There really is nothing like being on the water and fishing!

My two hunting and fishing buddies were my father and my brother! My brother passed away, then a few more years later and my dad went to be with the Lord.

I lost all interest in doing either of these things, even if they were my favorite hobby or pastime. To do it without either of them just didn’t seem right.

Then one day, my favorite uncle! He and I share the same first name. I was named after him...William! But we call him Uncle Bill! I was in New Brunswick Canada visiting relatives and one day my Uncle Bill asked, “How about you ans I go up to Big Sister Lake and fly fish fir trout? It was kind of a reflex. I said, “Sure!”

Where my family is from, everyone lives right on the Miramichi River. There are not really any official roads in either direction as there are no houses or towns! Even along the river there is only about 40 houses for about 9 miles of river. If you go directly away from the river, wilderness! There are however a few logging roads and Big Sister Lake is 50 some miles away from the river, out in the “Boondox!”

We got the pickup, loaded the canoe. My uncle brought another old friend and we headed out! You cannot even fish Big Sister Lake without permission. There is a locked gate and you have to acquire a key. But Uncle Bill has some good connections! I always thought uncle Bill had the dream job! Salmon fishing guide! To get paid to fish..hmm! What coukd be better than that?

That is me on your right and my uncle in the middle!

We get to the lake, get the canoe in and paddle to our fishing hole. Anchor the canoe and begin to fish. I was using an Orvis Clearwater 9 ft long rod with a Hardy St John Reel. The reel was my dad’s reel he used when he was a kid.90 year old reel and still working great. We were fishing with a small brown bomber dry fly.

Now I know there are alway exaggerated fishing stories, but this is factual and not exaggerated! I also don’t want to forget something that really added to the already perfect ambience of the outing. Perfect, no houses, no dogs barking, no other people. So quiet! Nice breeze blowing! The really cool part, there were two Moose watching us from the shore!

So no exaggeration! We caught 85 trout in about 2 1/2 hours of fishing! And on a dry fly! I don’t know how it coukd get any better! We went to shore, cleaned the fish, made a fire and cooked some of our catch. We were not exactly roughing it as I remember there were homemade molasses cookies, pickles and pickled beats. We even had some flour and spices to roll the fish on before frying in a huge cast iron skillet! Spring water and coffee!

I was back! Fishing again after such a long time!

Thank you for reading my story!

God bless!
Daddy William