Day 5 began with a visit to Kouchibouguac National Park,
where we would finally get to take a shower! Since it was the first shower of
the trip, it was an incredible morale booster to finally feel clean. Despite
being in a relatively uninteresting location compared to the national parks out
west or even in Cape Breton, Kouchibouguac had a large beach and a cool
saltwater marsh. This latter area particularly interested me as I had some
intel that it contained the 2 remaining Sticklebacks that I needed to complete
my slam. We ate lunch on the boardwalk that crosses over the marsh before I set
up to catch some micros. I could see large schools of something small below us
so I was excited to get started. The fish I was seeing ended up all being
Mummichog, but I was noticing some smaller, more discrete fish darting in and
out of the kelp. They were Stickleback! I caught many of them, but did not have
a field guide so was unsure as to whether they were Threespines or the
Blackspotteds I was looking for. After a good amount of tanago fishing, I switched
to my dipnet and succeeded in catching a consolation Fourspine Stickleback! On
the way out of the park, we stopped to use the internet and I confirmed that I
had caught a Blackspotted Stickleback! Slam complete.
Leaving the park, we drove to our next destination: the
Miramichi River. The plan was to stop at an Acadian restaurant for lunch on the
way and sample some of the traditional cuisine. To our dismay, the restaurant
we had selected was closed permanently L
After looking around a bit, we gave up and continued on our way to the supposed
Striped Bass paradise.
Arriving in Miramichi, we were simultaneously amazed and
dismayed to see at least 200 boats on the river in front of us :o It was the
day before the annual Striper Cup so there were many anglers prefishing. With
stories of 600 fish days and non-stop action, we were getting antsy to cast a
line in the water. Armed with 50lb braid and heavy swimbaits, we launched our
lures as far as we could into the strong current of the river. Unfortunately, I
was having an issue with my reel where the bail would snap shut if I made
powerful casts. This led to me quickly losing all of the expensive baits I had
bought specifically for Stripers. The day did not pan out as expected; the bite
was off. We fished for hours without seeing a fish or getting a single hit;
other fishermen we met on the bank told similar stories. After trying every
spot I had researched, we were losing hope so gave up and made PB&J’s. Before
leaving, we tried one last Hail Mary spot located on a rocky shoal where we
could wade a good distance out into the river. It payed off! First cast and I
had a fish on! Same for Alex! We were getting hits and/or catching fish every
cast. We ended up catching about 50 Striped Bass total, even after the tails on
our last swimbaits had been ripped off by the aggressive fish.
The sun had set while we were catching fish so we made our
way back to the car before it got too dark to find our way. We then gunned it
to make some headway back towards home. Alex did the bulk of the driving and
kept us on the road until 2AM despite bad driving conditions. We made camp down
a rough road into crown land.
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