May 1st, 2023
We are now seeing solid numbers of fish being landed with some beautiful salmon throughout the section that our anglers fish. Last week, after a great start to the week, the hooking seemed to get slower by the day although all anglers had success coupled with a nice sun tan from the beautiful weekend weather. New salmon angler Noah Pratt landed his first Atlantic Salmon, with his father John by his side to talk him through it. What a great experience for a father and son to have! Mike from South Carolina also landed several salmon in his first attempt at Atlantic salmon angling and now he and Noah are both hooked for life on fly fishing on the Miramichi!
This past week we were honored to once again have Burt Williams from New Hampshire be in camp … at the ripe young age of 92 he out-fished his son Craig and everyone else at the lodge! In fact on his last day of fishing with us, he was top rod and the only one happier for him than us, was Burt himself! While in Canada, Burt was also able to visit with his much younger cousin, Llyod Webb, who at the ripe young age of 90, drove up from Sussex, NB to spend some time with Burt and enjoy a meal at the lodge. We are already looking to seeing them both again next spring!
Wild Bill Mather had a wonderful week limiting out almost every day during his week stay, one of his best years over the 17 seasons he has been coming to Country Haven! However, we all agree that his lovely wife, Jane, hooked the nicest salmon of the week with a bruiser of a hookbill Atlantic Salmon. Greg Sweet from Nova Scotia was back this spring for another year as well and also was successful in hooking a nice hookbill which is always so amazing to see! Brothers Charlie and Jim Zien were back again this spring from Connecticut and both had some terrific fishing during their week. We were also joined by a father and son, and son (yes two of them) and son inlaw group from Montreal who had a ton of fun both angling and settling a bet with the loser, Marty, having to jump in the river! He honored his bet and we can now count someone swimming our Country Haven waters in April a first for the lodge!
The word from anglers and outfitters upriver was that solid numbers of fish were still being landed above Doaktown and in stretches of the Cains River, with fish holding tight to the shorelines. They will tend to do this until they decide to start dropping down the river on their return journey to the ocean. This bodes well for a long spring fishery which could likely run well into late May which is terrific for anglers and outfitters alike.
The forecast this week, and witnessed today, is calling for some decent amount of rain which will refreshen up the river and maintain water levels at a good height for boating and angling for salmon once it starts to subside again. As trout season opened today no doubt anglers will be searching for those big brookies that roam the Miramichi waters and can be found as large as 4+ lbs.
This past week many anglers were hooking into good numbers of trout (catch and release) averaging 12 to 16 inches with a couple being close to 20!
So with nicer weather in May try to get out on the Miramichi and try your luck at some great salmon and trout fishing that this great fishery has to offer and it won’t be long before we will be chasing Stripers along with them too in the coming weeks!
