Fishing New Brunswick: Afternoon in Chipman

James and I decided to go fishing on Saturday. James came over to my house and helped me put the canoe on my new car as I wanted someone there to help me as I just got the car two weeks ago. The canoe went on and is more secure than on the Saturn.




When we got to Chipman we went to our regular spot to take a look. We figured the water would still be fairly high and we were right. We decided to go to another spot as we thought the water would be a little lower. We also wore our waiters which turned out good as we were able to get out a few times and fish from the sore to give us a stretch.




Throughout the day I had had a few pickerel chase my baits and I did not land any fish. As for James, I am not sure what he was doing all winter but it worked. He landed 6 or 7 pickerel and was was a very nice size. (See pic). If I was getting skunked I was at least glad someone was catching fish.....not really :) We used many different colored 6 inch worms and we used a little weight as the weeds have not grown much so we thought we would keep the baits a little below water level. James had most of his luck using the color red this day.

I am sure the water will continue to drop and our regular spot will look more to normal within a few weeks. I look forward to trying it again and hopefully this time James can take a few pictures of me catching some fish :)

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.

Just a Few Days Away Now

I am not sure about you but with fishing season just a few days away I am getting very excited. I am not sure how soon I will get out but hopefully it will be fairly early as we have had a nice few weeks and pretty well all the snow is gone.

Again this year, I hope to keep this site updated every time I go fishing. I know it does not generate a lot of traffic but I have received some positive feedback which makes it worthwhile.

Less Than Two Months to Go!!!

I know it is still quite a ways away but I start to get excited once we get under two months. It has been close to four months since I have fished so I am getting quite excited to hit the water again.
Around here I find the fishing does not really pick up until May but with the winter we are having perhaps things will be a bit earlier this year.
I am looking forward to getting out in the canoe with James and doing our favorite pickerel fishing. We also discussed at the end of last season that we are going to try to do more bass fishing as well.
I hope the rest of you are getting as excited as I am for the beginning of fishing season. As the season gets closer I hope to start adding more to my blog.

Fishing Done For Another Season

Once school started a few months ago life got very busy. This is why I have not updated my blog. I do have to make time as I enjoy telling about the fishing trips I take. Since my last update I did go to Chipman a few times to fish pickerel. I also went to french Lake to try it as well. The day James and I went to French Lake we had some success but then the wind picked up so we decided to go to Chipman. The last time James and I went to Chipman it was close to the October 15th fishing cutoff date. It was a wet day but we both had rain suits so we did not mind. The water was up a good three feet because of all the rain we had. I had a few fish hit my baits but did not get a fish to the boat all day. James caught 4 or 5 throughout the day. We were certainly hoping for more but that is fishing.

I am looking forward to next season already and will use the "off season" to restock some baits. I recently went on Mister Twister's website and ordered some top props as a friend said they work very well so I am excited to give them a try next season. I will also have to take the exam to get my boater's licence so I will be able to use my trolling motor. Yes, I need it to use my trolling motor on my 13 foot canoe. Silly, yes. Money grab by the government, yes. But that can be another blog!! :)

One of the highlights was when I took my daughter Amy to Chipman to try for some bass and pickerel. We first went to the pond where we had great luck from shore catching bass last year. I am not sure what happened there but I tried there 4 times this year and did not catch a fish. We left there and I asked her if she wanted to try for some pickerel and she said yes. We again just fished from shore. She did a good job casting and soon had a few hits and was having fun. We went to the other side of the road and worked our way along the edge of the water. We had some big strikes and she enjoyed that. She then made a cast and had a fish on! She was able to reel it in by herself and ended up catching her first pickerel all by herself. She was impressed with how it fought and how heavy it was.

James and I are also going to make an effort to try some more bass fishing next season as well. We would talk about it but we usually ended back at Chipman because we have so much fun there.

I hope everyone has a great winter and I hope everyone will be as excited for April 15th as I will be.

Four More Rainbows

Dave and I went back to Crooked Creek this afternoon and we each ended up catching two rainbow trout. All four fish were caught on Royal Coachmans.

We did not get at the brook until 3pm as we each had things we had to get done. We were able to get quite a ways up the river as we fished the pools and then walked the woods a lot. The last pool we got to was the spot that I caught the rainbow that is in the picture. It came up a few times at my fly and at Dave's and then it finally took mine.

We had a great afternoon hiking and fishing in this beautiful area. We are hoping to get there one more time before Dave has to go home.

Fishing at Crooked Creek

My brother-in-law Dave is home from Calgary. I always enjoy this time because he is an avid fisherman like me. Before he moved out West we would spend many days fishing at Crooked creek. On his return trips home we always make sure to take a few days and return to fish at this beautiful spot.
On last Sunday we decided to go. We arrived at Crooked Creek at around noon for an afternoon of fishing. This was the first time I have been at Crooked creek all summer. We figured the water would be running high and hard because of all the rain we have received all summer. We were correct in this assumption as the water was very high and running very hard for this time of year. We decided to give it a try since we were there. We said we would go a ways up the water and if we did not get any action at all we would leave and try the Kennebecasis.

We tried the first few pools with no action at all. We were using different dry flies. My favorite one to use there is my home-made Royal Coachman. I have had excellent luck at Crooked Creek using this fly.
We knew there were a couple of other pools just a little further up the system so we kept going. At the next pool I caught a little brook trout at the head of the heavy water in front of the pool. We said at least we saw a fish and Dave went to the next spot just above this one. In a few minutes he called my name as he had a nice rainbow trout come after his fly. He said he did get the fish close to shore but did not set the fly properly and the fish got off. This was enough for us to continue fishing. The next pool is a very deep spot that we have had good luck at over the years. Dave fished the pool for a few minutes and then I tried my Royal Coachman a few times. On one cast I thought I saw a rainbow swirl a little to the left of the fly so I casted again in the same area and the fish hit the fly right away. I got the fish in and we were excited to at least catch one fish in these water conditions. We fished here a few more minutes and I had one more small rainbow come up but it did not take the fly. Around the corner was another favorite spot of ours so we ventured to it.

Dave, who now had a Royal Coachman on tired this spot with no luck. I moved to the back of the pool and casted my Royal Coachman in a few times and again I thought I saw a swirl. I threw the fly in again and a very nice-sized rainbow jumped completely out of the water at the fly but missed. At this time I yelled at Dave to let him know what I just saw but because of the heavy water running into this spot he did not hear me. I casted again and the fish hit right away. I gave Dave another yell and told him I had a nice one on. Again because of this action we decided to go a little further up the system.

We could a few small brook trout but decided to turn back after a few more spots. We said we would hopefully be back in a week or so to go further hoping the water would be down some.
On the way back to the car we fished the same spot again. On a spot that we have not had much success in recent years Dave caught a nice rainbow.

I was pleased just to get out fishing with Dave at Crooked Creek but also pleased that we both caught some fish. Hopefully the water will drop some so the next time we go the conditions will be a little easier to fish.