Post by tugboat on Jul 11, 2015 18:07:46 GMT -5
It's been a while since I've fished and even longer since I've posted. Until this past June it's been a good year and a half since I'd been fishing. The reason? I bought a house, renovated the house, and am now am the proud father of a 5 month old baby boy! He's sure keeping me busy these days. Can't wait to take him fishing here in a couple years.
Seeing that it had been entirely too long since I'd fished I finally got out a couple times in June. Hit the flats for tailers one day without seeing any Reds and went to Alley 3 for the first time in 3 years or so. Man it has changed, seemingly so much so that I may need to learn its new tricks. I did manage one small flattie on a clouser though.
I had to work off some rust because my wife is from Newfoundland and we decided to go up for a couple weeks over the 4th of July week (still up here due to a cancelled flight actually). Seeing that you trip over ponds and creeks everywhere you walk in this province I had to bring my rods and sneak out occasionally. My first morning fishing I hit the Waterford River for some Brown trout. It has a good run of big sea run brown trout but they weren't in season so this time of year you're mainly fishing for smallish trout. I missed a couple 12"+ fish but did manage to catch a bunch up to 8" on nymphs and small wooly buggers.
Next trip was with a friend of my father-in-law, who served as a free guide (schwing!) Salmon fishing. Newfoundland is full of native Atlantic Salmon so I couldn't go during salmon season and not go fishing. We vacationed with family on the east coast around St. John's where the Salmon are smaller than the giants on Newfoundland's west coast but hey; a Salmon is a Salmon. Unfortunately the Salmon were REALLY late this year due to a cold June. We tried 2 different rivers with no luck before we finally found a few grilse (first year back spawning) on a third river but they weren't cooperating. We left and hit a spot to try for some sea-run Brook Trout before the tide got bad but only managed one little Brookie, caught by my guide. It was a beautiful day though and the scenery around the area was breathtaking. I had a lot of fun.
The next day, though, we went to St. Vincent's beach and saw some schools of capelin being hit in the surf. Too bad I didn't have my rod with me!
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would see Humpback Whales feeding in the surf. We watched them feed and breach for over an hour, just mesmerized. A couple days later I went with the same friend to a pond in St. John's and ended up in the middle of a midge hatch and caught a bunch of these guys.
The fishing highlight of the trip happened yesterday though. In St. John's all of the ponds are full of non-native Brown trout. One bucket list fish for me though is a big Brook Trout. I've caught some Brook trout in the past in Michigan and Maine but they were little guys between 2 and 6 inches caught in small streams where a 10 inch fish would be absolutely massive. Labrador gets some truly huge Brookies (8+ pounds). Newfoundland's Brookies don't get quite that big but they do get quite a bit bigger there than most places in the States. Luckily about 30 minutes from St. John's there's a wilderness area, that looks like barren arctic tundra due to the terrible weather in the area, that has loads of ponds full of Brookies. I went out at dawn and tied on a flashy white 3" flashy beadhead wooly bugger looking streamer called a Sparkleminnow on a #2 saltwater hook and one ended up cooperating. It ended up about 16 inches long which is easily my personal best Brookie by 10 inches. It was surreal seeing a Brook Trout that big on the end of my line! Never thought I would catch a Brook Trout on a saltwater streamer either.
I'm now re-energized to get back in the groove. This has been an amazing trip, both fishing and non-fishing. I need to get back to the bench and re-stock my fly box and find time to get out on the water. Can't wait to get back into some Reds! Hope to see some of you out on the water!
Seeing that it had been entirely too long since I'd fished I finally got out a couple times in June. Hit the flats for tailers one day without seeing any Reds and went to Alley 3 for the first time in 3 years or so. Man it has changed, seemingly so much so that I may need to learn its new tricks. I did manage one small flattie on a clouser though.
I had to work off some rust because my wife is from Newfoundland and we decided to go up for a couple weeks over the 4th of July week (still up here due to a cancelled flight actually). Seeing that you trip over ponds and creeks everywhere you walk in this province I had to bring my rods and sneak out occasionally. My first morning fishing I hit the Waterford River for some Brown trout. It has a good run of big sea run brown trout but they weren't in season so this time of year you're mainly fishing for smallish trout. I missed a couple 12"+ fish but did manage to catch a bunch up to 8" on nymphs and small wooly buggers.
Next trip was with a friend of my father-in-law, who served as a free guide (schwing!) Salmon fishing. Newfoundland is full of native Atlantic Salmon so I couldn't go during salmon season and not go fishing. We vacationed with family on the east coast around St. John's where the Salmon are smaller than the giants on Newfoundland's west coast but hey; a Salmon is a Salmon. Unfortunately the Salmon were REALLY late this year due to a cold June. We tried 2 different rivers with no luck before we finally found a few grilse (first year back spawning) on a third river but they weren't cooperating. We left and hit a spot to try for some sea-run Brook Trout before the tide got bad but only managed one little Brookie, caught by my guide. It was a beautiful day though and the scenery around the area was breathtaking. I had a lot of fun.
The next day, though, we went to St. Vincent's beach and saw some schools of capelin being hit in the surf. Too bad I didn't have my rod with me!
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would see Humpback Whales feeding in the surf. We watched them feed and breach for over an hour, just mesmerized. A couple days later I went with the same friend to a pond in St. John's and ended up in the middle of a midge hatch and caught a bunch of these guys.
The fishing highlight of the trip happened yesterday though. In St. John's all of the ponds are full of non-native Brown trout. One bucket list fish for me though is a big Brook Trout. I've caught some Brook trout in the past in Michigan and Maine but they were little guys between 2 and 6 inches caught in small streams where a 10 inch fish would be absolutely massive. Labrador gets some truly huge Brookies (8+ pounds). Newfoundland's Brookies don't get quite that big but they do get quite a bit bigger there than most places in the States. Luckily about 30 minutes from St. John's there's a wilderness area, that looks like barren arctic tundra due to the terrible weather in the area, that has loads of ponds full of Brookies. I went out at dawn and tied on a flashy white 3" flashy beadhead wooly bugger looking streamer called a Sparkleminnow on a #2 saltwater hook and one ended up cooperating. It ended up about 16 inches long which is easily my personal best Brookie by 10 inches. It was surreal seeing a Brook Trout that big on the end of my line! Never thought I would catch a Brook Trout on a saltwater streamer either.
I'm now re-energized to get back in the groove. This has been an amazing trip, both fishing and non-fishing. I need to get back to the bench and re-stock my fly box and find time to get out on the water. Can't wait to get back into some Reds! Hope to see some of you out on the water!
