I have been working on a plan to go to New Brunswick for striped bass for the last couple months and put the offer to join me on FB, fishing buddy Bob accepted my offer and plans were finalized.
The goals….
1. Have a good time.
2. Fish the St. John River for trophy striped bass. The numbers of striped bass on the St. John River is lower than other rivers and a good day is 2 or 3 fish, but the chance of a 30-40+ pound fish is the draw to the river.
3. Fish the Miramichi River to catch a couple eater sized striped bass. The Miramichi is known for larger numbers of striped bass than the St. John River, but a smaller average size.
The trip...
Bob met me at my house, and we were off shortly after 10 pm on Thursday night headed to Fredericton. Traffic was minimal since we drove through the night but light rain and the entire province of Quebec having road construction slowed things down a bit. We made a quick stop for breakfast Friday morning in Edmundston and arrived in Fredericton around noon.
Too early to check into our hotel we went and checked out the Minnow Tackle Shop in downtown Fredericton, a great little shop with a good selection of tackle and great staff. Definitely check them out if you are in Fredericton.
After checking into our hotel, having a 2-hour nap then a quick dinner we were off to meet Matt Nason of Nason Guide Services to hunt for big St. John Striped bass. The plan was to fish from 7 – 11 pm trolling large muskie crankbaits. Lures in the water and watching the Garmin Livescope marking several active fish within 10 minutes we watch a fish hit our bait on the Livescope…. FISH ON!!! After a nice little battle, I boat a nice 31” striper…. My first striped bass ever!!!
After a couple quick photos and a successful release we were back fishing… about 10 minutes later we have another fish hit, Bob is up but the fish pretty much immediately gets off. As a gentlemen I agree that fish did not count as Bob’s turn and he is still next up for a fish. We continue to troll in the darkness…. switching up lures, adjusting the depths the lures are running based on the fish we mark on the Livescope and trolling different areas. Finally around 10:30 pm just as Matt goes to grab a rod to make some adjustments the rod goes off…. FISH ON!!! After a nice 10 minute or so battle, pretty long considering we only were trolling with 40 feet of line out, Matt slides the net under a pig of a striper. Our guide Matt was excited so we knew it was a good fish!! Matt left the fish in the net in the water as he cut all the hooks off of the lure so not to risk causes damage to the fish. We then quickly lift the fish in for a couple quick photos and measurement…. measuring just over 41 inches and probably around 30 pounds, this was the fish we came to the St. John River to find!!! After the quick photos the fish was carefully released. We continued to fish a couple more passes of our trolling run, but the was the end of the action on a very successful evening.
If anyone is looking to fish the St. John River for big striped bass, muskie or sturgeon Matt is your man, he knows this stuff, uses quality equipment and runs a very nice fully rigged Princecraft boat. Additionally he is very good at explaining why he is doing what we are doing as we are fishing, so you learn as you fish. We definitely got a thorough lesson on using the Garmin Livescope for trolling.
After about 4 hours of sleep Friday night we were up early for the 2 hour drive to Miramichi. The Miramichi River is more known for numbers of fish, but a smaller average size. Our goal was to catch a few more stripers than Friday and hopefully catch a couple keepers for eating.
We met up with Rob from Tangled Angling shortly after 8 am launched the boat and headed out on the mighty Miramichi River for a full day of striped bass fishing. To start the day we had to move around to a couple different spots but we eventually started catching a mixed bags of various sized striped bass up to 29" using two pieces of cut baitfish on “high low rigs”.
After a few hours of still fishing with dead bait we decided to change things up and we made a long run up river in the tiller Alumacraft, a sweet ride with lots of space that cruised nicely down the river.
Reaching the “honey hole” the plan was to cast swimbait jigs with plastic 4” minnow bodies…. Bob and I grab our rods and make a cast….. our baits hit the water…. pause 2 seconds and start reeling….. then FISH ON…. A DOUBLEHEAD on our first casts!!!
Beginner’s luck???? Our second casts produce the same results…. another doubleheader. We continue fishing in this spot for an hour and forty-five minutes or so, catching fish almost every cast. I believe I only had 3 casts and Bob only had 2 casts we did not catch fish on. The average size of these fish was a bit smaller but we did catch a bunch more eater-sized fish (20-25”) and a few fish in the 28-29 inch range. It was the most incredible couple of hours of fishing of our lives.
For the last couple hours, we went back to cut bait fishing several different areas in search of some bigger fish, we managed to catch some more stripers but nothing huge and as the sun was starting to get low in the sky and the winds were getting high, we called it a day around 6:30 pm.
This was an incredible day of fishing that could not have asked for anything more. Our guide Rob was great…. he knew the river very well and did not worry about how far we had to go to find fish, we covered a lot of water today, whereas many of the boats on the river seemed content to stay in one spot and wait for fish to come to them, we were constantly on the move fishing different areas and using side scanning on the 12” screen Lowrance unit to look for fish. The open concept Alumacraft was a great boat for casting and handled the waves very well.
We could not have asked for a better guide to fish the Miramichi River and highly recommend Rob at Tangled Angling if you are looking for a great fishing adventure on the Miramichi.
After a full day on the river, we checked into our hotel, cleaned up and headed to Hennessy's Pub for some great food and a couple drinks to celebrate our great weekend.
After a decent night’s sleep Saturday night and a quick breakfast, we shore fished the Miramichi for about an hour but no luck, Bob did have a brook trout follow lure to shore, but no bites. So around 11 am we hit the road and headed home, arriving home just before midnight Sunday night.
What an incredible weekend fishing in New Brunswick, it will be hard to beat.
Though plans are already in the works for a return trip in May 2024 to fish the St. John River for sturgeon and striped bass and the Miramichi River for Atlantic salmon and striped bass, and then muskie later in 2024.
A big thank you to my fishing buddy Bob for joining me on this adventure and to our two guides Nason Guide Services and Tangled Angling for putting us on fish and showing us a great time all around.
