The Joy of Fly Fishing in New Brunswick

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Unfortunately most people in our city were not ready and are in for a cruel surprise when they get up this morning to see all their junk still sitting at the curb.

In the next couple of days I have to get all my fishing gear in order. I still haven’t picked up my New Brunswick fishing lisence yet. Not having a car since my heart attack really does suck at times.

I am sure one of my fishing buddies will take me Lyon’s store tonight so we are ready and can leave as early as we want.

I don’t think we will be taking the float tubes yet as the water will still feel like ice water and sitting in it too long at this time of year can be painful.

I would like to go to the little pond/lake where I found a second beaver pond in behind.

I always take my Fly rod with me even if I don’t get to use it. I like to see how early in the season we can attract trout on a dry fly. I have caught my limit with the Fly rod in years past but those years are few and far between.

The last time I fished this little spot in the spring it was snowing and raining. The wind was blowing so hard it ripped our panchos right off but the fishing was so hot that we couldn’t just go home.

We froze that day but it was worth every shiver.

There were suppose to be four of us fishing chain pickerel but two of us had to work that day so Pauly and I headed to Chipman New Brunswick for a day on the water with our float tubes.

This was one of those perfect days, not scorching hot, not overly windy and a day fishing sure beats a day at the office. Poor Kerry and Roland we’ll miss you. Ha Ha

It’s always a race to the water when we get fishing but I usually win hands down, but today Pauly was in high gear and before I knew it he was waddling toward the water. I guess I shouldn’t have been talking as much.

He still didn’t catch the first fish, that’s my job and when I hit the water and floated out a few yards I had the first chain pickerel. Let the games begin.

It seemed like every cast we hooked a pickerel. It was one of those days that was just perfect for chain pickerel fishing. In New Brunswick we get a lot of windy days and that can make it tough to fish from float tubes, but not today.

We were casting red and white plastic baits that pickerel just can’t resist. They are so attracted to these baits that they will take them without a hook and they still won’t let go.

I have pulled 24 inche pickerel out of the water without them even being hooked. They just go wild for this bait.

I am sure we laughed all day long and by the end of it our arms were done for, I am sure we couldn’t pull in more than… Well okay we could have kept fishing but only because we love it so much.

It was one of those days that we fish back to back and hardly move all day. One of those days you don’t want to miss fishing just because of work.

Oh sorry guys, forgot you weren’t there.

This is just one great spot that is accessible from the road and you can still catch pickerel without a boat or float tube.

It is a small bay off the main river, they are all along this river but without a boat it’s tough to get to most of them. We will take the river only when we have two vehicles. One to park at the last bay and one to park at where we get into the system.

We can easily go down the river to the next bay and the next but coming back with float tubes is far more work than it’s worth and we would be exhausted. Plus it’s the end of the day, who wants to go back up river in float tubes. So the second vehicle makes for a easy escape at the end of the day.

Fishing chain pickerel in New Brusnwick is so much fun and so easy. The hard part is waiting to set the hook when you see those big ‘V’ shaped wakes in the water as they come from the weeds.

I am sure Pauly and I caught at least 40 or 50 pickerel that day and we never left the bay. We did however brag for about a month, maybe more about how much fun we had while the other two boys worked all day.

Brook trout along with Atlantic salmon is the main reason I stayed here in New Brunswick instead of returning to my home in Ontario. There are an amazing amount of fishing opportunities in Ontario but none that were just minutes from my home.

I live right in the middle of Moncton, New Brunswick and can still be fishing brook trout in less than 20-30 minutes. Atlantic salmon on the other hand takes me about an hour to the Caines River.

Image via Wikipedia

I really enjoy watching the Fishing Musicians when I can. They can be a bit silly but then again I imagine that’s what attracts me to them. When I am out fishing New Brunswick with my buddies Roland and Pauly we tend to go a bit over the edge. I guess it’s the excitement that does it, but it’s all fun.

In this video Glen Ferguson of www.fishingmusicians.com is fishing near Blackville, one of my favorite trout and Atlantic salmon hot spots.

The Miramichi river is North Americas largest producer of Atlantic Salmon.

Here is a list of fishing license fees for New Brunswick in 2008 I found at Goverment New Brunswick Services. This is only the fees so you may want to follow the link and read the entire page:

Non-Resident - Salmon

Season (class 1)
$105 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $30 conservation fee 140.00
7 day (class 2)
$57 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $20 conservation fee 82.00
3 day (class 3)
$29 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $10 conservation fee 44.00

Season - Live Release (Class 13)
$105 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $30 conservation fee 140.00
7 day - Live Release (Class 14)
$57 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $20 conservation fee 82.00
3 days
$29 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $10 conservation fee 44.00

Non-Resident - All Species - Except Salmon

Season (class 4)
$30 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $20 conservation fee 55.00
7 day (class 5)
$20 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $10 conservation fee 35.00
3 day (Class 6)
$15 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $5 conservation fee 25.00

Resident - Salmon

Season (class 7)
$20 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $5 conservation fee 30.00
Kids 10-15 years or Seniors 65+ (class
$8 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $5 conservation fee 18.00
Live Release (class 16)
$20 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $5 conservation fee 30.00
Live Release - kids 10-15 years, 65+ (Class 17)
$8 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $5 conservation fee 18.00

Resident - All Species - Except Salmon

Season (class 9)
$10 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $5 conservation fee 20.00
Seniors 65+ (class 10)
$0 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $0 conservation fee 5.00

Ice Fishing

Non Resident (class 11)
$10 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $5 conservation fee 20.00
Resident (class 12)
$0 legislated fee + $5 fish stocking fee + $5 conservation fee 10.00

I am really glad they have included an extra $5.00 as a fish stocking fee. So much has happened over the past 100 years to do major damage to stock and habitat it’s good to see we are correcting our past mistakes.