A New Float Tube

Well, I have not been doing much fishing. A combination of laziness and crappy weather has kept me off the water for the last couple of weeks. It is raining again today with the prediction of a thunder storm later on. It has been the wettest June I can remember.

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Of course anyone who knows me will tell you that my memory is not the greatest. For example; I remember catching a 17 inch trout in Long Lake one time while fishing with my Dad and brother Dave.

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No one else seems to remember that but, that time when we were twelve that I lost the worms just as the fishing was getting great, well, everyone seems to remember but me.

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My buddy Brad can remember every detail of every trip we have ever taken. Me, I just remember a montage of salmon takes and leaping trout. Usually the events of the trips get jumbled together into one long and pleasant reverie rather than a linear account of particulars. Of course there are certain things I remember vividly, such as rowing the length of Grand Lake once because someone figured we had enough gas to make the trip. We didn’t as it turned out.

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Anyway, memories of fishing trips are suspect as anyone who has ever listened to a fishing story will tell you. For today I’ll keep one eye on the weather and the other on my book as I look for a chance to get out and try for some bass in the new float tube I picked up second-hand last evening.

It is a Tout Unlimited, Kennebec model. Looks like it will be very comfortable. With an extra float tube, I can invite someone else to come along on a tubing trip, instead of always having to go alone.

Where did Nova Scotia’s Smallmouth Bass Come From?

When I was small, fishing meant a couple of things.

The first was well, anything you could catch from the town wharf. Pollack were number one, then Tommy Cod and every now and then a Mackerel.



We would also by times catch Kyak (Alewife), Eels, Sculpin and Flounder, all from the wharf or the nearby abutments of the town bridge.

A local man would fish the tides for Striped Bass but he was the only one I knew of who fished for them.

The second opportunity was fresh water fishing. That meant Brook Trout but we kids were just as happy to catch Yellow Perch, Eels and Bullheads. Smelt and Kyak were dipped, and Shad were jigged, in season.

I was oblivious to Atlantic Salmon although there was a legend of someone hooking one on a Red Devel Lure while fishing for Pollock off the Town Wharf.

Now a’ days, well, things have changed. I have not fished with a “Red and White”, the local name for the Red Devel spoon, or sunk a hook draped in Night Crawlers in years.

Now I fish with a fly rod for anything I can put a cast in front of and spend a lot of time chasing fish I had barely even heard of as a kid.

For example, I am positive there were no Smallmouth Bass around when I was a kid. Where the heck did they come from or was I just growing up in a place where no one fished them?

No kidding let me know if you have an answer to this.

By the way, I was driving back from Amherst last night and had the fist bug mess of the season on my windshield. My brother Warren looks for Nanking Cherry blossoms to tell him the trout are willing. Me, I get the fly rod out when the first bugs start hitting the windshield.

Planning to finally get away this weekend, let me know if anyone within reach is looking to get out too.

Here are a few pictures of one of my favourite Salmon streams passed on my travels this past week.