July 2014 - Fly Fishing Manitoba

East Coast 2014 Part 2

So Day 6:

Has us leaving the northern mountains and heading back to Fredericton. We stopped in at Grand Falls ate, watched some zip liners and then went down into the gorge.

As promised at the end of the last post I was off to river the river behind where we are staying. The river is called the North Branch Rusagonis and in the past I have caught Bass and Fall Fish no bass this time but I did get this surprise.

Atlantic Salmon

Day 7:
This was a pretty laid back day and the only pics was family fly fishing.

Wife and Son Fly Fishing the Oromocto River

The View Up Stream

Here is some shaky video.
YOUTUBE

Day 8 was more of the same but we did find a Canadian Tire store with a full fly fishing and tying section. Pretty stark contrast to the no fly fishing store and depleted fly sections I am used to in Winnipeg.

Just the wife and I fished the same river for bass etc.

Day 9:
This was our drive to and and first of 6 days in PEI.

We arrived Montague, settled in at our B&B and ate down by the wharf.

Insane Selfie

Queen Anne’s Lace

Day 10: Was a bit of looking around. We found a spot a local guided favorited but I have plenty of buggy mud holes back home to fish.

It was raining off and on all day but we did end up fishing the Morrel River. My son caught his first fish on the fly (and Tenkara) and my wife had fun taking photos of me casting.

In my element

Right At Ya

soft rod open loop

Almost looks like I know what I am doing

Tenkara Son

Day 11:
Went to put some recycling away and found a young raccoon. The owners of the B&B pull the bin to the ground to let it escape and it made straight for the trees.

Then we were off for a little tour to the East Point Light House.

Madeline Islands Ferry

Happy Wife

Next off to Basin Head beach. This is part of the Northumberland Strait so the water is warm (19 Degrees Celsius that day)

Poking a dead Jelly Fish

The Sign Says “No Diving” While the life guards look on.

Then we went to Georgetown and at at Clam Diggers.

View from Clam Diggers Before we Eat

Later that evening I fished the Morrel River again and caught 3 American Shad (new species for me)

More Video http://youtu.be/E1UnoMI7U_0

Day 12:
So we Checked out the South east part of the island and where a little underwhelmed. While it was still nice the scenery wasn’t anything you couldn’t see almost anywhere and was a little less as the rest of the province is as neat as a pin from private homes to towns to parks and this area was a little less of that.

We did visit a nice vineyard.

Combine with an earlier trip to a local distill and our love of Gaham beer we have quite a lot of “adult” souvenirs.

Then off to Point Prim lighthouse and as the tide was going out and the ocean floor revealed itself. After we ate at the Chowder House which was both excellent and reasonable.

Amazingly I didn’t fish this Day

East Coast 2014 trip part 1

So yes, for the 3rd year in a row we are vacationing on the east coast of Canada. We are currently in New Brunswick like last year but we just finished visiting some of the northern parts of the province.

Day 1: Arrive and not much else. Raining.

Day 2: Rental car not ready, still raining. Get car very late in day with barely enough time to get fishing licenses. Rivers brown with run off so no fishing.

Water running down rings

Day 3: Head north. Ultimately to the town of Saint Quentin but we stopped off at Hartland to lunch and visit the worlds longest covered bridge.

World’s Longest Covered Bridge

Saw someone fly fishing on their break and, after our lunch, I saw an immature bald eagle chase an osprey (perhaps to get the nice fish in the osprey’s talons?)

In Saint Quentin we stayed at the Du Repos B&B This area of the province is VERY beautiful. You can’t drive very far without seeing a tempting stream. This is the northern tip of the Appalachian mountain range. Our hosts Jacques and Louise are avid fly rodders and just great people all around.

The room was wonderful and looked to be the perfect base for our coming adventure!

We asked our hosts about local fishing and they offered to take us fishing the next day!!

Day 4: Our plan was to climb Mount Carleton the highest peak in the Maritimes! So ya the plan was to climb a mountain then go fishing.

So up the more scenic and challenging west side. So many photo ops.

Mountain Stream

Almost There…Not.

Changing lenses.

Nutrition Bar Break.

The last kilometer was the four limb climb over huge boulders. And the area is too steep for pulling out cameras so here is a picture of an easier climb.

“Easy” Scree.

But we made it!

Nictau Lakes

Fire Watch Tower

The current info on the place says it is 2 hours up and one hour down. Well maybe for people used to climbs but living on the prairies for 14 years and stopping for many photos this was the hardest thing I have ever done and it took us 5 hours to get up and back.

So ya this is a fly fishing blog and I did mention our host were going to take us fishing. So back to the B&B and one ham and egg sandwich and 2 Tylenols later I was off fishing.

Now this is their secret spot so I can’t tell you but the fishing was good and the fish pretty active. It was bad by their standards but catching wild fish in the shadow of very old mountains has a certain panache that the amount of fish cannot affect.

Secret Spot

So if you are a C&R at all cost type avert your eyes!

Just Add Butter

Nothing quite like eating brook trout fresh out of a mountain stream.

Having such a good time we extended our stay. One, to enjoy the area more and two, to take the family to that fishing spot.

Day 5: We had a few plans to explore the park without climbing any mountains.

Bathurst Lake

Camp Lake

Red Pine Trail

Williams Chute

Roadside Moose

and Calf

She got a small salmon

So again back to the secret spot.

Adelle fished and Charles played in the water. At one point he decided he want to fish. Seeing as he hasn’t fly fished since he was 4 years old so I handed him my rod, gave him some reminders and let him at it.

He got a million hits and loved the action!

So I used this an opportunity to break out the Tenkara rod and see if I could get a game fish on it (as I did bust the cherry on it the weekend before in B.C. but they were bait fish).

Tenkara Brookie

That’s it for now but I am off to fish the creek behind the house we are staying in.