Fishing friends:  Another salmon fishing season on the Miramichi River system has ended.  I’ve been home for a week, but I still miss the river every day.   I’ve reviewed my daily fishing calendar, opened up the historic water level data and weather data websites, and reconstructed the day-to-day fishing and conditions that we experienced. There is a lot more to cover though: the smallmouth bass debacle, the future of stock enhancement on the Miramichi, the, …Read More →

Fishing Friends:  Our local weatherman in Portland, Maine reported on 9/1 that it wasn’t often that the actual weather conditions in the Northeast and the first day of the meteorological season coincide.  But it did this year.  On August 31 it was hot with near record humidity and the next day it was dry and cool.  In the middle of the change we got dumped on with a good rain too.  On the Miramichi, …Read More →

Fishing Friends: On the Miramichi, last week some relatively cool weather and rains brought the water levels up and temperature down enough for DFO to reopen the cold-water holding pools to fishing on August 11.  You can see from the graph pasted in below that the water temperatures got down for two consecutive days to the below 20C/68F level needed to reopen the closed pools. Current water temps, though, are not really cold at, …Read More →

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 →