Image via WikipediaFishing in New Brunswick has always been fun and they aren’t that hard to find either. The trick is to catch those brook trout that are more than 8″ long. Although a good feed of 8″ brook trout isn’t anything I would turn away. Mmmm

When I first made Moncton New Brunswick my home I was only working part time and had plenty of time to find new places to fish.

I drove all the back roads and many times found myself rather turned around but I always found my way back home again. My little treks around our great province has led me to many beautiful locations in my search for more trout fishing hot spots.

One fine day I was cruising the back roads, less than an hour from home, and found this little brook that didn’t look much different that so many other brooks and streams I have fished. The biggest difference in this brook was the fact that it wasn’t choked with trees making it hard to fish.

This little brook was wide open and the trees were more mature and not as close the water. This was the kind of place I could bring my son, as he was still a little guy at this time, and a great place for a picnic. I love these spots as it makes for a great family day with a bit of fishing included.

I had such a great day at this spot that it took me longer to walk back to my car than it took me to drive back home to Moncton.

New Brunswick is so full of great brook trout streams you could fish you whole life and never fish the same spot.

Spring here in New Brunswick has been fickled this year to say the least. We never really know what kind of weather we are going to get but then that kind of holds true for any time of the year here. The only difference is that in the spring things can turn cold and it can start snowing without a lot of notice.

This can make for strange and exciting days on the water.

My fly fishing buddies and I head to Renous New Brunswick every year for Atlantic salmon but one year my buddy Kerry invited me to a brook I had never fished before.

Justing getting to the brook was a chore as the underbrush was extremely thick. I am sure this would cause most to move on to another place to fish. I love it.

I had taken Kerry on a great day of brown trout fishing near Shediac New Brunswick and he was now returning the favor and he didn’t disappoint.

We both had our cars as I was coming from Moncton and he was coming from Fredericton. This worked out great because we parked one car as close to the point we could be leaving the brook, where it meets the Caines River and the other car was were camped and entered the brook.

We finally clawed our way through the underbrush and found the brook. The action was pretty much none stop all day and the scenery was eye popping at times.

I have gone back to this spot many times since that day and always have a great day.

It is far too thick to use a fly rod so we always go with light spinning gear which is great while we are on the brook but when we reach where the book enters the Caines river we have to quit fishing because it’s mostly fly rod only at that point.

I think it would make for an even better day if we could exchange our spinning gear for our fly gear once we reach that point. I am sure there is another road that we could park the second car at so we could be closer to the water and the car when we are done fishing the brook.

I haven’t taken Roland to that spot yet but I think this year would be a good year for introducing him to a new brook trout brook.

I also love fishing the Cains River for Atlantic salmon but I have caught a few nice trout on what I call a little trout fly for the Cains river, it works for both so forgive me if I have to keep it a secret.

I have been fishing trout in Canada, mostly New Brunswick, for more than 30 years and to this day my heart pounds just thinking about it.

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.

Image via WikipediaWhile I and my buddies were in northern Quebec on our fly-in fishing trip there were Lake trout in the shallow bays but my buddies, well except Kerry, were blind to their presence.

The proper sunglasses was made the difference. Kerry and I could look out over the water and see the Lake trout swimming around, just below the surface.

I was out on my own using my Hummingbird fish finder to finds some big Lake trout when I thought I saw a splash in a little bay. Thinking it was a brook trout I headed in to make a few casts with my flyrod.

BAM!! The first cast. It wasn’t a brook trout at all, as it turned out it was a Lake trout at about 6 or 8 pounds. As I was fighting this little surprise I was looking around and saw that he wasn’t alone, there were dozens of them in this little bay.

I had to make a decision, keep fishing and tell my buddies later or stop fishing and take the 20 minute boat ride back to the camp to tell them. Well I love fishing with friends so I stopped, after two more fish, and headed back. Would have been a great time to have a two-way radio.

When we returned I was the only one with a flyrod but both Kerry and I had on polarized sunglasses. Unfortunately the other 3 guys didn’t. But like I said I like to fish with friends and I like us all to be catching fish.

I told Kerry it was time for him to migrate to one of the other boats and we would fish three to a boat for a while. That way I could direct those casting from my boat and Kerry could do the same in his boat.

I little trick we both tried was to switch glasses with a buddy that didn’t have a fish on. That way they could see where they were while we were fighting our fish.

It is so important to have the right gear when you go out on the water.