It’s been on helluva winter in the North East.  The season opened on 4/15 with the river still frozen, but now it is running out.  Jason Curtis sent me these great videos from his home.  So far this is a pretty and gentle ice-out.  The ice doesn’t appear to thick because it was well insulated with snow.  This is good because it will produce the least damage to the river bed and river banks., …Read More →

4/17 – This year NB has put an online licensing system in place.  No matter how it is handled – online by you or in a shop – a portion of the process must be done online in order to get a special identifying “Outdoor Card” number that will be used in any other hunting or fishing licensing you participate in.  Here is the link.  Even if you plan to buy your license in camp, …Read More →

The picture immediately below from guide Jason’ Curtis’s deck this morning 4/16 is a big, open lead on the west shore of Main SW Miramichi.  According to Jason the ice will go in a day or two.                 The picture below from the day before where open water was starting to appear on the opposite shore from Jason’s house.  The shift across the river shows that the whole ice, …Read More →

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has decreed that for the 2015 angling season there will be no retention allowed by Miramichi anglers of salmon or grilse, and that single, barbless hooks will also be required on salmon rivers throughout the Province of New Brunswick.  While to some this measure may seem harsh we applaud it.  It can only help to release alive all the salmon that do make it back to the river, …Read More →

Somewhere there is fishing for bright Atlantic salmon, and right now that is Scotland.  A fishing buddy George Watson and I just returned on 3/23 from two fun weeks of fishing the River Naver and staying at the Altnaharra Hotel.  While we never catch a lot of salmon on this trip we get a few and had 8 fresh run fish that are locally called “springers”.  Fishing in Scotland is different than in Canada, …Read More →

Here’s how things look right now up on the Miramichi.  This is where we would normally enter in to the camp.  That drift is 5 feet deep.  You can see the river in the left background.  Other than being flat you can’t tell it from the other snow covered fields.  Everyone is now hoping that spring will be fairly dry and gradual or we will have a terrible runoff in early April.  I’ve got, …Read More →

I really envy the Scots their long salmon season.  In a great many of their “springer” rivers fresh salmon arrive during every month of the year.  Sea-liced, chrome salmon slide in during December and are caught in early February with slight tinges of pink on their sides from sitting under the ice in a holding pool for 60 days.  On the Miramichi we can only dream about a bright fish before sometime in late, …Read More →

I specify Main Southwest Miramichi because the Miramichi system is one with lots of branches, and many of them are substantial salmon rivers in their own right.  While you are still in the brackish portion of Miramichi Bay the river splits into two branches, the Northwest Miramichi and Main Southwest Miramichi.  If you look at Percy Nobb’s map of the entire river system –copy included inside Closings – you will see that it is, …Read More →