nstrip

Nova Scotia Trip

Trip to Nova Scotia. As far as the sight seeing part went, the trip was a big success. But Frank and I planned to fish and we worked hard at it. In Baddeck, our first chance to fish, we had a canoe all to ourselves courtesy of the owner of the house we all rented. But we had little luck. We were on Bras d'Or Lake (arms of gold), which is supposed to be the largest saltwater lake in the world, or something. Anyhow, we caught two small trout, one each, and an assortment of little strange fish. When we moved to the B & B on the Margaree River, the owner swore there were large trout (average 3 lbs.) and huge Atlantic Salmon there. We fished hard for two mornings and two afternoons, but despite letting ourselves be frozen for our sport we got nothing. We did catch some small brook trout in another river, but we had only an hour to fish and then had to leave. All in all, pretty bad. On the 29th Wiley and Betty flew home from Halifax and Frank and Mary Lee dropped Sherry and me off in Bangor, Maine, where we got a rental car and they drove the van on to Boston to get their plane home.

Maine. This was a new trip with just Sherry and me. We spent the night in a pleasant motel outside Bangor and then took our time driving up Highway 6 to Calais where my sister Ann lives. Ann had arranged for a canoe for us to use, so we spent the next day getting it and I drove around and checked out the various local lakes. One that was very pretty was Grand Lake, which is famous for small mouth bass and land locked salmon. I fished that by myself one morning and with Ann and Sherry providing paddle power that afternoon. I caught a lot of nice fish on a lure I found--a frog colored tiny torpedo. It makes a lot of noise, but evidently the bass liked the sound. However, I did not catch any really large fish. That came the final day of our visit.

I caught two really nice small mouth in Boyden Stream which drains Lake Boyden about 15 miles SE of
Calais. I fished all day and caught only those two bass. They were both over 20" long and must have weighed 4 pounds or better. The strange thing is that I caught no small bass. Usually, you catch 20 small fish for every large one. It may be that the pickerel in the stream eat the smaller bass and force them to stay in the lake until they are bigger. I caught 4 or 5 large pickerel. They have a mouth like an alligator and are shaped like one too, long and round. Below are all the photos that deal with fishing. Maybe I'll put the others up sometime, but not now. So here is the best I can do. This stuff takes a lot of time and effort. Whew!

Here's the Nova Scotia gang at our little vacation
house on Bras d'Or Lake. Frank, Mary Lee, Wiley,
Betty, Sherry, and Richard.
Here's the view of the lake from our little dock. It's
big and wide. We saw a bald eagle in the top of a
pine the first morning Frank and I went fishing. At
daybreak it was misty and cold.

I have no clue what kind of fish this is. Like a needle with a huge mouth.
Notice that Frank was sitting rather high in the
canoe. Every time he leaned a little off center I
said my prayers. The thought of an early morning
dunking in that freezing water was not appealing.

Frank caught this 12" trout and that was it for
anything of any size. I caught its brother the next
day and that was the story of our fishing at Bras d'Or.

This is a view south from where I was standing in
the Margaree River, famous for Atlantic Salmon. We tried hard but ended up with frozen feet and other body parts for our effort.
I got this nice shot of Frank just as the sun came up. Notice the large rocks in the foreground. They made walking slow and treacherous.

I was sitting on a rock waiting for my ankles to thaw out when I took this. I intended to buy waders when I got there, since mine are too bulky to pack. But never got around to it. Frank had some, but split the bottom out, so he got wet too. Ha!
I caught this little brook trout in the Baddeck river on our last day in Cape Breton. Did I mention that Baddeck is on Cape Breton, the northeastern most part of NS? Well, it is, and that's where most of our trip took place. We saw a lot and did a lot that isn't in this report, since this is only about the fish. Maybe I'll get around to the other stuff later.

Ok, this part is in Maine. That's Sherry, my sister
Ann, and me in the rental canoe on Grand Lake.
I got there early and fished until noon when the girls showed up and took over the paddling chore. They let me sit in the middle and fish.
I caught a lot of these young small mouth, but
none were very large. We all enjoyed the beauty
of the lake and the fish were fun after the bad luck
in Nova Scotia.

As I said, Grand Lake is really beautiful.
We visited a nature preserve and bird sanctuary
near Calais, where Ann lives. A friend had told her that one of the streams there had pickerel. Naturally I tried it and, although he got tangled in a bush, managed to land a nice one.

This is the first of the large bass I caught in Boyden stream. She hit the tiny torpedo on top water and gave me a near heart attack. I was lucky to land her on 4 lb. test line. I had bought some 6 lb. test and forgot to put it on. During the fight with this one I promised God I'd do it right after if he'd let me land her. He did. Then I discovered I'd left the 6 lb. in the car--several miles away.
God was being good to me despite myself. He let
me catch another one just as big. This time on the
brown rooster tail in the photo. Even though I fished six hours for two fish it was worth it. I'm a lucky guy and I hope you get to fish in Boyden stream one day when they are biting all day long. Just be sure to use 6 lb. line, or better.

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Here's the Nova Scotia gang at our little vacation house on Bras d'Or Lake. Frank, Mary Lee, Wiley, Betty, Sherry, and Richard.	Here's the view of the lake from our little dock. It's big and wide. We saw a bald eagle in the top of a pine the first morning Frank and I went fishing. At daybreak it was misty and cold.
I have no clue what kind of fish this is. Like a needle with a huge mouth. Notice that Frank was sitting rather high in the canoe. Every time he leaned a little off center I said my prayers. The thought of an early morning dunking in that freezing water was not appealing.	Frank caught this 12" trout and that was it for anything of any size. I caught its brother the next day and that was the story of our fishing at Bras d'Or.
This is a view south from where I was standing in the Margaree River, famous for Atlantic Salmon. We tried hard but ended up with frozen feet and other body parts for our effort.	I got this nice shot of Frank just as the sun came up. Notice the large rocks in the foreground. They made walking slow and treacherous.
I was sitting on a rock waiting for my ankles to thaw out when I took this. I intended to buy waders when I got there, since mine are too bulky to pack. But never got around to it. Frank had some, but split the bottom out, so he got wet too. Ha!	I caught this little brook trout in the Baddeck river on our last day in Cape Breton. Did I mention that Baddeck is on Cape Breton, the northeastern most part of NS? Well, it is, and that's where most of our trip took place. We saw a lot and did a lot that isn't in this report, since this is only about the fish. Maybe I'll get around to the other stuff later.
Ok, this part is in Maine. That's Sherry, my sister Ann, and me in the rental canoe on Grand Lake. I got there early and fished until noon when the girls showed up and took over the paddling chore. They let me sit in the middle and fish.	I caught a lot of these young small mouth, but none were very large. We all enjoyed the beauty of the lake and the fish were fun after the bad luck in Nova Scotia.
As I said, Grand Lake is really beautiful.	We visited a nature preserve and bird sanctuary near Calais, where Ann lives. A friend had told her that one of the streams there had pickerel. Naturally I tried it and, although he got tangled in a bush, managed to land a nice one.
This is the first of the large bass I caught in Boyden stream. She hit the tiny torpedo on top water and gave me a near heart attack. I was lucky to land her on 4 lb. test line. I had bought some 6 lb. test and forgot to put it on. During the fight with this one I promised God I'd do it right after if he'd let me land her. He did. Then I discovered I'd left the 6 lb. in the car--several miles away.	God was being good to me despite myself. He let me catch another one just as big. This time on the brown rooster tail in the photo. Even though I fished six hours for two fish it was worth it. I'm a lucky guy and I hope you get to fish in Boyden stream one day when they are biting all day long. Just be sure to use 6 lb. line, or better.