We headed to Oromocto the other day for a little bit of fishing and as you can see we weren't the only ones out. Even man's best fishing buddy was on the water.

Our day of fishing started on the Saint John river to see if I could get my first muskie. I waited quite a few years before I felt I was finally strong enough again that I could take on a muskie.

We fished a known muskie stretch up and down for a couple of hours but did get a muskie strike. Casey did get a small smallmouth bass.

After a while of trying for muskie we moved into the Oromocto river and fished our way up to French lake where we hooked into a few chain pickerel. We moved a lot of pickerel but they just weren't very active.

I hooked into a few but missed a whole lot of them. It's great catching but I still get a blast just casting and watching them. Not sure why they kept missing the baits though. So cool watching the wakes and swirls. Sometimes before the bait even hits the water. However I think it's a little more fun landing some.

I was in the front of the boat and had what looked like a big pickerel making a huge swirl when my bait hit the water but nothing on the next few casts. I pointed the spot out to Casey as he was now closer to that spot. He cast exactly where I pointed and that pickerel came flying out of the water and took the bottom half of Casey's Senko. He was a huge pickerel but that was the last we saw of him.

Before I knew it the day was almost done so we took the run back to the Saint John to give muskie another try before heading home again.

Casey Get's The Only Muskie of The Day

Well I didn't manage to get my first muskie but Casey landed a 31" muskie. When he hit it looked like Casey had snagged on bottom but only for a second and then the head shaking started.

It was fun watching but would have been great if it was me with the muskie. Maybe next time.

Taking The Time Taking Care

As soon as I realized Casey had hooked into a muskie I grabbed the big net from the front of the boat and had it ready.

I even managed to get the muskie in the net without any mishaps.

At that point we kept the muskie in the net and in the water so that it would remain calm while we got things ready for measuring and getting pictures.

The muskie wasn't out of the water for more than 15 or 20 seconds.

The muskie was really hooked and Casey felt it was better to cut the hooks than to try getting them out and maybe hurting the muskie. A minute later the muskie was free of the hooks and back in the net while I got the camera read.

He was calm, the muskie that is, but as soon as Casey tried taking him out of the net he went wild. Almost got away before he could be photographed and measured. Once Casey finally got a grip we measured his 31" muskie and I snapped a couple of pictures.

We did see a lot more bald headed eagles than usual. I wrote a short post about that and added some pictures and a video.

From the time I first bought a digital camera to take fishing I have been taking pictures, thousands of them. I still get lots of fishing in while we're out.

I take pictures of water, trees, clouds, sun, some fish and wildlife if I can get close enough for a picture. I often get images that are too far away and out of focus. I just never seem to be able to get a close up image of a bald eagle.

Lots of Eagles On The Oromocto River

On Tuesday May 21 Casey and I were fishing the Oromocto and saw bald eagles every where along the Oromocto river as well as all along the Saint John river at Oromocto.

I don't normally see pairs of eagles but this day we saw multiple pairs and even a few juvenile bald eagles who still had their mottled feathers.

Even though the eagles were still a bit shy and took off before we reached them they still allowed us closer than they normally do. Must have babies they gotta feed. I don't think I've ever seen so many eagles in a single day.

The picture on the left is the closest I got to getting a picture of a pair of eagles. Just as I got the camera up for the picture the first one dropped out of the tree and the second one had wings lifted ready to take off. Just a couple of seconds too slow.

Take a minute and learn more about Oromocto and about the bald eagle on Wikipedia.

Juvenile Bald Eagle

I wasn't sure if the juvenile bald eagles we saw were really bald eagles but I looked online to see if there were other eagles in New Brunswick but couldn't find any. So if this isn't a juvenile bald eagle left me know please.

It's not the best picture but it's the best of the ones I got. The others had branches between my camera and the eagle.

We were heading for a day of fishing at Harts lake and looking at every brook, stream and river along the way to see if the water had come down any since our first day out fishing at the end of April.

At first glance the water did appear to be down some but a close look and it really wasn't down much at all.

Plus when we got close to Jemseg we could see that the fields were still flooded and that there was a lot of water around.

We couldn't even use the launch at our usually spot as it had so much water that it was impossible to even get close to the river to launch. So we moved up the road and tried the old ferry point where the road when straight into the river. A few minutes later and we were fishing again.

My Back Pain Disappeared

When I woke up Tuesday morning I didn't jump out of bed like I normally do when I know I'm going fishing. After a weekend and Monday doing backyard clean up work my back was kind of tender so I crawled out of bed.

Funny how getting out on the water makes a lot of that pain go away and after the first fish of the day it was completely out of my mind.

Nearly Record High Temperatures

I don't think it was a record hot day but I am sure it was within a degree or two because it was hot. I plastered sunscreen on all visible areas, except one earlobe, for some reason, and it's really itchy today.

Even though I like calm days for fishing I will admit I was a bit happy it was windy as it would have seemed even hotter than it was.

We were able to find lots of spots that were protected from the most of the wind and few that we really calm so we didn’t' stay in the wind all day and I got to have some fun top water action.

Whaaat!!? Casey Lands The First Fish, Again?

Hey the last time we were out Casey caught the first fish of the day. I thought it was his job to drive and mine to catch the first fish. Guess I got mixed up on that one.

His first catch of the day was our only bass for the day and was 14". Unfortunately Casey let it go without a pictures. So did he really catch that first fish or not. Hmmm??

It's Okay to Catch A Fish Now Jim

Once Casey had the first fish of the day he gave me the okay to start fishing.

I wasn't long waiting. We had moved into an area protected from the wind and I was standing on the deck in the front of the boat.

The water was very clear for being so flooded and I could see down about 3 feet and a couple of feet out about 15 feet from the boat.

Just enough that I was able to see this huge mouth come out of the depths and nail my bait. As soon as I saw it I told Casey it might be a 25" pickerel. I was close as it measured in at 24". It also gave me the best fight I've had this year.

This guy didn't want to be caught and put up a great fight. He went under the boat pulling drag and then nothing but tension. I thought he had taken me into the prop and hooked me up but a few seconds later he started moving again.

Casey did a great job netting him and one good flip from the pickerel and he was in the net and on the measuring board. I guess I will take biggest fish over first fish of the day but it would be cool to have been both. Ha Ha

At the end of the day Casey had first fish and the most fish with 7 fish. Four were pickerel, two were perch and of course that first smallmouth bass. I had 6 fish for the day and the biggest fish of the day with five pickerel and one fat perch.

As we were heading back to our launch point Casey pointed to a tree of in the distance. It was either an eagle or osprey was perched on an old dead tree.

It was quite choppy so Casey stopped to give me a minute to get him in focus and zoom in enough to see which it was.

As you can see it's an osprey.

I found a few osprey images to add to my Pinterest account and will hopefully add more of my own in the near future.

A Red Herring

While we were fishing a small bay and getting some action from picky pickerel who wouldn't commit to a strike and perch that couldn't get the bait in their mouth I was watching a herring at the back of the bay but it was too far to get a picture.

We fished closer to the back of the bay and I noticed the herring was still there so I grabbed my camera, zoomed in and snapped a picture. He never moved.

Well as you can see from my picture it wasn't exactly a herring was it? By the way the following day was my eye appointment to get my eyes checked and new glasses. Maybe I'll also stop hooking up in trees like I did on our last day. Getting polarized clip-ons with them as well.

Currently I have one spinner bait but I'm now planning on getting a few more spinner baits and give them a try this year. We were talking with a couple of guys who almost always use them and not much else. I have my eye on the terminator spinnerbait.

I used them in the past to catch loads of smallmouth bass back when I was fishing with Roland. But never tried them fishing pickerel.