By: Rick Greene

Miramichi Lake is part of the headwaters of the world famous Miramichi River. It is well known for it’s population of Atlantic Salmon, which we all know are under considerable pressure and many regional runs of spawning salmon have ceased to exist. The Miramichi is home to twenty per cent of the Atlantic Salmon that spawn in North America.

As near as can be determined someone illegally introduced Smallmouth Bass into lake sometime around 2004. The first reported incidence of someone catching a bass here was reported to the Fisheries and Wildlife office in late summer of 2008. Fish and Wildlife biologists visited the site shortly thereafter and confirmed the presence of bass by capturing young of the year fish...

By: Rick Greene

Today started off just like most of the other days this month, that is dull and deary with a chance of showers. It quickly changed to a more upbeat kind of day when the grandkids asked to go fishing. We were not long packing a lunch and getting tackle and safety gear into the boat. We hooked up the Sierra and headed for Eel River. My son backed us in and two minutes later we were fishing. There were already a couple of boats in there when we arrived but we were into the fish almost immediately. Fan casting a number three silver Blue Fox in-line spinner produced numerous fish that averaged about 14-15 inches. Not a lot of big fish but lots of numbers which is what it takes to keep the kids busy and their interest high...

It has been a busy spring but we are up and running for season two with Backwater Casting on Rogers TV New Brunswick. We will start taping our first show late next week. Of special interest this year is a collaboration with the New Brunswick Sport Fishing Association and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. We are going to take a group of tournament anglers in to Miramichi Lake and see if we can remove some of the Smallmouth Bass that were illegally stocked into the lake. This is a serious issue because of the long term effects this could have on the Atlantic Salmon fishery. Hopefully we can help out and perhaps help to educate folks that moving fish is not the ethical thing to do.

See you on the water.

The first stop on this years Molson Mercury Bass Tour is the Grand Falls Flowage on the border with the State of Maine. This event is sponsored by Shimano Canada and Advatek Scales. My son drove up from Moncton to fish this one with me. With the trickle start you don’t always get the spot you want even if you are driving a faster boat and that was the case this morning. We almost caught the guys but didn’t quite make it. We stopped on a back up spot and went fishing. Second cast on a Blue Fox in-line spinner put a chunky 3 lb. smallmouth in the boat. Not to bad for a second choice. We fished here for about an hour and a half and alternated with Blue Fox, Husky Jerks and Pointers and got a few fish on each of them. The guys who had been on the spot we wanted left and we moved up...

The freezing cold prefish paid off for us this weekend. The fishing was still on the slow side and our first spot didn’t produce any fish. I had two faint harded hits on a Husky Jerk but they didn’t hook up. The water is still only in the mid forties and these fish are definitely sluggis.

We moved into our second spot and it seemed like it was going to be a repeat and then I spotted a big fish come up behind Phil’s bait. He did everything he could to entice a strike but with the wind blowing the boat around the fish spooked and took off. We were in the dumps big time because it looked like a monster bass. We decided to camp out there for a while. I got a high two for our first fish and then Phil hooked up with a good one. We figured she was a big three or low four and put her in the well...

I think I may be crazy. Woke up Saturday morning and it is minus 7 degrees out at 5am. Had a coffee then hooked up with my buddy Phil and his wife Nancy and headed Stateside to prefish for next weeks Maine Blade Runners tournament on the Grand Falls Flowage. A quick Q & A session with the US customs officer and off we went to the launch.

We launched the boat at Squirrel Point and headed { slowly } to our first spot. Slowly because it was still only minus 7. I had so many clothes on I could hardly move and I was still not really happy. We got set up on our first spot and I nailed a fish on my second cast. Phil tossed a bait in behind the one I got and he was hooked up as well. Not a bad way to start off with the cold air and water at 5 degrees...

The Backwater Casting photo draw winner for March is John Thomas from Moncton, NB. John will receive a certificate for an Interstate Deep Cycle Battery courtesy of our friends at Interstate Batteries of Canada. As a tournament angler my batteries are key to everything in my boat. They run the Minn Kota up front, two sets of Lowrance Sonar / GPS units and all of my pumps and accessories. I buy what works and Interstate is what is in my boat.

The prize battery is not the one shown in the photo.

I guess the go0d times had to end with a reality check. Left the 80 degree weather and headed for Canada. First day back and I have to clean snow off my truck. Not really what I was looking forward to but at least it wasn’t a big clean up when we got here.

The fishing season sort of starts off for me this week with some seminars at the Moncton Boat Show and spending some time in the booths with Phil’s Auto and Recreation and the New Brunswick Sport Fishing Association. April 2 will find me at the Burton’s Lions Club for the annual Fisherman’s Flea Market and then we will be getting the boat and tackle ready for a tournament in Maine. They open up a little bit earliar than us so we get to start fishing early. Largemouth gear is packed away and the smallie tackle is comin’ out.

I hate to say it but Thursday was my last day fishing Stick Marsh until next year. The fish had started moving shallow again with a full moon coming this weekend and Judy and I had a great day yesterday. The wind switched north overnight so I wasn’t sure what to expect this morning. Had three friends from NB meet me in Fellsmere and we headed into the ramp at 7am. I got them all set up with some Shimano rods and reels and away we went.

 We got down to the south end and we had about a one foot chop blowing right into the wood which made it a bit dicey manouvering the boat around but Chris was into a fish within a couple of  minutes of us starting, then he got another one, then another one, then the talk turned to whether or not we should abandon him on a stump for a while so someone else co...

What a day we had today. Folks that were visiting headed home for Canada today and Judy and I hit the water at daybreak. The pictures are three of the better fish we had today over a period of six hours. The big treat for me was that the topwater bite was on and they just inhaled a Chug Bug over and over. Gotta love it. Flutter Worms accounted for a big percentage of the rest. I dropped down to 15lb Power Pro today and that will be permanent. Excellant castability and no issue with the big fish in the stumps. We boated 62 fish with the best five going over thirty pounds. Gonna go again in the morning with some friends from home.