The Joy of Fly Fishing in New Brunswick

I have always loved using the colour red for pickerel. I used to be able to get a wicked plastic bait that was red and with. It looked like a small fish with the head cut off. The pickerel went mad for it and I have even pulled them in over the side of the boat without them even having a hook in the fish.

They just wouldn’t let go. Well I don’t know what happen but I was never able to get those baits again. It was year later that I met Jamie, who had some 6 inch pink sinko worms that did really good with the pickerel.

Well he also had some that were red and I found they caught even more than his pink worms so I borrowed some from him and that was it for me. Red worms until they stop producing.

I have so much great luck using a red worm to catch both smallmouth bass and chain pickerel here in New Brunswick that when Jamie and Casey arrived to pick me up Wednesday morning for our day of French Lake fishing they said there was a new rule.

NO RED WORMS ALLOWED

I can’t tell you how much fun I have using them to ‘out catch’ my fishing buddies, in most situations.

Jamie’s 19″ Pickerel on a Plastic Red Worm

I don’t mind watching them switch up bait after bait while I am using the same ole red worms day after day after day. I’ll tell you I get in about twice as many casts. But don’t tell them that or they will start doing the same thing.

Oh wait, that’s exactly what happened. By the end of the day both Jamie and Casey were using red worms. Oh, alright, Jamie uses them quite a bit as well but changes up to other baits too.

Casey got right into the red worm, once I was willing to share one with him. Guess who is getting an oder with me for 50 red worms???

The Two That Got Away

I fish day in and day out using the red worm when ever I can and for me that means in the weeds. I very seldom get bitten off. I lose a lot of worms because the pickerel come up a bit short and take the tail off the worm but very seldom do they bite through my line.

Well on Wednesday we all made a cast at the same time. Jamie and Casey casting toward the shore across a weed bed of lily pads and I cast away from the shore to another set of pads.

Wind Blow Lily Pads Held Two Huge Pickerel

I turned my head for just a second and heard a huge splash. I looked back at my bait thinking it was me and then I realized it was actually two splashes at exactly the same time but it was Jamie and Casey.

They both hollared a nasty word as they were both bitten off at the same time and their lines came flying back to the boat. I’ve been bitten off before but have never seen two guys lose baits at the same instant.

I am sure they were good size pickerel to be able to do that.

I never lost a bait like that all day long. Although I lost a hook and worm because my clasp came undone and thought I had lost a bait.

At the end of the day I was down to my very last red worm and I was beat. What a great day.

I landed 7 perch and 14 pickerel, the largest pickerel I caught was 24 1/2 inches. The half inch in this case is very important because my last biggest pickerel was exactly 24 inches, many years ago. So now I have a new record that isn’t like 25 years old.

Jim’s New Chain Pickerel Record of 24 1/2 Inches

By the way, my 24 1/2 inch pickerel destroyed the previous record holder for the day, Jamie. Sorry buddy. Snicker Snicker

I feel bad kicking Jamie’s behind, well not really, but I should have after casting with too much slack line and I nailed him in the back of the head. Glad his hat and head were pretty thick and the hook pretty much fell out.

He survived long enough for me to kick his butt though.