River up in the Alders on Miramichi

Well if you were fishing on the Miramichi River the past week, you would not have to get in the water to get your feet wet.

Four inches of rain fell and put the river up into the alders. Leaving many anglers going from wading to boating to hook up. Salmon pools that were to low and warm to fish were now to high and dirty with debre to fish.

Just before the river started to raise, fishing was very good. Many anglers were hooking fish and some limiting out with 4 per day.

Byron Coughlan of Country Haven Lodge of the lower stretch of the Miramichi said the river is full of fresh fish since Sunday. Fishermen were having very good luck. Fish seemed to be moving through and the ones they were hooking was close to shore. Water conditions are still high for the lower stretch. Cains river was still to high, the upper Renous was fishable, lower Renous was still to high.

Guides Donald and Eddie Colford of Black Brook Salmon Club said fishing was very good the past week. Many sports limit out on many different patterns of flies. Conditions are still to high for the Mouth of Cains river area but lots of fish moving.

Derek Munn of the Ledges Inn in the Doaktown Area of the river said fishing was good. We landed almost 50 salmon at the lodge this week, one weighing 27 pounds. Conditions seem to slow down yesterday, but rumours of fresh fish down river is great to hear. The river raised Tuesday night about 6 inches. Flies of choice were pacas, green machines, shady ladies and smurfs. At our Mountain Channel Lodge we were picking up 2 or 3 salmon per day.

Keith Wilson of Wilsons Sporting Camps said salmon anglers are never ones to complain about a nice raise of water in late July but this is a little much. Heavy rain brought the water up in McNamee app 3 feet and was very dirty. Keith said the MSA reported the best numbers of the season coming through the Millerton trap net this past week, so combined with the big raise in water we should see much improved fishing going into the month of August.

Dan Bullock of Bullocks Lodge in Boistown said they received 4" of rain in past week. Water is high, but very fishable. Probably 2-3 days away from ideal height for our pools.
We did land a few fish last week, including a salmon on the RBM Muddler tied by Renate Bullock. Looking forward to what should be excellent fishing next couple of weeks.

Chris Edmonds of Miramichi Fish and Game Club and C.E.Salmon Flies and Guiding was hooking a few fish. Conditions were very good on the NW and should be awesome by the weekend.

So with lots of water in the system for the Miramichi river and tributaries we should see some great fishing over the next few days as the water drops. River temperatures are in the low 60's (f) which is ideal.

A few flies to try while your out this weekend on the water is green machines, undertakers, smurfs, green highlanders and try some dry flies in this high water. Tight to shore with those dries you'll see, you might just catch a whopper.

Until next week keep those reels screaming on the river.
Rodney Colford

Fresh fish running on Miramichi

Fishing for Monday on the Miramichi is very good even tho the river is high.

Fresh sea liced salmon are on the run. And a very good mixture of grilse amongst the salmon.

Temps are 61 f. And very clear. Water is dropping good and more and more anglers are getting out on the water.

The weekend really picked up with great fishing. Fishing stayed good in the heavy rain, until the river got to high and dirty.

Many fish being landed were grilse and salmon and the odd monster hitting 27lbs.

Flies for the most part is the old favourite the white tail green machine. Shady ladies worked well before the rise in water.

Conditions should be excellent over the next few days, which we will have the reports for you on the river.

Until next time may your reels be screaming on the river.
Rodney Colford

Salmon run slowed a little on the Miramichi

Atlantic salmon fishing became very damp over the weekend as the river raised a couple feet.
Conditions remained clear with good visibility and a few fish were being hooked just the same.
Many fishermen said there were still a few salmon and grilse running, but the run seemed to slow down a tad from last weekend.
River temperatures are very good staying in the low 60's (F). Flies of choice were glitter bears, undertakers, Bonnie bells and green machines.
Tight lines Rodney Colford

Silvers in the net on the lower Miramichi

Even with high water fish were hitting the fly hard yesterday on the SW Miramichi.

I fished yesterday with my kids Zachery and Laura and we got into some beauty's!
Laura raised one twice on a bomber (dry-fly). Then it was quite for around 20 minutes before I raised a salmon 6 times. It may have been a few fish because the fish grabbed the fly a couple times before I changed to a black ghost pattern with arctic fox wing and hooked up. I landed a salmon about 18 to 20lbs.

My next pass through the pool on my very first cast I hooked into another beauty! 12 lbs of toughness though as she gave me a very good fight before Zach netted my 2nd salmon of the evening.

The river is very clear on the SW Miramichi but still very high. We never even had to wade in last evening. The salmon were very close to shore and is not unusual with this height of water to see them in close.

Anglers are still landing many stripe bass on the NW Miramichi. Marc Madore landed several on flies yesterday.

I threw in a photo of a beaver that was very friendly while the kids and I were fishing. He decided to swim very close to us.

Just a quick post to fill you in on some fresh fish!

Tight lines.
Rodney Colford

Salmon fishing improves

With water levels being very low over the past week on the upper stretches, the lower stretch from the Mouth of Cains River down to Quarryville had perfect fishing conditions.

The river temperatures were from 62 Fahrenheit (16.6 Celsius) in the morning to 74F (23.3C) in the evening and featured some of the longest days of the year for fishing.

With last week being a good week for fish coming into the system, this week had even more fish showing up and many more being hooked.

On the lower stretches of the Main Southwest Miramichi River, we had over a foot raise in the water level on Monday from the rain. And there was a great run of fish on the move from it. A lot of anglers were hooking grilse and salmon up and down the river. Marty Marshall's 10-year-old boy hooked two grilse below the Mouth of Cains River on dry flies.

Glen Keenan landed his first salmon of the season, Ed Colford and his son Alex were catching fish, Lester Vickers landed a nice salmon, Louis Cormier landed a salmon and his buddy Tommy landed his first after a two-year drought and notice I did not mention his last name!

Joel Kitchen landed a couple of salmon and a couple of grilse, Lanny Burke landed an 18-pounder, Darren Sullivan

landed a grilse, Bliss Arbeau and a few other local anglers landed some grilse in the Upper Blackville bridge pool.

I also landed a grilse and lost another on a Green Bomber with orange hackle and white tails.

On the upper stretches of the Southwest Miramichi this past week from Wilson's Sporting Camps: We had several fish on but very slow takes under these conditions. There seems to be a decent number of big salmon on the move and of course with a rise in water last night and cooler temps we are expecting good fishing this week.

Reports from the Cains River said the fishing was slow on the lower stretches of the river. Renous River anglers are hooking a few fish and with the rise in water it should produce some better fishing this weekend.

The Northwest Miramichi had a good number of fish in the system this week with anglers hooking a few grilse and salmon. On the Little Southwest few fish were showing.

With a little rain in the forecast for today and some mild temperatures in the lower 20's for the rest of the week we should start seeing more fish and more anglers. I would recommend green machines, undertakers, moose hairs and some bombers.

Tight lines.

* 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 27 years. His fishing reports appear every Thursday in the Times & Transcript

Miramichi Starting To Pick Up!

Atlantic Salmon Fishing on the Miramichi is picking up!

After a great evening fishing last night I decided to get at er early this morning, and it paid off! I landed this beauty at 7:00 am on a dry fly. I raised several more from 4:30 am onward.

If your wondering if there is fish around? you don't have to worry anymore for a few days. There are lots of fish showing on the lower stretch of the SW Miramichi. Last night there was a really big run on that had fish jumping and rolling everywhere.

All for now will be back in a few days with an more up to date report!

Tight Loops,

Rod

Salmon in the River

Miramichi Fishing Reports for the past week in New Brunswick, Canada. Last weekend was hot but it did not stop a beautiful silver salmon from taking my number 6 green machine with white tail. I hooked the fish on the North West at the Allison pool. Water was low and the river temperature was almost 70 F. There were lots of anglers fishing and a few were hooking some trout as my buddy Damir Sahic landed one about 12 inches and the colors on the trout were amazing.

Other anglers were saying they were only catching small trout but down river near the tide there was a trout tournament going on and they said there was a lot of trout taking, and some in the 2 to 3 pound range. There was a report of another salmon which had been landed near the Wayerton Bridge pool.

I fished all day yesterday with Maurice , Gerard and Jean Francois Mallet from Dieppe on the Main SW Miramichi. We traveled by boat all the way up to the Stop Sign pool and never saw a a single fish move.

Water was very low and we scraped the bottom several times with the boat going up and down river. I saw a few shad scooting from under the boat, but not in big numbers yet like they normally do. The water temperature was in the low 60's and the wind was making it almost impossible to cast a good line. I even had my 15 foot Loop Spey Rod with me and it was tuff to cast as well. So we decided to take a break and let the wind calm down for awhile.

After a short break we decided to give the Cains River a try. The wind was much better and the fishing was the same as the morning! We saw no fish around except for a few small trout and managed to pick up three.

We talked to a couple other fisherman on the Cains that were staying at the 6 mile camp. Bill Gumble said he had not saw any trout for the week or so they have been fishing. They said reports said there was no sea trout last week but this week that they were gone through? So there it is with some fisherman wondering are the sea trout here yet or have they all gone through? Any suggestions on this are more than welcome.

This is a photo of a couple trout I got a week ago Thursday 1 of which was 2 pounds and both hooked on a small green bomber with orange hackle. Karry Harris also landed a couple down stream on the same fly.

A few nights ago Pat Colford and Kenny Vickers stopped in and got a few shad flies from me and decided to giver a try! they fished a couple evenings and only hooked one but said there was lots of shad and they were just not taking or the flies they got were just no darn good! I laughed as there were tied by me lol!!

As the weekend approaches us and your heading out on the water have fun and bring lots of fly repellent as the bugs are very bad. Lets hope for some wet weather to improve the fishing conditions for the next week and bring in more of those beautiful Silver salmon. I am looking forward to doing fishing reports for the rest of the season and hope that you all enjoy my reports and send all your stories & photos you can and I will try my best to post them for you if you like.

Until next time.

Tight Loops,

Rodney Colford

Salmon Landed on the Miramichi

Miramichi Fishing Reports for the South West Miramichi River for Colfords Guiding. The last three days we saw a few fish in all our pools. But with the hard hitting heat it has really slowed things down. Water temperatures were 70 degrees and fish were not showing very well.


Fishing
I fished Renous river this morning and did not see anything move in the pool. The water level looked very good and the temperature was 67 degrees F. This evening I fished the Brophy Pool on the Main SW Miramichi and still did not see a thing, and the water was 70 degrees. While canoeing back to camp we saw several fisherman and they said they were not seeing much. A few anglers had saw a few this morning around the mouth of Cain's River.


Fish Hooked
Yesterday Roger Savage hooked and landed a 15 pound salmon at the mouth of Cains River in Howard. And not far up river Sonny Christian landed a grilse and saw a few more. Ian Fortune of Blackville hooked a salmon and lost it on a bomber. He also said someone had hooked a grilse in the Blackville Pool. There was a salmon landed today at the Upper Blackville bridge Pool, not sure who it was or the fly pattern. Luther Peterson was seeing a few fish over the last couple days but did not hook any. Black Brook guys were seeing a few fish but none landed to date. There were a few fish being hooked in Quarryville Pool some anglers had said. There was also a couple hooked up in the Mcgraw Brook area on the Renous the last couple days.


Weather
The weather looks very good for the next week with cooler temperatures and some rain. Temps from 13 C to 21 C and 15 to 20 ml of rain expected in the forecast. Hopefully it will cool things down and the fish will start pounding all your flies! and my bombers!


Well that's salmon fishing! Good today and bad tomorrow! Should of been here yesterday? Well its not all about the catching sometimes, its just nice to be out on the water with friends, and just seeing some fish roll or jump keeps you very excited too throw that next cast! and hope he takes the fly! And if he does not there's always tomorrow.

Tight Lines,
Rodney colford

Weekend Looking Good for Miramichi River

Colfords Miramichi Salmon Fishing Reports from the South west Miramichi River by guide Rodney Colford. The last few days we are still seeing a lot of fish in the lower stretches of the river from Upper Blackville to Quarryville. Chances are very good for the weekend if your looking to hook up with a Atlantic Salmon.


Weather & Water Levels
Water levels are very good for this section of the river and very clear despite a little raise. The temperature is at 46 F and the barometric pressure is holding at 100. kpa for the last 10 to 12 hours. The weather for the next few days is from 8C to 22C for the Miramichi area.


There are reports of smelts up as far as the Blackville area. But I have yet to see them near the mouth of Cains River. Salmon are jumping all over the river from shore to shore on this section of the river, nice to see so many fish still in the system. Also some reports of trout being hooked near Quarryville but anglers said they appear to be black trout on there way out.


Long time friend and Marketing director Greg Davidson for Colfords Atlantic Salmon Fishing Ltd. and son Adam had a great day fishing with me on the lower stretches of Miramichi river by the Mouth of Cains.

Adam landed his first ever Atlantic Salmon using a golden eagle and said it was a little stronger than a brookie. Way to go Adam! Greg was trailing behind and the pressure was building to catch one!


Then I hooked one on a black ghost! and we were really making him sweat to catch one. We had a couple each before he finally got this beauty on a blue smelt pattern. Way to go Greg! but it was fun for Adam and myself to put the first few in the boat!!

We ended the morning with 9 fish and had several more hits.
All our fish were hooked trolling and full sinking lines out to the backing.


This is my son Zachery fishing trout at Black Brook Falls and his first time using a spin cast rod.








This is where Zach & Laura had no idea about fishing trout with bait. They said dad it would be much more easier fishing with the fly rod!! It may have been better with the fly rod? we never even had a strike with worms. They had a fun time and looking forward to the next time again.




To all the Fisher-Ladies that read my fishing reports Happy Mothers Day and tighter lines in the coming days fishing.

From the Banks of the Famous Miramichi River this is Guide Rodney Colford.


Quote of the week
“A fishing pole is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool on the other”
Quote by Samuel Johnson

River Ice Conditions

April 04th 2009.

Ice Out Conditions for the Main SW Miramichi River. For the last few days we have seen the ice getting worse with the mild weather were having. Fog and Rain have been taking most of the snow and the river is rising with the run offs of the melting. Looks like there may be a early ice out after all. I was chatting with a couple older fellows today under the bridge in Doaktown and I asked when the ice would be out, they said it will be out next week! And they also said there should be great fishing! With the water raising and the ice very thin I would say there going to be right on the money for predicting the ice out.

This photo is looking up from the Blackville bridge where you can see Doctors Island and you can see that the shores are very poor.
This photo is looking up from the Upper Blackville bridge with the shores bad as well.
This photo taken down by the old rail way bridge now the walking bridge in Doaktown.
And this picture was took looking up river from the walking bridge, and showing that the water level has risen which with a little more of a rise it should start breaking up.
The Saint John River is open in the city of Fredericton and the Nashwaak is breaking up today with jams on several different places.

The first picture below is a long the Nashwaak River off route 8 highway.

The second picture is the Saint John River in the city of Fredericton. Also chances of flooding in that area and more down river.


Back in a few days with a few more photos for you of the ice out conditions. I will be sending out the newsletter once a week for those that has signed up for it. Also there will be posting in between newsletters so please keep checking the site.

Tight lines,
Rodney Colford of Colfords Atlantic Salmon Fishing

Huge Atlantic Salmon on the Cain's River

Fly fishing report for the Miramichi & Cain’s River by Guide Rodney Colford.

Fishing on the Cain's River again this morning and had very good results. Ron Falausy of Pennsylvania landed a grilse covered in sea lice, then tightened on another that looked to be a grilse and then he hooked this whale of a salmon 46 inches long! I estimated it to be around 35lb’s. It was a huge female salmon. We have pictures of the salmon and I will post them in the next day or so.

Bill Moore hooked a grilse this morning as well about at noon.
Guide Gary Colford and sport Jim Messel landed a salmon on a lT Special.
Flies this morning were GP’S and LT Special‘s. A lot of fish were showing this morning on the Cain’s River. The water temperature was 49 F and it was a very sunny morning. The barometric pressure was rising all morning as well.

I checked a few pools on the lower stretches of the main Miramichi and it looked very fishable! We also saw some in the pools we were at. I hope they take tonight?

Tight Lines,
Rodney Colford
New web site coming soon.

Fishing still good on the Cain's

On the Miramichi River for Colfords Guiding Services, Report by guide Rodney Colford. Still fishing the Cain's River with very good results. Guide Gary Colford sports landed a couple this morning. Jim Messel landed a salmon and rolled a couple more. Christian Staffas landed a grilse on a LT special on the Cain's as well. Guide Rodney Colford sports landed a 8 lb salmon on the Cain's and lost another using a GP #2 single. This evening sport Bill Moore lost a huge salmon 20 pounds or more and still growing!! Ha! He was using a GP again. Guide Gary Colfords sports Christian Staffas landed a grilse & salmon on the Cain's this evening again using the LT special. Jim Messel rolled one twice but could not get it to take.

The water temperature on the Cain's River was 45 F this morning and still only 47 F tonight. The water was clear today but very black in color. The water level is very good on the Cain's and there are fish showing in most pools up and down the river. The barometric pressure was dropping all day and stayed damp on the Miramichi area. Reports for the main SW Miramichi River are still slow in most of our pools with very few fish being hooked or seen. maybe tomorrow with a little more drop in water over night?

Tight Lines for today,
Guide Rodney Colford
New Web site soon will be up.

Miramichi Fishing Report

South West Miramichi River Report by Rodney Colford. Fishing today was slow for the Cains River area with guide Gary Colford landing a salmon and raising a couple more on a small black fly. On the Miramichi today Wintson Gilks of Blissfield landed a couple salmon trolling with a sinking line.The water level is still very high but with the cool nights we should see a fast drop in the levels. Last night and today we saw a drop of about 3 feet. The water looks very clear and anglers should start picking up more fish in the next few days. And with no rain in the forecast the season should be looking very good for the end of the 2008 season.