brook trout Archives

KickTail XL - Looks so real fish can't NOT bite it.
The patented KickTail® is the only hard swimbait that swims like a
real fish, with its tail! It out-fished other baits 19 to 4 in a Florida bass contest.

kicktail-minnowI’m planning on giving the new KickTail XL lure a try this coming fishing season. I have seen a few ads and videos, from what I have seen it looks so life-like that smallmouth bass as well as pickerel or pike have a hard time NOT biting it. So much so that the claim is that the KickTail XL lure will increase my catches as much as 3 times.

I’m certainly up for giving the KickTail a try.

The KickTail XL has:

  • steel-hard construction
  • more life-like scales
  • better swimming action
  • dazzling colors

I have fished a lot of minnow lures and have a few that I have confidence with but I am always looking for new and better lures that can give me the same confidence.

Watch this video I found on Youtube. I makes me want to head south and give it a try as our fishing season doesn’t open for another 2 months here in New Brunswick.

Watching it move through the water, it looks like a real minnow, no wonder that fish can’t seem to resist it.

Checkout the patented KickTail XL Series Lure @ NGC Worldwide Inc. today and get your new confidence bait.

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3 Brook Trout Fishing Tips I Think You’ll Like

Brook trout from lake in Wyoming's Wind River ...
Image via Wikipedia

I’ve caught a variety of fish in my time but have to say that I have had the most fun over the years brook trout fishing. The brook trout, also known as speckle trout, have been entertaining me for more than 40 years.  So I would say I’m quite fortunate to have so many brooks, stream and beaver ponds close to where I live in New Brunswick Canada.

Brook trout are located pretty much anywhere the water is clear, cold and running which covers almost all the waters where I live. I don’t think there are many places here in Canada we don’t have brook trout. Of course Brookies don’t stop at the U.S. border as they all have dual citizenships.

The rainbow, brown and lake trout are great fun as well but where I live it’s only at certain times and places these species are available however the brookie is available from opening day right through closing day of fishing season.

Trout Fishing Tip #1

Trout Fishing Using Live Worms

From opening day during trout season you can catch brook trout on worms day after day. It’s a food source that’s not natural to the trout but they sure love em. They like them so much it surprises me that there are any trout left.

I like to rig things easy and fast so depending on where I am fishing I will use a worm, a hook and a little sinker to keep it closer to the bottom. How simple is that.

When I take kids fishing for trout, and the water is deep enough, like when we fish the local trout ponds I bring along bobbers so that we can set them for the depth we want to fish. It helps to keep the kids from snagging the bottom so much and they don’t need to pay so much attention to the fishing.

It’s important to show kids a good time when fishing or they may not have fun and never get hooked on the sport, so take those bobbers along.

Trout Fishing Tip #2

Trout Fishing Using Artificial Baits

I like using live worms when fishing brook trout but I also keep some artificial worms for those times I didn’t get live worms or run out of them which happens a lot. One product I like is from Berkley.

Buy this ProductBerkley Gulp Alive Maggots $ 5.99

NEW Berkley® Gulp!® Alive!™ is the next generation in Gulp!® technology. Now your favorite baits come floating in the “Magic Gravy” in a sealable jar, enabling you to recharge your baits by putting them back into the jar for the next use. The new Gulp!® Alive!™ baits absorb 20% more Gulp!® scent and attractant which, you guessed it, makes them at least 20% MORE EFFECTIVE than the 1st generation baits. They also have a 34% better swimming action than original Gulp!®. WOW! More attractant, better action, BETTER RESULTS than ever before! At Berkley®, our passion is that you CATCH MORE FISH! Get yourself some Gulp!® Alive!™ and go have some major fun! Click to Buy

I like to fish trout using artificial baits as well. On those days they seem a little shy to strike I might tip them with a worm or some other product I purchase like: Berkley Trout Bait.

Buy this ProductBerkley Power Bait Trout Bait Twist $ 3.59

Bright, attractive colors swirled together with a sprinkling of dazzling silver fleck — resembling the scales of bait fish that trout love.

Environmentally friendly biodegradable composition. Click to Buy

Mepps and Red Devil lures are two other lures that I always keep in my tackle box. I also keep them in multiple sizes as that can make quite a difference day to day and depending on the water I fish.

Buy this ProductAcme Wob-L-Rite $ 3.29
A time-tested favorite of fish and fishermen alike. Wob-L-Rites cast far and true, run deep, and have a darting, side-to-side action that resembles a baitfish in frantic flight. Especially effective for casting on windy days, fishing in swift water, or when you want to go deep where the big ones wait.

SIZE

DESCRIPTION

TYPE OF FISH

1/4 oz. 2-6 lb. test – medium-light spinning, spincasting
& trolling
Ideal for pickerel, trout, smallmouth &
largemouth bass.
1/2 oz. 8-12 lb. test – medium spinning, spincasting,
baitcasting & trolling
Ideal for steelhead, salmon, trout & bass.

Click to Buy

Trout Fishing Tip #3

Trout Fishing on The Fly

I love fly fishing for trout. It’s one of my favourite methods for fishing trout, well really any fish, is using my fly rod and artificial flies. Some of these flies are so tiny that I am amazed every single time I hook into a brook trout with them. Others are bigger and some are ones I actually use for fly fishing Atlantic salmon, Smallmouth bass and Chain pickerel.

Some of the places I take my fly rod look like I’d never be able to use it so, unless it’s fly fishing water only I tend to take my spinning rod as well, for those sections of the river that are too crowded with Alders and other trees.

Brook Trout Flies I Use

I like tying my own trout flies for those days on the water and I never go with anything complicated so even if you never tied an artificial fly you would be able to put one of these together.

Most often, almost 100% of the time I use dry flies. It’s just so much fun watching them take it from the surface of the water, but every once in a while I will use a wet fly, a streamer or even a nymph to get below the surface if they aren’t taking anything from the surface.

My personal favourite dry flies for trout, wet and streamer trout flies:

Dry Flies – Hair Wing Dry Flies – size 8-18

  • Gray Wulff
  • White Wulff
  • Irrisistible

Dry Flies – Fan Wing – size 10-20

  • Adams
  • Royal Coachman Fanwing
  • Dark Hendrickson

Other Trout Dry Flies I Use

  • Misquito size 10-20
  • Brown Bivisible sizes 10-20
  • Brown Hackle Peacock sizes 12-20

Wet Flies

  • Black and Grizzly Weighted Wooly Worm – size 2-10
  • Coachman Lead Wing Wet Fly sizes 12 -18
  • March Brown English Wet Fly sizes 10-14

Streamers For Brook Trout

  • Mickey Finn – size – 6-10
  • White Maribou Streamer sizes 10-14
  • Black Woolly Bugger – size – 6-10

Tying Trout Flies

I have never bought many flies because I like to tie my own flies for trout fishing. I have purchased specific flies so that I could see exactly how to tie them. Fly tying is a great hobby and when it comes to catching fish I get much more enjoyment knowing I tied the flies I am catching fish with.

Fish With Our Children’s Future in Mind

Brook trout fishing, whether on your spinning rod or fly rod is a great hobby but always think conservation for our children and their children. Practice CPR – Catch, Photograph and Release.

Note there is nothing wrong with eating a few trout. I love to keep a few for dinner in the early spring when the water is still ice cold here. They taste great but for the rest of the year I always release them unless I hurt them during the fight and know they won’t survive.

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Fun Fishing in New Brunswick Canada

Brook trout from lake in Wyoming's Wind River ...
Image via Wikipedia

You will discover plenty of destinations with fantastic fishing in Canada. My special Canadian preference is for fun fishing New Brunswick. NB has a exclusive spot in my heart because that was the place I experienced the beauty of fly fishing.

BTW: For many people it really is the fly rod or nothing however for me personally while I love fly fishing , I really like making use of my baitcaster as well as spinning gear for big bass and pickerel.

Atlantic salmon Angling in New Brunswick

New Brunswick is known world-wide for salmon fishing on the fly. It is also also the main reason I made the decision to stay in New Brunswick for the previous thirty years.

Trout Fishing in New Brunswick

Brook trout fishing was initially a genuine interest for those first 5 years right after I moved to New Brunswick. I found part time work at first so I stored my rods, reels and fishing equipment in the car. I could finish work and in just fifteen minutes I could be angling for brookies. Brook Trout brooks are around every turn all over New Brunswick.

I’ve encountered times when I’ve netted my limit of brookies without moving ten feet from the spot I got in.

Of course I’ve encountered a lot of times in the exact places in which I just hooked 1 or 2.

Chain Pickerel Fishing in New Brunswick

I have to mention pickerel has become my goal for the past couple of years. Pickerel are a whole lot of fun to fish, especially while wading.

The Chain pickerel, acting so much like the Pike, are a wild, toothy and powerful fish, truly able to give you a thrill. Be sure you have a sturdy rod and heavy line or somethings gonna get broken.

Fishing Smallmouth Bass in New Brunswick

Smallmouth bass are generally explosive and will have you on your toes for that next attack. And once they do it’s game on.

The powerful bass can move at lightning speed. Then of course they will try to wrap your line in and around every obstacles so it’s most effective to use a medium to heavy action rod and some heavier braided line to hold up against all the punishment it is going to get.

Note: I carry pretty much the same baits for Bass and Pickerel, it has has helped me save a great deal of dough.

Sturgeon & Musky Fishing in New Brunswick

I have never experienced the pleasure or thrills of angling for muskie or sturgeon to this point although I will have the opportunity at some point.

The reason I have not fished these two monsters is their strength. I haven’t got the tackle or fishing gear that will withstand their assault.

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Trout fishing on Potato Creek, Smethport, PA.
Image via Wikipedia

Trout are cold blooded creatures and are directly affected by the change in water temperature, so the colder the water the slower their energy levels. To raise their energy they will stay close to the surface in the direct sunlight where it is stronger so they can warm up their body.

The quicker a predator can swim the more they can eat. Of course the faster their food source can swim the hungrier the predator will get so it’s important to get that first direct sunlight in order to be the fastest.

I’ve found once the water reaches a particular temp, generally late spring, they do not need to lay in the sunlight as long.

Sport Fishing Those Scorching Days of Summer

Early spring throughout the beginning summer months fish, large and small, are aiming to warm-up. However, when early spring changes into summer the temperatures coming from focused sunlight gets more extreme. Fish are likely to find shelter because of the bright rays of sunlight.

Fish tend to search for deeper, cooler water or practically any kind of obstacle that presents cover out of the sun.

It’s at these times sport fishing can become seriously exciting since fish could blow up on a lure from the security of lily pads.

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Fly fishing for brook trout with fly fishing buddy Jamie Had the opportunity to go fly fishing with Jamie. He gave a call about 1pm and asked if I wanted to head to Penobaquis for some brook trout fly fishing action.

I only got out once last year for fly fishing and it was at least 5 years before that so I was definitely eager to go.

I was a little out of practice and it was windy but it comes back quickly. I did end up with a few blistered but they’ll heal up quick.

I had not been fly fishing with Jamie before this so I was looking forward to it. He said he would be over in a half hour. Well I was ready in about 5 minutes and then just paced back in forth for the next 20 minutes.

Stone Brook is catch and release only, well the section we fished anyways, not sure what the range. But we catch and release anyways so it didn’t much matter. This is one of my favourite fly fishing spot near Sussex New Brunswick. I also love to fish Smith’s Creek as well.

stone-brook-Penobsquis-New-Brunswick

I remember back 25 years ago when I was attending Bethany Bible College, I had to drive past these fishing spots 5 days a week from Mocton to Sussex and the longer I went the harder it got.

I love it when a great fly fishing spot is close, only about 3/4 of an hour so it’s quick to get there and when we’re done it’s a short trip home. We were in the water fly fishing by about 3 and fished to just before dark.

This day was a bit of a blessing as it was a little cooler than the past month or so. It even got chilly enough at one point I had wished I had jacket over my sweater. Catching a few trout soon warmed me up though.

While it was so hot the waters around the places I have been fishing are too warm and getting low but I couldn’t believe how high the water level was.

There was a couple of spots I had to get out as the water was just a little too deep and running to fast. But that gave me an opportunity to pick and eat a bunch of raspberries. They are my favourite berry by far and they were so ripe.

I’m not exactly sure how many trout we caught or how many we lost. I did have a couple on that were about 12 or 13 inches but couldn’t seem to keep them on the line.

It would have been nice to have caught them long enough to snap a few shots but heck they gave me a few minutes of extra excitment and we would have just let them go anyways.

It’s fun catching but it’s also fun just being able to pick up and go fishing.

trout-rod-reel
This little Brookie was only out of the water for about
8 seconds and was happy to get back in the water.

jamie-with-a-trout Jamie’s a funny guy and at one point he caught a trout and yelled out something about dinner. I sure hope there’s a lot of salad if that’s dinner.

A few times the clouds got pretty dark and I was sure we were in for a soaking but they flew by and things cleared up again.

It wasn’t until we were almost back to Moncton that we say it had been raining pretty hard in place, just not where we were fishing.

Like most fishing trips time flew by way to fast and soon it was time to head home again.

One of the things I really like about the spot we were fly fishing. You can fish all day long and then climb out onto the railway tracks and you’re back at your vehicle in 15 or 20 minutes.

Although it’s hard walking back along the tracks when you keep hearing fish jump right beside you. However it was getting close to dark. We will be back to get those jumpers another day.

tracks-to-the-car

Thanks for the great day on the water, fly fishing is so much fun, especially with a friend that doesn’t mind me yelling ‘Fish On’ a lot. Ha

Take A Kid Fishing Day This Weekend

Doing a Little Fishing
Image by Just Us 3 via Flickr

I love talking about how fishing turned my life around when I was just 8 years old. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like if it continued as it had from age 5 to 8. I was already depressed and had nothing to live for, well as an 8 year old I thought that way.

It’s Take A Kid Fishing Day this weekend in New Brunswick, not sure about every where else but I think it should be a global event.

The weather people obviously don’t fish or have kids because they are calling for rain all weekend.

When you take that kid fishing be sure to make it their day, give them all the attention they need and don’t over do things. When they say they have had enough, they have had enough.

I know each time I have taken a kid fishing my heart has come out of it in better shape than when I went into it. Making a kid a happy kid, even for a day, makes me happy for a long time.

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fly-in-fishing-tripI was always curious about fishing for lake trout but never really cared much for fishing so deep. I am more a shallow water or top water guy. But I still wanted to experience catching big fish that are much deeper than any fresh water fishing I have ever tried.

So a friend and I saved up the money to go on a fly in fishing adventure an hour or so flight north of New Brunswick into Quebec.

The screen capture from Google Maps show where we started and where we landed to go fishing. At the bottom of the image you will see the water that separates New Brunswick and Quebec. We took a ferry across to Baie Comeau.

From there we stayed the night and the next morning, bright and early, we were on a flight north, with lots of beer I might add. I am not much of a drinker but my buddies sure were. I am sure they brought their own weight just in beer. It was funny to see it all piled up for a 7 day trip.

The beer was gone by the end of the trip and we never took any out on the water. Man they drank a lot of beer, at least five to my one.

We started our fishing going deep, real deep, almost 100 feet, but we really were not equipped for that kind of fishing and it took for ever to get our lures down that deep.

We still caught lake trout and were happy as kids in a candy store.

After a couple of days of fishing really deep I took one of the boats out and headed to a couple of spots I thought I might catch some brook trout. No luck with the brookies, never saw or hooked one all week. But…

… I did see a big fish that I thought would be a record brook trout. She was sitting in a small cove in very shallow water, so shallow I am sure it was not more than 3 or 4 feet deep at the deepest points.

I cast my line in that direction and BAM Fish On.

jimandlaketroutPicture taken by Fishing Friend Kerry Jones

It turned out not to be a brook trout but a lake trout. I hadn’t even thought of it being a lake trout as I had only thought of them in deep deep water.

I am not sure how long I was there before guilt started setting in and I headed back to the camp to tell the boys about it.

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