Fishing Friends – The early season in review – I’m back from nearly a month in my camp at Campbell’s Pool in Blackville – the joys of retirement…  In summary the run of salmon through the first few days of July on the Miramichi – the early run – felt more substantial than recent years, but the fish weren’t any easier to catch.  In June we had the seemingly wonderful scenario of a moderate, …Read More →

For six days ending on May 28 Dawson Hovey of Fredericton and I fished the Cains, SW Miramichi, and NW Miramichi with guide Jason Curtis for the various species of game fish that are all available at this stage of the season. We caught both sea run and river-resident brook trout, lots of striped bass, and danced with salmon, but were unsuccessful in boating either a kelt or a bright fish.  It was very, …Read More →

Last of the kelts and early brights – Looking back at last year’s blog I see that I called this time of the season  “the tipping point” and in fact it is.  Most of the kelts are gone from the river now, though there are still some, and as I reported earlier it wasn’t a bad season all things considered.  Country Haven reported releasing over 1,000 spring salmon this year – which is well, …Read More →

  An old fishing friend, Jim Lukens, and I went spring fishing on the Miramichi for three days this last week. After a rough start with very high, ice-filled water that made the river essentially unfishable for the first week or so of the season, spring fishing has been fairly good.   In fact on the way home we stopped at WW Doaks where Jerry told us that one party that has been coming for, …Read More →

ICE OUT – Here is the post that I’ve been waiting to make for the last two weeks. Even though this was a cold, late spring, the ice has been thinning out for the last several weeks, and there have been open channels in many sections of the river.  Pictures of the Cains River with the ice gone near the Doaktown Road bridge were posted on Facebook back on April 1.  The substantial snow, …Read More →

  The 2019 Atlantic salmon season in Scotland – the best place in the world to catch early run fish – got out of the gate with a bright, springer salmon coming from a pool called Potato Park on the River Naver January 19th.  It is known that some bright salmon enter rivers on Scotland’s north and east coast in every month of the year, but mid-January is early, even by their standards.  No, …Read More →

Dr. Tommi Linnansaari is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biology and Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick, where he holds the Atlantic Salmon Research Chair. He is also a member of the Canadian Rivers Institute at UNB and he is the Research Coordinator of the Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow (CAST). He did his undergraduate and M.Sc. degrees at the Department of Fisheries and Limnology at University of, …Read More →

CAST Background Information Many people interested in Miramichi Atlantic salmon have heard of “CAST” or Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow, but most people are probably still not aware of exactly what CAST is doing to help Miramichi salmon not only survive, but hopefully to once again thrive.   As background the CAST program was conceived by bringing together a diverse group of representatives from government, higher education, industry, conservation organizations, and private business. These partners, …Read More →

I made a trip over to my friend Chas Gill’s farm in Bowdoinham today, and we went out on the Abbagadassett River “The Abby” for smelts. These relatively early ones still have the colors of the sea, and are really the finest of the season. Man was I ready for them!  Here are a few of my prizes before being cleaned and rolled in cornmeal. Fishing was a bit slow with a lot of fine, …Read More →

Just at the end of this morning’s small snow storm I decided to pull on some boots and take a little walk around the few acres here in Falmouth, Maine that my wife and I have lived on for the last 29 years. Compared to some Mainers my age who are living on family properties that they grew up on, 29 years is no big deal, but it is long enough that I remember, …Read More →