Sinclair Crown Reserve (part 1)

It's been a while since I've posted any updates.. mostly due to slow fishing and depressingly low salmon returns across the entire Atlantic Canadian region... The last time I was out seriously fishing was in early July when I hooked 3 and landed 1 within an hour... talk about getting your hopes up! Sadly, we just managed to pull off one of those right place, right time deals where we managed to catch a pod of passing fish. I did get to spend a few minutes of quality time with this beauty though and she was safely returned to the river to continue her mission to pass along her genes to the next generation..

Sorry for the aside, now back to the Sinclair trip!

This would have been my first time to this stretch and I made a promise to myself it won't be the last! It's yet another beautiful salmon river (North Pole) located in the rugged wilderness a long way away from pavement. The bonus --- no cell signal --- !

Bill, Paul, Steph and I packed our stuff and headed to the woods - I have to say, even though this year has been such a depressing salmon fishing season, I was extremely excited to be going on a crown reserve trip with close friends. Crown reserve is special, if you haven't been on one and you're a resident of NB do yourself a favor and book a trip. Even if there aren't many fish around the scenery makes it all worth while.

The view from the camp:

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We didn't waste any time after arriving and soon decided on a plan - we'd all head to the upper pools closest to the camp. Bill and I to one and Paul & Steph to the other. 

Things were fairly uneventful at our first stop. We didn't see any fish so we headed down river to the next pool. It wasn't long before I raised a fish on the old faithful blue bomber.. I wasn't 100% sure it was a grilse or trout as it took in fairly quick water .. I kept at it and managed to hook up solid to a nice grilse! It was a good scrap with quite a few jumps and I probably shouldn't have landed the fish but we managed to somehow:

(safely released)

There was a pretty decent rain shower and we managed to get soaked so we headed back down to the camp.

We finished up the rest of the evening uneventfully.

I just can't get over this view from the camp... what a place!

We woke up the next morning to some chilly temps, in fact we had ice formed on the vehicles both nights... Fall is definitely in the air!

0.0 degrees Celsius!

Our plan for our full day (day 2) involved heading up river ... the logging that goes on up there is depressing... why can't we protect the headwaters of our salmon rivers?
(((CLICK PANORAMA IMAGE FOR A CLOSER VIEW)))

(((CLICK PANORAMA IMAGE FOR A CLOSER VIEW)))

(((CLICK PANORAMA IMAGE FOR A CLOSER VIEW)))

Apparently they don't want fords across this bridge... thank goodness we weren't driving one!

I think I'll leave off here for now... Part 2 to follow in the coming days!

Last trip of June part 2 ...

So we're on our way back home, warm heater and warm grub on our minds when Dad spied this silly critter by the camp road...

 

It's pretty easy to see why they get hit so often, this one was running right down the road ...

So back to the camp we lit the heater had a quick snack and Brad and I headed back out to fish his uncle's pool on the MSW.

Toasty warm!

Brad and I arrived and his uncle and cousin were working on the camp and their road down to the river. We chatted with them for a bit then headed down for a pass. I had a wet fly on for the first little bit but I didn't like the swing so I figured this looked a hell of a lot like a great spot for a dry fly... So on goes the locater.... of course it was the blue one...

For the next 3 minutes I worked on getting the hang of flinging a dry fly with my spey rod and getting it to land and drift just the way I liked it ... at minute 3.5 and out of nowhere this big ass salmon grabs it heading from upstream to downstream?!? Whoa! Was I ever NOT ready for that! And did this fish ever prove it while I was trying to get him on the reel while keeping things tight! The first jump, my line was 30' feet downstream of the fish and by the time it decided to jump the 2nd time I had it on the reel with maybe just a whisker too much tension as the fly popped right out! Bummer! But what a rush! :) Man do I ever love dry flies! I was quite happy to have hooked another beautiful bright salmon and this one was at least a 3 footer if it was an inch. We fished the pass through then decided it was time to head out. Back across the bogan and up the hill to the camp and we talked to Brad's uncle and cousin for a bit. They invited us for supper (thanks fellas!) but we had to get back to the camp as Bill was on his way up. Billy arrived and we had a few sodas and a good evening of laughter as we always do.... there's no place like the Den during fishing season ;-)

Our plan for day 2 was to fish the MSW at a pool close to the camp. We didn't have any luck on day 2 but we fished a pool that I haven't taken the time to fish before. It wasn't my favorite pool to fish but it wasn't bad either. I spent much of the morning chatting with a veteran Miramichi guide of 50 years on the river. I'm terrible with names and should almost carry a notepad around for details like this but alas, slackness or laziness prevailed and this gentleman will remain nameless for this report... He had some questions about 2 handed casting so I did a little single spey casting session for him. Casting in ankle deep water with lots or room makes things look pretty easy and he was impressed :)

After a pass or 2 the morning was gone and then some -- it was a LONG pool... So back to the camp we headed and Brad had to head for home as he had plans for a hike over the long weekend. After a snack and drying off, Bill and I decided to head out for another nearby MSW pool. We managed a pass and a half before deciding there wasn't anything going on and headed back for home. On our way out we ran into one of the Hooké lads https://hooke.ca/ , Derek Martin and had a great chat about C&R and the recent ASF/NBSC request for anglers to release their grilse. We both agreed that it was the least people could do to help our salmon out... It's concerning that if we have decent returns this season, many people will forget about the dismal low returns of the 2012 season and the impending changes coming to the Greenland fishery... Just because we're hooking fish and seeing fish doesn't mean things are hunky dory ... big changes are needed to our regulations and attitudes need to change ... atlantic salmon are a finite and fragile resource and they need our protection if they are to continue to be on this earth in places other than open net pens... It was great chatting with you, Derek!

Billy given 'er on the river:

So Billy and I headed home only to find Dad and Joe had been busy beavers and put a few sheets of siding on the camp, nice work!

So another good evening at the camp and we headed for home on Saturday AM. It was a wet and cold trip but a good one! Of course, I can't think of a trip to the Den that hasn't been good :)

Frigid temps!

Makes for great ice on the river... it also makes for great sitting beside the woodstove tying flies weather! I've been 'puttering' at the vise each evening ... tying only 6-8 flies at a time most of which are destined for charity auctions for salmo salar related causes.. Here's a couple pictures of some deer hair flies:

We're going 'smelting' tomorrow AM down on the Kennebecasis - hopefully we get into some decent sized fish so we can have a fry! If there's anything to report i'll let you know.

So long for now, it's precisely 'rum o'clock'!

Another ugly bomber....

A couple more in blue and I'll be pretty much hanging up the bomber hooks for the season... in the mean time here's an ugly white with orange:

Deer hair with attitude...

I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to put this over some silver with the shape of the rivers .....

The wing and tail are tied almost 'Elson' style - Paul likes his wing flat and tied almost like a tail .. I think the proportions mirror his though :)

Boy oh boy do we need rain and a weather change!

A few flies and supper....

Here's a look at my greased line muddler that Walter (4FISHN) was asking about over on nsflyguy.ca/smf. This picture was taken by my good friend Damian for his book 'Atlantic Salmon Flies of Nova Scotia'. It's hard to believe that the swap is over and so much time has passed by so quickly! It was an awesome privilege so once again thanks Damian, and all the fantastic Maritime tyers who were part of this amazing project. Special thanks to Robbie Hiltz for an awesome job hosting this massive swap.

"Unnamed greased line muddler (this fly is all about speeding up as it goes downstream/across to create a wake on the surface)

The recipe:

Hook: Gamakatsu P10-2H2L Long Shank Dry Fly Hook (a.k.a. Carter bug hooks)
Tag: Lagartun copper tinsel (med)
Tail: from bottom to top - Fl. Green Marabou, 2 pieces each fl green and UV KF, wood duck flank fibers
Body: Uni Mylar - Peacock
Rib: Lagartun copper tinsel (med)
Wing: White under Olive marabou
Head: 3 bunches of natural deer hair packed tight and trimmed large

Cast straight across or slightly up stream far enough above the suspected lie so that the fly is nearing or at full speed as it passes over your target and hold the 'F' on! "

 

 

The next item of business are these tube bombers everyone and their dog seem to be getting into.... I'm jumping on the bandwagon and I've already decided that anytime a bomber gets tied onto the end of my line this summer it will be on a tube. The advantage of it's supreme floatability makes it a no brainer:

 

 The final item on the agenda was this evenings supper, provided by the Hammond river and my buds Paul & Steph Elson. Thanks for the outing last night, I hope you're having another great evening on the water! Supper was delicious and I believe I have just about satiated my appetite for trout for 2012. Time to get into release mode now. Thanks again guys!