Merry Fishmas!

Wednesday is April 15th, the first day of the fishing season in rivers in New Brunswick! Everyone I know is giddy with anticipation for getting a line in the water in search of trout, smallmouth, sturgeon and more! It has been a very long and cold winter, and there is still a lot of ice left in the rivers, so much in fact that it is going to be hard to find a place to go fishing on Wednesday!

Make sure you get your fishing license before you head out!     This year, is the first year of e-Licensing.   Just go online, fill out the forms and pay online and you'll be presented with your fishing license in PDF format.    You should save a copy off to your computer and smartphone, but you'll need to print out a copy as well.   From what I understand, a fisheries officer can still charge you if you don't have a paper copy of your license to show him!

The main river around the Saint John area where people typically target at the start of the year is the Hammond.    While most of the Hammond is just starting to open up, there is a nice little stretch of open water by the Darling's Island Covered bridge now.    I suspect that place will be packed with anglers this week!

Here are a few pictures from yesterday that were posted to local fishing groups on Facebook.   The first is just down from the Hammond River Angling Association's lodge, while the second is from the Darling's Island Covered bridge.

 As soon as I'm able, probably not this weekend but certianly the weekend after I'll be out hunting sturgeon again, and suspect there will be 2 - 3 weeks of great sturgeon fishing to be had!    There have been a few people inquiring about guided fishing for sturgeon, so anytime between the weekends of the 24th through to the 8/9th of May should be good.   After that I suspect the sturgeon will head down river.