Brad Burns Fishing

This year’s weather has been the most upside down of any for many years.  We started out June with two bonafide heat waves.  It didn’t rain either, and it looked like we were in for another low, hot year like 2020.  July, though, was one of the coldest in the last century – truly – and we had lots of rain, especially over the Cains River valley.  The NW Miramichi did not fare as, …Read More →

Fishing for Atlantic salmon on the Miramichi in 2021 continues to be good.  Fishing reports from up and down the river are uniformly upbeat. Eddie Colford of the Black Brook Salmon Club said that fishing there had been good all year.  They had a party in recently, and Eddie said they hooked 15 in one day and rolled fish all day long.  One they landed weighed 20 pounds. Wayne O’Donnell of Rocky Brook said, …Read More →

Accounts of fishing on the Miramichi this year, along with numerous sightings by expert observers of jumping fish and moving schools of salmon, are all very promising.   Perhaps the very most comprehensive and reliable indicators of the size of the run are the DFO trap counts from Millerton and Cassilis.   Through July 15 the Cassilis trap on the NW Miramichi has counted 220 grilse – remember these nets catch just a small percentage of, …Read More →

If you have been following my earlier blogs on this season’s run of salmon, and liking the good news, then you will be even happier after you read this report.      Yes, it has been hot in New Brunswick, though as Mick Jagger says, “it’s all over now.”  The temperature never did get nearly as hot as New England, and it has been dropping steadily since the afternoon of June 29.  On top, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – Good news from the Miramichi!  Just a few days ago it seemed that very few people were fishing for salmon, but for those who have had a  line in the water the results have been surprisingly good for so early in the season. Jason Curtis began fishing for bright salmon near the end of May, and has spent a little time at it most days, though it was June 6 before he, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – The month of May went by without me hearing of a single bright salmon being caught on the Miramichi, though that has never been unusual, and it doesn’t mean that someone didn’t connect.  I hear that the occasional, of what Pete Dube of the Motel Restigouche calls “giant brights” has been taken on the Restigouche since early in May, and that includes this lovely specimen held by Matapedia guide Peter Firth. , …Read More →

Fishing Friends: Spring fishing season doesn’t close for a few days yet, but how long the kelts actually stick around Miramichi River seems to depend on a number of factors.  These may include water temperature, water height – strength of flow – and how long it has been since ice out.  I haven’t made any attempt to research it, but it seems that even going back 25 years or more to my springs on, …Read More →

Fishing Friends We are now one week into the Miramichi Atlantic salmon season, and it has two hallmarks so far.  The first is that the fishing has been very good.  Some say the best in many spring seasons.  The other is that with the early ice out, and the woods empty of snow, the river started out at the relatively low level of 2.5 meters in height, and got down to 1.7 by mid-week. , …Read More →

Fishing Friends – All of a sudden the Atlantic salmon season on the Miramichi is open, and by all reports that I have opening day was a welcome success.  In addition to the great fishing reported the weather was sunny and comfortable and the river was at an excellent fishing height.   Jason Curtis took Bryan Burgess and his wife Mary Jane – new owners of Red Pine Camp down at Hell’s Gate – up, …Read More →

Fishing Friends – while the season on the Miramichi won’t be open until April 15, and from everything we hear the border probably won’t be open until at least some time in the summer, it is uplifting to note that the season is progressing, and the ice is running out of the Miramichi. We still have a way to go before the rivers are completely empty of ice, and even longer until the banks, …Read More →