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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I have had so much fun in the past thirty years, since I first learned to use a fly rod. I am not saying I haven’t had a few times that I wanted to throw everything in the drink but practice has helped. My older brother did get fed up one day, angry is more like it, and threw all his gear including his rod and reel in a lake and said he was done with fishing. What a temper Bobby Boy.

I never let him live that one down.

In all seriousness fly casting isn’t that tough to learn and you can be on the water catching fish in just minutes. The thing is that bad habits always seem easy learn but are rather tough to break so take the time to learn correctly from square one and you will have a new hobby to enjoy for a lifetime.

Oh by the way it’s never really too late to learn how. Just ask my good friend Casey the next time you see him on the water because he is going to learn how to fly fish for the first time in his life and let’s just say he’s older than I am and I learned when I was 30 and that was 30 years ago.

Here’s a video I found on Youtube this morning that goes into the details of fly casting. What is the difference between casting using a fly rod and a spinning rod. Information that’s useful to know. Even a bit about safety so you can stay on the water longer without sticking a hook in yourself.

But today it’s all about learning how to make the fly land on the water where you want it to. So here it is, enjoy.

Let me know how you liked the video and share an experience with our readers using the comment box.

Doug Swisher Scientific Anglers Basic Fly Casting Video - DVD - Line/term/acc/boats Offer by: Bass Pro Shops Price: USD 17.95 For years Scientific Anglers fly fishing instructors have been helping anglers of all levels improve their skills and increase their fishing productivity. In this Basic Fly Casting DVD, expert angler and teacher Doug Swisher guides you through the basic principles of fly casting by teaching you how to make accurate straight casts, the principle of loop control and how to recognize your casting mistakes and correct them. You can pick the perfect fly, but if you can't cast, you don't stand a chance. Running time: 62 minutes. For years Scientific Anglers fly fishing instructors have been helping anglers of all levels improve their skills and increase their fishing productivity. In this Basic Fly Casting DVD, expert angler and teacher Doug Swisher guides you through the ba

''Lefty Kreh on Fly Casting'' Video - DVD - Video/book/mags/electrnic Offer by: Bass Pro Shops Price: USD 26.95 This comprehensive fly casting video will help you fish like a pro. "Lefty Kreh on Fly Casting" features the basics of fly casting in detail, with Lefty demonstrating casting aids and exercises that will help even advanced fly casters improve their distance and accuracy. Lefty also demonstrates 20 specific casts that every fly fisherman should know, including instruction on:Casting in the wind Various roll casts Double-hauling techniques Casting in tight places Changing directions quicklySpecial Feature: This DVD provides an optional second angle of viewing for most of the demonstrations. This allows the viewer to analyze Lefty's technique from both the side and from behind the cast, fully demonstrating how the body motion determines the motion of the rod and line. Learn from Lefty's video and amaze your fishing buddies with your new techniques! 68 minutes. This comprehensive fly casting video will help you fish like a pro. "Lefty Kreh on Fly Casting" features the basics of fly casting in detail, with Lefty demonstrating casting aids and exercises that will help even advanced fly casters improve their d

Temple Fork Outfitters? Prism Cast Large Arbor Fly Reel - 7 8 - Rods/reels Offer by: Bass Pro Shops Price: USD 84.95 Reel Consistent with Temple Fork Outfittersamp 8217 tradition of crafting high-performing fly reels at a great price, the lightweight Prism Cast Large Arbor Fly Reel are made from cast aluminum making them ideal for freshwater or saltwater applications.

Temple Fork Outfitters? Prism Cast Large Arbor Fly Reel - 7 8 - Rods/reels Offer by: Bass Pro Shops Price: USD 99.95 Reel Consistent with Temple Fork Outfittersamp 8217 tradition of crafting high-performing fly reels at a great price, the lightweight Prism Cast Large Arbor Fly Reel are made from cast aluminum making them ideal for freshwater or saltwater applications.

Temple Fork Outfitters? Prism Cast Large Arbor Fly Reel - 7 8 - Rods/reels Offer by: Bass Pro Shops Price: USD 99.95 Reel Consistent with Temple Fork Outfittersamp 8217 tradition of crafting high-performing fly reels at a great price, the lightweight Prism Cast Large Arbor Fly Reel are made from cast aluminum making them ideal for freshwater or saltwater applications.

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I can’t begin to tell you how much fun fly fishing has given me over the past 30 years. And to think that it all began with a family visit from Ontario and a 15 minutes lesson on how to cast using a fly rod, thanks to my brother-in-law Joe. I never went back to Ontario and since that time I have had countless hours of fun and excitement fly fishing for brook trout, Atlantic salmon, smallmouth bass and chain pickerel.

How time flies when you’re having fly fishing fun, right?

Sage Fly Fishing Rods from RiverBum.com. We give you Maximum Fishability and Lifetime Warranty.

I took a part time job pumping gas for Sears, in Dieppe so I could have lots of time to practice my new fly fishing skills on some of the most gorgeous brook trout I had ever seen. I just kept finding new brooks and streams and they all seem to have hungry brookies waiting for a fly.

So I spent the next 4 or 5 years getting familiar with the waters of New Brunswick and even started fly fishing bass and pickerel which opened a whole new world of fishing to me.

Ready To Fish at The Drop of a Hat

I was definitely addicted to fly fishing, so much so that I almost always had my canoe on the roof of my car ready to go fishing and of course kept my fishing gear in the car 24/7. I could get off work and be fishing in a half hour if I wanted to but as time went on I found more and more places to fish so some days I would drive for awhile to get to some new waters. It never gets old.

God Wants Me To Fly Fish

I remember one day I came out of work ready to go fishing and saw that my car had been broken into. I was instantly heart broken as I expected to see my fly fishing rods, reels, waders, gear, and 100s of flies that took me a long time to tie to be gone. I would have to buy all new stuff and that wasn’t really in the budget.

I looked inside and nearly burst into tears. Then I started doing the Happy Dance. All my fly fishing gear was still there. So I wondered if the broken passanger window was an accident. Then I saw the glove box was open and all our CDs were missing. This highly intelligent thief had stolen about 15 or 20 christian CDs and left hundreds of dollars in fishing gear just sitting there.

I went back into the gas bar and told the guys I work with what happened and we all had a good laugh. Then one of the guys from the automotive shop helped me put plastic over the window and I headed off fishing feeling very blessed that God wants me to fish.

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I live in New Brunswick Canada where I love fly fishing for the powerful Atlantic salmon. I am sure anyone here older than 10 years would have heard about Atlantic salmon, perhaps not by their scientific name, Salmo Salar, as I was in my 30s and already fly fishing for Atlantic salmon before I heard that term.

Personally I can’t get enough of the fight the Atlantic salmon puts up and they taste so good on the BBQ and Atlantic salmon sandwiches are great. But I also like to just sit on the river bank with a nice hot mug of coffee and just watch these leapers jumping out of the water.

I have also camped right next to salmon pools and find that they tend jump even more during the night. It’s kind of frustrating when you are actually in the water and they are jumping every where except on the end of your line.

Black Salmon

The salmon we catch in the rivers in the early spring, those that have been in the river all winter are known as black salmon because they get so much darker the longer they stay in the river. They start as bright silver from the ocean and then slowly take on the colours of the river and it’s bottom.

The Atlantic salmon can be found in the north and south about as far south as Maine, USA, only returning to the river that spawned them so they can spawn in the same place. Because the spawn takes place in their home rivers salmon are born into fresh water where they stay until for a while and then move out to the ocean for 2 or 3 years before returning to that same river to spawn, although they may not actually spawn on their first trip home.

Today, due to fishing pressure by commercial fishers, you will find a lot of Atlantic salmon being farmed instead of taken from the wild.

We are not allowed to keep adult salmon here in New Brunswick but we can keep a few grilse for dinners with the family.  Grilse are Atlantic salmon smaller than 24 3/4 inches.

I prefer to BBQ my salmon steaks but I also enjoy stuffing the entire salmon grilse with onions, tomatoes, salt and pepper. That’s how my wife’s parents enjoyed it as well.

Check out more Atlantic salmon facts.

I fished poppers using my spinning gear for years but I had been fly fishing for many years before ever trying to fish for smallmouth bass and when I first used a popper it was a brand new game. So much fun and the results blew me away. I didn’t think I would be able to fly fish with a popper without popping myself in the head all the time but it wasn’t heavy at all. It just looked that way.

Once I learned how to get it to pop correctly and how to get the wake just right bass were fighting for it. So here is a video that shows how to pop a popper on the fly.

Now if you want to know how to tie a bass popper just head over to my fly tying section here for some instructional video: Fly Tying Bass Poppers

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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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I certainly enjoy brook trout fishing here in New Brunswick, on the fly or using my spinning rod. The thing is there can be so many brookies that all you catch are small ones while the big ones just get bigger. It really pays to study the water so you are casting to the places that should hold the biggest trout or you’ll be catching 10 inch brook trout all day.

Not saying there is anything wrong with that, it’s still a lot of fun.

For Me Spring Brook Trout Fishing Rocks

My favourite time of the year to fish trout is in the early spring as soon as our trout fishing season opens April 15. There can still be ice in the water but as long as you have a clear spot to cast to you can catch trout after trout and they can be quite active even though the water is only a degree or two about freezing.

I practice catch and release almost 100% but in the early spring when the water is so clear and cold the brook trout just tastes so good that I have to take a feed of trout home for my family to enjoy. The rest of the year it’s all CPR, catch, photograph and release for me.

Some places the fishing never shuts down, it’s an all year round thing but in New Brunswick our trout season is April 15 and ends Sept. 15 in all the areas I know of.

Brook Trout Fishing In Late August

When it comes to brook trout fishing I do prefer the fly rod. Fly fishing for brook trout is a lot of fun and most of the time I can fly fish using top water or dry flies that float. Just love seeing them take it from the surface.

The thing about evening fishing at the end of a long hot day is that everything becomes active as the sun drops and the air temp cools slightly. Just enough to make those nervous trout a little less nervous giving the opportunity for a great catch.

Brook Trout, Beaver Ponds And Early Morning Fog

When it comes to beaver ponds I love to get there with my float tube or canoe  just about day light. I used to get there and get right in the water but in the past few years I have relaxed a bit, just a bit and now I like to get there early and sit on the bank while I have a coffee and just watch to see what’s going on.

Get out on one of these ponds in the early morning mist can be almost mystical. Especially when you can’t see 30 feet in front. It’s the time that I find it’s most relaxing, until that first strike of course.

On a day to day basis I prefer to fish trout in the early morning before the sun is high on the water. If I’m fishing a river or a stream it doesn’t seem to matter so much as there are usually plenty of trees hanging over the water to keep the sun out of their eyes and making it harder for airborne predators to spot them.

If it’s cloudy all day I find the fishing can be fairly constant all day long.

When the day has been long sunny and hot I like to get my fly rod out and hit the water in the evening as it starts to cool off. Even the bugs like it when it cools off a bit and become active. It’s a great opportunity to catch a number of trout but also to catch that trophy you’ve been seeking.

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One of my favourite ways to fish for trout or pretty much anything I fish, is on the fly. Using my flyrod gives me an entirely different feel than any other way I fish. I also tie most of my own flies which gives me another thrill each time I hook a fish on a new fly I tied.

I catch trout on some flies that are so small, some a size 22, that I’m surprised they even see it as a food source. But man can they attack those little. Some days it’s just not stop all day and evening. Usually in the heat of summer.

You can stop at just about any stream or brook here in New Brunswick and there will be brook trout. If you can get a fly in there you’re most likely to get some however I have found that moving off the road about a 15 minute walk will land you many more trout and bigger ones as most people don’t go far off the road. You have to break through that barrier of Alders before you get to where you can cast your fly, at most places.

My Choice For Brook Trout Flies

I enjoy tying my own trout flies for my fly fishing trips although I don’t get to tie as many as I once did. Life tends to get too busy some times but there is such a difference mentally when I use my own flies. I guess that would be pride.

I’m a real sucker for the dry fly but then again I’m the same way with my spinning gear. I just love top water action. Very visual. You cast that fly out there and it lands so softly on the water it barely makes a ripple and then BAM. A trout slams it and it’s game on.

My personal favourite dry, wet and streamer trout flies:

Dry Flies – Hair Wing Dry Flies – size 8-18

- Gray Wulff
- White Wulff
- Irrisistible

Dry Flies – Fan Wing – size 10-20

- Adams
- Royal Coachman Fanwing
- Dark Hendrickson

Other Trout Dry Flies I Use

- Misquito size 10-20
- Brown Bivisible sizes 10-20
- Brown Hackle Peacock sizes 12-20

Wet Flies

- Black and Grizzly Weighted Wooly Worm – size 2-10
- Coachman Lead Wing Wet Fly sizes 12 -18
- March Brown English Wet Fly sizes 10-14

Streamers For Brook Trout

- Mickey Finn – size – 6-10
- White Maribou Streamer sizes 10-14
- Black Woolly Bugger – size – 6-10

There are flies that just seem to catch everything so it’s important to treat your fish with respect and if you’re not taking them home get them back in the water quickly. Keep them in the water and only take them out for a quick picture or two and then release them back so others can have that same experience some day. So practice CPR – Catch, Photograph and Release.

I release more than 90% of my fish back into the wild to catch another day but I do keep a few, mostly in early spring while the water is still ice cold. They always taste so good at that time of year. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had any since the previous season. Of course if I damage a fish I will not put it back hoping it will survive. I just take it home and cook it up for dinner.

Many happy days on the water my friend.

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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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I don’t seem to get out fly fishing for trout and salmon as often as I would like these days and I don’t mean because the season is closed. It’s more because I have some new fishing buddies over the past couple of years and we are kind of addicted to fishing for bass and chain pickerel, although they are a blast on the fly rod as well but I don’t use the same flies for these guys that I use for trout and salmon here in New Brunswick. I prefer to use small dry flies when ever possible but for bass and pickerel I like to use big flies, like streamers and big deer hair bugs.

When I am fly fishing trout streams I like to start with dry flies like the Adams dry fly with a lot of brown in it. There is just something about using brown hackle dry flies, the trout just love them and I seem to catch far more trout with them. I haven’t tied any Adams for years so I jumped onto Youtube and looked up a video for tying an Adams dry fly, check it out.

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