sport recreation

The Joy of Fly Fishing in New Brunswick

Posted: 16 Sep 2012 03:44 AM PDT

Last Thursday Casey and I were out enjoying another day of fishing our awesome New Brunswick waters. We were heading for New Horton Lake for a while and then later in the afternoon we would fish the Shepody river for a few rainbow trout.

Here in Moncton there was no wind at all so I thought I would bring my fly rod with me. It's so much fun catching smallmouth bass on the fly rod.

I had a few boxes of flies and my fly rod out with my regular fishing gear when Casey arrived but my hopes of fly fishing were dashed when Casey told me how windy it was at Hopewell Cape which is close to New Horton Lake.

We also planned to fishing the Shepody river for some rainbows as the river would be closed to fishing in just a couple of days. So I still brought my fly rod with my just in case the wind the stopped before our day of fishing did. Unfortunately the wind only stopped as it was dark and we were heading home.

As we drove down the path that leads to New Horton lake and came out of the trees where we could see the water we knew immediately there was a strong breeze blowing.

Not really looking good for the top water lures or fly rods but not so bad we couldn't get the boat launched.

I really like New Horton lake and enjoy the smallmouth bass and white perch. I also especially like the mile long rock that juts out into the lake. It appears to only have a few inches of soil covering but it is covered with trees. As we go by they look like the slightest wind would knock them over into the water.

The rock face continues into the water where it drops off to about 15 feet deep.

We weren't fishing long before Casey had his first smallmouth bass and then his second and third. Man Casey was on fire but with every bass he landed the wind increased and the waves got higher.

Soon it was a bit too windy to do any casting so we stuck with trolling and finally I caught a smallmouth bass and was on the board. The thing is we were only seeing little smallies. We didn't even see a single white perch which are usually eager to slap a bait.

After a few soakings from the waves, which were rather chilling, we decided it was time to leave New Horton lake and try the Shepody river for some rainbows. Casey thought we would have less wind there so we packed up and headed out.

We weren’t there very long but Casey landed six smallies to my one. So glad we stayed long enough for me NOT to be skunked. I’m think I was saying goodbye to New Horton lake for this year but look forward to fishing here again in 2013, maybe even get some use out of my fly rod.