of course the gloves.

As the temperature drops at night so does the water temp causing the Chain pickerel to become rather lethargic until they warm up a bit so we didn’t leave as early as we usually do. We were still early enough to see a black bear and a coyote, but not early enough to see any deer hanging around apple orchards.

We pulled into one little bay section of the lake and the pickerel must have been there sunning themselves. Once we turned into the bay we saw pickerel scattering in every direction. I am pretty sure they were laying close to the the surface so they would warm up but I could be wrong, they may have been having a meeting about where to hangout for the winter.

A friend and fishing buddy of Casey’s, Ron, said he would meet us at the lake and might bring his son. Well he showed up alone so Jamie went with him. Ron was just launching his boat as we pulled in. Perfect timing.

It was good to meet Ron and hopefully we will get together again for another fun day on the waters of New Brunswick. Maybe next year we’ll get out for some bass and pickerel in the same day.

Time to head home after a great day of fishing

It seems that day always comes to an end too soon but there is always another day. If things go well we may even get one more day out on the water before the season closes for us here in New Brunswick.

Gotta love living in New Brunswick and fishing for chain pickerel. I have so much fun I’m like a little kid.

We were out Sunday fishing chain pickerel in the rain, but the rain was warm and as long as it didn’t run down the back of my neck I was fine.

The rain was all day but there were a few calm moments, then before a drop hit the water we could hear it coming. A very strange day weather wise.

Of course I forgot my thermometer. I changed my tackle bag to a much smaller one to take in the canoe and forgot it. I wanted to see what the water temp was.

The weather kind of turned off the pickerel as it was windy and raining most of the day. A couple of times the wind stopped but that was usually when the rain was at it’s strongest.

We still turned a lot of pickerel but they were not nearly as active as we had hoped.

However we moved into a little back bay and immediately I caught a little guy and when I put him back in the water it was like bath water compared to the main section. It was warm enough to go swimming and we soon found out just what happens when the water warms up.

Pickerel And Bass Fishing Tip: I kept telling Jamie to aim for the lily pads that had flowers starting to show as predators like the pickerel will use the thick stocks to wait in hiding until something tasty comes near and then they wack it.

I made a cast to a single lily pad flower, didn’t see any lily pads but I am sure that my 6″ red plastic worm didn’t even hit the water before it was smacked good. The best strike so far this year.

The picture is a little grainy but it was raining pretty hard and our cameras were fogged up a bit. Glad it is still working at all after how wet they got. I was soaked to the skin, some glad it was warm all day.