Brad Burns Fishing

Fishing Friends – Thanks to catching a nasty virus that was working through the camp in Newfoundland I’m home in Maine.  First, a review of what I know about the salmon season in general so far…  I think it is fair to say waters in the middle and southern parts of North America’s salmon range have been finding this a tough season.  A friend who fished on the Flowers River, Labrador’s furthest north scheduled, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – I drove home from the Miramichi on July 5th after one of the most topsy-turvy early season fishing trips I have taken.  The short of it is that the catching was poor, and the run of fish was, well, it was confusing…  We started out with a little burst of fish towards the end of May.  That was good, some years we don’t have any.  This continued with a little trickle, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – I made a quick trip home to Maine on Tuesday the 16th when I knew that the heat wave was inevitable.  On both Wed and Thur the water temperature reached 28C/82F in Blackville.  On Friday it backed off to 26C/76F and this morning, Saturday 6/22 it is down to 23C/73F at first light.  DFO first closed their list of cold water refuge pools and now has restricted angling to 6-11 AM. , …Read More →

Fishing Friends – In an attempt to provide a little extra enthusiasm for the start of the bright salmon season Brad Burns Fly Fishing offered a $100 gift certificate to either Doak’s or Curtis fly shops for a dated, digital photo of the first bright salmon of the season. Early in the last week of May we started getting reports from David Donahue that schools of bright salmon were coming up the SW Miramichi. , …Read More →

Fishing Friends – This post features a report recently released by John A. Ritter PhD, retired Manager of the Diadromous Fish Division of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.  Dr. Ritter’s paper clearly explains the reasons for the decline in Miramichi Atlantic salmon. The report is unique in several ways: Though written by a fishery PhD it is not full of terminology that is incomprehensible to the general public. The average recreational fisherman, …Read More →

Fishing Friends –     Note, see important late breaking news at end of post. The Miramichi is known for its salmon, and rightfully so – after all, it has always had one of the largest populations of Atlantic salmon in North America, and one of the richest sport fishing histories.   A lesser-known fact is that while the lower portions of the main stem of the SW and NW branches are modestly populated with humans,, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – I remembered something I had written in the end-of-summer blog last year – you can easily scroll back and read it all, but here is the operative sentence: “The 34 that entered the Millerton trap during the first two weeks of August this year amounted to 56% of the 60 salmon that had been captured during all of June and July.  In 2021 that same percentage was 21.5% and in 2022, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – Beyond simply enjoying a few days in camp, my goal for the opening days of the Miramichi 2024 salmon season was to try and catch a salmon kelt in the upriver area of the Cains that Harry Allen fished in the early years of the 20th century.  As Allen’s parties canoed down the Cains from Bantalor, their first day out was really just a wilderness canoe trip.  According to the old, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – on Monday, April 15, 2024 yet another Atlantic salmon and brooktrout fishing season will open on the Miramichi River.  I’m headed up on Sunday and am very much looking forward to being back on the river.  By normal standards for mid-April the river is not high, and there is very little snow in the woods to add to the flow.  We are expecting over an inch of rain from now until, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – It has been a while since I’ve had some optimistic news to report on the ongoing attempts to turn around the decline of the Miramichi River Atlantic salmon population.   I’m happy to report, though, that the landscape may be changing.  Let’s do a little background review.  From what I can gather there are three basic problems facing the Miramichi salmon: First, is a general backdrop of poor sea winter survival that, …Read More →