The Joy of Fly Fishing in New Brunswick

Jenny and I had our Thanksgiving dinner Sunday and so did Casey. So Monday Casey and I went pickerel fishing at French lake.

The temperature was moving between 3 Celsius and zero which presented us with a lot of fog on our drive.

The fog was heavy in places but most of the drive the fog wasn't an issue. We did drive through one section of road that was so fogged in I had to sit on the hood of the truck and cut our way through it.

When the sun came up we could see the fog light up with a yellow orange glow but couldn't see the sun.  At one point I could see the sun through the fog but had to try to turn enough to get a shot of it through the back driver's side window.

Foggy TransCanada New Brunswick Morning

French Lake In The Fog

There are trees along the side of the road leading to the boat launch and deer love munching on apples so we were looking for some whitetail deer. We were not disappointed as they were just crossing the road heading back into the bush again.

I got out of the truck so I could get a couple of pictures of Casey backing his boat 'Casey 10' to the water. It was definitely the strangest looking launch point I'd ever seen and looked more like Casey was going to drive off a cliff going backwards.

I couldn't see any lake or trees, just fog with that endless look to it.

I walked down to the water where I could only see a few yards from shore. out onto the lake was hard on the eyes as the fog was lit up by the sun and such a bright white. Couldn't see anything other than a 10 or 15 strip of water along the shore the rest was just fog.

When we arrived at French lake we couldn't even see the water for the fog. I walked to the edge of the water and could only see about 20 or 30 feet out into a white wall of fog.

The air was calm and kind of cold so I was glad I my winter clothes but it was always a different kind of beautiful. The sun was trying to break through the fog so it made for some great photos.

The huge fog bank sitting on top of us was great for photos but hard to see any distance around us so I'm glad there was little to no boat traffic.

Best Fishing Day of The Year

First I have to say this year was a pretty cool year of fishing for me as I caught my first striped bass and my first muskie. Now having said that I had the best day of fishing as far as numbers and size of pickerel.

As you can see by the blood on this pickerel they were most aggressive and made no hesitation in striking our baits.

I tried getting the bait out of this guys mouth but he wasn't about to give it up. From this guy on we worked as a team removing hooks so that pickerels wouldn't be harmed.

Just like in humans when there is water and blood there always looks like more blood than water.

I think it was less than 15 minutes and both Casey and I had our first fish in the boat. Casey got his fish first which is always the goal when we first start out for the day. Then it's a matter of numbers and size.

Casey caught the next pickerel which was bigger than the pickerel I had just landed so it was time to pack up and go home while Casey was in the lead with first fish, most fish and largest fish.

In no time he was up to 5 pickerel to my single pickerel. That's when he said he was going to kick my ass fishing. The challenge was on and I don't like to lose a challenge. From that point on my focus was on knocking his fish of the hook before it got in the boat.

My biggest pickerel of the day was less than an 1/8 of an inch off 25" but Casey caught one that was right on 25" and earned biggest fish of the day.

Casey's 25" Chain Pickerel

By the end of our day of fishing French lake Casey had landed and released 23 fish. I may not have measured up for the biggest fish of the day but I did manage to boat 35 including the biggest perch I have ever caught.