Location (finally sunny & mild) Fredericton, NB
(This is a longer-than-normal post, with a longer-than-normal tune at the end. You might want to save time by listening & reading simultaneously)
After two weeks of fishing season, I finally got out fishing this past weekend. Two weeks of cold weather, freezing rain, snow, rain, wind, blown-out rivers...everything short of a meteor impact.
On Friday, my beautiful gf & I went 'adventuring' down to the Fundy Coast to scout out some locations in preparation of the arrival of Morone saxatilis, aka striped bass, aka stripers!
Migratory stripers arrive in late May, but I had an itch to test out new gear and wanted to finally look at places I've known only as points on Google Earth until then.
Our first stop, Lepreau Falls, was more touristy than fishing, but whatev...it was nice there.
After the waterfalls stop & some driving, I found a nice-looking spot with a sand bar, strong current, etc...perfect place to keep in mind for stripers in a few weeks...and also a perfect place to try out my new gear!
I won't bore you to death on the comedy of errors that lead to me getting ready to actually fish (it involved my gf asking, "What are you going to do when I'm not here to help you get dressed for fishing?" And we'll leave it at that.).
I tried out my new Redington waders & 8wt CPX rod, Lamson-Waterworks Litespeed reel, and my homemade stripping basket. All worked flawlessly...once I remembered how to dress myself...and to set the drag on the reel...and how to cast (5 months not casting is a long time).
After an hour or so of casting, we continued our adventure, which turned out to be a leisurely country drive throughout southern NB. When things were over, over 400km were driven, plus a couple (four, actually) cable ferry rides, and $75 worth of beef jerky were brought home.
(The beef jerky is from who we affectionately call The German Butcher but the actual business name is Elke's BBQ and they are AWESOME. They are located in Lower Cambridge, but go to the Fredericton Market each Saturday. Their web info is here, Facebook is here)
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Saturday evening was the annual Icebreaker dinner & auction in support of the Miramichi Salmon Association. Good times, good food, few good laughs were enjoyed.
Find out more about the Miramichi Salmon Association here.
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On sunday, I accepted an invite from Andrew (Twitter: @fishingyankee) to fish in the NB Sport Fishing Association's first bass tournament of the season. Andrew is our local area's resident muskie-pro-in-residence & we met up through Fredericton Outfitters & the local twitter fishing community (population: about 7 people...for now...).
We met at 4AM to head to the tournament, held at the Grand Falls Flowage. Thankfully Andrew was driving, as I would have taken us to Grand Falls, NB, about 5 hours drive the other way. Our day is best summarized in point form.
First, the facts:
- This was our first competitive bass tournament. For both of us. In fact, this was my first time fishing for bass.
- We had a borrowed boat. On water neither of us had fished before.
- The morning was windy & cold as hell.
- Andrew had to keep listening to me talk about fly fishing.
- I caught the first keeper (at exactly 12") at 7:18AM, thinking, "This isn't gonna be too hard." I was wrong.
- We caught our limit!!! Well, Andrew caught out limit: 5 fish, 9.20 pounds. We culled (live-released) my first keeper of the day.
- We were the only newbie team, and 8 teams ended up below us. One of which with a very expensive bass boat. That was alright!
- We had a friggin' blast!
I brought fly gear with me, but, as it was Andrew's tournament, I vowed to not haul it out until the limit was caught. The wind of the morning would have made it messy anyway, so it worked out really good
My "firsts" list:
- First fish of 2011
- First bass ever...and 2nd/3rd/4th...
- First bass on a fly rod...and 2nd, too!
- First fish with my Redington CPX 8wt (a little overkill for bass fishing, but whatev...I wanted more casting practice with it)
All in all, a great time. I'm not ready to buy a bass boat by any means, but it was a cool experience to see how those "other guys" fish (i.e., the gear casters).
Thanks, Andrew!
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Explosions in the Sky, a band I've featured in 411#3 a few times already, released a new album last week, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. Get it. It's good (iTunes here). The first track off it is below.
(Note: today is Election Day in Canada. No matter what your political stripe is, get out & vote. Just not for the Conservative Party of Canada, which was recently found in contempt of Parliament for hiding and/or falsifying information from your elected representatives. They are the first government in the Commonwealth to be found in contempt. They don't deserve your vote. Just sayin'.)
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