Miramichi Striped Bass

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mb_fishing
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Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by mb_fishing »

One of my dreams since I was a kid has always been to land a Striped Bass. I read magazines years ago about Striped Bass fishing, whether it being inshore saltwater or surf casting and consumed pictures of huge beautiful fish and knew I had to catch them one day.

Well…fast forward many decades I finally got my chance via a good friend to give it a try on the Miramichi river in New Brunswick. He has been going to his family’s camp for years pursuing salmon and heard about the Striped Bass run in May and asked (back in January) if I would be interested…..ummmm…..HELL YA! Needless to say I had been researching everything about them since then, peak times, forage, location, tides, the list goes on and on. The bass spawn in the river and creates a massive run that is more recently legendary. Not long ago though the number of spawners was in the low thousands to the extent that they were endangered. The DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) stepped in put stricter regulations in place to protect the species. Regulations state you can only fish with a single barbless hook and there is a slot size between 50 – 65cm where you can only have one fish in your possession at any time. The population has rebounded dramatically to 500,000 or more (exact numbers being studied). I have read that during peak spawn the action can be insane where you can land fish cast after cast for extended periods of time along a specific section of the river. If interested just look at some of the videos on YouTube – Miramichi Striped Bass. Then we heard the DFO was imposing another limitation, shutting down the prime stretch of river once peak spawning activity is noted. Dang! Of all the times to change it was for 2017, this might be a bust. We decided to take our chances thinking the cooler spring might push the spawn back a bit (hint: we were right). Getting back to equipment, from what I read most used plastic swimbaits. I ended up buying a bunch of 4 ½ and 5 ½ inch LiveTarget Blueback Herring swimbaits. They look super realistic and the videos looked promising so they made the trip. I packed some other swimbaits like Sluggos and Gambler flappin shads to make sure I had enough gear. Made a trip to Costco for food, steak one night, shrimp another and snacks in-between. Packed the night before and rarin’ to go.

We left work mid-afternoon on Thursday and made it up to Riviere Du Loup where we stayed overnight at a friend’s place on the St. Lawrence…had a few drams of scotch and hit the sack to get an early start for the last 4 hours to Miramichi. We got to the camp about midday and unloaded all the food and other necessities in order to get a couple of hours on the water. Got to the boat launch (private property charging $25 for 3 days) and while I was prepping the boat to get in the water the trim did not work at all! All I can hear are the relays clicking and buzzing but not engaging. I had the boat tuned…did triple checks before leaving home and then this…ARGH!! After some tinkering my buddy asks if the motor even turns over. Nope….dead. Good news is it’s not the trim motor, bad news, could be a dead battery? We drove back to the camp (only 5 minutes away) to dismantle things a little more and perhaps make plans to rent a boat. I looked at the connections to the battery and things looked gummed up so we filed everything down until they were nice and clean and then tried starting the engine again <fingers crossed>. Success! The engine turned over, tried the trim and it now engaged…whew.

Relieved and rejuvenated we headed back to the launch and got on the water for a couple of hours. The rest of the story is nothing short of awesome. We caught tons of fish from that point on. The stretch of river that is the prime spawning ground was still open and although spawning was starting it was not peak activity so the DFO did not close it. It was not constant action but was strong particularly during high and low tide cycles. Typically this is morning 6-10am and late afternoon/early evening 4-8pm. The fishing really was fantastic oftentimes frantic with multiple double headers. We ended up landing a ton of 4 pound and up fish, topping out a good number of 6, 7 and 8 pounders. Our largest was 8 ½ pounds. The go to bait for us was the LiveTarget swimbait. The 5 ½ inch was the best for casting, trolling and overall feel. We tried other baits but this one really did the trick. Another thing, they may not look it but these lures are tough. I managed to use the same one the entire time and it lasted with no tears and the finish was durable as well. I landed around 75 fish…many other hits and lost fish and it held up exceptionally well. I was very impressed and will be using them for bass when the season starts. They would likely not last very long against toothy critter like pike though. My buddy out-fished me every day and landed 100 or so and the biggest as well. I was not complaining (much) though :x

Here are a couple of bigger ones.
Fish 2.jpg
Fish 2.jpg (437.51 KiB) Viewed 5778 times
Fish 5.jpg
Fish 5.jpg (234.12 KiB) Viewed 5778 times
We ended chatting up some other guys at the launch and asked how they had been doing, what the biggest was etc. They indicated they landed a 25 pounder the day before which is insane or so I thought. The one guy said there are a ton of big ones out there but the key is you have to throw big baits. “How big we talkin’ here?” I asked. He tells us 12 inches. You will catch fewer fish but those you catch will be bigger. Needless to say, next year we will be stocking up on big swimbaits and pretty sure we can achieve a goal of a 10+ pounder in the boat.

Until next year!
999The return.jpg
999The return.jpg (201.96 KiB) Viewed 5778 times
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NMG
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by NMG »

Awesome! You've given me an idea for next year :)
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Hank Jr
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by Hank Jr »

We live in the US and fish the spring catch and release season for big Stripers in Maryland . The big females come in from the ocean in the bay and go up the rivers to spawn . My son has caught 7 ov er 40 lbs over the years all on big top water lures we use for Muskies . My tip to you go with the bigger lures if you want the big stripers . Thanks for the report looks like you had a fun trip
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by mb_fishing »

@NMG - Do it, you will not regret it!

@ Hank Jr - Thanks for the tip. This was the same advice from the local guys too. Will definitely do this next year.
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass - More pics

Post by mb_fishing »

A couple more pics.
A good one too
A good one too
Fish 1.jpg (217.88 KiB) Viewed 5689 times
This one shows the LiveTarget BlueBlack Herring we used.
Fish 4.jpg
Fish 4.jpg (295.27 KiB) Viewed 5689 times
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Maple
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by Maple »

That sure is becoming a great fishery. The only downside is that they decimate the native salmon and trout.
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NMG
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by NMG »

mb_fishing wrote:@NMG - Do it, you will not regret it!
Definitely want to! I'm going to research it a bit and if I can make it work, I'd even like to chase them with my fly rods :)
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CBB
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by CBB »

Congrats on the nice Stripers and man they can fight. Great pics and write up. I have fished them in Nova Scotia as they come in with the tide and it is a blast
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mb_fishing
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by mb_fishing »

@Maple - the DFO says otherwise. I suppose the debate will live on.

@CBB - Do you fish them any other time in the year other than the May run?
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lape0019
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by lape0019 »

That is a damn cool write up!

Thank you for sharing.
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zippyfx
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by zippyfx »

Great report! Nice to knock something off the bucket list.
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PierreV
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by PierreV »

Awesome trip indeed. Thanks for posting the detailed trip report Mike. I've already bought swimbaits for next year. Mike was generous enough to lend me three of those swimbaits. I lost the first two on bad knots. I was VERY careful on the last. This lure was the one to have. It certainly produced. With that said, I agree with 'Maple' on the fact that this increase in stripers will have a negative effect on the salmon fishery. These stripers were voracious and aggressive. Any smolts and pars will get devoured trying to make it out to the ocean... Thou shall not pass...
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Re: Miramichi Striped Bass

Post by RJ »

Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing with us! Stripers are just cool.

RJ
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