After trying to get out today for one last fish and finding
the conditions a bit too icy on the river, the 2014 kayak fishing season is now
officially over for me. It has been a
fantastic year with many personal best catches, a lot of fish caught, memories
to last a lifetime and most importantly many great friends made! I’ve learned a lot this year, have been able
to work with several companies to promote their great products, and my blog has
received an astounding number of views through the year.
Last winter, while enjoying the ice fishing season for the
first time and yearning to get back into the kayak, I started the
Greater SaintJohn Kayak Anglers.
Intended to be a
social group where members could make friends with other who enjoy the sport
and have someone to go fishing with.
The group has blossomed to nearly 60 members now, and we have had
several great outings through the year.
Most memorable for me was our trip to
Modsley Lake in late July where we
stayed for the weekend on a cabin on an island in the middle of the lake.
It was an amazing trip with several members
from the kayaking group and of course, a lot of fantastic fish were caught!
There were many unsuccessful trips in 2014, including
several attempts to catch my first Musky.
But for all the trips where fish weren’t caught, there were many more
successful ones!
The 2014 season started for me in mid April out at Sturgeon
Alley. The waters were at flood levels
this past Spring and as such it was unclear how the fishing would be. Fortunately we were able to find sturgeon,
and several kayakers were able to land their first ever back in April. It was during one of these outings that I
landed the kayak record 54” sturgeon! I
can’t wait to see what the river holds once the ice breaks up in the Spring of
2015!
In mid May the sea run trout started to come up through the
Hammond.
This was my first time fishing
for sea run trout in NB and the 2 that I caught and kept were absolutely
fantastic fried up like we used to do back home in Newfoundland!
May
was when I made my trip down to Old Town, Maine to pick up my new
Predator 13 kayak. I’ve put many hours into this
kayak since and have to say it is an absolutely amazing boat!
Rowan joined me on the Predator during a trip to Wheaton
Lake with several others from the kayaking group over the May 24th
weekend. Fishing for smallmouth, Rowan
and I had no luck, but we did manage to land a lot of very large white
perch. After 8 hours on the water,
Rowan did not want to leave! It was a
great trip and one I am looking forward to again next year.
At the end of May the gaspereau were running in the Hammond
River. It took a little while to figure
out the trick, but once you know how to do it, catching gaspereau was quite
easy. What was hard was fishing for
shad in the midst of all the gaspereau.
I did manage to catch 1 shad in kayak, though it jumped out of my hands
before I was able to get it down on a measuring board!
Come June I started to target pickerel. Fynn and Rowan would join me in kayak out at
Kingston creek and both had a lot of fun, though Fynn (paddling along in my
Dirigo kayak) don’t really have the patience to stay out all that long
yet. I am hoping to get him a fishing
kayak that is the right size for him next year and see if that helps him get
the addiction!
In mid-June we had the
NB Paddler’s Derby up in
Oromocto.
This was the first of two
derbies I had taken over the organizer role for in 2014.
Being the first derby I had ever run, I didn’t
know what to expect in surprises but fortunately all went great!
I was able to round up a good number of
sponsors so the prize pool was decent, and we gave away a brand new kayak
donated by Paul at Eco-Logical Adventures to a member of the Canadian Armed
Forces DART team who did not have a kayak before this!
Later in June a group of us headed out for salt water
fishing off
Mispec Beach.
The goal was
to catch flounder, but we ended up catching only sculpin (scorpion fish).
It was a fantastic day out fishing that day,
and again, an experience I won’t soon forget.
Come July it was time to try our luck above Reversing Falls
for the first run of Striped Bass.
I had
put in many hours worth of fishing here before and never had caught a striper
there, but on the
first of July my luck finally changed.
It wasn’t a big striper but I did catch a
26” one!
Later in the summer I caught
several more, but they were all in boat tied up next to the Irving mill.
I want to catch more out there in kayak, but
it isn’t the easiest thing to do!
Later in July I decided to mix things up and head to Walton
Lake on the Kingston Peninsula to try to practice my smallmouth fishing. I didn’t have great luck, but I did catch a
few most days out. Smallmouth fishing
is one of the most popular species of sport fish to catch, so I definitely want
to invest more hours into that fish come 2015 and now I’m familiar with a lake
in which to do so.
In mid-July my parents came to visit, which gave me an
opportunity to put my
Dad in a kayak for the very first time.
Dad doesn’t swim and is wary of boats but I
got him to go out to Kingston Creek and fish for pickerel with me.
Being from Newfoundland pickerel fishing was
also a new experience for him,
but was
absolutely the right choice for our first kayak fishing trip together!
Dad caught 9 that day and had an absolute
blast.
Twice more that weekend we went
out, and we will never forget the trip where Dad tipped his kayak and fell into
the middle of Kingston Creek!
In August we held the
Hammond River Classic, the second
tournament I had organized.
This one
went off even better than the Oromocto NB Paddlers Derby.
Despite losing a few hours in both the
morning and the afternoon to my organizer duties, Rowan and I still placed 4
th
out of 35 anglers!
Later in August a
group of us headed out from Blacks Harbour in
search of mackerel.
There weren’t a lot caught but I did manage
to get 16 one day plus a couple pollock and even a couple smelt , that trip was
a ton of fun!
September was spent exploring a few new spots around the
area, and discovered a nice pickerel location where I got a 25”er.
Come October the sturgeon started to pick up again. I tried my luck in the sturgeon derby but
could only land 3 small ones. Every
outing from then on in was at Sturgeon Alley as only tidal waters were open to
fishing at this point.
After several great outings in Sturgeon Alley I ended the
year with 97 sturgeon caught, plus one great 38” striper one evening while
fishing sturgeon. Overall I caught 19
species this year in kayak, and there are several more I want to target more
often in 2015! It was a fantastic
year, and I can only hope next year offers more of the same.
