Hi,

Well, I made it. I've been wanting to fish the St. Mary's for ages now. It's the river where I used to fish for salmon. We usually fished Silver's Pool. Silver's Pool is where two rivers (the East St. Marys and the West St. Mary's) join together. We never caught any, but we always had fun. Anyway, Vanessa, Genesta, my Dad, and I headed out today. There's been a lot of rain lately, and this has brought the water up. Apparently the fish are just shooting up the river and not holding in the pools since it's so high. One fellow told us he caught a fish 20 miles up river and it still had some sea lice on it! They usually drop off after 2 days in the water, so this fish just stormed up stream the whole way.

Anyway, we stopped at Lower Caladonia and fished a pool there so Genesta could have a break (she's not a big car fan). I tied on a Vanessa (one of my own patterns) tied on a size 8 salmon hook. My heart jumped into my throat when I felt a tug on it, but only for a second, as it turned out to be a 23-25 cm brook trout. Still, this has only been my 2nd time fishing a Vanessa and it's caught a fish both times (a small rainbow in New Zealand, and a brookie here in Nova Scotia! John Scott's taken both browns and cut-throats with it, so I'm pretty pleased with it's broad range of attractiveness).

After that, we moved on to Silver's Pool. Fished that pretty hard, but as per usual, no luck but a lot of fun. There were all sorts of small trout about, but we didn't see any signs of salmon. Chatting with a few other fellows and they reported that the takes have been few and far between just now, but in a couple days when the water lowers, the fish will start holding in pools rather than shooting through.

Well, here's a few photos to show the river.

Up stream at Silver's Pool

Silver's Pool, St. Mary's River, Nova Scotia

Vanessa and Genesta

Dad


- Jeff