June Fun on the Miramichi

Friday, June 8th, I headed up to Boiestown, New Brunswick to enjoy a few days with my friends on the Miramichi, and help raise some important funds for the Woodmen's Museum.  Set a new record for the run up:  550 miles in 10 hours from my driveway to the "beverage" counter at McCloskey's store!  Including a few minute layover while the Border Patrol checked my bags for contraband.  If they knew how important these trips are to  me, they wouldn't bother.  I always declare just exactly what I have.  Oh well, they have a job to do.   I think I had a rookie on the inspection team...he pulled a Sage rod tube out of my rod bag and asked me what it was.  I nixed the idea of replying "rocket launcher" quickly enough to avoid problems.  A simple "fly rod" got me through.

Friday night Chris Gaston, creator/owner of www.NewBrunswickSalmonFishing.com , a great forum, stopped by the camp to pick us some flies and a Wheatley I donated to that forum's excellent donation to MSA's Classic auction.  Brian Cuming, who I also met via that forum, also stopped by to drop off a beautiful framed fly he was donating to MSA as well.   Visit that forum, you'll be happy that you did!
(Another great forum is www.nsflyguy.ca and I don't want to forget www.speypages.com ).  But I digress.

Saturday was Miramichi Salmon Association Annual General Meeting day, held at MSA's hatchery complex.  I had never been there before.   Enjoyed the meeting and the hot dogs and hamburgers afterward.   We had to hurry back to Boiestown for a "pre-party" party (before the Woodmen's fundraiser) at Vin and Hazel Swayze's.   The sign on the wall says it all:

I enjoyed a conversation with Mark Hambrook, MSA's President about the in's and out's of running a non-profit.  Mark works hard.  Really hard.  I was glad to see him out and about at an event he wasn't responsible for...kicking back:

The Woodmen's Museum event went very well, with its usual sold-out, fun crowd.  The dinner was excellent, and the bidding in the auction was even better!  I think they bid fast and furiously just to get me off the stage!

Sunday morning it was blowing a gale, but Vin and I gamely decided to give it a go.  Wadered up, waddled down to Vin's boat, the FTG (you can ask me in person what that stands for), and loaded up.  The bad news is, there was water in the gas, and the usually reliable Merc was a non-starter.  So we headed back up to camp.

The good news is, a group of friends had stopped in to Vin's while we were down at the boat, so an instant party started!  Way better to sit on his deck and watch the wind blow than to have a fly sticking out of your head because you tried to cast against it!  (I might not have said that 15 or so years ago, but I sure buy into it now).   Relaxing along the Miramichi:

Vin in one of the Adirondack chairs he makes so well (I keep forgetting to make a pattern from one of them so I can build a few myself).  Oh, and the party dress code was "Miramichi Casual":

I enjoyed one of Renate Bullock's incredible meals Sunday night.  After dinner, Vin came up and the three of us fished home pool.  Renate and I both landed some nice brook trout, she on a Butterfly, me on a Celtic Beauty (that makes the CB at least a 3-species fly - landlocked salmon, brook trout, and of course atlantic salmon.  Woo-Hoo!)

Renate always hooks bigger fish than I do!

We fished Renate's Home pool on Monday morning, a nice, overcast 60 degree morning.  Vin hooked a small trout, I enjoyed looking at the river.

Fished Vin's Camp Pool Monday evening.  Sadly nothing to report.  But Tuesday was a different story altogether!

Through the good offices of friend highly placed, we got the key to the gate behind which lay about 1.25 million acres.   Good times.

We were headed in to fish for brookies on a beautiful big lake, which I'd never seen before.  On the way in, we met "The Crossing Guard"

I don't know if that old boy was displaying for us or for the hen hidden on the left side of the road, but he surely did appear to be making sure those days-old grouse chicks got safely across!  He was so puffed up you could barely see his beak!

That was a tough act to follow, but this lake performed admirably!  Vin and Renate checking it out at the "boat ramp":

What an incredible place to be on a beautiful, early summer day!

Captain Vin in control:

The lake's caretakers showed up after awhile to check us out:

They brought along their trainees:

THAT encounter was worth the price of admission.  Oh wait, that's right, there was no admission!  I'll never be able to thank our friend Manley for allowing us to enjoy this day!

We trolled for brookies using, of course, the Deep Green Beauty!  We landed and kept a few for lunch, which we were running late for...that was a hard place to leave!

Lunch was here, hosted by our friend Glenn:

I want to be Glenn's helper (view from camp)!

Great hospitality!

Thumbs up on the Brook Trout lunch!

Awesome.  I eat like this every day.  Sure, Gar.

Perfect temperature for the day's outing!

We did a little river fishing, but no love from the salmon yet.  But incredible places to be, anyway:

Big country:

I always find it interesting that whenever anglers bump into each other on a river, cans of beer magically appear in their hands!

Wednesday was my last day on the Miramichi for this visit.  Vin and I tore up river to Renate's in FTG.

A last evening of fishing, and for all her great hospitality, it was only fitting that Renate hooked the first bright salmon of the season!

I got a good look at the fish before it slipped Renate's barbless Butterfly; a salmon for sure, maybe 8ish pounds.  What a great finish to a wonderful trip!  And I could sit and watch that river forever.

Please note well:  Vin and Renate, along with Renate's son Dan (as Manager and guide) are the guides/owners of Bullock's Lodge (www.bullockslodge.com).  If you want to fish for atlantic salmon in great pools with great guides and hosts, you need to go there.   Oh, and as usual, Renate took most of the photos in this post.

I'll be back on the Miramichi July 1! Can't wait!!

A Pile o' Burdocks

For a forum friend and customer in Brunei for his time in Nova Scotia, a dozen Burdocks,
a great summer dry fly for Salar on the Miramichi:



20,000 Pageviews!

Just hit the milestone mark of 20,000 pageviews of the blog since my first post on March 13, 2011.  It's a lot of fun to do, and I hope you all continue to enjoy!
Gary

Early May on the Miramichi

Headed up to Boiestown, New Brunswick at 5am on Friday, May 7th.  Ostensibly, the trip is so I can be the auctioneer for the Miramichi Salmon Association's IceBreaker fundraiser at the Woodmens' Museum in Boiestown.  I (you knew this), of course, have other motivations.

Made it to Boiestown in a record ten and a quarter hours.  Moved into camp, arranged the refreshment section of the cabin, and went looking for my friend and host Vin Swayze, whose home is a hundred yards away.  We enjoyed the trip's inaugural glass of single malt and had dinner with Vin's lovely wife Hazel.  Back to camp.   Nine p.m.......hmmmmmm....no water.  Stroll back to Vin's; he's on the phone with a plumber, who can make it over on Sunday (a plumber on Sunday? my wallet screams at the thought). 

Enter Vin's nephew Jason, stopped by with a few cold beers to say hello.  Jason also happens to be a plumber.  Vin also happens to have a new pressure tank to replace the one that was about to die any day and just did.  Couple beers, shoot the breeze, what the heck, let's change the tanks.  Jason did the heavy lifting, I did the moderate stuff, and Vin, ever the supervisor, held the light.  All is right with the world once again.   But is was a darned long day.

Saturday broke windy and cold.  My great friend Renate Bullock had volunteered to take me out fishing, but I wouldn't make my worst enemy take me out in that weather (well, I can think of one or two guys, maybe).  So we decided to go sightseeing and headed up river in her car.  I love seeing places I've never visited before, and Renate treated me to some special sights.  Our first stop was on Bloomfield Ridge above the river.   A lovely view:

Our next stop was at Porter Brook just up from where it enters the Miramichi.  What a great place.  Renate told me that if you hit it just right, you can watch salmon jumping the falls less than 5 feet away from you in October.   I am going to see this someday!  Would have been a kayaker's dream this day, though:

Lunch was back at Renate's, with husband Fred and friend Peter C. in attendance.  The soup was perfect for a day like this:

By the way, the view out the window behind me is of the Miramichi and Fred and Renate's Home Pool.   What a place to live!

The IceBreaker was Saturday night.  Sold out crowd and tons of fun.  It's my favorite auction to do.
The "after party" was at Jason's, also right on the river.  A great time, I stumbled back to camp (maybe a quarter mile away) in the dark.  Only fell once.

Much of Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday, a situation not unfamiliar to me.  I did get to meet a New Brunswick Salmon Fishing forum friend, Brian C., who had hooked me up with a friend of his, Kirk G., owner of a camp on the river at White Rapids that Kirk had agreed to let my fishing partner Wally and I use during the Miramichi Classic in July.  I've made some good friends through salmon fishing forums, and it was great to meet Brian face to face instead of electronically!

Late in the day, the river beckoned, and Vin and I finally went fishing after supper for an hour or so.  Landed a salmon and a grilse and lost what of course had to be another salmon.   All on the Deep Green Beauty - a great start to the fishing aspect of the trip!

It was a fine night for fishing with a lovely ending:

Monday morning Vin and I headed down to White Rapids to meet Kirk and learn about the camp.  Turned out he and Vin had been to many river conservation meetings together over the years.  I swear Vin knows just about everyone on that river.   We had a great visit, and headed back to camp to fish.

Renate came along for the ride, and brought her camera.  You'd think with a beautiful river in front of her, she'd find better things to photograph than the two of us!

When the sport (that would be me)rests, the guide (that would be Vin) grabs the rod and routinely shows the sport (again, that would be me) how to do it.  Often.  Fish on, as usual.

Happily, she also got a shot of a tight line and a nice fish, one of several we made the acquaintance of that evening:

She made me take my very expensive Simms superduty beanie-thingy off for the next shot. Said I looked like some weird river gnome in it.  Who's to argue? (not much of an improvement, though):

Tuesday morning Vin and I met with Renate's son Dan to check out a leaky wood stove chimney in the camp next to her home.  A replacement of parts was in order; Dan had to drive to Fredricton (an hour away) to get the parts, so Vin and I naturally volunteered to go fishing while he was gone.  The score for that little adventure ended up at salmon 3, Gary 0.   Dan got back with the parts at the same time we got back to shore; we spent the rest of the day doing that chimney thing.  My back needed a rest from that job, so it was an early night.   And by the way, so far the week has been very windy and cold...but that's good for keeping the fish around!

Wednesday was tree cutting day at Renate's.  Her friend Harding has year's of experience at this; his skills were needed because the big old aspens were threatening the home and usually leaning the wrong way.  We even brought Vin's Kubota along to cable the trees in the right direction.  Lots of good work got done, and Renate provided the crew with our first outside lunch of the year:

I've always been a sucker for a pretty face, in this case Harding's pretty girl:

After lunch, Vin and I hit the river for one last time before I had to leave for home the next morning.  The weather had come around and warmed with just an easy breeze.   Nice afternoon for it.

The salmon thought so too, they cooperated with abandon.  At one point, around three in the afternoon, a caddis hatch came off and I got to see what, sadly, will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime treat:  salmon rising to the right of us, salmon rising to the left of us...in front of us, behind us...it was incredible to see that many big salmon snouts poking up out of the river!   We even hooked two on a little baby bomber Vin dug out of his fly stash.  Mostly though, they just loved the Deep Green Beauty.   We hooked nine fish in just a couple hours.  The fish were incredibly athletic; I lost a nice salmon when he tossed the barbless fly at the apex of a three foot leap.  What a way to end a trip!

Back you go, big boy!

As it has been every time I've gone to Boiestown since 1998, it was a grand trip.  My deep and abiding thanks especially to Renate and Vin for their great hospitality and friendship.  Renate took most of the photos in this post.   Man, that is a tough place to leave.