The Joy of Fly Fishing in New Brunswick

Over the past thirty years of fly fishing in New Brunswick I have found may great hot spots for Brook Trout. I like to think these are my very own little secret hot spots. I even have a few that my closest fishing buddies aren’t aware of.

Excuse the poor quality of my photo I shake a lot. I do have a new digital camera this years so I hope to take better and less shakey pictures.

New Brunswick has a large number of Beaver ponds that make for great trout habitat. They are not always easy to get to, which is great for those willing to fight through a few bushes for a great day on the water. The spot in the picture however isn’t one of those hard to get to spot. It’s visible from the road and has an easy path right to the water. You can even drive down to the water to launch a canoe.

I had driven by this spot hundreds of times but this one particular day it was almost windy enough to push my car off the road so I was heading to a more protected spot to fish. As I was driving by I of couse glance through the trees to look at the water but something else caught my eye this day. I thought I saw water further back in the trees.

Well I hit the brakes, backed up and waited for another gust of wind and sure enough I did see water. I got a little excited but I have been fooled before after a good rain fall only to find a big water hole.

It was not easy to get through the trees. They are thick and the branches go almost to the ground making it tough to get through, but I didn’t mind as most people tend to be lazy and wouldn’t struggle to get to a fishing spot.

The little trek through the bush wasn’t a disappointment and it was worth every scratch across my face. It was another Beaver pond and it was only a couple of minutes further through the bush and yet in all the years I have fished this spot I never knew the other pond was here. Cool.

Later I found that if I followed the brook from the first pond for a few yards I could get to the new pond easier and I could come back the same way.

Even though this beaver pond was a bit smaller that the first pond it was all mine. I walked around the pond and never saw another human track which made me really excited.

I wonder how many other great fishing spots are just out of view?

Like I said at the start I have been fishing in New Brunswick for more than thirty years and I find at least one new spot to fish ever year.

My best fly fishing buddy Roland and I headed out for a day of brook trout fishing in a few beaver ponds just outside the north end of Fundy National Park.

There are 5 or 6 ponds that I know of but I am sure there are more. We try not to point out their location as they are small and can get fished out pretty easy.

We used to take my canoe back in and that was always a job that had me exhausted by the time we fought our way through the thick brush. Then came the float tubes and that part of the trip got a whole lot easier.

What used to take us at least a half hour to get in there was now cut down to about 10 minutes or so and I would arrive in a better mood and not so wiped.

I actually dragged my canoe in there by myself a few times and was so angry and beat that I had to sit down and wait until I was more relaxed before heading out on the water. Always better to fish with friends anyways.

We have had a few nice feeds of brookies from these ponds.

This one year, about 10 or more years ago now, where the water was much higher than we had ever seen it.

This particular place I am talking about has two beaver ponds with a water way between them just big enough to take the canoe through and deep enough so that it doesn’t freeze to the bottom in the winter so the beavers can still get around.

So, like I said the water was high and it was early spring so we didn’t have the canoe this time. If we had I would not be telling you this story.

We walked into the first pond and started walking around it amazed at how high the water was. It was like a totally different place. More like a lake now instead of a pond. Okay maybe not that much bigger.

We wanted to get to the other side where we could get a better position to fish for a while. With the water so high it was going to take us another half hour or so to walk around it but we were eager and decided to cross at the little water way between the ponds. It was normally about 3 feet deep at the most.

I tried to step in slowly but couldn’t quite reach the bottom but I was sure I was only inches away but didn’t want to take that first step of faith so we had this ‘you go first’ thing going for about 10 mintues before Roland decided to be the brave one and stepped in.

Quickly the water was right to the top of his waders but he made it to the other side with only the top inch of his getting wet. I laughed and thought to myself how happy I was that I was a bit taller than him.

Well I wasn’t standing two feet from his left arm when he crossed and thought I would be fine. Well I wasn’t fine and that water was freezing cold.

I made that first step, right where I thought Roland did and instantly I was right up to my neck. Even though Roland was right their and grabbed me I was very wet and his laughing didn’t help.

I had to strip off and get the water out of my everywhere but fortunately the day was wasted because the air temperature was a whole lot warmer than that water and after a few minutes of grumblin’ and complaining I stopped shaking so much and got dressed again.

A couple of minutes back in my waders and the temperature all evened out and I was fine.

In fishing, trout are one of the favorite “fishing friends” of most anglers. These crafty fish are abundant anywhere. The native habitat of these crafty fish depends on the type of trout.

For brook trout, the native habitat includes the territory from Labrador westward to the Saskatchewan, while the rainbow trout is a native of the Pacific slope from Alaska to California.

On the other hand, brown trout has found its way into the waters of every state in the United States except Florida, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas. It has been reported in the waters of some of these states, but according to conservation officials, no authentic reports have been received. It is also found in many parts of Canada.

In trout fishing, there are some factors that need to be considered in order to have a successful catch.

1. For trout fishing, the leader should not be greased. It will not sink far enough to cause any difficulty when picking the line and lure from the water, but if it is allowed to float; it will cast a shadow on the bottom of the stream which may scare the trout.
2. The trout is one of the fishes that are usually secured through the use of the dry fly. For trout, the current as well as the pools should be fished. It may sometimes be a bit difficult to keep the fly from sinking or dragging because of the various conditions of the current, but this is a matter that the angler will have to figure out for himself.
3. It is not good practice when fishing for trout to fish directly upstream so the flies, line, and leader will float directly over fish. The fisherman should make the cast from one side of the stream so the fly will only float over the fish.
4. It is important to make the first cast the best. A feeding trout will usually strike the first lure presented if it is cast so that it will float over his private domain. The angler should never fail to fish the lower end of the pool first even if the trout are rising in the middle or upper end.
5. Trout are sometimes very moody or selective and will try the patience of any angler; hence, possibly a fly with less hackle will do the trick or it may be necessary to use a spent-wing fly or a fan wing.

Indeed, catching trout fishes can be lots of fun. The anglers just have to remember these tips in order to have a happy catch.

I do use a spinning rod when I can’t get through a stream with my Fly rod but if I can see a path that my fly line can take I use the Fly rod. It’s just so much more fun, for me anyways. Each to their own.

When I first came to the Maritimes I was only used to fishing catfish and pike but it was only a few short hours and my brother-in-law had me fishing for trout with a flyrod.

The learning process took about 10 minutes and I was up to speed enough to catch brook trout. They were a whole lot bigger and easier to catch 30 years ago than they are today but I still get out when I get the chance.

One of the most important things I learned about trout fishing and it goes for a lot of other species is:

• The big ones are there and if they know you are there you will never catch them. Stealth is the key and that is why I out fish my fishing buddies.

Sometimes, especially late in the summer when the water is low I actually crawl to the river bank and cast from behind a tree. I have caught my biggest brookies doing this. I can’t take credit for thinking of it as it was one of my college professors that showed me how to catch the big ones.