sport recreation

The Joy of Fly Fishing in New Brunswick

Ice Fishing on Shediac Bay, New Brunswick

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:47 AM PST

I was sitting at home Sunday morning looking out into my backyard. Everything had a layer of ice on it from the rain we had the night before. Looked gorgeous with the sun glistening off everything. Almost blinding.

This is about the time of year I start feeling a bit of cabin fever so when Casey called to see if I was up for a drive to Shediac Bay to check out his ice fishing hut. I got pretty excited as I would likely have sat around watching TV and playing my guitar all day.

A Shot From Where We Parked The Vehicle.

Casey said he'd be at my house in less than an hour and all I needed to bring was some food and something to drink. As I was leaving the house my son Steve asked me if I wanted to take his flask with some Scotch to share with Casey. What a great son I have.

It's had been at least 30 yeas since I last did any ice fishing. That was when I was still living in Ontario, near Lake Simcoe. We would take our snowmobiles and head out about 2-5 miles to a huge ice fishing village.

As we were getting close I was thinking we would be going out on the ice with our vehicle which kind of concerned me, but I trust Casey to keep me safe so I didn't say anything at the time.

As you can see from the image above the fish huts weren't far from shore at all. We just parked and walked out to the hut. That was easy.

Casey lives about 40 minutes from Moncton at Hopewell Cape, such a beautiful spot with a great view from his backyard.

Jenny and I love driving this section and visiting all the scenic spots. Check out the day trip we took along this section of New Brunswick and where you'll find the Rocks on the Fundy Bay.

Casey and a friend hauled his fish hut out onto Shediac Bay, in about 6 sections, and assembled it right on the spot. It seems pretty efficient with four side panels that bolt to the floor and to two roof panels. Plenty of elbow room inside as well.

The floor boards opened opposite the door and there was a big hole to fish through. I looked into the hole expecting to see bottom but instead I saw tow huge chunks of ice at the bottom. Turns out they were huge homemade pillow cases filled with chains.

Sheets Sown Together With Chains

They are used to make the bottom a lighter colour so that it is easier to see any activity. Pretty cool idea. I told him I was telling his wife he was stealing bed sheet. Then he told me she was the one who sowed it all together. What a great wife.

Getting There From Here

Once Casey picked me up we headed out of Moncton towards Dieppe and took the old highway 15 which is now Veterans Highway to Shediac.

Once at Shediac took highway 133 until we reached the Queens Warf turn off where the fishing hut is located. We may have taken highway 11 to get to highway 133, not sure as I was busy taking pictures of the scenery.

Queens Warf road was a short drive to the water, err I mean ice. As you can see from the picture at the top the huts weren't far off shore.

Casey and I checked the structure and tightened a few bolts and then chopped the ice that had formed in the hole since he was last there.

The tide was heading out when we arrived and we didn't see any fish but it was still a lot of fun and I can't wait to get back out there again.

I have ice fished, more than 30 years ago but Casey has a couple of spears which I have never tried as the water we fished in Lake Simcoe Ontario was about 40 feet deep. So I'll be getting some video the next time we're out there.

We had a clear, relatively calm and sunny day plus the temperature wasn’t bad at all, however that’s not always the case so it’s best to know how to dress for ice fishing on days that aren’t so pleasant.