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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I spent the last 5 weeks of the salmon season in camp on the Miramichi fishing both the Cains and the main river. My overwhelming reflection on that time, is how great it felt to have been able to return to Canada, and go salmon fishing. Of all the fishing I’ve done anywhere, there is none that I prefer to fishing for Atlantic salmon in New Brunswick. I’m going to cut this season wrap-up, …Read More →
The good news is that the hot weather of mid-August ended about a week ago. Water temperatures dropped from their highs quite quickly, and they have stayed dependably cool over the last week. The coolness has been accompanied by some rainy weather that has the river about a foot higher than at this time last summer. This has been great for the fish. As I write this the remnants of hurricane Ida are threatening, …Read More →
The South West Miramichi The August 15 Millerton and Cassillis trap numbers for the SW and NW branches of the Miramichi were recently posted, so I’ve written up a little discussion regarding them. Let’s go right to the information that I think most people will find the most interesting. Inserted below is a graphic showing the Millerton trap counts, first for salmon, and then for grilse. The bar graphs from the DFO website show, …Read More →
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 →