When it comes to fishing around the world trout fishing seems to be the most popular for most anglers. I would have to agree with that most of the time although bass fishing puts up a good fight for first place among sports fishers like myself here in North America.

I have been fishing for these rather abundant yet crafty fish using my spinning gear and fly fishing gear for about half a century. Trout fishing just never gets old whether I’m fishing a lake, pond, river or brook.

I live in North America, Canada actually and we have trout all the way from the east coast, where I currently live to the west coast where I’d love to take a fishing trip some day. The trout in it’s many forms such as brookies or speckled, rainbow, brown and even lake trout are all over most parts of North America but they are not limited to N.A.

The Trout Habitat I Love To Fish

I really don’t find fishing lakes for trout as exciting as I do fly fishing a stream for brookies probably because a brook is so much more visual. But I won’t turn down a trip to a lake for some trout fishing.

One of my best fishing trips was a fly in trip into Quebec for lake trout and pike. A fishing trip I will not soon forget as I got to sight fish for spawning lake trout, my first chance to fly fish for lake trout.

We have rivers here in New Brunswick with Brown trout in them. I didn’t even realize we had brown trout here so you can imagine how excited I was when I landed my first brown trout ever in a brook I was fishing for brook trout in.

Luck can be a big part of fishing and I enjoy making a cast that hooks into a fish I didn’t expect.

My fishing buddies tend to think I’m lucky or have horse shoes up my behind when I catch a big one.  Of course when it’s them that makes the big catch it’s all skill.

The truth is there are always a few things you can learn to do while fishing that will make you a better trout angler.

1. When trout fishing a stream don’t get in the water until you have evaluated the lay of the water and structure. What’s happening in and around the water that will tell you want might be happening under the water.
2. Knowing what the trout are feeding on will give you a big advantage so follow step one first and then step two is to turn over a few rocks that are under the water to see what kind of life is living there, then use a bait that matches what you find.
3. Having taken the time to read the water and surrounding for indicators of what the trout are feeding on and you have turned a few rock you now need to get your bait or fly where the fish live, but not on top of their head as you will spook them and never catch much other than dumb fish which are usually quite young and small.
4. Situate yourself so that you are not in a feeding lane and then cast ahead of the fish so that the bait or fly will drift into the fishes feeding zone. You are much more likely to get that big one when you’re stealthy.
5. Patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to trout fishing as they are extremely easy to spook. Practice patience and you will do much better. When you accidently slap your bait or fly on the water and spook a fish, stop, take a break to give the fish a few minutes to calm down. That’s when you get the big one and the other guy gets skunked.

Bonus Trout Fishing Tip

A real key to successful trout fishing is to go with a fishing setup that will give you the most excitement and sometimes that means going with a light setup for those smaller trout. I have so much more fun when I am fishing light tackle or fly fishing setup that matches the size of the trout I am fishing.

These 5 useful trout fishing tips will help you catch more trout and even bigger trout in the same water you couldn’t catch them before. Happy fishing and remember to take a kid fishing, it could change their life like it did mine.

Related articles

• 3 Fly Fishing Tips To Help Catch More Brook Trout (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Atlantic Salmon Fishing New Brunswick (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

My love of fishing began just about 50 years ago when I moved from Toronto to a foster home in the country. It was a 100 acre beef farm with a river running through the back end. I spent a lot of hours fishing for catfish. It was were I went get rid of stress.

Those memories of fishing are as fresh in my mind today as they were 50 years ago. Take a kid fishing and change a life.

I couldn’t wait to get out of that foster home and eventually moved to New Brunswick Canada where I still had blood relatives.

It was New Brunswick where I learned how to use a fly rod for the first time and spent the next 5 years finding and fly fishing every trout streams, brook and beaver pond I could find. I also spent a lot of time fly fishing for Atlantic salmon but that’s for another post.

Trout Fishing Tip #1 – Patience Wins The Day

As many years as I have been fishing I still get more excited the closer I get to a fishing spot.

I used to be the first to the water and usually the first to catch a fish but I wonder just how many bigger, wiser fish I spooked being in such a hurry.

I remember watching brother-in-law Joe, the guy who taught me to use a fly rod. He was slow and pokey but it turns out that he was more methodical about fly fishing and would always catch the bigger fish. it took me a few years to calm down enough to pay attention to him.

Joe would get all geared up, then he would creep down to the edge of the water, find a comfy rock and have a coffee while watching what was going on in and around the water.

Trout Fishing Tip #2 – Being Stealthy Wins The Day, Again

I learned a bit of patience from Joe but I learned to be a stealthy fly fishing from a college professor who was an avid fly fisher.

My professor asked me if I wanted to go fly fishing after supper as he knew I carried my fishing gear everywhere I went.

Well he took me to a spot I have fished many times and caught some nice fat 12 and 13 inch brookies. Nothing any bigger than that there, I thought.

Well I was about to find out there were much bigger brookies in that brook.

We didn’t take the same path I usually took to fish this spot. He took me up river a bit where we crossed to the other side and came back down to where I usually start fishing.

Before getting to the brook he started to crouch and almost crawled to a tree right on the river bank. From behind the tree he pointed out a little riffle of water going under an overhanging tree on the other bank.

He made one false cast to get the line out and then changed his direction and landed a small dry fly at the beginning of the riffle and let it drift under the tree. A huge splash and he had on a brook trout that could eat the trout I usually catch there.

I was blown away when he netted the first 18 inch brook trout I had ever seen.

He said to give that spot a break for a few minutes and we moved to the next spot where he did the same thing. Kinda crawled to a spot he could get a good cast with his fly, without being seen by any fish. Heck I used to just walk up and start casting.

This time he hooked into a 16 inch brookie.

The next spot it was my turn. I did all the stealth and tried to keep low in the tall grass. I had a bit of trouble making a cast in that position and my fly slapped the water. Big mistake when you’re fly fishing spooky fish like brook trout.

I did hook a 13 inch brook trout. Guess he wasn’t as smart as those bigger brookies who took off when I smacked the water.

Trout Fishing Tip #3 – Learn To Read The Water

Back to brother-in-law Joe who taught me to fly fish with a bit of patience. Well Joe also taught me about reading my surroundings. Something I have taught many people over the years.

He’d sit there sipping his coffee and reading the river for potential fish locations were we could take a fish.

Once he had them pointed out we would watch those spots. It was amazing to me when we would see a brookie take something from the surface, exactly where he showed me.

The more I observed the better I got at observing which showed in the numbers of fish I was catching on the fly. I actually got to the point where people I took fishing were impressed with my talents, talents I had to learn from others.

Related articles

• Atlantic Salmon Fishing New Brunswick (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

I am really looking forward to the 2011 fishing season opening in a couple of weeks. This year I am focusing on besting my own personal best chain pickerel of 25 inches from 2010.

2010 Personal Best Pickerel @ 25″

Yeah, it’s still an inch shy of Rolands first pickerel of 26 inches, which was the same day I caught my previous PB at 24 inches but some day I’ll even beat that 26 inch pickerel.

The guy in the picture to the right, I believe his name is Jim, has a pickerel just shy of 6 pounds, that’s just about the size I plan to land in 2011, so look out boys.

I waited about 20 years to land a bigger pickerel and I’m willing to keep trying for the next 20 to best my new PB of 25 inches.

Today I would like to share some facts about pickerel I found surfing around the net.

Some of it I have already said so you likely know the pickerel is part of the pike family. No surprise that they are extremely aggressive. That’ll work from me. I love having them smacking my baits, artificial flies included.

I have used a lot of baits to attract pickerel but by far baits and flies with red in them, blood red actually seem to be the most productive in just about any conditions.

When a pickerel sees red they see red, so be ready.

I have used plastic baits and landed pickerel that didn’t even have a hook in them. They just won’t let go of the bait.

I have also caught pickerel that had a fish in their mouth they couldn’t even swallow but still attacked my bait. Very aggressive fish.

The days the pickerel are on, which is most days, I don’t even like putting my hands in the water to clean them. I do it real quick like.

I have visions of a pack of these pickerel hanging out under the boat just waiting from me to dangle my fingers in the water.

One of their nicknames is the lightening fish, with good reason. They go from one spot to the next in a flash.

A Pickerel By Any Other Name

Here in New Brunswick we call the pickerel by the name Chain pickerel, well maybe not everyone, but I do. I ‘ve heard them called Jacks as well but today I was browsing around online and found a few more names.

• Eastern pickerel
• Mud pickerel
• Grass pickerel
• Lake pickerel

Those a just a few, there are other names as well, my favourite being the Reticulated pickerel.

“Hey buddy what you fishin’ for today?” Reticulated Pickerel “What??”

Where Do Pickerel Live

I have only ever fished for pickerel here in New Brunswick Canada and thought it was about as far west as they go. However, I have heard that 2 pickerel have been landed around 1000 Islands in the St. Lawrence River. That was in 2010 by the way.

They follow the east coast all the way to Florida and as far west as Alabama.

Wouldn’t that make for a great road trip? I’m packed and waiting.

Pickerel Characteristics

The Chain pickerel, err I mean Reticulated pickerel has the following characteristics:

They have a long narrow body, covered with a chain-link pattern that runs down both sides of their body, which is where it gets the name Chain Pickerel

The pickerel, starting with it’s back is usually black. When you look down on them in the water the black makes them almost invisible against the bottom.

Going the sides toward the belly, which is white, it changes from dark green chain link pattern gradually getting lighter as it reaches it’s white belly. Great camouflage as they can sit just inches under the water and you can’t see them.

The average length seems to be about 15 to 20 inches (38.1 to 50.8 cm) and can reach about 30 inches (76.2 cm). That 30 inches is now my new goal and then I’ll have to move away or start fishing for musky.

The Chain Pickerel Spawn

Chain Pickerel spawn early spring usually at ice out as the water temperature get close to 50 F (10 C). They tend to look for back water bays that are about 3 feet deep as they warm up faster than deeper water areas.

The female lays in the area of 50 thousand eggs or so and then just leaves them to fend for themselves. Bad Mother!!

Their young take about 3 years to reach fourteen inches long and may not become sexually mature until their in their fourth year. So set those little guys free so they get the chance to experience the joy of sex, at least once.

I’ve heard that the pickerel is not classified as a sport fish however I do and have great fun competing with my fishing buddies. Loser buys the ice cream on the trip home.

I practice catch and release, seldoming keeping any fish, unless I hurt them and know they won’t survive. The chain pickerel has very tasty white flesh.

Here in New Brunswick I usually find them in water that tends to have a muddy bottom and lots of grass and weeds. They can taste a bit weedy or swampy when the water gets to warm so if I plan to have a feed of pickerel I prefer to have it in the early spring while the water is still cold.

Oh yeah, they also have been called chain lightening as they dart out so fast to snatch food that you can hardly see them. Their lightening speed and aggressive nature and of course the fight is why I’m addicted to pickerel fishing, sport fish or not.

Look out Chain pickerel, we have some extremely hard to resist flies that have your name on them. But fear not as we always practice CPR, catch, photo and release and sometimes a little kiss just before we send you back to family and friends again.

Hey, we’re trying to take a picture here.

Casey and Jamie have taken me fishing so much in past few years I could never say thanks enough but in that time they have never done any fly fishing for pickerel so you can imagine my surprise when Casey emailed asking if I have any flies for chain pickerel. I am so looking forward to 2011.

My first adventure for pickerel on the fly was with my fishing friends Roland and Paul. We headed out on a little body of water I won’t mention here but we were in our float tubes. At the beginning it didn’t look like we were going to catch anything making us wonder if there were any fish in this place.

Once we reached the opposite side from where we launched our float tubes we had our first attack and then it was non-stop for hours and hours. We didn’t hook into any large pickerel on this trip but we did get into numbers that had us laughing for most of the day. I showed Jamie this little spot as we passed it on our way to do some trout fishing on the fly and I am sure we will be there with the float tubes this year.

Some of the flies we used on that trip were small brook trout dry flies, the same kind that I caught my very first pickerel with. They worked really well. Of course we had to a few Atlantic salmon flies, like the Mickey Finn. They worked as well but the three of us really love the top water action so we went back to top water flies like deer hair bugs and poppers I tie for the smallmouth bass I fly fishing trips.

I am going to be tying a few of the flies I have mentions, enough for Casey, Jamie and myself but I have also been looking online to see what other flies I might want to tie that will attract more chain pickerel.

Wooly Bugger Leech Pattern

I really like the wooly bugger, leech pattern and so does the chain pickerel here in New Brunswick but they didn’t last very long as we were fishing without any leader and I lost the only two wooly buggers I had. So I will certainly be tying a few wooly bugger patterns for the three of us, however this time around I will be sure to use some fluorocarbon leader and maybe keep those flies longer than one cast each.

Tip For Fishing The Wooly Bugger – It took me a little while to figure out the best retrieve for the wooly bugger but the minute I got it right I had immediate action. Kind of like the pickerel was looking at the leech and wondering why it didn’t swim right. Once I started giving it about 6 inch stripes and pausing they would strike and strike hard.

I am going to start with the wooly bugger and I will tie up a hand full of those. Then I will look up a pattern for a popper for next week and tie some of those. At that time I will add another video showing how it’s tied. Untill then enjoy the video and hope to see you on the water.

Related articles

• Fly Fishing Chain Pickerel in New Brunswick (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

Smallmouth bass have been one of my favourite species of fish to go after here in New Brunswick. They are a most aggressive fish and can fight as strong as any fish their size. When they hit quite often one thinks they have a much bigger fish on, they hit that hard, especially if you happen to be using your fly rod and that favourite popper.

I’ve had heart healthy issues for the past 10 years and have a few limitations. Fly fishing was one for what seemed like a life time, even though it was only about 5 years but now I have some of my upper body strength back and of course permission from my doctor, which makes my wife happier when I go fishing. Now it’s time to get that old fly rod out for next year, even though it’s still months away.

In the meanwhile I have been watching videos. One of those videos brought back some awesome memories of fly fishing for smallmouth bass using my fly rod and a few choice poppers.

Just casting a popper into some spots doesn’t give you any chance to try making it pop before a smallie pops it. I am always so tense when I cast a popper into lily pads or around weeds. I have been fishing long enough to know they are just waiting for something like that. But when it doesn’t get smacked as it hits the water I get to stripping in fly line and making it pop, which can take a bit of practice so I decided to add the following video so that you can learn how to pop that fly like a pro.

It’s not really very hard to pop the popper but of course one you know how it’s easy, right. Have some fun with it.

Learn to tie your own bass poppers for fly fishing and save yourself a lot of money, learn a new skill and enjoy using the flies even more. I know I always enjoy catching fish on the flies I tie myself. Just jump over to my fly tying section and check out the tying a bass popper fly video.

Related articles

• Hot Lake George, New Brunswick Smallmouth Bass on the Fly (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Fall Smallmouth Bass Fishing in New Brunswick, Canada (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Fun Fishing in New Brunswick Canada (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

It would be so cool to have a wife that would pick up a fishing rod and head out the door with me, but some how I don’t see that ever happening. I have been working on it for 28 years now without any luck I might add. Perhaps if she sees this great little video of women fly fishing in New Brunswick’s Miramichi river she will see that it’s not just men who enjoy fishing.

Women Enjoying FlyFishing the Miramichi river

I smiled through this entire video. It’s great to see women enjoying a sport that has been dominated for so long by men.

Related articles

• Fun Fishing in New Brunswick Canada (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Beginner Fly Fishing Videos – Experience, Instructional And Beneficial (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

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.

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.

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

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.

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