I am sure I was the happiest guy on the planet on Sunday. It was a full day to say the least and I am sure it will take a few days to work out all those aches and pains but it was all worth it. I have been out walking for the last 4 years trying to make my heart strong enough to go fishing again and it paid off. I was much more prepared than Jenny was. Going Rain or Shine The weather guy was calling for rain off and on all day which was a bit of a bummer. I don’t mind fishing in the rain but I really didn’t want to put Jenny through that as she was just along to make sure I was ok but she doesn’t fish. That would make for a really long day for her. We fished all day and didn’t see a drop of rain. I was never so glad that the weather people mess it up regularly here. The Long Short Drive We headed out at about 7am after a good breakfast. Even though it was only an hours drive to Chipman from our house it seemed like it took all day. Just too eager I guess. Jenny was kept interested during the drive by watching the wildlife along the way. We have plenty of deer and moose here and they like to get out of the bush and eat the fresh leaves and grass. Fishing Destination #1 I have been going to Chipman New Brunswick for Bass and Chain Pickerel. These two spots are only 15 minutes apart making it a great place to go. Today our first fishing destination was Red Bank, just outside Chipman New Brunswick. I usually bring my float tube to this spot but this day we were on foot. My wife felt it would be safer if I stayed on dry land, at least for the first fishing trips. Fish Where The Fish Are Let me start by saying that when I am fishing alone or with my fishing buddies we never really catch anything much here. Well not from the shore. At this time of year the Chain Pickerel are finishing put their spawn ritual which is carried out further back in the marsh area where you just can’t walk without going to your knees in mud on each step. And if you stand still you will be right up to your butt in minutes. I brought my medium action spinning rod with me because if you do get a nice pickerel you need some backbone in your rod to get them out of the structure. The Catch of the Day My first cast let me know how deep the water was because all I came up with was weeds. It’s always good to know how deep the water is. My second cast I kept just above the weeds and BAM my first strike. My first Pickerel jumped out of the water, spit the lure back at me and disappeared. I was so happy because I wasn’t really sure I would get anything fishing from the shore, so my hopes here began to soar. He was only about 16 inches but even at that size and the right rod you can have fun all day long. I have been fly fishing this area of New Brunswick for 25-30 years and the largest Chain Pickerel I have seen was 26 inches long. I didn’t catch that one though, it was my fishing buddy Roland that hooked that one. I wasn’t using my Fly rod here on this day because there was just no way to get a cast out as the banks are all pretty steep and everything grabs your fly. When we have our float tubes we love to use the fly rods. I think I love Pickerel fishing because it’s so much like Pike fishing. They seem to follow your fly or lure right to the point where you want to take it out of the water and then they smash it with all they’ve got. When you are fishing from a float tube that means they soak you and usually they scare the crap out of me for a second, but it’s so much fun. This is also the spot where the trucker stopped to ask me if I needed help with my boat. I was actually in my float tube and he thought my boat had sank. Ooops, I got sidetracked, again… Well back to fishing. Once I figured out the depth I changed lures to one that looked more like a Perch. It was a little heavier than that last lure and would allow me to get further from shore and it worked… My first cast attracted a 24 inch Pickerel which of course waited unitl it was almost on the bank before exploding on my little perch and then the fight was on. My first fight since my heart attack and I was feeling like a million bucks. If I had to go home right then I would have been a happy camper, but the day was only just beginning of course. I fished there for a while and then crossed the road to the other side where we walked the bank and fished for another hour or so. To my surprise I caught another two 24 inch Pickerel and a few smaller ones. I was kinda blown away that I could catch them from shore here. We have fished this area time and again from our float tubes and never caught anything at these spots. I would say someone was looking down on use on Sunday and put those fish there just for me. Well that’s was the first few hours of our day but that’s all for today. I will add a few more posts through the week sharing more of our great day fishing in New Brunswick.
My wife Jenny and I got out for a one day fishing trip on Sunday, after 5 of the longest years of my life.
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.
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.
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.
A new friend, Charles @ Dr Ordi PC Dr, interested in going fishing with me asked about the cost of a fishing license here in New Brunswick Canada. A few others have also asked about the cost, especially those that are non-residence that I have extended a fishing invitation to.
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.
Image via WikipediaI live in Moncton, New Brunswick and love it. A small enough city that I still enjoy it. New Brunswick has a lot of lakes, beaver ponds, rivers and streams that makes fishing here so great.
Atlantic Salmon - My favorite species to fish in New Brunswick has to be the Atlantic salmon and the salmon is the main reason I moved to New Brunswick from Ontario. I certainly had no shortage of species and locations to fish in Ontario but the Atlantic salmon is a powerful reason to move.
Trout - Even though I enjoy fly fishing for salmon I also enjoy a few other species, like brook trout, brown trout and rainbow trout. Most places here you can fish trout with a spinning rod or on the fly but if it’s fly fishing only don’t get caught with a spinning rod.
Nothing is more fun than using your favorite dry fly for trout.
Smallmouth Bass - I also fish smallmouth bass and for bass there isn’t much more fun that throwing a few top water lures that cause the bass to go bonkers. The explosions are heart stopping.
I love taking new friends bass fishing because we are almost never skunked no matter what the weather conditions so my friends are very seldom disappointed.
Chain Pickerel - From a float tube you can’t beat the fun a pickerel will give you, quite often spinning you in a few circles before you land it.
The pickerel is very similar to the pike I used to fish in Ontario but they don’t grow as big, they only fight like they are that big.
Sturgeon - The dad of big fish here in New Brunswick. The strugeon is so prehistoric looking that you will have to look around you once you see one to make sure you haven’t been transported back in time a few million years.
You don’t want to be fishing sturgeon from a float tube because they may just run you right out to sea.
We also have rock bass, sun-fish, perch and other species that don’t get fished a lot by me. When my son was little we fished more small species but when I am with my fishing buddies we fish the species mentioned above.
Fishing in New Brunswick has been exciting for the past 30 years or so and I don’t see it stopping any time soon, as long as we protect our waters.
