Am now a published columnist!

Back at the start of the year, my expectations for the year was to essentially keep as I had ended 2014, that is maintain this blog, kayak fish as much as time and circumstance allowed and to continue to promote the sport and the province as best I can.    While those goals continue to hold true, I've found myself wearing a new hat this Spring, that of magazine columnist!

A few months back I proposed the idea of a fishing column to the fine folk at Ossekeag Publishing, creators of a family of local community magazines in our area.   The idea was well received as as of now, I'm three articles into a regular column in thier publications!   If you are from the Greater Saint John area, hopefully you've noticed and enjoyed one or two of these.

Here is a link to my author page at Ossekeag Publishing!

As well, as of today, I have an article published on Kayak Angler, the worlds foremost kayak fishing magazine!   This is an article in their Web magazine only (I assume), not to be confused with their printed magazine.    It is actually the 4th time I've been mentioned in Kayak Angler as I've provided content for a few of their 'ask a pro' articles in the past as well.      Here is a link to all the articles I've had some input on in Kayak Angler.

This particluar article, the first penned by myself for the magazine, is a profile of my good friend and kayak fishing mentor John Cail (aka IPop).    I hope you like it!   As time goes on, if I get other good ideas for articles that Kayak Angler may run, I may be able to provide more content in the future!    

Do you have an idea for an article I can work on for either the Ossekeag Publishing, Kayak Angler, or even my blog?  If so, let me know, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

A Week of Smallmouth, Shad, Trout and more!

This past week I took an early morning to spend a few hours on the lower Hammond to see if I could catch a few sea run trout.   Unfortunately, I didn't catch any, but I did manage to catch Yellow Perch, a small smallmouth, and a gaspereaux.    The gaspereaux being on the river usually indicates that the best time for sea run trout has passed on that section.   It also means the shad are probably passed as well, as the gaspereaux usually come in after the shad.

After the very late winter, it seems, at least to me, that the trout and shad seasons are passing us by fairly quickly.    I wonder if late winters typically mean shorter seasons on those species?  

So with this in mind I took off to another local spot on Friday morning looking for pickerel.   While the only pickerel I spotted were dancing in the flooded bushes, not interested in my lures, I did have my personal best smallmouth day ever in kayak!    Note, I easily admit I'm very raw when it comes to smallie fishing, so the catch may not be impressive to many!   3 smallmouth ranging in size from 16" to 17.5".    For me those are great catches!

Finally, yesterday I launched on the Kennebacasis with some friends searching for shad, and possibly a trout.   The conditions were not what we expected with a very strong head wind pushing us back up river for most of the day.   Instead of a nice drift with the current, we had to paddle the whole way to make any progress!    Regardless, I managed to catch the only 2 shad of the group, plus I landed 4 very nice brook trout, and even a small yellow perch!  

Most of the guys had a shad on at one point, but were unable to land them.   Thats the way it goes with shad fishing much of the time, their mouths are so soft that it is very easy to haul the hook out of them if your not careful.

Next weekend I'm headed to Long Lake with a couple of the other kayakers to chase trophy land locked salmon and lake trout!    Having never caught either before I can't wait!!!