An Autumn Week on the Miramichi

Finally - after missing the best July on the river in years and a quick trip up in August that was mostly sightseeing and casting practice - our September trip to the Miramichi was here.  We arrived on 9/18 to beautiful weather and plenty of water in the river.

We're fishing out of Bullock's Lodge, formerly known as Tuckaway Cabins, in Boiestown, New Brunswick.  Booting up the first morning, Bridget, Linda and myself:

Fly selection was a no-brainer for me the first morning out.  Back in July, I  sent a batch of my new fly, the Celtic Beauty up to Renate Bullock, guide extraordinaire and a principal in Bullock's Lodge.  As I've noted before, its first morning out of the fly box, 3 anglers hooked 14 fish with it.  Now its my turn!

The lovely and talented Celtic Beauty:

I cast my way down through Home Pool, and when I got to the end of the pool, at a spot variously called Dreyer's Point (by Bill D.) or Tanner's Point (by yours truly), I got a massive grab and, as they say, it was "game on!"  Dan Bullock came quickly with the net...this was a good fish.

This was a very big fish.  He wasn't a leaper, but when he boiled on the surface, it was easy to see he was a force to be reckoned with.  Finally, taping at 37 inches, if you check your salmometer, you'll find that he's a twenty pounder!

During my rest from the big fight, Bridget hooked up with a feisty grilse:

Dan Bullock doing the guiding/netting chores:

Success!  First fish of the week for Bridget:



Linda Warren, the FAR better half of fly tyer and good friend Bob Warren, hooked up Monday morning, too, with a nice male grilse.  She was fishing Bob's Golden Pheasant Spey fly:



It was a beautiful morning on the Miramichi with good friends swinging through the pool together:

Tuesday morning and I'm still fishing my Celtic Beauty at, if memory serves (and it usually doesn't), Elbow Pool.   It was another gorgeous day, still plenty of water in the river, water temp 50 degrees first thing in the morning.   Suddenly, a great pull and we're off and running with another big fish. 

My, uh, fish-playing technique has been variously described as either odd, unusual, or ridiculous:

However, it does get the job done.  A fine 12 pound hen:

Not to be outdone, Bob got into a nice fish, too:

But wait, it's my turn again!  Nice male grilse:

At this point, the days start to run together for me.  I've never been any good at keeping a daily journal, so photos tell the story, regardless of the exact day and time. 

I believe it was Wednesday, though, the Bridget landed another grilse, with a big assist from Bob:

I believe it was also Wednesday that Linda trumped us all with this 22 pounder with great friend and guide Vin Swayze at the net:

Bob's Golden Pheasant Spey does it again!

Bob Warren's Golden Pheasant Spey, waiting to get back in the game:

Thursday, good friends Wally Murray, Renate, Bridget and I:

head down to Camp Pool:

My very good friend, excellent fly tyer and wonderful guide, Renate Bullock:

Walt Scheffler and a couple of his friends were in camp fishing as well.  And occasionally, Walt actually gets out of his riverside easy chair and lands a fish! (on a Celtic Beauty, of course)

Bridget hooked and landed a couple nice brook trout:

Fly-wise, I ended up landing a 20 and a 10 pounder, plus a grilse, on the Celtic Beauty.  I hooked and landed a 12 pound hen on the Golden Pheasant Spey.  I also fished, and had a hook-up and several grabs, on a McCormack's Shrimp.  Don't forget you can click on these pics and enlarge them, click again and they'll fill your screen:

We hooked several more fish than I've shown, and had a great week on one of the treasures of this planet.

Many of the photos in this post are courtesy Renate Bullock and I thank her dearly for supplying them.

A fellow name of Brendan from County Waterford, Ireland, recently sent me this thought:

The great thing about about salmon fishing is its a great leveller, young or old, prince or pauper, the salmon doesn't care and when you are in the water you get totally immersed everything else just fades into the background until you get that jolt...
then there is the fishing hut and meeting guys that are passionate about their sport; enthusiasm rubs off and you end up spending half of your allotted fishing time chatting. You are right - life with salmon fishing is good.
Cheers.

Gordon Griffiths Floss...just call me the Flossman!

I'm happy to announce that I've cornered the market for Gordon Griffiths SuperGlo Floss in the known universe.  Or North America, anyway, and its for sale, you betcha.

SuperGlo floss is absolutely electric stuff.  There are 5 colors:  Flourescent Orange, Green, Yellow (really more of a chartreuse), pink and red. Click on the pic to supersize, click again to REALLY supersize:

This floss is a 2-strand floss that is easily divided for smaller flies or smoother bodies.  It makes an absolute knockout butt on flies like the Black Bear Green Butt or Bob Warren's Cutty Sark.

I'm selling these in packs of five for $12.50, first class mail included, to the U.S.  We'll have to figure out shipping to other countries on a case by case basis.  You can mix and match colors; take one of each or all five in one color.  That's up to you.  We'll just sell these via paypal; email me at Gary.Tanner117@gmail.com to get my paypal account number.  Thanks!

The Park Shrimp

The Park Shrimp was designed by Ross MacDonald, as near as I can tell around 2009.  I'm getting ready for a trip to the Miramichi the week of September 18-25, and this shrimp feels like it just might work.

The pattern, which I found on both http://www.salmon-ireland.com/ and http://www.salmonfishingforum.com/:

Hook:           Salmon hook, single or double, du jour
Tag:             Oval gold tinsel to suit hook size
Tail:             Bottom layer:  Orange Arctic Runner about hook length with two strands orange flash
                     Middle layer:  Yellow Arctic Runner twice as long as bottom and top layers with a few       
                         strands of  gold flash (I used Yellow Polar Bear)                                      
                     Top layer:  Orange Arctic Runner equal to bottom layer
Rear Body:   Gold Lite Brite
Front Body: Black Seal fur (I used black uni-stretch)
Rib:              Oval gold tinsel to suit hook size, across both rear and front bodies.  Original recipe appears 
                         to call for pearl tinsel.
Wing:            Black fox (I used goat) with gold flash over
Hackle:         Yellow wound on first; tie on Jungle Cock eyes, wind on Silver Badger dyed orange.
Head:             Red

Notes:            I've never used Arctic Runner before; pricey stuff, that!  It has some of the same transluscence as Polar Bear, really lovely stuff.  Also never used Lite Brite dubbing before.  It doesn't look like its going to cooperate at all, but in fact twists onto the thread very easily and nicely.

I'm looking forward to swinging this shrimp and reporting back after the trip!

Salmon Fly Hooks...or when is a 10 an 8?

With, as usual, too much time on my hands, I began looking at my boxes...and boxes...and boxes of up-eye salmon fly hooks.  I'm tying small shrimps particularly at the moment, in anticipation of my September trip to the Miramichi, and was struck by the variance in actual hook size among manufacturers for the same numbered hook.   I thought this little photo might be instructive to some as they cast about (great pun, eh?) for the appropriate size hook for the fly they're tying.  Tomorrow when I'm bored some more, I'll see  how the larger sizes compare among manufacturers and report back.  Click on the pic to get the big picture.

And when is a #7 a #4?

And finally, my stash of #3 through #2/0's.  New York State Salmon River fisherman might be happy to note that all of these hooks appear to fall within the one-half inch maximum hook gape for flies used on that river.  And again, the grid is 1/4" squares, and you can click, then click again, to supersize the pic:

 

Ready to Ship

For a customer in downstate New York, Gray Ghosts and Deep Green Beauties from #1 to #8 hooks.  Fun to tie, fun to ship, hopefully fun to fish!

The Long & Short of It - Deep Green Beauty wingsets

Those little size 6 and 8's are tough to make up for my old beat up fingers!

The Miramichi's Tributaries - Beautiful Pools, Beautiful Places

At the Miramichi Salmon Association's "IceBreaker" fundraiser back in May, 2011, friends Allan Wilson, Stan Hunter, Vin Swayze and I went together to purchase a sightseeing trip hosted by donors Debbie and Dale Norton, owners of Upper Oxbow Outdoor Adventures on the banks of the Little Southwest Miramichi in Sillikers, New Brunswick.  On August 17, 2011, we took to the roads of Northeast New Brunswick with Dale to see spots on the Northwest, the Sevogle and the Little Southwest that even Vin, with nearly 70 years on the Miramichi, had not seen.

First stop on our way to look at some of the Northwest's finest crown reserve camps and pools was at Syd Matchett's Trout Brook Fly Shop.  Beautiful flies, incredibly well-equipped with fly tying materials.

Syd (plaid shirt) and Dale at the counter:

Stan, Allan and Vin (l. to r.) check out the vast fly selection:

Syd's Trout Brook Fly Shop is probably the most well-stocked small fly shop I've ever been in. 

Our first look at a Crown Reserve salmon camp was the Cruickshank Camp.  Beautiful looking water.  With my hip still in recovery phase, though, I didn't make the steep 62-step descent to the pool's edge.  Looked nice from high above though.

The best I could capture with the camera was the fast run between pools (Trust me, its a long way down to that water):

Next stop was the Square Fork Camp, where the north and the south branches of the Sevogle smash into each other (that's the only way to put it.  This is no gentle y-shaped meeting of river branches) to form the main Sevogle.  It's an incredible pool, with a privately-leased camp hard by it.  The branches and the main channel have really cut through some rock over the years!

 Where the branches meet (head-on):

The South Branch as it enters the pool:

         And the North Branch (I've got to get there some early July to watch salmon jump those falls!)

                                        A beautiful stretch of river farther up the North Branch:

Conservation efforts are never very hard to find near New Brunswick's salmon rivers:

Let it never be said the New Brunswick does not have long, straight dirt roads!

We made a quick stop along one of these roads when we spotted a young bull moose just off the road.  We backtracked quickly, but he was gone.   However, I learned of a custom among New Brunswick moose hunters - at least in this area - where, even though its crown land, hunters "mark" their territory for the coming season's hunt with homemade signs, hoping to keep the "other guys" out.  These fellows got it right; their sign is 10 yards from where the bull had been standing!

Clear cuts are easier to find than moose:

The Miramichi's watershed is a magnificent place.  My thanks to Debbie and Dale for their gracious hospitality, and especially to Dale for putting up with the four of us for an entire day!