Thanks to Casey I was not only able to fish a number of new waters here in New Brunswick Canada in 2011 but I also got to fish later than I have ever fished here, in more than 30 years.

A Clear Bright But Chilly Morning on the Oromocto River New Brunswick

We saw a lot of fog on the water we passed on the way to Oromocto from Moncton and Hopewell Cape. The Saint John river was mostly hidden by the fog but the Oromocto didn’t have any fog, just a little mist about an inch or two above the water.

Blessed With A Great Day Weather Wise

We were fortunate to have a really nice day. It was a little nippy when we launched at 7am. I believe it was just 4 degrees but no wind, well until Casey opened up the motor and headed up river.

Sure glad I packed gloves, a toque and several layers of clothing with me so I was comfortable all day long. I was also glad I was sitting with my back to the bow of the boat when he took off as the breeze created was just a tad chilly on the face.

I think when Jamie and I were fish the Oromocto river on October 22 we took 3 roundabouts to get to the launch. Not sure how Casey got us to the same launch point with just one roundabout.

Okay Jamie what’s with the making us go around in circles so much.

The water was down even more than when Jamie and I were there last. and a few of the spots we were catching bass we actually dried up.

I Managed To Catch The First Pickerel

I have to say that I love it when I catch the first fish although it would be a nice gesture to let someone else get the first fish considering they had the boat and did all the driving. Thanks Casey.

I decided to start the day with a Red Devil as it had done me well on my last trip out. The last day out they were swallowing that thing, not just smacking at it.

Early on I turned a couple of what I thought were smallmouth bass but I’m never really sure until I see more of there body. They didn’t take, only looking I guess. Maybe I should have been retrieving a bit slower as the water temp was only 38C.

After a bit I caught the first pickerel of the day. This year the fishing was so hot and it was always a good feeling to get that first one so as not to be skunked, which we narrowly avoided with just 2 fish each for the entire day.

My first pickerel was about 20 inches but when Casey asked if I wanted a pictures I said no and released it, thinking we were going to get a whole lot more of them.

Casey wasn’t far behind. Soon after he landed his first pickerel of the day which was just a bit smaller than mine. How generous of him.

We didn’t have any further luck in the Oromocto but when we reached French lake we stopped in hooked our two biggest fish of the day. Mine was a 23 inch monster while Casey’s was just 22 inches, one inch shy of a monster.

All too soon it was time to go home so we headed back towards Oromocto and another year of fishing for myself has ended. I have lots of great memories and pictures to last the next six months while I get ready for next year. Thanks to both Casey and Jamie for getting me there.

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• Fished The Oromocto River Again October 22nd (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• First Time Fishing Oromocto, New Brunswick (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Fishing Oromocto, New Brunswick For The First Time (flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com)
• Casey Had Better Luck Fishing The Oromocto River (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

I love fishing new places but I am terrible at doing it on my own because I tend to return to places I have fished before and had good luck. So it’s great that I am blessed with fishing buddies, like Casey and Jamie who like checking out new places and don’t mind taking me along.

The other day Casey had to go to Rothsay, New Brunswick to meet up with a guy interested in a boat motor Casey was selling. Casey thought it would be a great opportunity to try a new place and wondered if I was interested.

We were there early enough that we got to checkout a few places for fishing supplies where I bought a couple of new perch pattern lures. We finished shopping for the day and headed to Costco in Rothsay where Casey was to meet the buyer.

There was a lot of fog but even so we were able to see Costco perched up on the hill. We met up with the guy and even stayed and chatted with him for a while so as not to appear rude. However I am sure he knew we were going fishing as Casey had the boat and trailor on the back of his van, so the guy said he should let us get to it and we said our goodbyes adn hit the road.

We were on the water and ready to head out for a day of fishing Meenan Cove, before 11am I believe.

The fog had lifted so that it was well above our heads but was still so thick it almost made it appear like it was dusk, yet it wasn’t even noon yet. There was no one else on the water that we could see. Lots of boat but they were all secured and empty.

I was blown away by the shore line and how huge the cliffs were. I think I was spending more time taking pictures than actually fishing. I would have to say that Meenan Cove is the most beautiful place I have ever fished.

Here is a shot that reminded me of some Asian images I have seen of mountains and hills in the distance.

Meenans Cove Scenery

We didn’t catch a lot of fish even though we saw a lot on the fishfinder. They just didn’t seem interested in what we were offering them. I went with the expectations of a wild day of fishing as it usually is in the late summer, early fall. We have been to enough places this year and had good days and not so good days, in the same places.

For that reason I won’t cross this place off my list. The potential is definitely there and we saw so much great water and weed areas. Definitely have to return and give it another try.

My wife, Jenny, is not a fisher, although when we first met she gave it her best shot, she just doesn’t have the fishing gene I guess. Anyways when I got home and showed her all the pictures I took at Meenans Cove she wanted to go there, just for the scenery.

A Foggy Day of Fishing At Meenans Cove Today

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• Saint John River Bass Fishing At Jemseg (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
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Well I’d say Casey is looking pretty pleased with himself after landing this huge 45”. 38 1/2 lbs striped bass on Sunday September 10, 2011. I would love to have been there with my video camera.

Congrats to Casey

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Casey invited both Jamie and myself for a day of fishing Friday but Jamie had already been invited for two other fishing trips and had already commited to a two day trip on Oromocto lake.

I love fishing new spots and Ormocto lake if a first for Jamie. I hope you have a lot of fun and had a couple of very productive days.

Last year Casey had fished the Salmon river from Grand Lake up towards Chipman with a friend and had great fun and wanted to do it again on Friday.

I was certainly up for that, it was my first time fishing the Salmon river. I have fished a couple of bays off the river but never spent any time in the river.

He was here to pick me up about 6 and we were off.

I alway look forward to passing over the bridge at the Cannan river just before highway 10.

Cannan River Was Just Like A Mirror

We took a few minutes to stop at the bridge where I first used my float tube. It’s so much fun using the float tube as I can get into spots that most boats can’t get to.

Checkout The Scenery

I remember that day was about the hottest of the year. I was niche to be so close to the water as it was easy to soak myself to keep cool that day.

Here’s what that area looked like once we were at the water.

Breath Taking View And The Fishing Rocks

We stayed for a couple of minutes taking in the view and then it was off to the Chipman boat launch and Salmon river pickerel fishing.

Chipman Boat Launch

Everything looked perfect. The sky was a bit cloudy which would help to keep that blistering sun off us. Of course I still piled on the sunscreen as I burn so easily.

The wind was, well there was no wind at this point. Who could ask for more?

After a couple checks around the boat to be sure we hadn’t forgotten anything we hit the water.

All Well, Let’s Launch

Before we headed down river I suggested we try a little bay just up from the bridge, about 2 minutes.

The Water Temp Was Low

With all the rain we’ve had the water is still high and to my surprise the water in the river was still only 64 degrees, all day long.

When ever we moved into a cove or bay the temp would go up about 2 or 3 degrees but not much more.

Well Casey landed the first pickerel of the day and as it turned out the biggest pickerel of the day at 24″.

It’s so cool that Casey has a rubber net. The lure he was using had two treble hooks on it and the line was around the pickerel’s mouth a couple of times and hooked right into the net.

Took about 4 seconds to untangle it. On the old net we may have needed to cut the line to release the fish quickly.

By the way Jamie has a nice rubber net now as well. The really are much safer for both the fisher and the fish.

Casey made a cast to a set of lilypads and the water exploded, just the way we love to see it. Really gets the blood going, even if it’s not your fish.

Love Fishing To Lily Pads For Bass And Pickerel

Before we were done in this little bay Casey had 4 pickerel and me, well I was taking pictures I guess.

I never had as much as a follow for hours.

We trolled down the river all day but never had a follow or a strike while trolling, none at all. The only places we caught fish we in the coves and bays along the river.

Casey stayed at 4 pickerel for a while giving me and my new Ugly Stik Lite combo a chance to catch up.

I was enjoying the distance I could get with the Ugly Stik and Shakespeare reel so of course my first strike was about a hundred feet out into the weeds.

I’ve had lots of practice getting pickerel out of the weeds as it’s my favourite place to fish for them as they tend to get quite explosive in the weeds.

As far out into the weeds as I was I was pretty sure I’d loose it before ever getting it close to the boat. However my new rod had the backbone to keep the pickerel’s nose up and I actually landed it.

Felt really good on my new rod and reel.

Before long I was tied with Casey, 4 pickerel each and I was pretty proud of that after going for hours with zero fish. That didn’t last long as about a minute later Casey hooked into another pickerel.

What a show-off. I would never do that to a buddy. Ha

What’s Up With The Wind

That was about when the calm water ended and the wind picked up. I really do prefer to fish the weeds in calm water as I really enjoy watching them come flying out of their hiding places.

I never get tired of watching the wakes they make, especially when there are two or three going after the same baits.

Even though the wind picked up we were shaded most of the day with lots of clouds. I didn’t mind that at all because when the sun did come out I heated up pretty quickly.

All in all it was a really fun day, as usually when I’m out with Casey or Jamie.

I’m already packed for the next day on the water.

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