Brad Burns Fishing

Fishing Friends We are now at that point on the calendar that many of us have been preparing for since last October.  The early-run salmon are making their way up the rivers of the Miramichi system, and its time for our first serious trip to try and catch one.  For me, that means heading up this Friday the 13th and coming back on around the same date in July – if it doesn’t get, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – the Moncton office of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans “DFO” has achieved a new milestone in its mismanagement of Miramichi salmon. As one of my friends says, “All DFO has to do is slow walk the striped bass/Atlantic salmon thing and the salmon lose.”  Of course he is right, but why would anyone at DFO do that?  After all, Atlantic salmon and lumber have been the backbone of the Miramichi valley, …Read More →

I spent the week of May 12th fishing for brookies at the Mahoney Brook camp, 22 miles up the Cains River.  This blog has a report on that trip and a few thoughts on the start of the bright salmon season.  There are a number of things going on in salmon conservation, too, but we’ll wait a few days for some expected additional news to write that blog. Among other things, though, we have, …Read More →

  Fishing Friends – One never knows what is in store for weather and water conditions in the first weeks of spring salmon fishing.  The illustration below from the Canadian Government website shows water height and temperature on the SW Miramichi since opening day on 4/15.  As you can see there have been two major raises of water.  The raises do two things.  First, they fill the river with dirty water.  The high dirty, …Read More →

On April 13 the SW Miramichi stood at 1.55M on the Blackville gauge.  That is the sort of number you’d expect when fishing for the first bright salmon on June 1.  At that height many of the river’s pools are beginning to take shape and you can do a fair amount of wading.  There were two rain events, one on the 14th and another on the night of the 15th.  These were both inch-plus, …Read More →

Fishing Friends: Just returning from salmon fishing in Scotland, with the Miramichi salmon season about to open – I bought my license and guide exemption permit yesterday – and with lots happening on the conservation front, I’ve got plenty of material for a spring Miramichi salmon blog.  Let’s start out with the fun part – salmon fishing. The ghillie for the Kildonan estate on the River Helmsdale in the Northern Highlands of Scotland is, …Read More →

Fishing Friends:  The first piece of important news is the formal adoption by DFO of what was apparently the Draft Wild Salmon Conservation Strategy that was aired last July.  At the time we remarked at what an incredibly disappointing document it was, especially since it has been many years in the making.  It was most disappointing because it held no specific action points at all.  There was a great deal of talk about who, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – For an Atlantic salmon fisherman, to borrow a famous line, early March of 2025 is the best of times, and it is the worst of times.  After a day of spring fishing about 20 years ago, I remember sitting on the deck at Campbell’s with Jason Curtis, overlooking the SW Miramichi.   Jason looked at the river and said, “I love this time of year; the whole salmon season is still in, …Read More →

  Fishing Friends – We’ve put together a little Miramichi salmon blog with information on a variety of fishy topics that you’ll enjoy reading on this wintery day. First, I want to report some new art being added to the MSA auction and raffles currently underway.  Gary Tanner is well known to many folks for his auctioneering at many MSA events, his superb shadow boxes and his personally produced feather-wing salmon flies.  We had, …Read More →

Fishing Friends Here is some important and timely news regarding Miramichi salmon.  On the conservation front, John Bagnall, Alex Mills and Karl Wilson of Save Miramichi Salmon – the organization that is moving forward with litigation against DFO for their mismanagement of striped bass and Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi – recently had a preliminary meeting in Moncton with two representatives from DFO.  It is hard to know where to start in our complaints, …Read More →