2016 HRAA Fundraising Dinner & Auction, Saturday MAY 7th

I got off to a bit of a late start on this one - HRAA is holding their annual fundraising dinner & auction on Saturday May 7th and I'm looking for fly donations. The Hammond River Angling Association is a group of progressive and dedicated conservationists who specialize in salmon conservation, river restoration and youth engagement. All money raised by this group is well used in these efforts so please join me in supporting them with a few flies for their auction/raffle/dinner!

Due to my late start I'm asking that any flies you can muster are sent directly to Paul at the following address:

Hammond River Angling Association
10 Porter Road
Nauwigewauk, NB
E5N 6X1
Attn: Paul Daigle
Ph:  (506) 832-1230
Email: info@hraa.ca         
Website:  www.hraa.ca

Paul also does a regular a regular loop and could most likely pick your contributions up (please coordinate with him directly as I'll be away fishing!)

"I make periodic trips to Fredericton and Moncton so I could easily pick up any contributions in the Fredericton - Moncton - Saint John circuit"

Fiddleheads!

Ethan and I went to the Hammond yesterday with only one thing in mind - fiddleheads, and we found some!

Cooked up some for supper last night and they were delicious! I was hoping to get a few more today but it's been raining  cats and dogs... Maybe it'll clear up for a bit this evening? *fingers crossed*

B.A.S.S. fishing on the Hammond take 2 ....

Paul and I managed to get out again last night on the Hammond - the water has dropped really fast after the 2nd big raise .... Not much fish activity of any sort, I can't imagine the fish that were waiting have already blasted through but you never know? One reason might be the warm water -- 64 degrees about a half an hour before dark! We were both surprised! I think bass fishing will slow down some now but I'll still be chasing them as long as I can stand it!

 A few pics from the outing that I posted yesterday to twitter/instagram: @nbsalmon1

B.A.S.S. Fishing on the Hammond...

The Hammond is spring high but the bass bite is still on.. I figured the little buggers would have dropped down stream but they're still sticking around.

Paul and Brandon at Smithtown Bridge pool:

Sunset at Smithtown Bridge pool:

Raising water at the French Village Bridge pool:

The weekend report... well, kinda...

I have a feeling I'll be achy for a few more days after playing woodsman for a day..... I have absolute respect for anyone who runs a saw or brushcutter for a living! I was up in the Miramichi area for a couple days this weekend with Paul and Brandon working on a good friends woodlot. We cleared a pretty good patch for being a bunch of city slickers - although Fred and Dale are likely still laughing! =) Massive thanks to the good folks at the Oxbow (Click Here) - I always enjoy my visits there and the new lodge is going to be awesome!

A few pictures from the Heritage section of the Oxbow website:

A couple pictures from the area of our woodsmen endeavours.... Dad, Joe and Bill popped by for a visit as we were finishing up.

We did manage to get out for a fish for a couple hours and the Elson-ator managed to hook up briefly - We raised a few more fish but no other hook ups - well except for the chubasaurus that took a huge blue bomber!

Fish on!

I did a little recon on the Hammond this afternoon -- things are looking MUCH healthier now!

And finally a Saint John sunset from today:

P.S. Brandon, thanks for explaining what 'Alt Tags' are and what they're used for! 

Another run to the Hammond

I made another run to the Hammond yesterday with 2 targets in mind, smallmouth bass and a big bag of garbage - not much of a difference between the two.... I started up by the French Village bridge as there is a school of bass that hang out under it - I caught several before moving further down river. The long pool before the deep hole seemed to have fewer bass in it - I believe they all moved down into it as the river just keeps dropping and getting warmer....

As I got down to the run above the deep hole I noticed 2 Off Road Enforcement Officers were keeping an eye on the river crossing. I went over to chat with them for a while and we discussed all the trash and idiots crossing the river with their bikes and 4x4's... They were working with DNR on the river crossing issue. No sooner had they left a bike appeared and proceeded to cross... I heard through the grapevine later on in the day that they had this guy pulled over -- good stuff!

The idiot in question:

So I fished away, did some good work for the salmon and trout. There are so many bass in this river it's disgusting ... I hear people talk all the time about going to these far out of the way places to catch bass and all they have to do is drive 10 minutes from Saint John and you can catch all you want.. sure you need to use a flyrod after July 1st in the Hammond but they'll take a fly just like any other fish will... 

So after fishing for several hours it was time for a little cleanup.. there was a party recently and the assholes who threw it decided to also throw their garbage, break glass bottles and leave a huge mess down on the gravel bar. In a normal summer this bar would be half sumberged. Warning to anyone going down there with bare feet or pets -- be very careful or you'll end stepping in glass and who knows what else.

Before:

After:

One of the young lads down swimming asked me what in heck I was doing and I told him, cleaning up after ignorant pigs... he said 'Cool!' -- not sure of the sincerity level but it may have gotten him thinking?

Another passerby caught this pic of me scaling the rocks across the deep hole -- I was trying to see if there were anything else in the pool besides bass and a few suckers .... the answer "NO, not a thing!"
The good news is I didn't spot any pickerel either.

After finishing up there I deceided to hit the graveyard pool on the way home... there are 2 large schools of suckers and some other kind of fish hanging out there... the other kind of fish is smaller and hanging out closer to shore than the larger (24"-ish inches) suckers. Everywhere else -- bass and pickerel.. and lots of both. I counted at least 6 pickerel and bass, well I can't count that high... all age classes and sizes up to at least 16-18"... I finished the day there and by the time I arrived home realized I had way too much sun...

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.