Flying to the east coast of Canada tomorrow, striped bass time!

I have spent a fair bit of time on the east and west coasts of Canada for my work, indeed the first time I went to this vast and amazing country we were delayed on Vancouver Island for a few days when 9/11 hit and changed the world forever. I checked my photo library and I found out that I haven’t been to Canada since I went and photographed some spring steelhead fly fishing around the Skeena area in British Columbia way back in April 2012 - so it’s been far too long…………….

Tomorrow that shall be rectified when I fly from Heathrow to Halifax with John Quinlan and his family. When we land we will drive up to Prince Edward Island and see if we can’t find us a bunch of these increasingly famous Canadian striped bass. My understanding is that the striped bass on the east coast of Canada are a separate, non-US strain of these fish which do their breeding in the Miramichi river system and then head out on their (Canadian) migration I guess when the water temperatures are right. I remember photographing Atlantic salmon fishing on the Miramichi and the guide was telling me that in a few months time they’d be ski-mobiling along the river itself because it would be frozen over for winter.

Me on the Cape Cod Canal a few years ago

John has done a hell of a lot of striped bass fishing in the US, indeed by pure chance we came across each other a few years back on the Cape Cod Canal - I recognise that voice or something like that! He has also done a couple of trips to the east coast of Canada, both for striped bass fishing and for family holidays. When they found the stripers they had had some truly ridiculous fishing. Neither of us have been to Prince Edward Island though, but it’s a calculated gamble and current reports are of some very, very good fishing.

For sure we are going in blind, but take a look on Google Earth at PEI as it tends to be known. Look how much water there is! Beaches, rock marks, endless estuary mouths and channels and coldwater sand-flats and so on. I know a bit about striped bass fishing and John knows a lot, so between us we are going to have such fun literally hunting for fish. The Canadian striped bass tend not to be as big as some of those monsters you might catch in parts of the US, but what is so appealing is a lack of crowds and the glorious fact that we can do the striper fishing over there on the exactly the sort of fishing tackle we would all use for our own (sea) bass. I have had a blast chasing stripers around Cape Cod in the US for example, but my shoulders did nearly fall apart after casting 4oz pencil poppers for hours on end on the mighty Cape Cod Canal.

The Berkley DEX Strider 120 surface lure rigged with 4/0 Mustad Kaiju single hooks

I am taking a couple of the brilliant and not very expensive Savage Gear SGS5 9’ 12-46g 4-piece travel rods with me (review here). The same rod I took with me to Guernsey earlier in the year, check here. In my suitcase I have got a Penn Authority 2500 loaded with Berkley Sick X8 braid, and for my backup reel I will most likely take a Penn Slammer IV 2500, again loaded with Berkley Sick X8 braid. Lures wise I have rigged a bunch of the larger, long-casting and rather good Berkley DEX Strider 120 surface lures with 4/0 Mustad Kaiju single hooks - barbless single hooks only on lures over there, gotta love this - plus some Savage Gear Slap Walker 13.5cm surface lures as well. Also a bunch of Savage Gear Gravity Sticks, the larger 15cm Slender Scoop Shads, and a few of the Sandeel Weedless V2 and Savage Minnow Weedless soft plastics.

Plus a few other bits and pieces including 40g Surf Seekers with those 4/0 Mustad Kaiju single hooks on the end of them, and some larger and rather nice looking 10cm Westin CreCraw creature baits because they can take the 6/0 Savage Gear Weedless Corkscrew hooks. Gotta be worth a go if we come across a lot of fish, especially as John said that squat lobsters and crabs are very much on the menu for striped bass. It goes without saying these days that I am also taking my running shoes because I can’t let that side of things go. You all have a good weekend and as per usual when I go away, I will try my best to keep this blog updated…………….

Rather larger animals than us might be wandering around in the woods over there!

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