Miramichi Salmon Fishing June and Early July 2022

This is what we’re looking for, a chunky, bright Cains River salmon! The black ghost is still in its mouth.

Headed out of the Cains by jet canoe we can see anglers from Black Brook working the shoreline of the confluence with the SW Miramichi – just as other fishers have done for at least 100 years.

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 a preferred bank during strong flow – either from the shore or boat casting in towards the shoreline.  I briefly connected with two salmon that evening that took the fly hard at the end of the swing not 25 feet off the bank.  Since both were taken on a near dangle neither fish was well hooked.  This situation, to varying degrees would become the story of the early fishing this summer for most of us in the lower river, though in a couple of weeks there would be more fish, and at times there were somewhat better water levels.  We hooked and lost a couple more during that first week including one that came full length out of the water after Ralph Vitale’s fly, but it was the weekend of June 18th before we finally put one in the net, a beautiful hen fish with tiny head, chrome sides, and an indescribable electric blue colored back.  It was pouring rain, she refused to be held for a photo, and so we just let her go.  It was my first time fishing with Alex Mills, a NB lawyer who led the lobbying effort that ended salmon netting in the Miramichi.  We caught that fish in the rain part of a thunderstorm, the worst of which we sat out under a porch on Doctor’s Island as Alex talked about his years in the outfitting business as the proprietor of Old River Lodge in Blissfield.

Looking upriver at approaching thunderstorms with Goose Island on the right and Doctor’s Island out of sight to the left.

 

That Sunday the 19th Jesse Robbins, the Sage rep who lives in Maine, came to the Miramichi with a group of his Spey-fishing buddies from his time steelheading on the West Coast.  We had a lunchtime barbeque at Campbell’s, and I listened to some excited stories of good fishing by them in some of Country Haven’s pools  in Upper Blackville.  They caught fish, and wowed everyone including the guides with their long casts.  I think we may have some new Atlantic salmon converts in the group.

Spey casting gurus enjoy a barbecue lunch before heading back to Upper Blackville pools for the evening fishing.

 

On June 22nd the Cassillis and Millerton trap numbers through June 15 were posted to the DFO website.  This is a very early indication of the run, but it is always better to have a good number than a bad one.  The Millerton salmon number in particular was quite good – more on this when we look at the June 30th numbers.

A lovely, chrome-bright hen salmon.

Guide Nick Warren with a freshly minted grilse.

My notes from the trip show that around the 23rd and continuing for a few days there was a very evident run of salmon.  My god it was tough, though, to get a hook into these buggers.  My neighbors at Anderson’s Point have a great high-water spot where the salmon will often hold up for a while in the big dinge off the end of the point – even when they don’t seem to be doing so anywhere else around.  Two Keenan men have fished that point from their childhood nearly 70 years ago, and they are good at it.  They had regular targets of bright, rolling salmon, but only occasionally would one nip at a fly, and even less frequently get hooked.   Around now we also started to see the occasional grilse come flying out of the water.  There must have been a decent push of them as I hooked grilse every day for four or five days.

Two other hallmarks of this early going were that there were some very cold nights and even days.  We had water temps in the morning down in the mid 50sF off and on for a couple of weeks.  That is a good 10 degrees colder than one would expect the last week in June.  The other was the amount of parr that we were seeing.  We normally do see a lot of parr in June in Blackville, but this year it seemed as if they were even more numerous than normal.  We had a hatch of some small mayflies one evening, and the density of parr feeding along the shoreline had to be seen to be appreciated.  They were literally so thick in places that the rises to the surface took on the look of boiling water.  I got an e-mail from a blog reader who was fishing for trout on the upper Cains, and said he was catching so many parr that it became frustrating.  Now if they could just make it by that equally ridiculous horde of stripers at the mouth of the river….

By the 4th of July the water was finally getting down to the more reasonable level of under .9 M on the Blackville gauge.  This is still too high to be ideal on most Miramichi salmon pools, but it is low enough to allow a lot of wading, and some lies do hold fish at this height.  Naturally a big front came through, and we got 40MM of rain at Clearwater, and the river came back up to 1.7 meters.  In an effort to find an alternative we went up the Cains which had mixed rainfall amounts at different measurement stations on the Fire Weather report.  Bantalor, because of its location in the headwaters, is easily the most important one.  They got less than an inch while it showed Meadow Brook at 4 inches – a number that I still don’t believe.  The Cains cleared up enough to fish almost overnight, although it did remain fairly high for days.  In spite of that height, we found a few fish, and on the 6th I had my best day of the trip netting two mid-teen sized salmon, losing another, and rolling a couple more.  The water was cold, and I was fishing a large #4 Black Ghost.

Four good early season bright salmon flies. They all worked again in 2022. Clockwise from the upper left: Silver Rat, Chenille Green Machine aka Crystal Yum Yum, John Olin, Black Ghost.

Cold, high-water conditions didn’t affect just the lower river.  Wayne O’Donnell reports from Rocky Brook that they started fishing with good results on June 27, but their water was also in the 50sF, and with that raise from the 40mm of rain the fish just moved on further up towards the headwaters and fishing quieted down.  “The brooks:” Rocky, Clearwater, Salmon and a number of smaller ones – all above Boiestown, represent important cold-water sanctuaries on the MSW Miramichi.  But without the warmer river water to need sanctuary from, they lose some of their special appeal.

On July 5th the DFO posted the June 30th salmon and grilse numbers from the traps.  Millerton registered 96 salmon – as opposed to grilse – and that was the highest total of any year since 2007 except for 2010 which had a handful more.  Using a historic estimate of 5% trap efficiency that means roughly 2,000 salmon had entered the Miramichi through June 30th In the graph I’ve copied from their site the green columns are the count through June 30, and the beige columns are the full year counts.  The June 30 count is a very uplifting number even if catching these fish was on the difficult side.  Grilse numbers so far are lower than last year.  Today’s Dungarvon Barrier report showed the same thing with salmon up and grilse down somewhat for the year to date.  The same percentages – more or less – are also true of the NW Miramichi where salmon to date were above their historical average, but grilse are not.  Grilse numbers, however, are within their long-term averages, so we’ll just have to see how the rest of the season goes.

Big guy, and a big fish!

The increased numbers of salmon include some real specimens.  Innovative Green Machine tier Ashley Hallihan very recently landed this estimated mid-20s salmon from the MSW Miramichi in Blackville.  Ashley – who together with his students supplied the drone footage for On the Cains – caught the fish on one of his super-slimly trimmed, lime-colored machines with a butt of red crystal flash.

The New Brunswick weather for the foreseeable future predicts daily high temps to be right around the 26C/80F mark with lows slightly higher than long term averages.  No large rains are forecast, but of course all this can change.  The cold-water pools should now start to accumulate fish, and we will be into the normal summer routine.  It looks, though, like we have a good run on our hands this year, and that we will escape sustained overly warm temperatures that kill fish, at least into early August.  That is great news for our favorite fish.

Thanks to everyone who sends me photos and information, especially Byron Coughlan of Country Haven and Eddie Colford at Black Brook.  Thanks for reading!  Brad

Young Country Haven guide Colby Donovan with a primo Cains River early July salmon.                             Photo from Country Haven.

PS  I have just received 40 copies of the paperback version of Maine to Montauk from Amazon.  This is the first inventory of this book I have had.  There are no hard cover copies at this time.  Anyone who wants a signed copy can send me an e-mail with their order and send me a check when they receive it.  You could also use PayPal to bigbass@maine.rr.com.  Price is in American currency, $30 with shipping included in the US, and $45 in Canada.  I’m very sorry about the extra $15 charge, but even with it I will still be subsidizing the shipping to CA.

Before you start questioning my sanity or allegiance, let me explain that previous to being introduced to the Miramichi striped bass were my fish.  This book is based around my life fishing for the striped bass population of the East Coast of the USA.

Maine to Montauk was the #1 Best-selling new fishing book release for a period of time earlier in the spring, and is still selling well.  The foreword is by the former publisher of Saltwater Sportsman Magazine, and Black Brook Salmon Club senior member Rip Cunningham – a man who knows more than a thing or two about striped bass.  If you look the book up on Amazon there is a long preview there to give you a flavor of the book.

Here are two noteworthy reviews: 

“Maine to Montauk is the story of the evolution of an angler (and man) and the highs and lows of an enigmatic-yet-wholly captivating fishery.  Filled with fascinating characters and intriguingly fishy settings, this book is an absolute must for anyone who loves fishing for striped bass.”
Monte Burke – author of Lords of the Fly and Saban
“Few folks have fished as hard for striped bass as they have fought to conserve them. Equal parts diehard angler and devoted conservationist, Brad Burns has put these experiences on paper for the rest of us. It’s all here, from eel-skin plugs to the Eel Skin Inn. Meet the heroes of the sport, land a sixty pounder (or two),  witness the rise (and fall) of the striper population, and share one man’s passion for the fish that unites us all.”
David DiBenedetto – author of On the Run: An Angler’s Journey Down the Striper Coast

Maine fisherman Nat Thompson enjoys summer views during a canoe trip on the MSW Miramichi

16 Comments on “Miramichi Salmon Fishing June and Early July 2022

  1. Brad, Thank you for another wonderful report. Glad to know the run has started out strong this year! Hopefully, the Cains will be full of fish this fall.

  2. Hi Brad, thanks for the report and more importantly for your time spent with us at Campbell’s. We all enjoyed our time on the Miramichi with Country Haven and there are certainly a whole new group of converts to Atlantic salmon from us steelheaders over on the West Coast. Hope to be back again soon! Best, Jake

    • Thanks Jake, glad to see you guys had a good time – as did we. Next year, now that you have been educated in Atlantics, you can’t let Jesse catch all the fish.
      In many ways mid-June is a great time to come. There are definitely more fish a little later, but those early fish are the finest specimens of the year, and one of them is worth several of the later running fish.

  3. Hi Brad
    Great news concerning fresh runs!! Heard from our caretaker for Messler’s Salmon camp (Buddy Wellwood) that he hooked his first fresh fish of the season yesterday. Looking forward to our two week trip to camp end of September. (we are halfway between Doaktown and Boicetown , below Wilson’s and above Sutter’s.
    I grew up fishing stripers on Cape Cod, living in a beach buggy all summer with my Mom and my brother. Dad would come down every Friday after work and he would spend his two week vacation in the buggy.
    Please send me a copy of your book, as I’m sure reading it will bring back many, many memories of time on the Cape.

  4. Always an interesting read thanks for sharing Brad, I enjoy the science and the “fishing stories”, so far you haven’t posted a “you should have been here yesterday” as some of the guides I use are apt to say. All the best, Phil

    • Hello Phil. Great to hear from you. The Miramichi salmon population isn’t what it was years ago, but neither are any other rivers. There isn’t much sense complaining about it. We’re grateful for what we still have and focus our energy on trying to help.

  5. Thanks from your report. It sounds like the River is off to a good start. I always enjoy seeing the fish photos , those early fish are beautiful.

  6. After watching Jesse and his west coast Spey catching group clean up at the Bridge Pool during high water I think a spey rod will be on order!

    • Spey rods are a wonderful tool, and lots of fun. They require lots of practice, though, and the time to get the basics down is not while you are salmon fishing.

  7. Hi Brad:
    Over the past two weeks I have hooked 15 stripers in the 9″ – 12″ range above Boiestown on the MSW. Do these small fish travel upstream with the larger spawners or were they born here and are on their way out? This is the 1st year that I have hooked them in this pool and the salmon and grilse don’t seem to be holding up like they used to. I enjoy reading your blog and any feedback you or any of your readers can provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jerry.

  8. Hi Brad, I enjoyed the read. Great to see you out there at the end of June, hard to believe it was a month ago already.. Well done on your day of 2 bigger salmon. .
    If anyone is interested there are some Miramichi photos of the week 19-26 June 2022 on my blog here.

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