With salmon season fast approaching anglers have tied there favourite fly patterns and getting there gear set out to be well prepared for the opening day of the season. But the one thing that stands in there way at the start of every season is mother nature and the force of the Mighty Miramichi’s river ice.
The beautiful Miramichi River and tributaries are frozen and anglers have been starting the worry or the guessing game when will the ice start breaking up, or will it be gone out of the river in time for opening day?
Well things are starting to look very good for the fisherman for opening day here on the river. The warmer weather the past couple days has awakened the Power of the Old Miramichi! and it’s starting to move the ice a bit.
The river ice is gone behind the Atlantic Salmon Museum
in Doaktown.
Bev Gaston said the ice had pulled out on Monday night from Nelson Hollow down past the Museum where you could see a jam piling up.
There were also some Canadian Geese enjoying the river for the very first time this season at the Museum.
In Boistown there were also some signs of ice breaking up with jams in a few different places along the river.
Down river near Upper Blackville the shores were starting to rot away and in some places as wide as 40 feet from shore. In the Blackville area the Bartholomew river cleared out on Tuesday.
Cain’s River was starting to loosen up near Cashens and Shinick Burn but the river itself was very low and needs some water to really get things moving.
The Renous River was looking very bad as the shores were very weak near the pump house pool.
The Quarryville Pool at the Mouth of Renous looked like it did in February and seemed to be holding on very strong. And from Quarryville to Miramichi City the ice was still in and looked very good, except a few different places you could see some big cracks in the ice.
With warmer days and some light rain in the forecast it should help raise the river and get the ice breaking up even more. The river ice does not appear to be very thick so it should start the crunching and breaking up sounds this weekend or the first of next week.
Down stream from The Upper Blackville Bridge.
Upper Blackville Bridge.
Since writing this report there is a few changes on the river like the Cains has cleaned out and the ice is jammed up just about a mile below the mouth. I will keep you updated daily on the conditions.
I will be back in a few days with another report from the Miramichi River.
Tight Lines,
Rodney Colford
Rodney Colford is a third generation salmon-fishing guide on the Miramichi River and has been guiding fishermen ranging from greenhorns to some of the finest fly-fishermen in the world for 28 years. His fishing reports appear every Thursday in the Times & Transcript.
