Back Water Casting

Back to the Marsh

Rick — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 18:04:27 +0000

Chrissie and I headed out to the Stick Marsh yesterday for another go at it. The time change kind of threw us for a loop in the morning and we were up a little earliar than expected. We were running across the Marsh just after daybreak with a great sunrise coming up over the east side berm. We started off with what seems to be the new norm with a bunch of 14-15 inch fish. Most came on soft stick baits and flukes. As the day warmed up we moved out to a bit deeper water which is a subjective term in Stick Marsh. I started throwing a bait that I had tied on when I was out with Mark and it was the ticket. I only had the one that was tied on so as I fixed the hook tears the bait got progressively smaller. Four out of five of our bigger fish came on it. Luckily as it became unusable we ran into Mark and Lewis and Mark very graciously gave me the last two he had. Waiting on a new order to arrive. Chrissie and I were both using Shimano SLX MH spinning rods, 2500 Stadics and Saharas with 20 lb Power Pro Super8Slick and a 14lb Shimano Masiff flourecarbon leader. We had no front sonar because I took off the Eagle Eye 9 Transducer because of the stumps.
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Stick marsh

Rick — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 23:19:21 +0000

After a month off with a damaged shoulder I got out with my Grandson on Saturday and it was a bust with very few fish to the boat. Yesterday Chrissie and I got out for another shot at it. She started the day with the biggest fish in the first few minutes and then followed that one up with the second biggest fish of the day. She also had another big one come off late afternoon right at the boat. The average size over the day was in the mid two’s and we ended up with almost 30 to the boat. Chrissie was using a Shimano SLX MH spinning rod with a 2500 Safari reel, 15 lb Power pro Super 8 Slick and a 14 lb Mastiff leader. All of her fish came on a 5 inch watermelon red fluke. I really mixed my baits up for the day with the same rod and reel setup for most of it. I threw Senkos, swimbaits, a big spook, speed worms and a Jackhammer. I never really got onto it until I switched to the fluke in the afternoon. There was just enough air movement that the gnats didn’t drive us crazy. Taking today off the rest the shoulder.
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NBSFA kids event part 2

Rick — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:32:01 +0000

One of my favourite things to do is help out with the annual Woodstock / NBSFA kids fishing tournament. We lucked out this year with no rain just a bit chilly in the morning. That didn’t deter the kids who were chomping at the bit to get at it. We had 78 kids registered for this one and everyone got some loot to go with them. Volunteers make it possible and I would like to thank our shore staff, Amanda Metz, Rene Pelletier, Ryan Tompson and Woodstock counseller Julie Calhoun-Williams, Veronique for her help with setup and gathering last minute prizes and last but not least Anna and Allison for holding it all together.Here are some happy faces! See you on the water.
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NBSFA Kids event Woodstock

Rick — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:58:59 +0000

Up early this morning and heading to Woodstock to help out with the annual NBSFA kids fishing tournament. This has always been one of my favourite events and I have been involved one way or another since we started it. The NBSFA team already has a bunch of prizes up there and all the goodies for the BBQ but I am bringing along 5 Shimano Rod and Reel combos and Phil gave me a couple of bikes and two blowup towables to add to the list. This should be a fun day.
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Bait school

Rick — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:57:17 +0000

That is a bunch of bait. We fished it for half an hour and caught 1 decent bass at 30 ft , a few small ones and a lot of small Whie Perch. This was the deepest part of the area we were in.
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New Lake Experience

Rick — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:54:12 +0000

Our day on Wauklehegan Lake was interesting and the wind posed some challenges in the afternoon but it was a fun day exploring a new body of water. For those who know the lake I am so happy I did not take the glass boat in there. We were surprised by the number of Largemouth we caught and the scarcity of Smallmouth. Ron definitely caught the most fish for the day but I redeemed myself with a big largemouth. In a multi species format Ron had the biggest smallmouth, biggest white perch, biggest pickerel and some nice largemouth to round it out. Ron has a soft stick bait we won’t talk about and he just slays them on it. I was messing around with ten pound Power Pro Super8Slick on two of my rods. I went to a bright colour so I could see the line better on slack line pickups and the ten is giving me better casting distance with light baits. So far I like it a lot. My final thought for the day was that it is an interesting fishery and not at all what i expected. I may try another trip in there on a less windy day to poke around a bit more in deeper parts of the lake. See you on the water.
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Just fishing

Rick — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:46:44 +0000

Ron and I got out for a trip yesterday. The early morning topwater bite was insane for about an hour. The Shimano World POP was getting the job done but I was still a little skittish after my hook encounter last week. The first three hours of the day turned out to be the best although we got fish off and on all day. I played with the Active Target 2 as well and picked up several bonus fish with that. It is truly amazing to see how fast the fish react to a bait. I also got to add some newly exposed rocks to my Lowrance charts but next trip is going to be with the jet boat. Sometimes you have to just stop and take in your surroundings. We were out on this beautiful New Brunswick lake catching smallies and there was not a sound other than the birds. There are not many places left that you can experience that kind of peace on the water. We are truly blessed to live here. See you on the water.
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Family fishing

Rick — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:40:49 +0000

I had a great day on Saturday fishing with my Grandson. It has been a while since we got out for a full day of fishing and it was fun. We both picked up a few fish on the Jackall Pompadour first thing in the morning and then it was pretty much a drop shot and tube bite the rest of the day. The lake is down about three feet and I marked some new rock waypoints on the Lowrance. It is scary what you see when to water is down a bit. I might have to take the jet boat on my next exploration trip. We fished a mix of 7ft med Shimano rods, Stradic and Sahara reels with 10 and 15 lb power pro super8slick line and 10lb Mastiff flourocarbon leaders. We had to watch the knots on anything getting dragged due to the rocks. The last time I was out we never saw a boat all day, today we saw six. It was fun, see you on the water.
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Hooked myself again.

Rick — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:35:31 +0000

I could have done without the big treble stuck in my hand but we did have a pretty good day fishing. The fish pics were not the biggest but we figured we better throw a couple up at the end of the day. Ron and I put around fifty fish in the boat up to about 2.5 pounds. Still not seeing any really big fish. Young of the year Gaspereau seems to be the food of choice right now with a bit of crawfish in the mix. We are still seeing large clouds of bait out there and the occassional feeding frenzy with schools of bass busting into the bait. Always just out of casting range though. I played around with a ” Donkey Rig ” for a while and it was fun but I am not sure it was worth the work. I may have to read up on it a bit to see if I can make adjustments to it. I was throwing it on a 7′ Zodias MH spinning rod, a 2500 Stradic reel with 15lb Power Pro Slick tied to a 14 lb Mastiff flouro leader. It is worth playing around with a bit more to see if I can keep the tangles out of it. Ron was doing pretty good on a Shimano World Crankbait until he got cut off in the rocks. The lake was seriously low and I most likely will have to revert to the jet boat on the next trip.
Ron did get the hook out of me with the help of some ice cold water to numb it a bit and then a quick snap with a pair of plyers. Thats two in me in a week and I have only had three in a lifetime of fishing. Always an adventure out there, maybe we will see you on the water.
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Spednic lake

Rick — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:25:33 +0000

Ron and I hit the lake yesterday with the goal to skip some of the stuff we usually fish and go exploring because we were not finding bigger fish. There is one area we idle through because of rocks and Ron saw some breaking fish off to the side so we stopped. There were no big fish but we caught a ton of 14 inchers before we headed up the lake. Kind of like a warm up. We ended up about 20 minutes away from the ramp and got into a few better fish late afternoon. We had not seen a boat for hours until we ran into a few Maine guides in the afternoon. It is amazing how quiet it is out there when there is no one around for miles. We were pulling off of a long point with the goal of heading back to the ramp when I saw a tree on the AT2. It bottomed out at around 50 ft. I fired a tube jig at it and was into a nice fish almost immediately and as it got neared to the boat I saw she had buddies with four more coming up. It was an interesting few minutes to say the least but we were running late and had to leave it after I saved a waypoint-we will be back to visit it again. The run back was a full out run and I made sure I stuck right on my trail on the Lowrance. The lake is a rocky old boat breaker and you don’t want to make a mistake. Oh, and the clouds of bait we were seeing appear to be young of the year Gaspereux. We threw a lot of stuff at them today but the tube and a dropshot picked up most of the fish. Mine was rigged on an Expride 7′ M, a 2500 Stradic with 15 lb Power Pro and a 10lb Mastiff Flourocarbon leader. See you on the water