Like I said in an earlier post, it’s been five years since I have been able to fish due to heart problems. Well I’m getting pretty excited and I have the okay from my doctors to get out and catch a few fish. I would have gone today, being Saturday, but my son is moving out on his own today and I want to be here to see him off. I will go fishing tomorrow instead. The only way I can go fishing right now is to take someone with me for safety reasons, plus if I kick off out there someone will know where my body is. (my attempt at humour) I am not going after salmon on my first trip out as I need to build my strength so I will start with a few places that have small fish. I have two places in mind and they are only 15 minutes apart. The first place I will go is for Pickerel because it tends to get windy here in the after noons and less so in the early morning. Once the wind picks up or the action sucks I will move to the Bass, which are in a well protected area, protected from the wind that is. This little spot for Bass is the best place to take kids. They can sit right on the bank of the ponds and they don’t even have to cast very far at all, just a few feet. A great place to picnic with the family, as long as you take out any garbage you bring in. I spend a lot of money on my fishing hobby and I find that I can keep within budget if I use eBay to find those fishing related products I want or need.
Image via WikipediaAs most of my reader know I haven’t been fishing in almost 5 years, 4 fishing season. It’s amazing how much you need your heart beating to just walk.
My wife has been terrific since Feb. 2004, well she was terrific before that, she just showed it a whole lot more since my heart attack. Ah love.
It has been most depressing but I couldn’t imagine going through this alone, I am sure I would have just given up and faded away completely.
Not being able to even go fishing was a big part of that depression during those 4 fishing season I could not fish. It bothered me so much I had to hide all my fishing gear and fly tying equipment away in the basement.
Even though I spent a long time being depress I never actually gave up 100% otherwise I am sure I would have given or thrown it all away.
Really long story short I took meds, plenty of them, and walked as much as I could for four years and even though I will never be 100% I am up for going fishing, so…
I bought another desk and put it in my office. It’s a bit crowded but I have two of my three passions here in my office now. My computer and my fly tying gear. My wife, my other passion, comes in my office every once in a while to see if I am still kicking.
I couldn’t go out while the weather was still too cold, my body can’t take the cold yet but I can be a fair weather fisherMann for a while. It just feels so great to be only a few days away from actually getting out fishing.
I bought a small video camera a couple of months ago so that I could document the progress of our backyard garden and flowers for my gardening blog but now I will also be able to take it fishing and get some nice shots of the places I go.
I probably won’t give the actually locations but it’s more about sharing the scenery and the experience and not so much about sharing the locations to the point of over fishing.
Wish me the best and if I get out on the water I will certainly post about it.
Image via WikipediaI have more than a few places I fish for trout and salmon where it becomes very limiting to get a good cast.
The trees, high grassy banks or even rock cliffs can make it tough to get the cast you need and you really don’t want to be flailing the water trying to get your fly out there.
When I am fishing these tight spots I like to practice my roll cast to avoid the things around me that like to grab my flies as much as the trout or salmon do.
Roll casting works for me and it will work for you also.
I start by taking any slack out of my line. Then, bringing my fly-line up to about 12 o’clock, maybe a bit further back, forming a loop in my line. Next, with one quick forward motion I throw the lope in my line across the water in the direction I want my fly to land.
Some of the places I fish are just too deep or too fast to wade so I have to stay on the bank making it next to impossible to use your Fly rod. Knowing how to use a roll cast will let you fish areas most fly fishers just walk past because they can’t get a cast out to the fish.
Image via WikipediaIt’s always fun fly fishing for trout in New Brunswick. I don’t remember ever having this much fun fishing in Ontario but back then I didn’t use a Fly rod.
It was a beautiful Saturday morning. It had been raining for most of the week but we thought we would stop by Stone Brook to see if the water was clear enough and low enough to fish and to our amazement it was. We were sure we heard the brook trout calling our name.
It was still early enough for our chest waders so we suited up and headed down the railway tracks to where we normally get in. The water was too deep there and the current too strong to get a foot hold so we walked down a bit further.
This is such a nice spot. If we have two vehicles we can park a car at one end and the other at the other. We can fish all day and then it’s only a two minute walk to the car.
If we only have one vehicle it’s still just a 20 minute walk back to the car by way of the railway tracks. It makes for such a great day.
Well back to the river and the trout.
This brook is full of brook trout and it’s wide enough for two of us to fly fish together in most parts.
We have a lot of fun trying to get the other guys spot before he can.
Well Roland and I have had a few adventures and laughed at each other for years and it always seems that we forget to snap a picture or two for future laughs.
On this particular day the water was a bit higher that normal for that time of year. There is one or two spots on the river where the trees tend to cover the entire river and the only way to get a cast is to get in under the trees.
Of course this is also where the water runs a bit deeper. Roland is a bit shorter than myself so he decided to get out and walk around this spot but not me.
I thought I could get through it and almost did, just not quite.
It was the funniest thing because Roland saw me bobbing out the other end bouncing from rock to rock on my tip-toes and just keeping the edges of my waders from going under and getting me soaked.
I had my Fly rod extended in Roland’s direction. He was laughing so hard he kept missing the tip of my rod. Eventually he did grab and slowly guided me to the shore.
I didn’t even get enough of a foot hold in there to get a single cast, just bobbed my way through just out of the reach of any of the tree branches that make it so hard to get a cast.
Image via WikipediaSpring here in New Brunswick has been fickled this year to say the least. We never really know what kind of weather we are going to get but then that kind of holds true for any time of the year here. The only difference is that in the spring things can turn cold and it can start snowing without a lot of notice.
This can make for strange and exciting days on the water.
My fly fishing buddies and I head to Renous New Brunswick every year for Atlantic salmon but one year my buddy Kerry invited me to a brook I had never fished before.
Justing getting to the brook was a chore as the underbrush was extremely thick. I am sure this would cause most to move on to another place to fish. I love it.
I had taken Kerry on a great day of brown trout fishing near Shediac New Brunswick and he was now returning the favor and he didn’t disappoint.
We both had our cars as I was coming from Moncton and he was coming from Fredericton. This worked out great because we parked one car as close to the point we could be leaving the brook, where it meets the Caines River and the other car was were camped and entered the brook.
We finally clawed our way through the underbrush and found the brook. The action was pretty much none stop all day and the scenery was eye popping at times.
I have gone back to this spot many times since that day and always have a great day.
It is far too thick to use a Fly rod so we always go with light spinning gear which is great while we are on the brook but when we reach where the book enters the Caines river we have to quit fishing because it’s mostly Fly rod only at that point.
I think it would make for an even better day if we could exchange our spinning gear for our fly gear once we reach that point. I am sure there is another road that we could park the second car at so we could be closer to the water and the car when we are done fishing the brook.
I haven’t taken Roland to that spot yet but I think this year would be a good year for introducing him to a new brook trout brook.
Image by mrcd@sbcglobal.net via FlickrI learned to read the water I fish from an early age. I don’t remember being taught by anyone because I spent most of my youth fishing alone but it’s most important to me now and I try to show those I take fishing.
I was a foster kid from age 5 up and hated moving from home to home, trying to make new friends that didn’t want to be friends with a foster kid. Fishing was my way of getting away from all the crap life seemed to be dishing out to me. I could lose myself in happy thoughts for a short while.
I started fishing catfish and that was no challenge at all. It wasn’t until I started brook trout fishing that I started to learn that fish aren’t always everywhere in a stream.
I learned how to scan the water and see all the potential feeding lanes and structure. The fact that I caught brook trout in the places I thought they would be gave me confidence on new waters. I could read the water in just a few minutes which made the difference between catching and just fishing.
I learned that in the spring the fish were in different areas they weren’t in later in the year. I also learned that the trout like well oxygenated water that is cool. This lead me to learn where other streams and springs feed the streams and brooks I fished so that I knew where the coolest water was at any given time of the year.
When I take friends fishing I try to teach them a little of what I have learned over the years so they can enjoy sport fishing New Brunswick as much as I do.
Image by nwalpineguide via FlickrNew Brunswick sport fishing gets even better when you are fishing from a float tube. You can move right up on the bass without making a sound which can bring on heart stopping action.
I like float tube fishing so much that I keep two float tubes on hand at all times. I have to pick up another set of flippers though as one of my friends kind of broke my extra pair.
One very hot and I mean one of the hottest days we had that summer we headed to a lake about 2 hours from home but only about a half hour from Kerry’s place, where I was staying for the weekend.
We headed out early to beat the heat a bit but didn’t have a whole lot of luck which is a bit strange because I thought for sure we would get some great bass action. Well it’s a little tougher covering large areas of water from a float tube.
I can only go as fast as my little legs can kick.
As the day go hotter Kerry’s attitude started to change and he was whining a bit which is just not Kerry so you know it was a scorcher that day.
I suggested that we move up the lake about a mile and he freaked, thinking I meant we would kick our way there. I had meant we would take the car as the float tubes just fit in the back if you put them in right.
We reached our new destination and I was in the water and well off shore before he even hit the water. And even when he did hit the water he was just floating around near shore.
It wasn’t until I caught my first bass on the Fly rod, about 3 lbs, that he perked up and started moving his butt in my direction.
We followed the shore link in this rocky area and caught bass after bass for the rest of the day. We forgot all about just how hot it was and concentrated on just how hot it was fishing.
