Casey and I had given the Oromocto river a try about a month ago and had no luck in the river. Nothing we happening after fishing for hours so we turned back to the main river. The summer has been a strange one as far as fishing goes.

But I received an email from Casey yesterday saying he had gone fishing with a fishing buddy, back to the Oromocto river and had a pretty good day.

Here’s his email:

—–

Fished the Oromocto river on Sunday with a buddy in his boat.

He caught 17 bass and lost 4 or 5 big ones that broke his line or got off tail walking. Several were in the 17 ” range and hardly any under 12′.

I caught 18 fish, 6 or 7 bass,  15″ was the biggest. Caught several pickeral, a few chubby chubs and a couple of perch.

Was using white spinnerbait and that yellow mepps spinner.

It was a great day compared to the week before when I got skunked.

The other 2 guys fishing with us had 40 some fish, not sure of types, but lots of big bass. They went a bit further up river than we did. All fish were caught casting to shore under trees and along weed lines.

———-

Glad Casey had a better trip than his last one. It always sucks to get skunked.

I like casting to the shoreline cover. Used to use a lot of jigs fishing the structure. I also have those days I get caught up a lot but you can get some of the biggest bass out of those spots.

Related articles

• First Time Fishing Oromocto, New Brunswick (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Fishing Oromocto, New Brunswick For The First Time (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)

Jenny sent me an email from here office the other day. A big catfish tried to swallow a soccer ball or basketball.

The catfish was able to get the ball in it’s mouth but then it couldn’t swallow it and then it couldn’t spit it out either.

Every time the poor catfish would try to dive under the water it just bobbed back to the surface. It was pretty much exhausted by the time a guy and his wife found it and rescued it by deflating the soccer ball and removing it.

That story reminded me of a day I was fishing pickerel at Redbank New Brunswick from my float tube. No a pickerel didn’t try to swallow my float tube.

It was a very hot extremely calm day, not a breeze blowing at all…

Peter Pickerel Stole My New Popper

I love fishing the weeds for pickerel and bass. I get some explosive action but then sometimes I like to cast poppers when there is no wind and calm water. Those can be very special times.

I like to cast it out from the float tube and let it sit for a minute or two while the ripples die down, that’s if it doesn’t get smacked as soon as it hits the water, which happens so often.

I made my cast and as soon as it hit the water a pickerel smacked it and it was gone and so was my steel leader and brand new popper.

I swear some of those pickerel need glasses, especially this one. He would have had to miss my lure by at least a foot or more to bite through my line.

I sat there in disbelief for a minute, but I got over it quickly and was back to fishing the weeds for a bit.

The thing about fishing from a float tube is that you don’t go very far very fast so I was still fishing the same area when I noticed a flash in the water. It was far too bright for a fish turning so I moved closer to see what it was but I couldn’t see it.

A minute or two later I saw it again but this time it was closer to me and I could see it was my popper. The pickerel must have spit it out, cool.

When I moved closer it disappeared again, it was still in the pickerel’s mouth and when I got close it would dive but the floating lure would bring it back to the surface as soon as it relaxed.

I had a plastic worm on so I quickly put on another popper and cast over the pickerel and let it sit there until the pickerel surfaced again and then I slowly retrieved my popper. Once I reach the other popper I gave a quick yank on the rod and hooked the popper.

I was able retrieved them both poppers as well as the pickerel. I’ll be he was glad to have the popper out of it’s mouth and was no worse for ware when I released him back to the weeds.

Related articles

• Pickerel Fishing Salmon River From Grand Lake To Past Chipman (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)
• Pickerel Fishing French Lake Fun (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Saint John River, Harts Lake And Some Smallmouth Bass And Pickerel Fishing (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)

I only took about 30 years to actually get around to fishing the Saint John river and now that I have I just can’t get enough. The only thing is that it can be a bit nerve racking fishing from a small canoe.

Even though we wear life-vests we still don’t care to be swamped. It happened once with my canoe and it wasn’t a fun thing at all. Not to mention the gear we lost.

Our plan is usually to check the weather and if it’s little to no wind we will head to the Jemseg bridge and launch from there if the river is calm. Just like it was on Saturday morning about 7am.

We had fun and caught a few smallmouth bass as well as one chubby Chub however once those recreational boaters came on the scene it was time to pack up and move to a less traveled area, like Salmon river bays and coves.

We headed back to Salmon river to a few spots we knew we’d be able to get out of the wind.

The action in these spots have not been so good this year. The only reason I can come up with is the fact we have so much extra water for the fish to disperse in making them fewer and further between.

Saturday on the other had was a reminder of years past with plenty of action.

I cast into one spot and had nice strike but I it was gone as quickly as it had struck and didn’t seem to want my bait on a second attempt. Jamie attracted a nice pickerel on the other side of the canoe.

This guy wanted Jamie’s bait and wanted everyone to know it by jumping clear of the water and coming down on top of his bait. What an explosion.

Jamie now had the biggest pickerel of the day. I still had the first and the most fish for the day so I could still hold my head up.

Then as we were coming around a point heading back to the car I made a few casts to the point but nothing. Just before we hit the bank where the car was parked I turned and gave another cast from the opposite direction.

I made a couple of turns on the reel then something to my left caught my eye. I turned away for just a second and of course I had the strike of the day. Jamie got to see this pickerel come flying out of the water and smacked my bait.

Sure glad I had checked the drag on my reel. I immediately had visions of taking first place for the day.

The fight was on and Jamie was quick to grab his new rubber net and was ready but it wasn’t going to be as simple as that as the sun was directly in Jamie’s face and to make it worse it was glaring off the water as well.

I didn’t think we were going to land this guy and he looked bigger than Jamie’s last fish. I was both excited and nervous as it was the last cast of the day and I saw first place slipping away.

Then the pickerel made one last jump and Jamie got the net under it and it was in the boat.

I think that’s when Jamie asked me how long I thought it would take to walk home from there.

Oh I almost forgot to mention I didn’t have any red worms left plus the sun was now lower in the sky so I had changed to a black senko worm and was having a lot more reactions from hungry pickerel.

My winning pickerel came in at 24 1/4” which is exactly what Jamie said it was before we even landed it. Smart guy eh?

I don’t want to mention Jamie’s name as it might be a little embarrassing so I won’t.

So, I was fishing with this guy, “NO NAMES”, and we were catching a few bass and pickerel, very few for some.

All in all though it was a pretty good day.

We came to this great looking spot that was calling to us so ‘the guy in the canoe with me’ decided to grab his second rod and use this new segmented frog that had a spinning legs.

This frog looked real and the segmented body gave it such presence in the water as it beat it’s way back to the canoe. Very sexy frog.

It had already shown it’s ability to attract predators, bass and pickerel.

So, ‘this guy’ puts his rod together snapped that little frog on there good and made one cast to a lily pad about 30 feet from the canoe. A big mamma pickerel, bigger than my little 24 1/4” pickerel, came flying out of the water, her entire body was airborne and smacks that little frog.

This pickerel knows a tasty treat when she sees one so she decides to get out of there with her dinner.

She shot out of there so fast all I heard was twang like a guitar string snapping and she was gone. Sadly with that brand spankin’ new froggy.

I guess I should have taken a picture of that frog although it was the spitting image of the frog in the top left corner of this post.

The lesson on this fishing trip is to give the drag a testing before casting to a potential pickerel hangout. And to be fair to ‘the guy in the canoe with me’ I’ve done exactly the same thing so it was  a good reminder for me without the pain.

Over the past few years I have enjoyed using the 5” red senko worm for fishing chain pickerel. I was catching so many pickerel while my fishing buddies were struggling a bit, well until they started using them as well.

I was ordering my red senko worms from eBay and then Casey and Jamie started ordering them as well. We were throwing those red worms at every blade of grass and lily pads we could find.

The last time I checked the person selling the 5” red senko worms stopped selling them.

Well both Jamie and Casey bought the last of them I guess because they had them and I didn’t have any.

The last two times I was out, once with Casey and once with both Casey and Jamie I was borrowing their red worms. I don’t really like borrowing things I can lose as easy as a red worm or lure but the pickerel seem to love them so much.

Well on Friday Casey took me back to the Saint John river at Jemseg and we fished from there up to Swam Creek and into Swan Creek Lake.

I was using a black senko worm as I didn’t want to ask Casey for any more of his red worms, especially now that we can’t find any at the moment.

We fished from just after day break all the to supper time and not a single strike on the 5” red senko worm. Casey’s little red worm didn’t have a mark on it. That’s unbelievable in my mind.

It kind of looks like no one catches bass or pickerel on the red senko if I don’t have any.

Related articles

• Saint John River, Harts Lake And Some Smallmouth Bass And Pickerel Fishing (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)
• What A Perfect Day On The Water (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Canada Day, Chipman And Chain Pickerel (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)
• Pickerel Fishing French Lake Fun (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

Well another fun day of fishing with Casey and Jamie on French Lake has come to an end. The only thing that stopped us was the fact the big light in the sky ran out of energy for the day so we decided to go home.

Even though the wind was fairly strong and of course always blowing in the wrong direction we still had a blast. There was enough cloud cover so we weren’t frying all day and plenty of wind so that the bugs had to hang on to trees so they didn’t bother us.

Who could ask for more, eh?

The ride up in Casey’s truck was full of joking around and teasing each other but of course once we arrived at French lake things got serious. NOT. That would just be strange see three guys in a fishing boat being serious.

Casey hooked and caught the first fish of the day. For a perch it put up quite a fight but Casey still managed to land it, even without the use of his rubber net. Sadly that had to hold him for a while as Jamie decided to take over.

Casey lands the first fish, a feisty little perch with an attitude.

Now Jamie’s first fish could have eaten Casey’s perch but even so Casey had the bragging rights for catching the first fish.

The score was now one fat perch for Casey and one long skinny 22.000017 inch pickerel for Jamie. I was still in practice mode, I guess.

Jamie’s pickerel trying to flip out of his hand

Then for a while the two of them were going crazy with strikes, although they weren’t landing any. Casey is in the back of the boat, Jamie in the front with me in the middle and I can’t get a strike at all. It was time to change baits.

Jamie landed a second pickerel, a little smaller than his first and Casey was trying to figure out why the pickerel were not getting the point he was presenting. They just wouldn’t stay on his hook.

Casey was trying a new lure he had just bought the day before but the pickerel just seemed to smack it with getting the hook. After a bit he gave up and tried another bait and landed himself a nice pickerel.

Eventually I had practiced enough and got my first strike and first pickerel.

It always amazes me how three people can be in a boat, fishing the same water, structure and weeds with two people getting attention while the third is completely ignored by the fish.

Sometimes we go fishing and one person royally kicks butt and yet we’re only a few feet apart.

We had a lot of action as well as fun of course.

My biggest catch for most of the day was 19 inches. The majority of catches seemed to be right around 19 and 20 inches but my last catch of the day was my best at 22 inches.

Smiling Jimmy with his biggest fish of the day.

At this point is was dark, very dark. Sure glad Casey knew where the heck he was going because I would have had to stay out there all night waiting for daylight to find my way back.

At the end of the day the final score was Casey with 8 Chain pickerel plus 1 fat perch, Jamie with 10 Chain pickerel and myself with 15 Chain pickerel. I may have started off slow but gain ground over the rest of the day.

Another great day. We got home just about midnight and I’ll tell you it didn’t take me long to pass out once I got home.

Related articles

• Pickerel Fishing Salmon River From Grand Lake To Past Chipman (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)
• Cassidy Lake Pickere Fishing 2011 Part Two (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)
• Cassidy Lake Pickerel 2011 (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)

While Casey and I were fishing Salmon River near Grand Lake we moved into each cove or bay along the way. The water in the river and bays is dark so you need to either hit your fish right in the face or make a big splash near them.

But we moved into this cove that we knew immediately upon seeing it that it was different.

I could see something in the back of the bay but from where we were I thought it was a man made structure. I guess I need new glasses because it turned out to be a brook running into the cove.

Very Clear Water in This Cove

The water up and down the river and in each of the bays we stopped at was a rusty or dark tea colour but this cove had crystal clear water.

If it had been a little warmer water I am sure I would have just stripped off and jumped right in. Next time we hit the river I am sure we’ll head into this back bay and have a swim.

At one point the depth finder told us the water was 8 feet deep but looking into the water it looked more like 2 or 3 feet deep.

Casey took one of the paddles and tried to touch the bottom. Not even close. I tried that in a canoe once and nearly flipped us over when I didn’t hit the bottom.

Even though the water was coming in from the brook above that water temp was higher than any other bay we were in. The temp was sitting at 70 degrees where the rest of the system seem to be stuck at 64 or 65 degrees.

I would have expected the brook to have made the water colder but maybe the fact the water is so clear that the sun gets to hit the bottom more and heats it up.