The Joy of Fly Fishing in New Brunswick

Fishing season is quickly drawing to a close here in New Brunswick so Jamie and I had to get to Chipman for at least one more day of pickerel fishing, and catching, we were hoping.

I've had a lot of fun fishing this year and Casey has taken me to 3 or 4 new locations I am looking forward to fishing again next year but have to say it's been the worst year for actually catching fish I have seen in my 50 years of fishing.

Chipman Weather Looks Good

Jamie checked the weather for Chipman throughout the week and said Saturday was going to be a bit rainy with a little wind which was better than Sunday's forecast, so Saturday it was.

Jamie was at my door about 5am excited as usually. I had been outside waiting for about a half hour like a little kid waiting to go to Florida or something. Funny how fishing can turn us into crazy kids.

At Chipman And It's Still Dark. Where's The River??

Usually when we leave in the dark it tends to get light by the time we arrive but not this day. It was at least a half hour before it was light enough to see that the water had dropped at least a couple of feet. Getting more excited.

What a beautiful morning, I didn't even need a coat or sweater until it started raining a bit later. Even then it didn't rain hard and my sweater was enough to keep dry.

Even once it was light it wasn't bright as the cloud layer was pretty thick. Looked like it was going to dump on us soon. But there was no wind and the water was like a mirror. Just the way I like it for fishing the weed edges.

No Luck At Our First Spot

There are a couple of spots I like to try first at this area but we didn't get any attention from Mr. Pickerel. Not a good sign to start with, after the year we have had.

Then we moved to the opposite shore that runs between the cove and the river where immediately we had some action.

All of a sudden we heard a gun shot and then another and then it sounded like machine guns going off. Duck hunters just down the river from us. I told Jamie he was funny but should probably take off the duck suit.

We caught a couple of perch through the day that were real fighters.  Although the little guy on the left was kind a small.

It always amazes me when the lures are much bigger than the fish and yet they still hit it and yes that's me kissing my perch before releasing him.

Fishing For Flying Pickerel

Saturday was one of those days were the pickerel were literally flying out of the water and travelling through the air before smacking down on our baits.

It reminded me of Atlantic salmon fishing when they clear the water to smack your fly.

There were plenty of boat, err canoe side explosions from pickerel waiting until the last possible second to strike the bait. I even brought a few along side Jamie just to watch him squirm when he got soaked. Sorry about that, NOT!!

We caught pickerel all day, even when it did start raining pretty hard and even when the wind eventually picked up making it a bit tougher keeping the canoe on track.

My best two pickerel for the day were 22" and 23 1/2" but had lots that were 20". I did catch two rather small pickerel. One was so small that I would have to call it a pencil fish and the other was more like a hammer handle but still feisty.

Excuse the goofy look on my face in the picture above but that's my 'So Happy I Caught A Fish' face. Also notice that red senko hanging from its face. Gotta love those worms.

Most of the day I was not fishing a red senko worm, instead I was fishing with a variety of baits but mostly a black and purple 5" senko, as it was a fairly dark day.

Jamie caught this lovely and big pickerel. I netted it and handed him the net with his big pickerel in it and the hook just falls out of it's mouth, barely hooked.

Then just as Jamie went to grab it for a photo it did one flip and slid right back into the water. If it was bigger than mine we will never know.

You can be sure the next one he caught didn't get away so easily.

Jamie Wasn't Letting This One Slip Away

All in all we had the perfect day, even if it did rain a bit. However, late afternoon the wind and rain both picked up and made it quite miserable on the water. We had caught plenty of pickerel and had the best day of the year so we didn't mind so much packing up and heading back home.

Jamie's Been Abusing Froggies, Again

I mentioned in a previous post how Jamie bought this great looking frog and then just gave it to the first pickerel that came along.

Well he bought another froggy to replace the first but this time he thought it would be safer to maybe fasten it to the bottom of his boot.

As we were packing up the gear to head back home I looked down and though the frog was just lying on the ground but when he picked up his foot it went with him. Had to use the pliers to get it out of his boot. The frog was fine and he didn't even bend the hooks.

I still think he should have given me the frogs for safe keeping.

It was a good thing we got off the water because as hard as it was raining and blowing when we decided to leave it just got worse and worse.