Fishing Friends – I love these “on the cusp” moments during the season.  My old friend, the late John Cole used to say that it was never really hot on the coast of Maine after the first week in August.  I’m not sure we can say that these days, but there is often a pronounced change, and you can see that change in the coming forecast.  According to Environment Canada an extreme heat wave, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – I’ve got a number of items from the Atlantic salmon world to let you know about in this blog post.  First, I returned yesterday from a trip to the Serpentine River in Newfoundland, and I’ll fill you in on how that went.  Second, I have recent reports from several lodges on the Miramichi as well a look at the latest salmon and grilse numbers from the traps.  They’re quite good, especially, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – I just returned from the Miramichi where I had arrived and begun fishing on the evening of June 10th.  That first evening the river was running at a high 1.6 meters on the Blackville gauge.  That is up enough so that wading off the grass bank is generally not possible.  The salmon then are traveling upstream along the edges, and you need to cover the travel lane – there generally is, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – It seems that there are more opportunities right now than there is time to take advantage of them.  I thought that I would make a purely brook trout fishing trip up to the Cains this past week without the worry that I could have instead been fishing for bright salmon.  I got fooled.  On May 22, 2022, Colin Gilks fishing in Blissfield, caught this beautiful salmon that measured 40 inches with, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – It has been a few years since I was on the Miramichi for opening day, but with the ice going out in time, and decent water conditions available, I couldn’t stay away.  I had half forgotten what a great adventure a trip to Miramichi country is at this time of the year.  The ride up from Falmouth was like rewinding the past couple of weeks.  It certainly isn’t summer here in, …Read More →

Click on the IMG link for a movie by Country Haven of ice moving in front of their lodge.    IMG_3287 There is definitely something stirring about watching the ice leave a major river like the Miramichi, and in knowing that it signals the beginning of another season of Atlantic salmon fishing. One of the things that makes the Miramichi ice out interesting is the unpredictability of its timing.  I have seen recent years, …Read More →

Rivers Tweed, Tyne, Dee, Deveron, Findhorn, and Spey – what do these world-famous salmon rivers all have in common?  They each provide information on their fishing through a FishPal website.  Using a very attractive format the FishPal site provides links that will show you fishing conditions, forecasts, recent catch statistics, detailed information on the river’s fishing lodges, their availability for you to book a trip, and a host of other handy information for prospective, …Read More →

As I said in the “Springers or Spring Salmon” blog that I posted on March 3, the success of the Scottish salmon season often seems to be a harbinger of what will take place during the summer on the Miramichi.   That’s not surprising I guess since many of the Scottish and Miramichi salmon both spend their winters together off the west coast of Greenland.  But there is nothing more difficult to predict than the, …Read More →

After the long winter the Miramichi River finally ices out, and last fall’s spawning salmon who have spent the winter safely resting under the ice, find themselves again swimming in open water.  As of opening day, on April 15 these fish haven’t eaten in months, and they have lost a sizeable percent of their body weight.  These spring salmon aka kelts are anxious to get back to sea, and before they make that move, …Read More →

Fishing Friends: The MSA US fund raising season is history for another year, and thanks to the generosity of the many donors and financial supporters it was the most successful in memory.  All the auction winners have been notified and the auction items are being fulfilled.  Next year we expect to be back with a hybrid event that will have both in person and virtual formats.  The date of Feb 4th 2023 is already, …Read More →