I love fishing but definitely have a passion for the Atlantic salmon here in New Brunswick Canada. The Miramichi River is one of the best fly fishing rivers for Atlantic salmon, hands down.

Fly Fishing the Miramichi River New Brunswick

Upper Oxbow Outdoor Adventures in Sillikers, New Brunswick is just one of the many places you can get skilled Atlantic salmon fly fishing guides. I will put up a few more videos from different outfitters in the future.

Hope you enjoyed this video and are now thinking about your next fly fishing adventure to New Brunswick.

I like hearing stories from those who hooked into their first Atlantic salmon that they managed to land and photograph. Well even if they didn’t get to photograph it, like my first salmon, but that’s another story.

A guy who has become a good friend, Jamie, who has also taken me on so many fishing trips got to go on a salmon fishing trip and got his first salmon.

Take a minute or two and read Jamie’s Atlantic salmon fly fishing experience. I always love the excitement when someone is sharing.

It’s been a year since I went fly fishing, when I took Tim fly fishing for his first Atlantic salmon in the Cains River. It was 5 long years before that since I was out with my fly rod.

I love fly fishing but my health took a sharp 180 back in 2004 and it 5 years before I was able to wave my arms around like I like to do when fly fishing.

I was a little out of practice but it comes back quickly. It was also quite windy and I worked hard to keep control and ended up with three big blisters on my right hand. Ha, they will heal in a few days and for the fun I had it was definitely worth it.

Jamie, who I have never done any fly fishing with, gave me a call and asked if I wanted to go fly fishing . He would be here to pick me up in a half hour. Well I was ready in 5 minutes and paced the floor for the next 25 minutes.

As the title says we went to Penobsquis, near Sussex New Brunswick. I have done a lot of fly fishing in that area over the last 30 years and missed getting there.

The fact that it’s only about a 3/4 of an hour away is great and we were in the water with fly rods waving by 3pm for an evening of brook trout fishing.

The weather has been so hot it was nice to get out fishing while it was a bit cooler. It actually cooled off so much that I started to get chilled. But every time I caught a trout I warmed up.

The water in Stone Creek was the highest I have ever seen it for this time of year and I had to get out of the water in a few places so that I would have to swim.

I didn’t keep track of the number of brookies we caught and released but there was enough to keep us both happy and that’s what it’s all about.

This little Brookie was only out of the water for about
8 seconds and was happy to get back in the water.

Where we were fishing was strictly catch and release and we were fine with that as we pretty much catch and release everything. Well I like to keep the grilse I catch.

Jamie hooked into a brookie and yelled something about supper. Anyways I had to take a picture of his prize catch and laughed for a bit. Such a funny guy.

We did hook into a couple of bigger trout, not a lot bigger but they just won’t stay on the end of our line.

A couple of times it looked like it was going to down pour on us but then it passed but man it got windy and dark. It was at that point that I took a chill so I had to hook into another trout or two to warm up.

Time flew by like we couldn’t believe and before long it was starting to get dark. It took me hours to go to sleep, even though I was beat. I just couldn’t get the day out of my mind and was very cool with that.

A nice thing about this fly fishing spot is you can fish all day, have great fun, catch lots of trout and then it’s just a 15 or 20 minute walk back to the car on the railroad tracks.

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Image via Wikipedia

Today was a little more windy that I care for when I am fly fishing but here in New Brunswick is seems like it’s windy every day now. Some times I just have to give up the fly fishing for the day or maybe until just before sunset when the wind tends to die down a bit. I don’t do too well fly fishing in the wind.

I also have a couple of places that are well protected by the wind and I can catch a lot of smallmouth bass on the fly rod which is always fun.

I have a little spot about an hour away that I fish for pickerel, fly fishing for pickerel is a blast, especially from my float tube. But what I was talking about was a spot to fly fish for smallies that go up to about 14″. I use light gear for them but they are so much fun and they really go for top water flies, mostly deer hair bugs I tie, because the water is usually so calm.

I have a couple of spots I can get out of the wind when fly fishing for brook trout as well. Those are few and far between so I wouldn’t even tell my best friend about these spots. They can get fished out pretty quick and take time to come back.

Fly Fishing in New Brunswick Wind

I’ve had a few experiences fly fishing in the wind and most were not good ones, maybe funny but not good.

Example: I was at Quarryville, New Brunswick fly fishing for Atlantic salmon on a windy day. We were all lined up taking turns at the salmon jumping and making a fuss along the far bank. I was a bit nervous as I didn’t usually fly fish were there were too many people as I am not the best at it. Any ways it was windy and I was trying to get my fly in the exact right spot.

While the wind was blowing I switched the rod from my right hand to my left hand as it was easier to cast in the wind. The wind died down and I quickly switched back to my right hand, just as a gust of wind blew across me and the line wrapped around my neck and put the hook right through my earlobe. It was raining just a little, just enough to make the blood run down my neck and look much worse than it was.

The hook went through my ear so fast it didn’t even hurt but every one around me thought I was bleeding to death.

I didn’t want to lose my spot in line so I  quickly cut the line, leaving the hook in my earlobe and tied on a new fly and kept right on fly fishing.

BTW: I didn’t get the salmon I was hoping for but I did get a lot of looks and laughs.

Another time I was fly fishing brookies from my canoe with a fishing buddy. He wasn’t that confident or good with the fly rod at that time and hooked me right in the neck. The fly, barb and all went through the skin on my neck and I couldn’t get it out so I cut the line and kept on fishing. My buddy couldn’t look at me for the rest of the day.

Once I returned to the car where I could use the mirror I took the hook out in about 30 seconds. My buddy was no help at all.

Even though fly fishing in New Brunswick gets a bit windy I still try. I just don’t get very good casts. Always fun.

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I have to say for a fishing fanatic without a car I am having a great summer, thanks to two guys, Casey and Jamie. Both are great fun to go fishing with.

The fact that I met both of these guys through my fishing blog makes it all the better. So thanks guys, you both rock.

Just over a week ago Casey called me up and asked if I wanted to fish New Horton Lake. We had a great time and the day was perfect. That was my first time ever fishing that lake.

Yesterday Jamie took me to a little spot on the Cannan river, again another spot I have never fished and we had a lot of fun and the day couldn’t have been better weather wise.

The Cannan River

It was extremely hot, way hotter than I personally care for but once we started fishing the wind picked up and helped to cool us down a bit.

Jamie told me that he has caught some nice smallmouth bass in this section of the river, well actually he had fished a little further down from where we launched.

Strange Looking Smallmouth Bass Jamie!!

I thought it was kind of funny that we were bass fishing and taking a little break from pickerel fishing but what was the very first thing I caught, before we even stepped in the river, a pickerel. How funny is that, eh?

It wasn’t long before I actually hooked into my first bass of the day. I am sure my expression shows how pleased I was with myself.

OH MANN This is a lot of fun.

It didn’t take us long to realize this section of the river was better for walking than canoe as we were out of the canoe far more than we were in it. Although it was great to be able to bring all the food and gear without the need to carry it.

It wasn’t very hard to pull the canoe along with us and Jamie even managed to catch a bass while pulling the canoe behind him our way back to the car.

Jamie fishing while pulling the canoe along

Jamie Multi-Tasking

I was impressed at just how well Jamie was multi tasking. What a talented guy he is.

NOTE: You may see that Jamie caught this little bass using the same 6″ pink worm we use for pickerel fishing. Does it get any better, when you can catch both species in the same spot using the same offerings?

Jamie caught and landed the big bass of the day but if you want to see it you need to visit Jamie’s Fishing Fun in New Brunswick blog.

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Tuesday, June 22, 2010 was a very special day for me. I finally got to fish New Horton Lake. It only took me 30 years to get to it.

I moved to New Brunswick some 30 years ago. My brother-in-law told about a brook that flowed from the lake and I fished it for years but never actually fished the lake it’s self.

I actually had my best opening day one year. There was still plenty of snow around and the lake was completely frozen over.

I was standing at the beaver damn and ready to fish the brook when it started snowing. It snowed so hard I could hardly see across the little brook but at that exact moment the trout went nuts and I caught my limit of brookies in just a few minutes.

I never had to move my feet.

My friend Casey lives close to the lake and has told me about it before so I was excited to fish it some day.

Well I got home Tuesday morning after my daily walk. I headed into my office to check the email and of course log onto a few fishing sites and forums to check out what’s being talked about.

Casey saw that I was online and PMed me with one question. “Do you want to go fishing?”

I didn’t even respond before I had the phone in my hand to call him. An hour later we were on our way to New Horton Lake.

I remember Casey telling me that New Horton Lake didn’t take much to get really choppy as it’s a fairly large body of water. This day however there was no breeze or wind at all, yet.

When we arrived I was amazed at how much bigger the lake was that I had thought it was from looking at it only from the brook mouth.

Here’s a picture of what the lake looked like when we arrived. I was so excited to get started I am sure I was pacing.

I have to say that Casey could not have chosen a better day to take me fishing.

How Our Day On The Water Went

We started by trolling and caught a few white perch to start with.

It was a hot day, very hot and the water temperature started rising quickly. In no time the bass started become more active, just what we were waiting for.

I had never seen a white perch, I think they should call them silver perch, what a cute little fish.

The picture above shows a small perch but I guess they get to be 14 inches and bigger. Plus they fight just as hard as a bass. I will have to get back there again and try for a few of them as well.

I had the best time and we both caught fish so the day was a definite success in my books.

I had the largest bass of the day right up until about 5 minutes before we left when Casey hooked into a 17″ jumper and won the day.

Casey’s really dark bass fought hard and jumped high out of the water a few times, just to make it more exciting. The strike looked like he hooked into a log on the bottom but then the log jumped clear out of the water.

I told Casey I was going to modify the picture using Photoshop but he worked to hard for me to do that to him, this time around.

Does Casey look happy or what? Congrats and thanks for the awesome day.

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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.

I love talking about how fishing turned my life around when I was just 8 years old. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like if it continued as it had from age 5 to 8. I was already depressed and had nothing to live for, well as an 8 year old I thought that way.

It’s Take A Kid Fishing Day this weekend in New Brunswick, not sure about every where else but I think it should be a global event.

The weather people obviously don’t fish or have kids because they are calling for rain all weekend.

When you take that kid fishing be sure to make it their day, give them all the attention they need and don’t over do things. When they say they have had enough, they have had enough.

I know each time I have taken a kid fishing my heart has come out of it in better shape than when I went into it. Making a kid a happy kid, even for a day, makes me happy for a long time.

When I am fly fishing for most species available to us here in New Brunswick Canada I don’t usually strip the fly in all the way to the boat but when I am fly fishing for chain pickerel I do. Why?

Well chain pickerel, just like pike, love to follow your presentation all the way back to the boat where they explode on it, so I try to keep the fly in the water until the last possible second before I re-cast my fly.

Then there’s that big V-shaped wake the follows the pickerel as it’s headed for the fly. I have a hard time controlling myself when I see the wake and a lot of times I pull the fly right out of their grasp.

Favourite Fly To Use For Pickerel

I use a lot of flies when I am fishing most species but when it comes to chain pickerel it’s almost always a mouse or rat. They just can’t pass up on a big meal.

The first few times, early season, when the water temperature is still below 54F I don’t have much luck with the top water flies but as soon as that temperature goes up past that magic 54F/7C they will start to move a bit and go for those top water flies.

It’s great fun from that point all the way through to the fall when the water temperature drops below that 54F again. But heck it makes for a great time fishing from my float tube.

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I have so many great fishing memories but when Jamie and I were fishing chain pickerel this past weekend I was reminded of a fly fishing trip with Fishing buddy Kerry. We were out in our float tubes for a day of fly fishing pickerel in the weeds, which is always exciting.

Pickerel are great fun on a spinning rod but fishing pickerel on the fly will give you an entirely new experience, one that will keep you coming back with your fly rod. At the best of times having a chain pickerel on my fly rod is exciting but being deep in the weeds and hooking one of these toothy critters on the fly is a challenge. What an adventure.

Kerry was really good at creating a tippet that was pretty weedless because he was continually out performing me.  I eventually asked him what he was doing to keep from getting caught up in the weeds. That’s when he showed me how he had used epoxy to cover all knots, including the steel leader he used.

As soon as I got home I sat down and prepared a few setups for our next trip out, which was at least once a week, if not more. Now I was able to keep those weeds off my line and the catches increased dramatically. So sad that he chose to get married and move away rather than stay here fishing with me.

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