We’re still freezing our butts off up here in Vermont, even if the snow is mostly gone, but it’s heartening to know that the trout opener is less than two weeks away. Here’s a short video on how the New Jersey Department of Fish & Wildlife is getting ready for their Opening Day by stocking local rivers. There are some breeder fish in the mix, and you can see a serious hog in the stocking net at one point. Catching that big girl would certainly be a great start to any fishing season.
Madison.com offers a review of the new John Galligan mystery, The Wind Knot, featuring a “trout bum detective” named Ned “Dog” Oglivie. This is Galligan’s fourth “trout bum” mystery, and it revolves around a “swollen and purple-bruised [body], with fly line wrapped tightly around his neck.” If you like mysteries and fly fishing, this could be the book for you.
The Miramichi River in New Brunswick is is among a handful of North American Atlantic salmon rivers who’s very name evokes wehispers of awe from fly fishers. Steeped in history and still enjoying world-class runs of the Fish of Kings, the Miramichi is on the “bucket list” of anyone who wants to catch a wild Atlantic. Unfurtunately (speaking of buckets), the river is now experience the effects of “bucket biologists” who felt the need to introduce smallmouth bass into the river system. As this article from the Times & Transcript makes clear, this is serious business: “From experience in other jurisdictions, it is now known that if small-mouth bass become established in salmon nursery rivers, they are very capable of outcompeting the native salmon population and could seriously challenge their very existence.”