Hosting Newfoundland Sportsman

These past few days I have had a wonderful time hosting a great group of fellow Newfoundlanders as they came here to the Kennebecasis River to shoot film for an episode of the television show Newfoundland Sportsman.   Host Dwight Blackwood, guest Jim Mansfield, and cameraman Peter Barfoot got the experience some tremendous October weather and catch a lot of fish over our two days out on the water!

A huge thank you to Pure Fishing for their support with fantastic Fenwick, Abu Garcia and Spiderwire gear, as well as Maritime Worm for all the bait used on this trip.   Thank you as well to Stormr who provided my outwear for use in the night and during the colder parts of the morning.  I am going to be well equipped to handle any wet/cold weather this Fall!

The guys arrived Sunday and came over to my place so that we could get introductions out of the way and have time to chat.   I prepared a feed of smoked shortnose sturgeon from my one keeper this past Spring.   The guys loved the dish, making quick work of it as we discussed the plans for the next two days.

Monday morning we met friend Rob Dekany who had agreed to help out for a few days by providing his boat and any assistance needed at Meenan's Cove beach.    We loaded up not only all of us and our gear but also my Old Town Predator 13 kayak on his boat and made our way out to sturgeon alley though some very thick fog.  

Once we arrived we unloaded the kayak, rigged up the rods and baited our hooks.   In short order, the anchors were down and we were fishing.    Then withing the first 10 minutes Jim had the first sturgeon of the day hooked!    This we certianly a great sign of things to come as we landed somewhere in the range of 17 to 20 sturgeon on the day!

Once lunch time hit, we went back to Rob's place which is right on the Hammond River for a bite to eat and then back to the river for a few more hours.   Then we headed back to Meenan's Cove, went for a bite to eat and met up again at Rob's place to head out to try our luck for some night time striped bass fishing.    This time I left the kayak at home!

Unfortunately, after the massive rainstorm we endured last week the water in the Kennebacasis was still quite high and dirty.   That meant difficult striper fishing conditions and the guys weren't able to experience their first ever striper.    Oh well, that just means we have something for them to try next year if they want to come back!    Luckily the next day a baby striper was caught during our sturgeon fishing, so they did get to see one up close!

Once we finally wrapped up our second day, we had caught close to 30 sturgeon overall, with a few cracking the three foot mark.    It was a very successfull trip and I can't wait to see the episode they are able to put together from the footage we gathered.   Here is a little video I put together from my GoPros.