This was yet another exciting episode of our latest Fish’n Canada season. You could say that this show took place on one of the most unique water bodies on planet earth, the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Basin in the province of Nova Scotia. 

In a country that boasts several aquatic wonders, like:

• Niagara Falls, the largest waterfall in North America by volume and width, with an average flow rate of 85,000 cubic feet per second…

• The Great Lakes, the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world, which includes Lake Superior, the largest lake in North America…

• The Mackenzie River, the longest river system in Canada…

• And Great Slave Lake, the deepest lake in North America… 

The Bay of Fundy fits perfectly alongside each and every one of this list; and here’s why.

The Bay of Fundy, located between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, is famous for having the highest tidal range in the world. These tides can reach up to 16 meters, or over 50 feet. This is an incredible amount of water funnelled into and out of the bay in a single day… AND, tide changes here occur twice a day! That’s two high tides and two low tides. 

Here’s only a portion of the Minas Basin which is dwarfed by The Bay of Fundy to its east. Simply put, it’s massive out there!

If you’re like us, you’re probably wondering just how much water flows into and out of the Bay of Fundy. Based on a 14m “average” tide, the total volume of water moving in and out of the Bay of Fundy during one tidal change is estimated to be around 110 billion tons. This is said to have a force equal to 8,000 locomotives, or 25,000,000 horses!

Fundy Fishing

Moving on to the fishing portion of this trip, Pete and Nik teamed up and took on the task of dealing with the Bay of Fundy and Minas Basin, tidal-influenced Striped Bass… oh boy!

If you’re a long-time viewer of Fish’n Canada, you may remember Nik and Ang fishing in this area in 2019. They hooked up with Greg Bellevieau from Bass Barn Charters and had a fantastic trip. The Striper action was non-stop.

Since then, we heard that Greg had expanded on his fishing areas, so the boys get to try their hand at some new water and get this, with our new Princecraft. That’s right, our 20-foot freshwater fishing machine in this gigantic ocean bay. You can see that episode here.

Launching a boat on a daily basis in the Bay of Fundy, or in this episode’s case, the Minas Basin, the headwaters of Fundy, is a strategic ordeal.

Yes, there’s strategy to backing up a boat trailer. Yes, there’s strategy to prepping your rig so as to not hold up other anglers. But this strategy, if done improperly, will leave you high and dry… LITERALLY!

With the tides being so high yet constantly changing, the boat launches around here are only usable at certain times of day. When they’re not usable, they’re as dry as a bone. It’s actually an incredible site to see.

With that said, launching a boat around here becomes a very social activity. The folks get to the ramp ahead of time, prep their rigs, and then chat among themselves until the flow of water pushes enough volume in, to allow the boats to go out… OH… and you better be back on time or you’ll be stuck out on the ocean until the next high tide comes in.

It sure is different from what most anglers are used to.

The local boat launch at low tide… it’s very much a waiting game!

So with the incoming tide allowing the Princecraft to be launched, and Pete and Nik all rigged up and ready to roll, their adventure began. 

They were going to try and hit two different areas over the course of two days. This is because the tides cut fishing hours down immensely, plus the areas are a long distance apart.

Their first area was close to where Nik and Ang fished on their last time here. It’s a series of rock piles that believe it or not, used to be targets for military gunning practice. Luckily for the boys, that’s a thing of the past…

Nik holds a solid Striped Bass to start the day off with

Since the boys are fishing a portion of the Atlantic Ocean, Stripers aren’t the only thing that will bite chunks of real bait… in fact, you just don’t know what will hit throughout the course of a fishing day on this water. It seemed when the Striper bite slowed down, the Dogfish and Skate bite picked up. It was almost like each knew the other’s zones and tried to stay away.

The Dogfish or Sand Shark… two names, one nasty little fish!

Fishing in the strong incoming and outgoing Bay of Fundy tides can be quite a chore. It takes an almost ridiculous amount of weight to get to the bottom where the fish are. Once there, it’s a dead, natural bait presentation only.

However, when the tide changes from one direction to the next, there’s a short period of no current, it’s called the slack tide. During this time, the locals say that the bottom-bouncing “meat” style fishing actually slows down. 

It’s a time when the fish can rise up from the bottom, and easily swim, cruise, suspend and, of course, feed throughout the water column, getting a well-deserved break from the heavy tidal flow.

Hoping to take advantage of the opportunity, Pete tied on a Yo-Zuri Hydro Monster Shot and readied for the magic moment. The Monster Shot is a heavy weighted lipless stick bait that falls in a horizontal posture with a side-to-side wobble that perfectly mirrors a dying baitfish, and when jigged or twitched, it has a sharp darting action. 

Shore Fishing on the Minas Basin

So after a fun-filled, high tide Striper adventure, and a few mini sharks & skates thrown in to boot, the boys called it a day and head back to home base. This is normally the time to relax and regroup, however, since it’s not every day you get a chance at this incredible Nova Scotia fishery why not take advantage of the night bite and do some surf casting directly in front of their cottage accommodations on the shore of the Minas Basin 

After a good sleep and a hearty East Coast breakfast, Pete and Nik are back at it for their final day. The weather has turned for the better, with the wind dying down dramatically, something we rarely get to say. 

This time the boys can take the Princecraft even further into the Basin and test some new water… It is safe to say, the venture paid off.

Looks to us like the boys had a fantastic outing, especially for numbers of fish. This was pretty much the same scenario that Nik and Ang had back in 2019. Such a consistent and phenomenal fishery!

We can say with 100 percent certainty, that this Striper fishery will stand up to, and compete with any other on the entire east coast of North America. 

Add in the uniqueness of fishing the world’s highest tides, the potential of catching multiple 30-plus inch giant stripers, AND a great chance of seeing, or better yet possibly doing battle with a great white shark… and you’ve got the makings of a world-class, one of a kind fishing adventure!