Grabbin' Tail On the Miramichi

Last summer Walsh and I ventured north and east to New Brunswick to chase the bright Salmon as they ventured upriver from the ocean.  We were full of intel from our legendendary contact Wayne.  If you recall our post from last July, we had everything we needed from perfected fly patterns, free lodging and detailed information on fishy runs....yet we got burned hard.  The weather was in the upper 80's, sun high in the sky, low water conditions and unwilling fresh fish filled the water.

Fast forward eight months and Jasper and I found ourselves pointed in the same direction to meet up with Wayne and our mutual longtime friend Dave Comeau. 

I departed Thursday at 2:45 am from Farmington, met Walsh in Newburgh and we were on the road in earnest by 4:30a.m.  It was rainy and 48F for most of the ride; the elders were one day ahead of us and word was they had gotten into a few, excitement was building.

We arrived at the bridge and honked at the guys as we spotted them upstream.  Ten minutes later we had exchanged greetings, split up and were into fish almost immediately.

My First Ever

They continued to come and I had three to hand along with a bunch of Searun Brookies for each of us

A move downstream was in order to an old glory hole that Wayne had up his sleeve.  This is what a good run looks like on a 150yd wide river in New Brunswick

Significant cutbanks along submerged shrubs proved deadly

Day 1 ended with old Walsh grabbin' a few more tails for me....stoked

Dave may have done some damage as well

 

And Wayne lived up to his legendary status in his unassuming fashion...

Day 2 kicked off with divided sessions above and below the bridge and we finished off the day in the lower river where we had done well the afternoon before.  I had a tough one with numerous fish battled but none to hand.  Old Walshy got down and dirty and put his first ever Atlantic Salmon on the bank. 

Day 3 was a slow pick but we did manage to handle a few and once again we stung a multitude of fish but their spinning acrobatics in the water/air made it difficult to keep these fish on. 

Hurling the spey...



Last day...



The icing on the cake for the trip was a research tagged fish in the final 30 minutes





Tag # has been submitted and we are eagerly waiting to hear the information on this fish

All told we landed roughly 28 fish between the four of us.  Many of the pictures from Wayne and Dave I have yet to download.  I enjoyed a hot stick throughout the trip so I would like to apologize for the glutonous amount of pictures of me holding these amazing specimens.  Its not often that I experience such good fortune when it comes to a fish that I have not tangled with before but I am grateful for the opportunity to lay waste from time to time.  My kind friend Jasper tailed many fish for me and I plan on returning the favor when the roles are reversed.

While staying in the town of Miramichi, NB we dined at pubs, pizza joints, and family style restaurants.  The locals are very interesting no doubt, constantly using lingo like "you's guys", "lads" and "yanks".  It is a different world and worth experiencing. 

Wayne tells us that the fishing we experienced is what he would classify as 'quite poor' so we both left wondering what the hell a great trip would be like.

Put it on your bucket list guys; this was an experience of a lifetime.