Salmon fishing & fly tying on the Miramichi...

Sunday 29 April 2012

Heading to the 'Chi on Friday with the young lads...

Hopefully we can find a few trout for Ethan and Nick - Not sure if there'll still be a few kelts around but we'll see. I've been tying up a few flies for trolling, got to make sure I have enough ammo for the young fellas =)

Here's a coyote GE variant -- quick and easy to tie:


A bunny strip thing - I like orange a lot:


And the rest of the gang --- definitely going to tie a bunch more canary marabous, I hate tying them but they are so damned effective...

"Eco Fishery" from Land and Sea (CBC Episode)

GreyGhost posted this over on nsflyguy.ca/smf ... It's a recent episode of CBC's Land and Sea:

Eco Fishery

The show has 2 main stories, the first about a small collective of fishermen and their customers who buy a 'share' in the fishing season where the fishermen catch ground fish in a sustainable way (long line) and sell directly back to the customers skipping the middle men. This allows a higher price to the fishermen, less waste by fishing in a sustainable and 'fair' way and a superior product to the customers. Who wouldn't buy their fish in this way if given the opportunity? Would people sooner buy fish caught indiscriminately by chinese draggers to save a dollar a pound? It just doesn't make sense to support a foreign country to destroy our oceans and fish stocks when the 'old ways' are available to us -- or hopefully will be again one day before it's too late!

The 2nd part of the show focuses on a closed containment mediterranian sea bass farm in Nova Scotia producing fish in a zero impact to the environment, sustainable way. They produce a high quality product without raping and polluting our oceans like the sea lice & ISA infested, waste producing open pen salmon feedlots that surround our country. The same types of operations our governments have given a blank cheque to to run amok and destroy our coastlines... if you eat open pen farmed salmon, shame on you. Did you know our government has given the industry the green light to market ISA infected salmon for human consumption? When you buy farmed salmon do you really know what you'll be eating? All the pesticides and antibiotics used by industry -- do they magically go away before the fish goes to market? Folks, please wake up and get a clue.... Just because Costco sells it, doesn't make it right....

If you really want to educate yourself about salmon farming visit Alexandra's blog .

Saturday 28 April 2012

The Big Rock Candy Mountain..


It's a chilly day, seen a few snow flurries and it'd be heluva cold trolling the river for salmon... I'll take a warm wood fire, tying a few flies and watching "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" as a reasonable alternative...

Now I gotta 'RUNN OFT'!

Friday 27 April 2012

This time last week we had a few fish to hand...

... and here's a few pictures of us getting it done. This first pic you can't see Dad's face but you can tell he's smiling :D





Damn, I love fishing!

Why we made the right decision about NOT going fishing...



With 20-40mm more rain in the forecast for up north, cool temps and lots of wind I believe we made the right decision about NOT going fishing this weekend! (as much as it sucks to stay home)

Thursday 26 April 2012

A few more freestyle bunny strips.

A little bird just told me the fishing is great up river.... too bad I won't be going up until next weekend! I guess the only thing to do is tie some more flies:


Wednesday 25 April 2012

Tying a few more spring flies...

The rivers will most likely be shot for the weekend after all the rain this week but I'm still tying a few big flies just in case:



Sunday 22 April 2012

'Black Ghost' Bunny Strip fly.

Getting a few flies tied up for next weekend - here's a Black Ghost:



A few of my favorite pictures from 2011..

My Brother in law, Brad took this one last year with his camera. This was taken at the Wulff Den and was used in Damian Welsh's book "Atlantic Salmon Flies of Nova Scotia".


I took this one at McKendrick Lake last year with Dad's Sony camera:


I took this one last year with my iphone 4 also at the Wulff Den:

Saturday 21 April 2012

April 20 - 21 trip report

Dad & I headed to the Den yesterday afternoon for some spring salmon fishing. We had a great 24 hours and managed 8 fish to the boat including 3 beautiful atlantic salmon (the rest, grilse). Here's a video of me fighting a salmon that Dad took last night and a few pictures from the trip:


The fish of the trip - Dad's beautiful hen from last night:









It was a great trip and I hope there are a few salmon left in the river next weekend!

And a nice morning hen!

If this were a game we'd be tied at 2! But it's not ;)

And a couple more grilse!

1 more for Dad and 1 for me!

Dad's first of the day.

A nice grilse with a dorsal fin issue.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Opening weekend pics!

Sunday was our season opener in New Brunswick and here are some pictures taken on the Miramichi river!

Dad & my son Ethan


Bill

Brad

A brookie!

Me




Paul




Rene



Me







Some chewed up flies