Welcome to Brad Burns Fly Fishing
This website offers the books On the Cains and Closing the Season, and shares with my fellow Atlantic salmon devotees information about the Miramichi River’s Atlantic salmon fishery. Other books by me such as Maine to Montauk and Black Spruce Stream can be purchased through my “author’s page” on Amazon at this link.
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Do you have any questions for me about the Miramichi or Atlantic salmon fishing in general? Just e-mail me at bigbass@maine.rr.com. To read Miramichi salmon blogs and fishing reports select Miramichi Salmon Blog from right side of the menu bar near the top of the screen.
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Fishing Friends: It’s the best spring salmon season in some years according to Eddie Colford, the manager and head guide of the Black Brook Salmon Club. I saw Eddie and his son Alex out on the river this last weekend, with their sports, BBSC member Frank Harrington, and his guest Ken Blomquist who had recently caught a 43.5-inch salmon. I also spoke with Rick Cunjak PhD who had been helping his UNB/CRI University of, …Read More →
Fishing Friends: The salmon season on the Miramichi River opened on April 15. Ice out has been a bit unusual as there had been no rain. Warm weather this past week after a long stretch of cold and snowy spring weather softened the river ice and sent a lot of snow melt into the river. The Miramichi rose about 6 feet in the last week or so and was very milky on opening, …Read More →
Fishing Friends The salmon season opens April 15 on the Miramichi. I just bought my annual catch and release license. It will sure be great to be out on the river fishing at the beginning of a new season. So how are things looking today, April 5th? First, here is a shot from the MSA webcam of Bullock’s Pool in Boiestown, then here is a photo sent in by Eddy Colford of the Black Brook, …Read More →
Fishing Friends – On Jan 13 I wrote a letter to two Canadian ministers complaining about DFO’s failure to effectively manage the Miramichi’s salmon population. Many of you did the same. Most specifically my letter faulted them for not controlling the outrageous growth in the overly protected striped bass population, and failing to follow its federal mandates by not working with citizens and First Nations people to protect the salmon fishery. On March 2nd, …Read More →
Fishing Friends Bright salmon begin entering some rivers on the north and east coasts of Scotland during December and January. Historically, as some of the older ghillies have told me, when the season opened in January the pools on the middle beats of the River Dee already held a number of salmon which had started to develop slight color in their sides, indicating that they had been there for a while. These fish, …Read More →
Fishing Friends An old friend of mine, 2nd generation master Maine guide and a very talented Yankee character, Michael Jones, has a new venture called Fly Line Podcast – Maine Fishing Guides and Luminaries. I knew the first generation too, Michael’s father Dean, we worked together 50 years ago. This is a labor of love for Michael. He says that he is doing this podcast to build a legacy about Maine fishing that he, …Read More →
Fishing Friends: For 20 years I’ve felt as if the MSA US dinner, historically held the first weekend in February, was the turning point in the winter. The young turkeys living around our place in Maine were sort of unisex until recently, but now a good number of them have emerged as males and are in full strut every morning. There are some big open patches on the south facing hills in the field,, …Read More →
Fishing Friends – we had a Miramichi Salmon Association executive committee meeting yesterday, 2/1/23 from Fredericton and by Zoom. We received good news on the condition of the eggs in the MSA hatchery, and while not a final count, it is anticipated that in June of 2023 approximately 500,000 fry will be stocked in the headwaters of the SWMiramichi, the Cains River and the Dungarvon River. The MSA is conducting a multi-year experiment, …Read More →
Fishing Friends – Here are a few developments from the Miramichi that you will be interested in: Last summer I signed up on FishPal Miramichi to receive rod availability alerts on the Miramichi River. I got some alerts last year from Wilson’s, Country Haven and Black Brook Salmon Club. Well today I got an e-mail with the first availability for 2023, and it was uplifting to just be reading about salmon fishing. Black Brook, …Read More →
Fishing Friends: Here are two important messages for everyone who is interested in the future of Miramichi River Atlantic salmon and salmon fishing. First, we are making a last call for ticket sales to the MSA US 70th Anniversary Winter Event being held at the Portland Country Club in Falmouth, Maine on Feb 4th. Note that you can also attend this event virtually via zoom. What a great Saturday night winter get together with, …Read More →