Its been a very odd spring here in the East. We've had record-breaking flooding on the Saint John river and cold temps, but in spite of it all, I've had some good fishing. Managed a 12 lb Atlantic salmon (Miramichi River, 9wt rod) and my son and I had a day of striped bass fishing on the Miramichi with a guide, that led to over 50 fish being boated, between 20 and 30"; we were using heavy spinning gear, 50 lb test line and huge leadheaded rubber. Not my favourite kind of fishing, but we kept our permitted 3 fish each and man, are they delicious. And its always exciting to see so many fish on the fishfinder that they appear as a 10' deep cloud. (this year's spawning run was estimated at between 1 and 2 million fish, back from a frightening low of a few thousand a couple of decades ago) When my home stream finally dropped to fishable levels, I was delighted to get back to the 3wt. Been down fishing a few times and, while I missed the trout run, its been great fun casting little flies to little fish. The fallfish spawn is on, and the stream is full of 10 to 14" fish, happy to take a #14 adams parachute. Normally, the smallmouth are arriving abut this time as well, but the gaspereau are running a bit late, and they're thrashing around in the riffles in schools which seems to put the bass off flies. (I suspect the larger bass are actually feeding on the gaspereau). Yesterday I was standing in the shallows bringing a 12" fallfish to hand to release him and just as I was reaching down, a large (LARGE!!!!) smally came out of the deep water and attempted to make off with the fallfish. I think he must have spotted me or realized he couldn't actually swallow a 12" fish, and he bolted for the depths. I've landed 19" bass in this same pool, and I know this fish was a few inches longer than that. So, rather than admit defeat, I did what anyone would do: I thrashed around my fly box for my biggest but woefully inadequate streamer (in this case, a #6 6xlong) and spent 15 frustrating minutes trying to lure her back. I'm going back for her at dusk some evening this week, but I will be taking the 6wt and my box of pike flies and big bass poppers. She's going right back once I catch her, but I gotta see her up close. It made me think of our recent discussion about rod weight and fly size. I know I SHOULD be able to cast a large enough fly with my 3wt; I just know that, even if I could, I wouldn't enjoy the experience. And truth be told, I fish for the enjoyment. brent
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