[PWAlliance]

The Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance is currently monitoring a fish trap in the Petitcodiac River. It is giving us some idea of what species of fish are abundant in the river (gaspereaux and suckers,) but not a lot of anything else. In order to get a better survey of fish species present in this watershed, I am hoping that the fishermen who are fishing in this watershed will tell me what they are catching through this forum. Also looking for ideas from you on how what we could do in terms of restoration to boost fish stocks. Any observations or ideas would be welcome. You guys are out there everyday, and I can't be everywhere so I'm hoping you will help me out. The Petitcodiac watershed includes the Pollett river, Little River, North River, Memramcook River, Halls Creek, Jonathan Creek,Anagance River, and many more.

Also could you give me observations in changes in the watershed as a result of the opening of the causeway gates, good or bad, we want to hear it.

 

[ltff]

i fly fish the petty 3 times a week in my backyard catching a few trout seen lots of gaspereau also one huge fish 20 inches or so shad maybe not sure what it was

 

[lobsterman]

Hi PWA, great idea to post your request on here.
You guys do good work.
I don't fish there often but for sure you'll hear from me if get down there before fall and I hope others will report their findings here as well.

 

[Shadetree]

Not sure about what is the dominant species there, but, let's hope someday it is Atlantic Salmon! As far as I know DFO plans to begin a stocking program on the system. The stock is coming from crosses between the Big Salmon River and Point Wolf River Salmon, as far as I know.

 

[styk]

Someone posted that they caught a pickerel last week, if they are in the river and breeding it'll be money wasted stocking salmon. I caught several pickerel in the Saint john river, 2 were hooked deep so I kept them. While i was cleaniong them, I noted that one was a female and full of eggs, not sure when they spawn but it must be later on as these eggs were small.

 

[Chadman]

me and a buddy fished little river a few weeks ago.. we saw a bunch of large suckers and a bunch of smelt coming up the river... and yes they were smelts, i've caught enough of them to know what they look like.. they were not shad or gasperaux.. and a couple of 8 inch smallies..

 

[ltff]

me and a buddy fished little river a few weeks ago.. we saw a bunch of large suckers and a bunch of smelt coming up the river... and yes they were smelts, i've caught enough of them to know what they look like.. they were not shad or gasperaux.. and a couple of 8 inch smallies..

anyone know if the dfo still have the net set up in salisbury if so are they cathing anything interesting.

 

[green hat]

i heard of a 4 pound sea trout and of one angler who landed 4 salmon in the last couple weeks. But i feel the river should be catch and release for brook trout for one or two seasons to give species a chance to recover. As for stocking replace NATIVE SPECIES -brook trout and salmon they will prevail despite the bass that are present.

 

[riverwalker]

I fished the little river in late may early june and there was what i would call a hugh run of sea trout compared to years gone by. Although maybe i just never hit it at the right time before, this year i was pleasantly supprised with the trout fishing over a 2 week span. Biggest one actually landed was 14inches but i know i hooked bigger.the smallest was in the 10 11 inch range. Also seen thousands of suckers and some gasper in the river.

 

[ltff]

i heard of a 4 pound sea trout and of one angler who landed 4 salmon in the last couple weeks. But i feel the river should be catch and release for brook trout for one or two seasons to give species a chance to recover. As for stocking replace NATIVE SPECIES -brook trout and salmon they will prevail despite the bass that are present.

salmon in the petty river ?

 

[riverwalker]

Aye salmon, one young salmon as they called it was caught in their trap with 5000? gaspeau according to the news report but does that mean a parr smolt or grilse?

 

[ltff]

Aye salmon, one young salmon as they called it was caught in their trap with 5000? gaspeau according to the news report but does that mean a parr smolt or grilse?

caught a couple of 12- 14 inche bass tonight on my 4 wt fly rod great fun

 

[riverwalker]

Just curious if anyone has heard if the counting trap is still in and or if anything new and interesting has happened.

 

[PWAlliance]

Not sure about what is the dominant species there, but, let's hope someday it is Atlantic Salmon! As far as I know DFO plans to begin a stocking program on the system. The stock is coming from crosses between the Big Salmon River and Point Wolf River Salmon, as far as I know.

You're right. The Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance is working with nine other conservation groups to get the endangered Inner Bay of Fundy salmon back into the Petitcodiac River. We do have DFO working with us and they are thinking of crossing some stocks and testing their survival and success rates in the Petitcodiac tributaries. The Petitcodiac watershed used to be home to 20% of the entire Inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic Salmon population, and we had the biggest and the fittest salmon. Because of the presence of the causeway, the Petitcodiac was left out of the 10 year DFO salmon re-stocking plan. With this research plan, we could get the salmon we need to restore this river.

 

[PWAlliance]

Just curious if anyone has heard if the counting trap is still in and or if anything new and interesting has happened.

The counting trap is still in. We are still catching gaspereaux - young ones just a couple of inches long. We are catching a lot of white suckers and smallmouth bass as well. Occasionally we get eels and perch. The water is quite warm and levels are low at times so there is not a lot of fish movement in the last few weeks, so our numbers are down. We are also fishing just the middle of the river and missing any species of fish that tends to stay along the riverbank. We have only caught one brook trout and one salmon parr so far. A few days ago we caught a seal pup. We have heard that somebody caught a striped bass near our trap, but we have never had one in the trap.

 

[PWAlliance]

caught a couple of 12- 14 inche bass tonight on my 4 wt fly rod great fun

The young salmon was a parr, probably placed in the river through the Fish Friends program at the Middle School.Hope you kept the smallmouth. They are an introduced species that should not be in the river at all. As of July 2nd, you can keep two a day. Somebody correct me if I am wrong about that.

 

[PWAlliance]

salmon in the petty river ?

69,000 salmon parr were placed in tributaries of the Petitcodiac River in June of 2009. They are an endangered species so if they are caught they need to be released. Hopefully we will get a lot more of them in there in the near future.

 

[PWAlliance]

me and a buddy fished little river a few weeks ago.. we saw a bunch of large suckers and a bunch of smelt coming up the river... and yes they were smelts, i've caught enough of them to know what they look like.. they were not shad or gasperaux.. and a couple of 8 inch smallies..

The Petitcodiac Fish recovery Coalition (PFRC) was hoping to catch some smelt in our trap, but we got it in too late and missed them. I am glad to hear that others have seen them. They are the bottom rung of the big fish food chain. We need a healthy smelt population to support the salmon population we hope to bring back.

 

[PWAlliance]

I fished the little river in late may early june and there was what i would call a hugh run of sea trout compared to years gone by. Although maybe i just never hit it at the right time before, this year i was pleasantly supprised with the trout fishing over a 2 week span. Biggest one actually landed was 14inches but i know i hooked bigger.the smallest was in the 10 11 inch range. Also seen thousands of suckers and some gasper in the river.

The only way to tell if the trout was a sea run trout is through weight and size. They get a lot bigger than brook trout.

 

[PWAlliance]

Someone posted that they caught a pickerel last week, if they are in the river and breeding it'll be money wasted stocking salmon. I caught several pickerel in the Saint john river, 2 were hooked deep so I kept them. While i was cleaniong them, I noted that one was a female and full of eggs, not sure when they spawn but it must be later on as these eggs were small.

Pickerel have been introduced into the Petitcodiac but they don't appear to be overly abundant. You are right about the re-stocking effort being a waste if pickeral is established. Bass can also be a problem.