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Today is the day I have been waiting for all winter. We are hitting the water today for the start of our new season. Shawn and I are loading up for a trip up to Taxis River Outfitters for some spring Atlantic Salmon fishing on the beautiful Mirimichi River. I have not had a fly rod in my hand in about fifteen years so there should be some entertainment value in that alone. If the fish are still in the river we should have some great action. As a bonus, I heard on the weekend that the sea trout  were also running right now. We can’t keep any but I have heard stories about some very large trout being caught and it can only add to the fun.

One of my favourite places to go fishing is on the Farm. That would be Stick Marsh / Farm 13 in central Florida. This 6700 acre impoundment was originally created to filter farm runoff before the water entered the St. John’s River. The fish were stocked by Florida Fish and Wildlife to act as a barometer for the health of the marsh. They figured if the fish died it would be time to drain and dredge the Marsh and start over. Since the Marsh was created there has not been a fish kill from runoff in the St. John’s River nor has there been one at the Marsh. The growth rate was so phenomenal that the FFW decided to make this a 100% Catch and Release Bass fishery. It has one of the highest catch rates in Florida and also one of the highest probabilities of nailing one over ten...

All good things come to an end and it is almost time to put the boat away for the season. My first non tournament trip to Woodstock this year was with my friend Terry Curtis who made the trip down from Ontario to fish with me. My last trip for the season is also in Woodstock with my buddy Jason Gogan who drove up from Saint John to spend the day on the upper river trying for some cold water smallies.

It was cold enough that when we went to stow the extra gear the compartment lids were frozen shut. We decided that the best course of action was to idle to our first spot instead of starting the day with a bone chilling ride.

With water temperatures down to 48 degrees you wouldn’t think that a spinnerbait would be what started the day off but Jason was slow rolling a tandem willowleaf spinne...

We tried filming much later in the season this year and we were partly defeated by the weather. Show seven found me on the Saint John River just outside of Fredericton with my guest Darcy Simon. Darcy is a retired AHL hockey player and a very successful Fredericton real estate agent. As the day went on it was also apparent that he has an infinite amount of patience.
This was by far the toughest day I have had on the water in years and we tried to deal with high water, heavy current. cold temperature and 30k winds out of the Northwest. To say boat control was a challenge would be an understatement.
We only hooked six fish all day and only four of those made it to the boat. Three of the fish were caught in about 8 feet of water and one in twenty...

My guest on today’s show is Fredericton hockey great, Danny Grant. Danny was drafted by the Montreal Canadians in 1968 and played 22 regular season games and 10 playoff games, helping them to win the Stanley Cup. The following year he went to Minnesota and played a full season winning the Calder Cup for Rookie of the Year. Not to many guys have won the cup and then won Rookie of the Year the following year. It was a great story. Danny was also only the 12th player at the time to have a 50 goal season. He had some great stories to share and to top it all off the city of Fredericton has named the new arena after Danny and his good friend Buster Harvey.

Danny likes to fly fish but it sure didn’t take him long to get the feel of the Shimano spinning rod and reel...

My daughter came home for a visit from Cape Cod and wanted
to go fishing. I had donated a fishing trip for a charity auction so I figured
we would go find some fish for that trip. It was a damp and dizzily day as we
put the boat in the water in downtown Fredericton with just a bit of wind.

We headed downriver about a mile to my first spot and Chrissie
nailed a feisty Smallmouth a minute after I shut the engine down. Not a monster
but a river fish always gives a good account of itself when hooked. I guess a
lifetime of living in the current makes them tough. She picked up that one on a
Trigger X tube in Green Pumpkin on a 1/8^th ounce head. This area of
the river is full of snags and we broke off a few more tubes as we fished
through it...

One of the things that I am enjoying with the TV show is the
great people that I a getting to meet. Todays guest is no exception. I am
fishing with LeRoy Washburn who served our Province as an MLA for two terms and
he is a member of the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame. LeRoy has been active
in sports for most of his life both as a participant and a coach and official.
He has officiated at Pan-American Games, the Olympics, Commonwealth Games ant
the World Cup. He is currently VP of the NB Special Olympics Association. On
top of all of this, he likes to fish which works for me.

Most of LeRoy’s fishing has been for Trout or Atlantic
Salmon with a fly rod so I rigged him up with a couple of Shimano Rods and
Reels and we headed for Magaguadavic Lake for some Smallmouth Bass and Eastern
Cha...

Well we got rid of whoever messed the site up and are getting the posts back up. Some stuff is out of the original order but we had a lot to dig through. Thanks for bearing with us.

Rick

Show three was all set to go when I received an unexpected cancellation from my guest due to work commitments. As luck would have it, my neighbor Mike made a call to a friend who watches the show and was able to get me a great guest on short notice. A few quick phone calls and we arranged to meet at the highway ramp at 7 am.

After I got that out of the way I spent an hour or so going over the boat and getting some tackle ready for the morning. I try and provide a mix of product for the guests to use as well as balance the tackle for what I think will work when we hit the lake. I rigged up half a dozen Crucial rods in medium and medium heavy, one 6’8” Cumara MH and one G Loomis NRX...

First off, let me say that I absolutely love this fishery. There is not a tremendous amount of fishing pressure and once you figure out where the fish are it can be outstanding. We are in Perth for the second last stop on the tour before the two day event out of Woodstock. My regular partner is away on vacation so I am fishing with long time friend Phil Barrett. Philip used to say that it seemed like I fished under a cloud most of the time and today was no exception.
 
I drew fifteen for a takeoff number so we moved back in the field a bit to let the lower numbers have a clean takeoff. When our turn came Philip put the throttle down and the boat took off- sort of. We didn’t seem to have any power and Phil figured we were running on three cylinders...