Salmon fishing & fly tying on the Miramichi...

Monday 20 February 2012

A gift from Damian! Thanks buddy!

I received a surprise today - A calendar based on Damian's book: Atlantic Salmon Flies of Nova Scotia




These can be purchased for $25.00 each and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to a very worthy wild Atlantic Salmon conservation related cause. Go here for details: nsflyguy.ca

Thanks again Damian, and I'll be ordering two more! =)

A few flies from this afternoon going to my good buddy Gary ...

He's raising some money for one of the best damned river orgs on the planet - the CCREA.

Sunday 19 February 2012

Oh and another bunny strip!

More ice fishing!

We spent another great day on the river yesterday - lots of smelt, but mostly small ones.


The lunker of the day! Nice job, Erin! =)


Nick caught his first fish ever, and it was one of many! Way to go big fella!


Ethan, Brad and I fished some but we were outfished by the two pro fishers above - we had a great day and we all can't wait to get out again. We should have a few more opportunities as there's at least 16-18" of ice.

Thursday 16 February 2012

What Global Warming???


This is about as early as I can ever remember seeing a Robin in Saint John. The guys at work that I walk with said they saw Robins a week or more ago and I thought they were just pulling my leg! I named this guy 'Silly, Early, Ba$tard'! Crazy stuff!

Friday 10 February 2012

Beach Glass August 2011

Here's the first piece of red beach glass we found while on family vacation last August.


My daughter Melissa took this picture and she did quite a nice job of it! =)

Sunday 5 February 2012

Don Staniford versus Mainstream...

Here's an excerpt from Alexandra Morton's recent blog entry describing the Don Staniford versus Mainstream court case. The full entry can be viewed here:

FREE SPEECH ON TRIAL

"Free Speech on Trial
What options are open to a person with no money who sees a wrong and wants to right it? What if it involves an international corporation, largely owned by a wealth country? This is the case of Don Staniford vs Mainstream from Norway.
While many environmental groups have worked to protect wild salmon from the disease and pollution of net pen salmon feedlots, they worked within the constraints of their funders. Big money runs with big money and so big funding makes environmental groups docile. It is incremental, small slips until environmental groups can find themselves supporting the very thing they are fighting. This happened with salmon farming. Most of BC’s large environmental groups formed an alliance, funding came to work things out with the fish farmers and soon they were supporting the doubling in size of the salmon farms.
I don’t think big environmentalism works because they become dependent on exactly the mechanism that is crushing life out of this planet. Can anyone name the enviro groups with money to fight salmon farms in BC? Have they become invisible within corporate partnerships?
What does environmentalism without big funding look like? That is how I work and that is how Don Staniford operates.
Don Staniford picked up humor, satire and in your face graphics as his tool to pry salmon farms away from wild salmon. He posted graphics of cigarette packs with warnings printed them: “Salmon Farming kills,” “Salmon Farming Spreads Disease” “Salmon Farms are Cancer.” (website)
He dared to compare the salmon farming industry’s advertising to big tobacco and salmon feedlots to cancer. Although Staniford never named Mainstream, they came after him. Mainstream, largely owned by Norway, which is mother to this dirty industry, threatened Staniford. Cease and desist, apologize, remove the statements in five days or else they would file a civil claim. With no salary, no money at all, Don wrote a 67-page report detailing how salmon feedlots are like cancer, attached a graphic cigarette package with the one finger salute and said, “Bring it on.”
Alexandra speaks about the trial:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/36221820?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0









This court case will set a precedent for all future court cases against irresponsible aquaculture and now more than ever, people need to step and be heard from where it counts -- their wallets! Please donate whatever you can to help fund Don's case against Mainstream. If you believe wild salmon belong in this world, please go here and contribute to this incredible cause: http://www.gofundme.com/donstaniford

Saturday 4 February 2012

Ice Fishing Take 2 -- less puckering!

Ethan and I went back down to Renforth today for another go at the smelts - the weather this week has been a bit more seasonal and we've gained a few more inches of good ice. Needless to say, it wasn't as worrysome to be on the ice with the rest of the village and we had a great afternoon!

The master smelt slayer!






A little preview of the fight I picked with bronze mallard --- you see, I have aspirations of tying a spey fly with bronze mallard wings... wish me luck!!




Friday 3 February 2012

Zonker strips.....

.....I think I'm going to like tying and fishing with them! I picked up a few colours today - here's my first attempt at a zonker muddler. This is on a Daiichi 2271 size 1 and i'm thinking it will likley appeal to kelted Atlantics =)




Oh yeah, the only reason I'm using that horrible bobbin is that I have 6/0 thread in it -- the bobbin  could be made of jagged rocks with 6/0 so any piece of junk bobbin will do!