Mark and I hit the Marsh at 8 this morning. Forecast 10 to 14 MPH. More like 20+ when we started. The wind had switched more to the north and it was blowing straight in on our spot. Still clean but getting dirty. By eleven we had four bites and we decided to make a move. The wind dropped a bit much closer to forecast. We hit the spillway and the third cast with a half ounce JackAll spinnerbait put a five in the boat. Dug another one out for Mark and it was game on for the next two hours. They were busting bait on top and we would toss into the middle of it, a couple of turns of the handle and it was fish on. Great note to end Mark’s trip as he heads back to the snow.
This was our third day out this week in high winds and sub normal temps...

We wrapped up the show season fishing in the capital region with my guest Bobby Despres, Sports Tourism Co-ordinator for Fredericton. We actually caught a couple right off the dock at Carleton Park while Shawn was unloading the camera equipment. Once we got loaded we idled up the river a hundred feet or so and went fishing. My first Smallmouth was caught just opposite of Bobby’s downtown office. Not a bad way to start the day.
We fished up to the old bridge piers and picked up a bunch of small fish but none of the big girls we were looking for so we headed upriver towards the Bucket Club. I don’t go up to that area a lot so you can imagine my concern when my Lowrance suddenly spiked from eight feet to just a foot and back down to six or so feet...

I donated a free fishing trip to St. Thomas Universities annual charity golf tournament and the gentleman that won it has a son, Micah, who is a fan of the show. A few phone calls back and forth and it was decided that the son would take the trip with me and retired NHL player Mike Eagles and we would make a show of it.
We picked Micah up at 6:30 am and headed for the lake. There are a few places on the lake that fish really shallow, almost like Largemouth fishing in the pads and weeds and that is where we opted to start.
We tried some surface frogs across the weed edges and pads and although we caught a few that way it turned out to be a tube and Senko kind of day...

Backwater Casting show six

This year I am fishing out of a Mercury powered Triton 21 TRX so it seemed fitting to invite our Triton rep, Jim Lacey, to be a guest on the show. Jim graciously agreed and flew in from Ontario to spend some time with us.
We headed up the Benton which is, I believe, a Ducks Unlimited impoundment that was created with a low dam on the upper reaches of Eel River. It has created quite a wetland area which has got to be great for the migrating waterfowl.
Most of the flats are too shallow to be fishable for anything but Chain Pickerel with the Smallmouth most sticking in or near the original river channel.
The bite was a little slower than I would have liked but by the end of the day we had boated a decent amount of Smallies along with a ton of Pickerel...

We have had a six week shut down for our tournament series that covers the bulk of the Smallmouth spawning season and we are back at it now. This was our third qualifying event for the NBSFA’s Molson / Mercury Bass Tour and it come right after a visit from Hurricane Arthur. The river has droppe d a bit this week but it is still at least three feet higher than normal for July. I wouldn’t call it filthy dirty but it is definitely stained.

We planned on going up the Oromocto River for this one hoping the upper reaches would clean up first. We didn’t have any idea how much wood was in the water so we opted to take my partner’s jet boat. We can cover some ground with the inboard Mercury 250 jet and didn’t have to worry about bumping into a tree because she is heavy gauge aluminum...

My neighbor Mike hasn’t fished for several years and I asked him if he would like to go out with me as a guest on the show. Sure thing he says, can I bring a fly rod? We haven’t filmed anyone doing that yet so into the boat it went.
As luck would have it we were faced with sustained 20 to 40 k winds that day and despite his best efforts he couldn’t get a decent presentation with the fly. In the meantime I had put four fat Smallies in the boat on a Jackall 3/8 ounce Super Eruption spinnerbait. I had rigged at home on a 2500 Stradic with 8 lb Seige Green mono and a Crucial 6’6″ M rod and a #1 trailer hook. Being a nice guy I said Mike would you like me to tie one of these on for you. I took a new one out of the package and tied it on for him...

Our last trip out was for Smallmouth Bass on a border lake and now we are headed inland to the Miramichi River for Striped Bass. The change was more than species and location; it was also from a nice sunny day to unrelenting rain. It seemed like they changed the forecast every time I looked at it so we hoped for the best and hit the road.

I was a bit dubious about putting the big Triton in so far up the river but my guest Jeff Wilson assured me that we would have at least three feet of water. Just what I needed to hear with a new boat. Needless to say we never put the Merc up over idle speed when we moved around.

Jeff is the Atlantic Vice President of the StonCor Group of companies and I was lucky to get him out for a day...

If you are looking for a fun day on the water you need to check out the Second Annual Atlantic Big Bass Challenge being held out of Nackawic on July 6, 2014. This event is being held in support of First Nations Christian Outreach.

The format is simple, the biggest bass weighed in during each of four two hours periods wins $500. The fish must be alive so a working livewell is necessary. The biggest bass of the day will receive $1500..

I fished this one last year with my neighbor and although we didn’t win anything we had a great time and I have already registered for this year. There will be some great draw prizes as well as the cash payouts. A young lady from Moncton showed us all up last year and I am sure she will be back to show us how it’s done.

Tournament starts at 7:30 Am and there i...

Backwater Casting season 5, Show 1

Today’s show actually started in November last year when I was asked to once again donate a fishing trip to the Fredericton Sports Investment Dinner and Auction. The FSI has been raising money for amateur sports since 1981 when a group of local business men got together to raise funds for the Jr Red Wings. The league they were in folded a couple of years later but the groundwork had been laid and the group has been providing funding for amateur hockey and other sports ever since. I believe that last year they surpassed the three million dollar mark in donations to amateur sports over the years.

Coincidently this year’s bidder on my trip is Kurt Allen whose father “Murph” was one of the founding fathers of the group...

Well the Triton 21 TRX is home and I have got the first three hours of break in on the Mercury. The boat is a dream to drive and although only a foot longer that my last run it smooths out the rough water really well. I have had a chance to really go through the boat and I am beyond impressed with the fit and finish. Everything looks like it is built to last and no corners cut.

I wired up and installed my own sonar / GPS units and put in an pair of Lowrance HDS 9 Touch units to go with the HDS 7 in the dash. I had to run power, Ethernet and nmea 2000 cables which is usually a major pain. Imagine my surprise when I found that the folks at Triton had left a rigging tube running from the stern to the console and it was a walk in the park to run cables and wires. I was a happy camper.

He...