Jamie Does His Happy Dance

Can you tell by the image on the left that Jamie was having fun. I think he’s doing his happy dance. Heck I didn’t even know he could dance.

I was doing the happy dance in my head so as not to expend too much energy. I needed it for the rest of the day.

I will have to send this image to my sister in Newfoundland as Jamie, with his tougue covered ball cap, gum rubbers, rain gear and life vest on remind me a lot of her husband.

Picked The Oromocto Over The Saint John River

Fishing the Saint John river in a little canoe can be a bit nerve racking when a boat flies by at high speed or the wind picks up a bit too much making high waves. For that reason we decided the Oromocto river would be better.

Plus the Oromocto isn’t as wide and has a nice wall of trees on both sides to help with any wind that might come up.

It was nice to see the sun but then I was blind when I looked in that direction, which was the direction I was sitting, of course. So glad I didn’t have a hang over.

My glasses don’t get very dark so I just couldn’t look in that direction, so I was kinda glad when the clouds moved in front of the sun again.

The Sun Rise Lights The Forest

I am sure you’ll agree that the sun made the trees look awesome.

Let The Action Begin

Jamie didn’t wait for me to catch the first fish like he normally does. About 20 minutes after we started he switched from a firetiger pattern lure to a 5” green senko worm, wacky rigged.

A couple of casts to the structure along the shore and he had his first fish on, a couple minutes later he landed it. Of course I did a great job with Jamie’s rubber net.

A great start to the day and I guess it was okay, after all it was Jamie’s car and canoe and trolling motor and he was the one driving.

“Now you have the first, biggest and most fish, so far”

Not long after, maybe 10 minutes, I had my first strike and landed a somewhat smaller smallmouth using a #3 Silver & White Mepps with a skirt of white feathers.

I tried to show the Mepps in the image on the left but I think I hid it more than showed it.

Compared to a lot of our fishing season this was a great start to our day.

Actually it was a perfect in my books. NOT cold, NOT windy and the fish were active, who could ask for more.

The two best lures of the day for me were the Silver & White Mepps, and the Red Devils.

Just Trolling Along, La La Laaa

Jamie came prepared to fish all day from the canoe so he brought his trolling motor along. I would rather expend my energy fishing over paddling anyways. You can see the bracket that fastens the trolling motor to the canoe, so glad he has that.

If we were paddling we would never had made it so far up the Oromocto river and I would have been worn out long before the end of the day.

Jamie picked the right time to turn around and head back to the launch point. The trolling motor battery ran for almost 12 hours but about 15 minutes before we were back we could notice we were slowing down.

Jamie grabbed the paddle and helped the trolling motor along. About the distance I can throw a stone the battery died for the day.

If Jamie didn’t bring so much food and tackle I am sure the battery would have lasted all the way back. But then again he could have left me home to save energy. I better be quiet. Ha Ha

Jamie, How Are You Able To Fit In The Canoe?

Didn’t Produce A Single Strike Trolling

The majority of our fishing was casting into the trees, literally. However we did a fair amount of trolling throughout the day but never had a single strike trolling, not even a perch.

Strange that we would catch so many fish in the structure but not a single strike trolling.

Our Biggest Bass of The Day

Jamie started the day with the biggest, the first and the most but it didn’t take me long to catch up.

My biggest fattest smallmouth bass of the day, on the left, was all of 18 inches in length.

He jumped a number of times and each time I was sure I was going to lose it.

When the jumping failed to release the smallie Jamie did his best using the net but it still remained hooked. The hook did however fall out in Jamie’s rubber net.

Jamie’s biggest bass of the day was 16 inches and fought like it was at least 19”.

I went through a section of the river where I was catching pickerel after pickerel and one fat perch. The perch was a fat little guy and the pickerel were a respectable size. I have to thank Jamie for that though as he was catching all the little guys to keep them out of my way.

The biggest of the bass for the day did not come from the trees. Instead they came from the little inlets along the river, even if the inlet only went ten feet into the bank. I love casting to to those spots as I have caught my biggest bass and pickerel on those spots.

Near Sighted Pickerel

I was just about to close the post for today but then I remembered this one pickerel.

I was reeling in the Silver Mepps I was using and had it to a point I could see it near the surface. I could see a pickerel following it so I sped up the retrieve a little which of course caused the pickerel to speed up. But it sped so fast it over took the lure and swam right over top of it with it’s back out of the water. Maybe you had to be there but I thought it was the funniest thing.

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It was cloudy, it was windy and it was very foggy and the forecast was possible rain until noon. A great day for fishing but then isn’t any day a great day for fishing.

When we are taking a canoe with us we don’t care much for the wind. It just makes handling the canoe a chore and that’s exactly what it did but we still had a great day, because we were fishing of course.

We could see by the movement of the tree tops that the wind was not calming down the further we got from home. So as we were driving the discussion was about where we would fish.

When we have days that are windy we pay attention to wind direction and then head for a cove or bay that is protected from the wind.

We stopped at our first fishing spot and looked at the water. It was a bit choppy but we thought we would be able to get to a protected spot to fish for a while from there so we launched the canoe.

You can see Jamie hiding in the trunk I am sure he was tying on a secret weapon, so I was planning how I could accidentally cut his line when he turned his back for a minute.

You can see the fog has pretty much lifted by the time we arrived but the wind wasn’t about to let up though.

Beauty Hiding In The Most Unlikely Spots

As we were carrying Jamie’s canoe down to the water I noticed a pink colour in the bush to my right so when we got to the water and put the canoe down I went back to take a look.

It was a wild rose bush. I was amazed that it could survive as it was surrounded by taller vegetation.

There is beauty every where in nature, you just have to have your eyes open.

We did a lot of moving around as the wind seemed to keep changing direction on us. Just as you thought you were in control the wind would spin us around.

It’s kind of funny how the wind can turn you directly opposite of where the fish are. You make a cast, the water explodes and then you are facing the other way.

We still managed to have a great day despite the windy conditions.

Why I Like Fishing With Friends

It’s always exciting when a friend catches an unexpected catch.

We shoved off from shore and headed to a spot that was out of the wind where. It’s always a great place to start as we usually catch two or three fish there and today was no different.

Well okay it was different but Jamie will have to tell you about that as he was the first to catch a fish. Here is a link to Jamie’s fun fishing blog, you will be able to read all about it.

Image via Wikipedia

I love to get out on the water and relax while I am fishing. Even though I get all excited and am exhausted by the end of most fishing day I am still relieving stress build up. Fishing is just a great way for me to sluff off all the negative stress that I tend to carry around with me.

This particular day I was alone and on a new lake, well new to me that is. I like to find and explore new places and a lot of times I find great spots and other times I just come up dry. I have even fished a few places that didn’t have any fish and dried up mid season.

I am sure that if any one saw me fishing those places they would get a good laugh.

A couple of friends had taken me back into Logan Lake and on the way in I saw another lake but they didn’t know what it was called so I had to wait until I was back home to look it up. After some searching I found out it is called Mitchell Lake. I then made plans in my mind to someday hit that lake and see what it had to offer.

That day eventually came. It took me about 3 hours just to get there and then I had to drag my canoe through some pretty rough country to get to the water. There was access to the lake from the road but it was almost straight down and trying to get to a better spot to get my canoe in looked a long ways away.

I managed to get my canoe into the water without killing myself but I was so exhausted I had to take a break to catch my breath. So I sat on the edge of the lake and had a sandwich and some water, just looking around to see if I could see any movement.

After about 15 minutes, seeing absolutely nothing, I got into my canoe and headed to a spot that looked promising. I got about half way to the spot I had my eye on and was right out in the middle of the lake when I heard this rumbling sound but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

The sound was getting louder and louder and I could even feel my canoe shaking. I had no idea what was happening but I stopped paddling and grabbed the sides of the canoe.

All of a sudden three, maybe four jets flew over. They were so low to the trees I could hear them but didn’t see them until they were right on top of me. Scared the crap right out of me.

Well it took me a long while to calm down. I am sure I could have hit them with a rock they were so close to the water.

After I calmed down I laughed for a while. I had never been that close to a jet in flight.

I remember wondering how that would effect any trout in the lake. Then I heard them coming around for another run. Again my heart was pounding in my chest. The vibrations were so strong I thought I was going to flip my canoe, maybe it was me shaking, not sure about that.

Any ways after the third time they did that I decided I didn’t want to fish there any more. I haven’t been back since and never saw a fish or a ripple.

I managed to find a much easier path out of the there so I didn’t have to drag my poor canoe all the way back up that cliff.

Image via Wikipedia

I really didn’t know what to expect. I had never even heard of this lake. The good thing was that if you didn’t have a 4-wheel drive you weren’t getting to this lake without a long long walk.

My little Susuki Samaria was up for the task as we drove through water holds that came up past the bottom of the doors. It’s was really cool because to this point I had not taken my little Samaria into anything this deep and muddy.

It took us a few trips to get the canoes and all the equipment in to the lake but well worth it.

We got to the lake and were totally surprised to find a cottage on the lake. The owners were home but they hadn’t fished the lake yet at the time we were there.

Now what was really strange was as we paddled our canoes up the lake to where we planned to pitch our tent we saw a canoe just floating around.

At first we figured it was the people from the cottage. We took the canoe in tow and were going to take it back down the lake after we were set up and maybe had a few hours of fishing.

Only a minute or two after we found the canoe we heard voices. As we came around this small island there were two guys sitting on a big rock in the middle of this icy cold lake. They were about as loaded as any two guys I had seen in a while and they had lost their canoe.

Man what would they have done if we hadn’t come along. I am sure that as the sun went down and they sobered up the people in the cottage might have heard them screaming for help.

We gave them their canoe back. They barely were able to climb in it, but they did and off they went. I am one that firmly believes in NOT mixing alchohol and water.

Nothing much happened that day other than meeting a couple of drunks. We fished hard and moved a lot but nothing much until it got dusk.

The wind stopped and it got calm like I love it so I grabbed my fly rod and started chasing rings in the water as the trout started coming to the surface.

I was in my canoe alone so I moved around and was catching 13 inch brook trout one after the other. Unfortunately my two buddies couldn’t agree on whether to continue fishing spinner baits or to switch to dry fly and follow the rings.

Well I continued fly fishing and catching while they stayed only the edges of the islands and catch little 8 inch brookies.

That night we had a huge thunder and lightening storm that lit up the forest like it was a bright sunny day. We sat in our warm dry tent and watched it for hours, while we drank and laughed ourselves to sleep.

I plan to take a trip like that this year and can hardly wait. I think I will get my fly rod and equipment ready now. It’s only about 4 months before I can get in there.

Ahhhhh memories of fishing with friends.

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