I do tie more than just bugs...

Here are a couple hairwings I've been tinkering with over the last few days ... believe it or not they are 2 different flies?! The top one is a 'j-boo' the bottom one is a 'green butt skunk'. I do admit the 'j-boo' isn't exactly to the designers specs as I don't have exactly what the recipe calls for but it is very similar to the skunk.

Why people are worse than invasives....

With all the warm weather and lack of rain up on the Miramichi, I've been spending a bit of time on the Hammond lately:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_River_(New_Brunswick)

http://www.hraa.ca/

It's been a while since i've fished this river and what i've noticed is the extreme amount of garbage and the complete disregard people are showing for aquatic life by creating a virtual highway through the river to Porter's Hole. They've even resorted to partially destroying the signs placed on the telephone poles by DNR stating that it's illegal to drive in the river....

I headed down this morning for a few hours with smallmouth bass and pickerel being top of the agenda (please note the live 'round' in the chamber: olive wooly bugger)

I started at the Island pool and worked my way down to Porter's Hole, tripping on garbage all the way.

There were a couple of these things and a couple dozen smallmouth bass... neither species belong here. I can't say that they were placed here by people, they are more than likely making their way into the warming Hammond due to widening of the river from bank erosion from poor farming practices...

There's a ton of illegal river crossing going on, right in the middle of prime spawning ground. In fact there are a number of lamprey redds right where the crossing is going on. People really are worse than invasive species....

There were hundreds of fry in the tire ruts #depressing ... people are so ignorant .. and I hate most of them.. I just scheduled a garbage pick up with my son and daughter for Wednesday evening. Stay tuned for updates.

I found a cool place to make tags for fly swaps...

http://www.degraeve.com/business-cards/#download

Anyone know of some place similar?

Almost 5,000 pageviews!

I just noticed the pageview count from down below and it seems as though I'm about to reach a milestone. Thanks for checking out my blog, folks - I really didn't think i'd have 5,000 visits to the old Wulff Den but here we are!

So thanks again for your interest, I'll try to keep it worthwhile reading!

Howie

My last fly swap until well into 2013..

This is the last fly swap i'll be in until well into 2013. I was originally supposed to tie some 'Guy's Shrimps' but don't have enought suitable jungle cock to fit the bill. This is kind of like letting the cat out of the bag - this fly in 'lime green' or 'chartreuse' has landed me 5 bright fish so far this season... and if the lime green don't get 'em this darker-than-machine-green one will:

ALL FINISHED!!

Pool closures on/around the Miramichi river...

I have to say it's a relief to hear about this especially after the report I received about some jigging/foul hooking going on at the Salmon Brook pool on the Cains. When people cast #4 doubles upstream in slow and low water at the mouth of a cold water brook, what else could it be?

Thanks DFO!

SALMON FISHERY ON THE MIRAMICHI

Moncton – July 20, 2012 - Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) today announces that the following salmon fishing pools will be closed to fishing, for cause of high water temperature and low water levels, starting Monday, July 23, 2012:

• Confluence of Salmon Brook and Cains River, and the waters of Salmon Brook upstream from its confluence with the Cains River to South Cains River Road;
• Confluence of Otter Brook and Cains River;
• Confluence of Sutherland Brook and Northwest Miramichi River, and Sutherland Brook upstream to the highway 420;
• Confluence of Butty's Brook and Renous River, and the waters of Butty’s Brook from its confluence with the Renous river to South Renous Road;
• Waters of the Southwest Miramichi River in Quarryville, 300 m upstream and 300 downstream of the Quarryville Bridge, including Indian Town Brook from its confluence with the Southwest Miramichi River, upstream to Highway 108 bridge;
• Confluence of Wilson Brook and Southwest Miramichi River, including the waters of Wilson Brook upstream 100 meters of its mouth;
• Waters of the Southwest Miramichi River surrounding the pump house located at N 46.86483, W 65.67698 (WGS 84);
• Confluence of Gray Rapids Brook and Southwest Miramichi River, and the waters of Gray Rapids upstream from its confluence with the Southwest Miramichi River to Route 118;
• Confluence of Morse Brook and Southwest Miramichi River, and the waters of Morse Brook upstream from its confluence with the Southwest Miramichi River to Howard Road;
• Confluence of Black Brook and Southwest Miramichi River, and the waters of Black Brook upstream from its confluence with the Southwest Miramichi River to South Cains River Road;
• Confluence of Donnelly Brook and Southwest Miramichi River, and the waters of Donnelly Brook upstream from its confluence with the Southwest Miramichi River to the South Road Bridge;
• Confluence of Betts Mills Brook and Southwest Miramichi River, and the waters of Betts Mills Brook upstream from its confluence with the Southwest Miramichi River to Highway # 8;
• Confluence of Porcupine Brook and Southwest Miramichi River, and the waters of Porcupine Brook upstream from its confluence with the Southwest Miramichi River to Story Town Road;
• Confluence of Big Hole Brook and Southwest Miramichi River;
• Confluence of Mill Brook and Southwest Miramichi River.

Please refer to Gulf Variation Order 2012-054 for further details. The Fishery Closures / Variation Orders Registry is available online at:
http://www2.glf.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fam-gpa/cp/ord/index-e.php


For more information please contact your local DFO office.

July trip update, final installment..

So after our adventure to Squirrel Falls we were back to the Oxbow on Tuesday for what turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. We got to hang out with and fish with some pretty darned cool people including Walt, a professional spey casting instructor from Mass. and Gary Tanner from theriverscourse.blogspot.ca and more recently nsflyguy.ca/smf.

(in case you haven't caught on yet -- I love this place ;-))

We ended up fishing the Northwest and Little Southwest over the next couple days. Things seemed to be getting more favorible for fishing and with a bit of pool hopping we got into a few fish.

A Northwest grisle hooked on a blue bomber just as the noseeums were getting horrific:

Steph was busy guiding in the Classic so Paul and I were left to bum around and chase fish. Then we heard that a couple fellows might need 'guides' for the final morning of the Classic and once we heard who, we were only too happy to step up and lend a hand -- after all, these two characters needed no guiding!

Here's one of them with Paul - Vince Swayze (this man kept us in stitches most of the time)

And then there was this fella, spoiling the view =)
(Gary Tanner)

Gary & Paul fishing the lower pool:

I managed a grilse at the next pool down but other than that it was pretty quiet fishwise.

I really enjoyed the short time I got to spend with Gary and Vince, I hope to do it again someday, fall fishing perhaps??

After the morning of fishing we had to be back to the hatchery in South Esk (i think?) for a BBQ to finish out the classic. What a treat that was! We had a little tour and got to see how slick a young black bear could swipe a few trout from the u-fish trout pond! It was entertaining as hell!

Trout pond:

Hatchery tour:

Smolt wheels at the hatchery:

So after the BBQ and the conclusion of the Classic we were back to the Oxbow and then I was off to meet up with Bill at the Den on Thursday for the night as we were heading to the North Pole for 48 hours on Friday.

This is what we were greeted by on the road into the camp - it was cut a few years ago but it's effect is maddening when you see it again and then feel how warm the water is in the North Pole.

When they were first cutting this a few years back I stopped and talked to the contractor doing the cutting... he said the softwood was over 80 years old and it's diameter wasn't much larger than a coffee cup... he said "it's not doing any good anyways, hardly growing - it might as well be put to use as pulpwood" ... I had to leave at this point as his ignorant point of view almost put me over the boiling point... you have to understand what this picture doesn't show is how close this cleacut is to the rivers.... springs that have been there for years no longer flow.... when it rains, we have a fast dirty and warm raises and the rivers then drop off quickly again.... the rains seem to have no ability to sustain the rivers... she's a sad state of affairs up there...

Now that that part is off my chest -- back to the trip!

Random river pics:

Table Rock and whats that?? A sasquatch??? (down river)

Can you see the fish?

No? How about now?
(2 generations)

trekking through the woods:

Typical North Pole trout

My favorite view:

The fishing was tough, water was low and warm but the Pole was absolutely beautiful. The fish would only take very lightly - if at all but we did manage to get into a few. If only I hooked half as many as I pricked I would have been into some good numbers - same for Paul. In the end we all managed to get into fish but the low, warm water and hot weather was really working against us. We had a great time, the trout fishing was phenominal and we caught many but Paul was into some real monsters. You just got to love 100% live release!

In the end, I cut my trip shory by 5 days as I came home Monday due to the hot weather and low water. If we don't get substantial rain soon, we will all be looking forward to September. Thanks again Paul & Steph - it was tough fishing but it was a week to remember!