NO DOG DAYS THIS YEAR

    This month being August, we can usually expect to get some hot, muggy weather with low water conditions in our streams and rivers. Not so this year. If anything, this August has been the opposite of a " normal " year. The weather was cool this month with enough rain to keep the local streams and brooks from getting to their summer low. This is good news for most species of fish especially cold water species like salmon and trout because this is usually the time of year when they suffer with warm water conditions. This month has seen a series of raises in the water levels in the Miramichi River and her tributaries, as well as the northern salmon rivers. Salmon fishermen should be jumping for joy but instead many are once again lamenting a lack of fish and poor fishing in our salmon rivers. This is a very serious situation and the outfitters must be feeling the pinch. News travels fast these days and sports won't book trips if the conditions are poor. They will go elsewhere or not at all but you can bet they are doing their homework before they spend upwards of $1000 per day to fish for Atlantic Salmon in New Brunswick or elsewhere, for that matter. I'm sure most of the outfitters were hoping for a good summer with lots of fish after the disastrous spring season. This summer is proving to be very slow for all participants of this " sport of kings ",from fishermen to guides and outfitters to fly shop owners, they are all singing the same tune. No fish....to speak of. One prominent outfitter on the Miramichi has been bantering about a radical solution to the poor numbers of Atlantic salmon returning to that watershed. His ideas have been met with mixed reviews on some forums, probably because it is a departure from traditional thinking but sometimes that's what it takes to make something work. This is a very complex issue but I do believe that science and lovers of the sport will prevail at the end of the day.
    Every year at the start of fishing season for bright salmon I re-stock my fly box with some flies that have been lost or abused and this year I decided I should visit an old acquaintance from Minto. Being born and raised in Minto,  I first started buying flies from Fred Dufour who ran a general store on the Ridge Road. The flies I bought from Freddie were the ones that came tied on a leader and were mounted on a cardboard strip. I loved to go with Dad when he got our order each week and I could always manage to pick up a fly or two to use on my favorite trout stream which happened to be a short walk from home. Grizzly Kings, Coachman, Royal Coachman, Parmacheane Belle, Montreal and Red Ibis were all part of my repertoire when stalking trout. After having great success with a small bucktail that looked very similar to a black nosed dace that I wore completely out, I decided to visit Ralph Goodwin to see if he could duplicate the fly. Ralph lived handy to Newcastle Stream in North Minto and tied flies out of a small shop beside his home. I was just a kid and Ralph wasn't much older but he tied me up some nice flies and I became a satisfied customer. Ralph has been fishing salmon and tying up a storm ever since those early days of my boyhood. Ralph is both an expert tier and salmon fisherman and  his expertise has been noticed by the Ledges Inn in Doaktown and Ralph has been guiding and tying  for them for the last few years. Ralph has tied a few originals with great success. The Belly Dancer and the Mintonian are two of Ralphs patterns that he developed over the years. I hadn't seen Ralph in years but he still remembered me. After catching up on what we had been doing lately, I started picking out some flies that Ralph had on hand. The next photo shows Ralph at home in his shop.

 After picking out a handful of flies and a promise to return, I got my flies home and arrange them for a photo.

 If any of my readers would like to check out Ralphs lineup of flies just click on this link http://www.goodfly.ca/ . I'm pretty sure Ralph will do orders through the mail so don't hesitate to contact him if you want to purchase some well tied flies in a variety of popular patterns.

    Although the salmon fishing is off this year, Salmon River was very good this month for both pickerel and white perch. We had some great fishing for white perch this year and I think a person could still get enough for a feed. They seemed to stick around longer this year,  for some reason. The water in Salmon River has been unusually high this summer and as I write this it is about 2.5 ft. above normal. That can sometimes make for some hard fishing conditions when pursuing pickerel. We use our standard set-up to start out but if it gets tough, we have a couple of tricks that will usually get us some fish. Pickerel are such fierce predators that they can usually be coaxed into taking something.
    We were happy to once again have Sgt. Ryan Cains come down from CFB Gagetown on New Brunswick Day to fish with us. This is the third year he has fished with us on New Brunswick Day and what a day he had! My son Curt loaded the boat up and they headed up river to a couple of hot spots and they caught a lot of fish. Sgt. Cains said it was his best day of fishing-ever! Curt told me that they landed twenty or so pickerel and lost that many again. He said it started a little slow but then they really started hammering it. This is a photo of Sgt. Cains landing a nice pickerel.

Here is another photo of him with an average sized pickerel.

 Curt said when they started fishing one honey hole, they were getting strikes on nearly every cast. Pickerel put up a good fight when they are first hooked but they will tire quickly under steady pressure. This next photo shows a nice pickerel thrashing the water near the boat.

 Curt said after fishing pickerel for a few hours, he asked the Sgt. if he wanted to try for some white perch. Curt told him he would fillet them for him and he would write out a recipe for cooking them up . They motored back down river and stopped at a deep hole and started catching nice sized white perch on nearly every cast. After getting enough for a feed, they headed back in. The next photo shows Curt and Sgt. Cains with a nice bag of white perch.

 After a short visit,  Sgt Cains headed back to the base but he promised to come back again soon. In the meantime, he said he was going to try out the fillets Curt had done up for him. They sure are tasty!

 

    I managed to get out for an evening of fishing with Donna Aguillon and although the water was three feet higher than normal, we still managed to hook up with a few fish. With water conditions like that you have to cover as much water as possible and push in close to the shore. I think we landed around a dozen and lost a few nice ones. The next photo shows me with a good sized pickerel.

 We caught fish and had strikes regularly over the two hours we were on the water. Here is another photo of a nice pickerel.

 Donna had her turn too but she told me she doesn't like handling them so I helped her out with her fish and returned them all back to the water.

 The next photo shows the biggest pickerel we caught that night. I lost one when it wrapped up in the weeds that was a bit bigger than this one.

 

With a provincial election coming up next month the government has been handing out plums to the hunters in hopes of winning their support. First it was a five day moose hunt this year. Then it was an extra bear tag. Now, just recently, the government announced a limited turkey hunt in 2015. This is all good news but I wish they would have only allowed one tag in each of the bear seasons, spring and fall. The Tories under Alward are desperate for votes after losing support steadily over the last year because of its stance on fracking and the controversial New Forest Strategy. Do they really think that these small initiatives are going to make hunters change their vote? I am predicting the Alward Conservatives will be ousted and the Liberals will form the next government. Hopefully, a minority government. As things are put back into balance,  Big Brother will lose its stranglehold on our province. The battle for the hearts and minds of New Brunswickers has been lost by the present government and big business. This ruling elite is so arrogant that they are ignoring the writing on the wall and actually forging forward on their narrow path of destruction and all the while expecting voters to swallow their BS and endorse their selfish actions. Sorry if I rant a bit. Like most New Brunswickers I want change and I want it for the better. Period.

 

    We have been seeing lots of game while travelling our hunting areas. Partridge numbers are good and there are a lot of rabbits around. While fishing, we have been seeing good numbers of ducks but not quite as many geese as other years in our area. The high water level has curtailed the growth of duck oats in many of the ponds here at home on Salmon River so we might have to look for ducks back in the more remote,  smaller ponds. Moose numbers remain high and I already mentioned it's a five day season this year. Most people think this will make for a better hunt, including me. I found three days to be a bit stressful sometimes especially if the weather was bad. The deer population did suffer a bit last winter but we are still seeing some deer where there is good habitat. There are plenty of bears around but I don't like the idea of getting two tags in either season. By having one tag in the spring and one in the fall the pressure on the bears would be spread out more in the hopes of increasing hunting numbers during the fall hunt. That's where you want the increase. Time will tell how this change pans out. Here is a photo of some turkeys on the number 10 highway taken this summer.

 

    On a personal note, this past month has been a very difficult one for me. My best friend of thirty years, Allan Davidson, passed away on August 11th, 2014. He was sixty-eight years old.

 Allan and I first met thirty-five years ago when I lived in Minto. Five years later, when I moved to Chipman, I met up with Allan while walking home at 5:00 AM in a snow storm that had big flakes falling softly at that quiet time of the morning. As we walked along, we chatted and found out we had a lot of common interests. We both loved the outdoors and we were soon hunting and fishing together at every opportunity. Our personalities just seemed to jell and we always had a great time with lots of laughs. Our deep friendship lasted until his passing and even as I write this I find myself choking up. Allans daughter asked if I would write something for Allans eulogy which I gladly did. That proved to be one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. All those photos and memories came flooding back to me and I was overcome with grief. I managed to finish writing his eulogy and Allans brother Glenn delivered the eulogy that I had written and he did an excellent job. I knew I couldn't do it. Rest in peace, old friend, your earthly work is done.

 

    I picked up a couple of nice items this past month that I would like to share with my readers. The first item is a pocket watch and watch fob from the National Sportsman Magazine. The fob is circa 1930 and the watch itself is a little more recent vintage but has a nice hunting scene on the watch cover.

 Finally, a picker friend picked me up a nice model of a white-tail buck made from chalk or plaster of Paris. I have two other identical pieces that are lamps but this one is made to be either an ornament or possibly a door stop because it is quite heavy.

This type of ornament was often given out as a prize at fairs and exhibitions back in the day. I would date this piece to the 50's.

 

There are lots of adventures waiting for visitors to the beautiful Grand Lake area so just give me a call or send me a message to make arrangements for a day or a week on the water or in the bush. Until then, this is Dale Bauer saying "Happy Trails to You......Until we Meet Again"

 

AFTERMATH OF " ARTHUR "

    This past month has been a wild and woolly one here at home on Salmon River. Hurricane Arthur hit the Maritimes with a vengeance and the Fredericton - Grand Lake areas were hit particularly hard. A storm of this magnitude has the capacity to stagger local economies and inflict untold damage to the lives of the people suffer through it. People who live in this day and age are not used to going for days on end without power or land lines for communication. I personally was without power for eleven days and had no computer or home phone for three weeks. Needless to say, it's times like this that stretch ones patience and resources to the limit. I literally had to cut my way out of my yard to reach the highway. On the day of the storm I travelled to Fredericton and it was one of the wildest rides I have taken in my life! There were leaves and branches flying everywhere and trees, large and small, were falling like matchsticks in the wake of the hurricane force winds. Make no mistake about it, this was a very destructive storm.
    This storm pretty much shut down our fishing and boating activities on Salmon River this month because of high water and dangerous conditions for travelling. I made a short video clip of the conditions we faced the day after the storm and as you can see the water was very high and flooding was widespread.

We never did get rolling after this huge storm but my son Curtis was up this past week-end and wanted to see if any fish were around and he managed to catch a few nice white perch that were still here. Here is a photo of Curt with a nice sized perch he caught while fishing off of my shore.

 We had a nice fire later on and Curt cooked up the fillets on the coals in tin foil. Very tasty! This is quite late in the year to be catching white perch but this has been a very unusual year in many ways because of weather events and many folks are saying this is likely to become the norm as we move forward into the future. Hopefully, those people are wrong but I fear there is an element of truth to that statement. This is going to be a short post this month because of all the havoc caused by " Arthur " but next month I will get up to speed,  barring another act of God.

 

    I did manage to pick up some outdoor related items in my travels around Grand Lake and the first photo shows a unique painting done on velvet. This painting depicts a duck in flight and is signed by the artist. These paintings are usually done on black velvet but this one is done on gold colored velvet which makes it unusual.

 This painting is likely Mexican in origin and I'm guessing it was done in the 70's.

    The next item shown here is a very nice picture done with different inlaid wood made to depict a mallard in flight. This item is a commemorative Ducks Unlimited piece and was done with over a dozen different species of wood from many different countries.

 This beautiful piece of art work was done by Hudson River Inlay and dates to the 80's.

    Lastly, I have a nice scroll carved piece of a jumping fish with a small clock inserted for function. There is a lot of detail in this piece and while it isn't very old, it's still a very nice little item.

 

    Although this post is quite short, I hope to have a much more comprehensive report next month if Mother Nature co-operates. 

 

Until then, this is Dale Bauer saying " Happy Trails to You.....Until we Meet Again "

SWEET SUMMERTIME, THE BITE AND VINTAGE OUTDOOR STUFF

    We are finally getting some nice weather here at home on Salmon River and the water is slowly getting down to a good level for fishing. It's been a while coming this year and the general consensus is things are running about 7-10 days late. Good fishing for most of the early species was disappointing at best but most sports can take a little pain as long as there's a promise of better day's ahead.
    Even if the bite is off, our little part of New Brunswick is a beautiful place to be in the summertime. Having Grand Lake and Salmon River just minutes away is a big plus for visiting tourists because of all the beautiful areas to explore. A drive along Grand Lake west and the Saint John River will provide visitors with many photo opportunities at every turn. The fertile flood plain provides nutrients for a backdrop of lush vegetation teeming with fish and wildlife. Simple sunsets become a thing of beauty in this country so often, locals just take it for granted.

 In my last post I mentioned a few specific places to visit but the whole area surrounding Grand Lake is very scenic and is often overlooked as a destination. The main reason this area is often overlooked is because of a lack of infrastructure and touristy things to do. I don't really see this as a negative because it speaks to the areas raw, undeveloped natural beauty that is becoming more desirable to tourists as time goes on. Do your homework, come up with a game plan and discuss your wants with your guide or outfitter and your visit to Grand Lake will be a memorable one.

    As I mentioned, the fishing has been slow coming around this year and the salmon are just getting started on the Miramichi and her tributaries. Reports of very few fish in the system and even fewer hook -ups had some anglers worried but a fresh report had around seventy fish in one day in a trap near Chatam. This seems to indicate the fish are coming in but are a little late this year. Lets all keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. The larger sea trout have made their journey to the headwaters but there are still lots of 10-14 inch trout around. Many times these sea trout will provide some action on a slow day of salmon fishing and sometimes end up in the frying pan. At least the ones I catch do.
    We have been fishing white perch for the past week or so and have just started to catch some of the bigger ones. Jamie and Brooke were over and caught enough for a feed one evening.

 In this photo, Jamie is showing a good sized white perch for filleting.

 We have found that evenings and dark, cloudy days provide the best action but if they are running hard, decent catches can be made at anytime of the day. I fished a couple of evenings this past week and caught a nice feed with little difficulty. Although I was targeting white perch, I was catching a lot of other species along with the white perch. The next photo shows a few nice perch along the shore.

 I usually don't keep any yellow perch I catch but if I get any good sized ones I'll sometimes keep some and put them on the stick with their white cousins. The next photo shows the size of white perch that makes a nice fillet and it doesn't take a lot of them to get a feed.

 I was down one evening and caught a feed of white perch and a nice pickerel that I kept and I made a short video clip while I was fishing from shore. The white perch will be around for a while yet and we will be getting some for the freezer. They keep well if the fillets are pre-cooked and frozen. The fillets are easily heated up in the micro-wave or conventional oven and served alone or with whatever accessories you prefer. We all like them here at home so they don't last very long.

 This photo shows a plate full of fillets ready for the pan.

 

    The Chipman fish and game club held their fishing derby again this year at McLeans Campground on Salmon River and forty participants braved very wet weather and caught over two hundred fish of many different species. The two big winners were Bailey Herbert of Fredericton who caught the most fish and registered twenty fish and little Tyson Sypher won the prize for the biggest fish caught with a forty-seven cm. pickerel. There were other categories and all the kids got prizes and a lunch. This is a fun tournament for the kids and is usually very well attended but the weather can play havoc with outdoor activities and angler numbers were down a little from other years. This is a photo of the winners of the derby.

 

     The rain also played a role in keeping anglers at home for the annual Monte Farrell shad tournament on Salmon River. The tournament had to be cancelled because of heavy rainfall and a three foot raise of water and when it was finally held the rain arrived again. I was talking to Ralph Goodwin, one of the tournament organizers and he expressed his frustration in having to deal with such poor weather conditions. He told me that many anglers from away had planned specifically for the date and could only come on that week-end but Ralph said around seventeen die-hard anglers hooked nine fish and the tournament was a success in spite of the conditions. I took a photo that Sam Daigle, another tourney organizer,  had posted on a forum that shows the winners with some of the shad they caught.

 As usual, anglers from Minto were well represented in this tournament and as you can see from the photo the winners circle had Minto anglers at the forefront. Good job boys!

 

    We have been seeing good numbers of ducks and geese with their young and it looks like it was a successful nesting season for these species in our area. The high water this spring actually helped waterfowl numbers because it hampers the predators ability to reach vulnerable ducks and geese on their nests.

 

    Although many sports were fearful the wet, cold spring would hamper the nesting abilities of the grouse and woodcock, reports to the contrary have been coming in. Drumming numbers appear to be up this year and we have been seeing some nice broods of grouse chicks during our travels. Grouse have the ability to nest a second time if they have been unsuccessful the first time and I'm guessing this helps sustain their numbers during a difficult spring.

 

    The bucks and bulls are sprouting soft horns and it always amazes me how quickly their horns will grow throughout the summer months. We had a brutal winter and a long cold spring but we were pleasantly surprised how many deer survived that crucial time of the year. It's a real struggle for our white-tails in this part of the country because we are on the northern fringe of their range and winter mortality can be high on bad years. Our crown lands are managed almost entirely for production of wood fibre for saw mills and pulp mills and this usually spells bad news for white-tails and most of the deer we saw on crown land this spring were in rough shape. The number of available doe tags have been reduced and we expect to see lower kill numbers overall this year.

    Moose numbers remain high and the provincial government is looking at extending the hunt to five days from three. This is generally being welcomed by the hunting fraternity but this change isn't official yet so we will just have to wait and see how this all plays out. Many hunters believe this is an election plumb that is being held out as an offering for the coming election this fall. I say it will take a lot more than that to keep the Tories in office after this election.

 

    The spring bear hunt has just ended and although the season got off to a slow start, overall it was a good season with some very nice bears taken. The biggest one I heard of was taken by a well known hunter from the Zealand area near Fredericton. This bear was an old bruiser that weighed in at four hundred and twenty-four lbs. and had a twenty inch skull. That's a big spring bear in any country. Another sport took a bear with his bow that dressed out at four hundred and five lbs. This hunter was using an outfitter from the western part of the province and its quite evident that you can take a trophy sized bear just about anywhere in the province. New Brunswick's bear population remains high but I see more and more locals pursuing spring bears and they are taking some nice ones. It's also encouraging to see women hunting bears or filming the hunt. I find that many women love to participate and watch the animals and the hunt even if they don't pull the trigger. This is a photo of the Zealand bear.

 Ken took a nice boar last month and I posted pictures of it in my last blog entry. The bear that Ken took was just one of the nice ones that we had at our baits this spring. We've been running some of our baits for several years and over time these baits will be hit by multiple bears of different age classes. It's not hard to tell when you have one of those big boys hanging around. He will leave his signs and an experienced guide will know right off just how big the bruin is. The next photo shows a cam picture of one of the nice bears at our bait sites.

 This site had a couple of big boars and a nice sized sow with one cub. This isn't at all unusual especially if your bait sites are chosen with care and tended regularly.

 We have lots of nice bears in our hunting area in New Brunswick and the population has been increasing in recent years. The DNR has been wrestling with the idea of giving two tags per year but that is still being looked at. I'm hoping it stays the way it is because we have it good right now and I fear if we tinker with the numbers, it could come back to bite us in the behind.

 

    I have been picking up lots of vintage outdoor related items all winter and I have selected some to show my readers. The first photo shows a couple of nice prints of a pair of red-winged blackbirds and what I think is a flycatcher. The males have very striking colors and their lyrical song is a joy to hear. I have lots of them around home and I enjoy watching them every summer.

 These two prints are dated 1958&1959 but I don't think they were produced until the early 1960's.

    The next item is a very nice piece of chalkware depicting a white-tail buck. This item is marked Wade and I believe it is an English manufacturer who produced this type of ware for the tourist trade as souvenirs  because this one still has a tag that says Moonlight Inn, New Brunswick.

 I would date this item to the 1940's.

    The last item I have to show is a piece of folk art carving by maritime artist Marty Ladds. Marty does very nice work in a variety of mediums and I picked this up a few months ago from a picker friend.

 

 

    Summer is here and the fishing is starting to get good so I'm urging everyone to grab your fishing rod and head for some of the great fishing to be had in the Grand Lake area!

 

    Until next time, this is Dale Bauer saying ''Happy Trails to You......Until we Meet Again''