I just got back from the east coast; man, what a beautiful part of the country. Angelo and I flew to St. John, New Brunswick and then drove to Quispamsis in search of one of our favourite saltwater species, the Striped Bass. We fished the St. John River with Striper expert Henry Arsenault, along with his buddy and tournament angler Rick Law.

On a past Striper adventure, we experienced hours of fish-after-fish action—but we didn’t catch anything over twelve pounds. For this trip, though, we had big expectations; Henry all but guaranteed that we’d hook into some considerably larger fish. And that’s exactly what happened.

After an admittedly slow start, we ended up with a bevy of fish ranging from about twelve pounds all the way up to thirty! Our highlights were the twenty-five and thirty-pound beauties we landed on-camera and the giant that spooled me off-camera. I wish we could have gotten that recorded—it was a minute of pure heart-stopping mayhem.

The episode will air at the end of this season, and you’ll get to see all of the great east coast fall colours, the mighty St. John River like you’ve probably never envisioned, and the silver rockets of the east: the Striped Bass.

Thanks to Tourism and Parks New Brunswick, and the Amsterdam Inn, Quispamsis for all of their assistance.