Fly Fishing The Kennebecasis

One place that I love to go fishing is the Kennebecasis River. This is where I learned how to fly fish many years ago. There are many different spots along the river that I fish. The most common spots that I fish are by Lone Pine Campground. Sometimes I park right on the side of the highway at the bridge.(If you see a silver Saturn parked there, it is me) I fish down the river from here. It is a very nice stretch that winds and turns a lot. It has some nice deep pools that hold many trout. I also go on the old highway and park at the bridge behind the campground and fish to the campground. Again, this stretch has some nice spots to fish as well. Sometimes, I go up from the bridge and have good luck.

I have also fished by Portage Vale many times. I park by the "green barn" by an old corn field and fish down the system. This area is quite over grown and is hard to fly fish. I have also fished at the bridge at Penobsquis and make my way down the system to the railroad tracks. I have caught many trout along this system as well. I usually get out at the tracks as I have fished down from this area but have never had much luck. I know people have caught nice fish past this point but I have not.

I have never hit the sea run in all my years of fishing the Kennebecasis but still have great fun catching the brook trout on the fly. I usually catch trout in the range of six inches up to 12 inches each time I go. I usually wait until the end of June before I start hitting this area. Depending on the summer I usually have good luck into August. Again, it depends on how the weather is during the summer.

The flies I usually use on the Kennebecasis are the Adams, the Mosquito, and I find that anything that has a lot of green in it works very well. I have tied some flies with no set design but are all green and I have had great luck with them.
(Me catching a monster trout)
I do need to mention that all the stretches I fish on the Kennebecasis are catch and release. It has been this way for nearly 15 years. If I want to keep some trout I will try some different areas. These stretches are relatively easy to fly fish and as they are fairly open. There are parts you have to be careful.

If you are someone that is not too worried about always catching monster trout but instead are happy with a day of good action using your fly rod I would definitely recommend spending some time on the places I mentioned on the Kennebecasis.

A Great Day With My Girls

My girls are having their birthday this Monday so I thought I would put a post that I wrote about a day I spent fishing with them this past summer. I posted this on James' fishing site back in the summer but thought I would post it here as well. Due to James' generosity, I had a fantastic day of fishing with my girls that I will never forget.

As James has mentioned in an article he wrote on his ‘The Joy of Fly Fishing’ site, I had asked him about a spot that he has good luck catching bass and is easy for kids to fish. He was gracious enough to tell me the location so my twin daughters and I were off on what I was hoping would be a great day of bass fishing.

I have taken my girls trout fishing on a number of occasions but the trips never lasted very long as poor fishing and terrible bugs took the fun out of it for them in a hurry. They are now ten so I was hoping that they were getting to the age where they could handle their fishing rods better and not get frustrated as easily.

Once we arrived we got geared up and started our way around the water. It was not long before we started catching some bass. Many of the fish were jumping right out of the water after being hooked. The girls enjoyed this a great deal. They were also using very light tackle so even a small bass felt big to them.

We were having a great time catching fish and spending the day together that time melted away into late afternoon. On previous fishing outings I would be lucky to get an hour out of them. On this day we fished for over 4 hours. They improved their casting abilities and even got brave and touched the bass.

People have things happen to them with friends or family and they say it will be a day they will never forget. Well, thanks to James, this simple fishing trip turned into a day of fishing with my girls I will truly never forget.