Fishing New Brunswick: Canaan River

Although it rained all day on Thursday James and I decided to go try the Canaan River for a few hours yesterday. When we got there we noticed the water was up about 2 feet, which I guess is good because it was down a bit and very warm. The water temperature was warm but cooler than before the rain.

We both started fishing with senkos, mine a pink one and James using a red one. Just before some rapids I caught a pickerel. He was just a small guy. He was sitting right in by some grass. We continued our way down the river and came to the area where we have caught some bass in the past. We tried along the grass on the left hand side for some pickerel and also in the middle for some bass. I decided to use a new hula popper that I just bought on Ebay. I was very pleased with the action it created on the water. As I was fishing a fish jumped just behind me saw I threw the hula popper there and as soon as it hit the water I had a fish on. I thought it was a small bass at first but it ended up being a good sized chub.

James testing how deep the water was :)

As we made our way down farther I decided to cross the river and fish the other side as there was quite a bit of brush hanging close to the water. Now using my skitter pop lure I threw it close to the brush and caught a small bass. We went down a little farther without any luck and decided to fish back up the river. As we got close to the rapids again I caught another pickerel in along grass. Again it was just a small one.

The fishing was slow again but it was still good to get out on the water and spend a few hours fishing with James. I am thinking the next time I can get out I am going to give French Lake a try to see if we can get into some more pickerel.

First Time Out = No Luck

Well I decided to take a drive to Little River tonight as I figured I waited long enough to get out fishing for the first time this season. I arrived around 6:30 pm and just stayed on the banks as the water was high and running hard. II stayed by the bridge and casted a bunch of times to the right in the calm water without any luck. I was using a 4 inch gren tube.

I then decided to walk up the path and try farther up the river on a couple other calm spots. I again had no luck so I decided to call it a night around 7:10 pm. It was certainly nice to get out and make a few casts. I am not even sure if there will be any bass in Little River this year as they have opened the gates and salt water (and raw sewage) are now in the system.

I am not sure how long to wait to give Chipman a try for our fun pickerel. Perhaps a few weeks to let the weeds to start to grow and the water to drop.

If you have already been out fishing I hope you have had some luck.

First Day Of Fishing......Finally

Well, it took me eleven days but I finally got out fishing last Sunday. Things came up and I could not get out until then. I called James and we were going to go to Smith's Creek to try some early season trout fishing. When I picked him up he asked if I wanted to go try for some chain pickerel and bass. Of course it took me all of 2 seconds to say yes.

So off we were to our pickerel spot. It took about an hour and twenty minutes to get there. We had a nice talk and the way there as we have not seen each other over the winter. As we turned the corner and saw the spot where we were going to fish we say that the water was extremely high. This did not stop as we put on our waiters and went fishing.

I am not sure if the water was still too cold, the water level, or if it was the wind but we did not have any luck catching any pickerel. We did not even see any movement on the water. We tried for about an hour and then decided to try the bass spot.
The water level was fine here as I do not think it changes much there, so I thought we were in for some fun bass fishing. Well, I was wrong. Again, perhaps the water temperature was still too cold. We did not have any luck at all. We tried for over and hour.

The weather was very nice, it was great to get out with James again, and I can finally say I have been fishing. Hopefully I will get out this weekend again.
Now that I have started fishing I will be keeping my blog up to date.
Happy fishing.

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.

15 Minutes to Bass Fishing

Like I mentioned in my introduction, I mostly only ever fished for trout. I have had great years doing this and will discuss some of these experiences soon. I knew there were smallmouth bass in the Petitcodiac River so I thought I would give this species a try this past summer. Am I ever glad that I did! Like I said, I live in Riverview. I found a spot where the bass from the Petitcodiac spawn. This place, you guessed it, is only 15 minutes from my house.

There is a river that connects to the Petitcodiac and I was told that the bass will come up this system to spawn. This river is called Little River. Depending on where you get in, you can wear waders and walk the system. For those of you that will want to give this place a try I started fishing here the end of last May until the first week of July. After this first week of July, the bass were gone. They must have gone back into the Petitcodiac.

The very first time I went to Little River I got in at the bridge and fished down towards the main river. I used my fly rod and used some green wolley buggers. I did not have any luck on the first couple of bends in the river but then I came to a little pocket on the left side of the river. I threw the fly in and got a hit right away. Compared to the trout I catch on the fly rod this had a lot more weight to it. As I started to bring n the line, the bass jumped out of the water. Now, I am not saying this was a monster fish but having my first bass on and giving me a fun fight and jumping out of the water I was instantly hooked and knew I would be returning many times to try for more! After I released the fish I threw the fly back into the same area. Another hit right away. I threw the fly back in a third time and I had another bass on. What great fun, first of all catching three bass on my first time out but also catching them on the fly rod.

As I made my way back to the bridge I met a gentleman who was fishing. We had a great discussion. I told him I was brand new to fishing bass and he was nice enough to take the time and show me the baits he used to fish the area. He was also very nice and gave me some tubes and jigs to try. When I got home I did a quick search on Ebay for tubes and jigs. There were many sellers that were selling both. I am very pleased with the gentleman who I bought the tubes from, so much so that I have made multiple purchases from him.

Now stocked with a bunch of jigs and different color 4-inch tubes I gave Little River another go. I started at the bridge again and went down the same way. Being new to bass fishing I had no idea how the tubes were to be fished. With the jig, it beat along the bottom of the river popping up and down in an erratic motion. Early in the season this works well as there was no vegetation growing on the bottom yet. I did catch one bass on this trip and had a great time trying the tubes and gaining more confidence fishing for bass.

With only being 15 minutes from home I made many more trips back to Little River. My best night there was a night in early June. The bugs were terrible but that was alright :) This time I decided not to fish down below the bridge but instead I fished up the river. Right after the first bend I caught a good sized bass. Once it was released I continued up the river catching a few more bass. It was starting to get a little dark but I was having so much fun that I continued going up-river. I came to a deep pool and thought it would be a great spot to try. The bugs were eating me alive but it was worth it as I pulled 6 nice-sized bass out of this one spot!! These were all caught on 4 inch tubes. Now I must say that I made my way back to this one spot a handful more times not catching one bass in this pool, so either I hit it at the perfect time or I hit it right at the end of the time that they stayed in this spot. I will try there earlier this season to find out.

My trips to Little River between the end of May and the first week of July yielded me an average of three bass a trip. Being so close to home and a nice walk along the river I can handle those averages. I am very anxious to try the river earlier this year. I will report back when I catch my first bass there this year. Hopefully it will be before the end of May.