After a comment I made last week about the idea of lobbying government for more protection for the Sea-run brook trout on the Cains I have been swamped with support for the idea . I would like as many readers as possible to e:mail the Minisiter of Natural Resources in support of total live release angling on the entire Cains River until at least July 1st . This will save a lot of big trout during the critical migration period in May and June .
Please write to the Hon. Wally Stiles at wally.stiles@gnb.ca

After a big raise of water last weekend conditions on the Cains this week appear to be almost perfect . I fished the Upper Cains on Wed night and Thursday am with very poor results . I walked from Lower Ledge to Wildcat , unfortunately in the hot sun , but even at Birch Landing around 8 pm with the sun off the water and no wind , I did not see a single fish . I also fished a few secret pockets with nothing . Karl managed to land three decent trout at Wildcat right at dark but not many fish showing . Could be because of the hot weather that day but I suspect that the raise of water probably moved a lot of the trout out of the holding pools into better feeding areas , which gives them a much needed break for sure .

Our crew done a float trip Wed 3rd from Rt 123 bridge to Duffy Brook on near perfect water and warm temps . We picked up the usual 6- 10 inch trout but no sign of the big boy’s yet . Three of the guy’s are continuing on to Shinnickburn today so maybe they will hit the run further down river . It was the perfect night for tenting-out , windy enough to keep the bugs away all evening plus very cool overnight with frost so no bugs during breakfast either . Despite the fact that we did not touch a fish these trips are some of the best .

John and I hit the lower Cains on Wed , putting our 28 foot jet canoe in at the Route 123 highway bridge on excellent water and high hopes of getting into a few trout . We motored straight to Muzroll the first night and then fished from there to Sabies River on day two . The water was good and weather perfect but the sea-run trout were not in yet and for some reason the local ( black trout ) were not in the taking mood . We even took our chances and motored up the Sabies to the first set of rapids , to find out that the big canoe was as long as what the river is wide , but I managed to turn around and got back down without incident . We did not fish the Sabies River itself, just the mouth and again no trout taken . On day three we motored on to the Miramichi at Blackville but to our disappointment the wind was too strong to cast a fly on the big water and the two locals we did run into reported no big trout yet either . There are reports of sea-run brook trout in the tide water so if everything remains normal we should be getting into them very soon .

If you are wondering where all that water is coming from check this out. This is a photo taken at WIldcat camp on the Cains River in late February 2009 . For those who have been there you will recognize just how much snow we had this past winter , it is level with the windows . At present we still have snow in the heavy woods so when we get a warm day or two the rivers rise and become dirty by late in the day . The watershed is of course saturated with water so with any luck our rivers will remain in good shape as summer approach’s.

Photo taken on the upper Cains at Leighton Brook . The river is high and the ice is moving out . There is still plenty of snow in the woods yet so with all the rain and warm weather it is safe to assume , that the upper Cains at least , will be open this week. There is no spring salmon fishery on the upper Cains so anglers don’t get too excited yet .