Red Sox Slugger Ted Williams and His Love for Fishing the Miramichi River in
New Brunswick
By Fran Folsom
On a recent trip to New Brunswick I accomplished something
I had only read about in travel guides; I canoed and fished on the beautiful
Miramichi River. Not everyone has heard of the Miramichi, but ask any expert
fisherman where the best river to catch Atlantic salmon is and undoubtedly the
answer will be “the Miramichi.”
That being said, I’m not experienced at fishing, as a
matter of fact, until my trip I had never fished. Fly fishing was just
something I wanted to learn. Watching fishing programs and movies (A River Runs
Through It) I became fascinated by the peace and tranquility and gracefulness of
the sport. Life is short; why not fulfill a dream, so I made plans to head to
Doaktown and the Miramichi River.
When it came to canoeing, I was as inept at that as I was
at fishing, I told Valerie, my guide, a lifelong resident of the area “I’m going
to stick to you like Velcro. You’re my new best friend.”
Once we had donned our life jackets and were paddling down
the river all my anxiety disappeared. I became absorbed in the river’s beauty
and peacefulness; watching a great blue heron taking off, a swimming squirrel,
and eagles lazily circling in the sky then swooping down to catch a salmon.
 As
we paddled along Valerie said “Fran, you’re from Boston, right? Well, I’ve got
something to show you around the next bend”. When we rounded the bend Valerie
pointed saying “See that white house on the right with the red barn next to it?
That was Ted Williams’ fishing camp."
Well, I’m here to tell you I nearly walked across the water
getting close to that camp. Later on Valerie said she had never seen anybody
paddle so fast. I was so excited I couldn’t contain myself; the legend, Ted
Williams, the splendid splinter, Teddy baseball, the greatest hitter who ever
lived, had a camp and fishing pool here on the Miramichi, where I was spending a
few days paddling and learning to fly fish. What Red Sox fan wouldn’t have been
thrilled?
Fifty years ago, when I was seven years old, my father took
me to Fenway Park for the first time and I saw Ted Williams hit one of his
famous home runs. I’ve been hooked on Williams and the Red Sox ever since.
The camp itself is not much to speak of, from the outside
it looks just what you would expect a fishing camp to look like, small and
utilitarian. Valerie told me that Ted bought the camp for one reason; the salmon
pool in the river in front of it. She said that for over twenty years he spent
the months of September, October and April fishing the Miramichi. Of course,
that was back when baseball (for the Red Sox anyway) ended in late August.
The Miramichi being Ted Williams’ favorite fishing river
isn’t the only reason it’s world renowned among fishermen; this is one of the
cleanest rivers and has the largest salmon run in Eastern North America. There’s
no industry along the entire 175 miles of it, nothing in the bordering towns
that can dump toxic waste and ruin its pristine beauty. This, and the fact that
the river’s two branches, the Northwest and the Southwest empty into one estuary
that drains into the Gulf of St. Lawrence make it a fishermen’s paradise.
Ted Williams was all I could talk about at dinner, which,
I’m sure, bored my dinner companions from San Francisco to no end.
My excitement carried over to the next day. During a fly
casting lesson my guide, Delbert Arbeau, when he wasn’t instructing me to let
the line slide through my hands and not to worry he would untangle it from the
reeds behind me, told me when he was a kid he and his father fished with Ted all
the time, and that Williams was a strong environmentalist who was instrumental
in the Miramichi’s catch and release program; if a salmon is under 25 mm you can
keep it, over that it’s a breeder and you have to release it.
Since then I’ve learned that Ted’s favorite dish was smoked
Atlantic king salmon, so I doubt that he released all the fish he caught.
Over lunch Valerie mentioned that there was a salmon museum
in Doaktown and that Ted was a member of the Salmon Hall of Fame there.
Needless to say, on my way back to Fredericton, I made a
pilgrimage to the Atlantic Salmon Museum. Although small, it offers interesting
displays on the life of salmon, an array of antique flies, fly fishing rods and
fishing apparel and original prints by a local artist of anglers fighting king
salmon in the Miramichi.
Downstairs is where my pilgrimage ended; the walls were
covered with Hall of Fame inductees, but my eyes were riveted on two pictures;
one of a young, tall, slender, ballplayer with the number 9 on his shirt,
slamming one home, the other of a middle-aged gray-haired man in waders holding
a large Atlantic king salmon; Ted Williams, the greatest ballplayer of all time
and an expert fisherman.
If You Go
The Miramichi is a controlled river, in order to fish
there, if you are not a resident of New Brunswick, you must be accompanied by a
licensed guide. Most lodges will provide licenses and guides or advise you who
to contact.
Tourism New Brunswick 1-800-561-0123
www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca
Miramichi River Tourism Association
www.miramichirivertourism.com
O’Donnell’s Cottage 1-506-365-7636,
1-800-563-8724
439 Storytown Rd.
www.odonnellscottages.com
Doaktown, NB, Canada E9C 1T3
Offers four housekeeping cottages on the banks of the
Miramichi. One stop shopping for guided outdoor adventures; licenses provided,
fly fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, kayaking, tubing and hiking.
Ledges
Inn 1-506-365-1820,
1-877-365-1820
30 Ledges Inn Lane
www.ledgesinn.com
Doaktown, NB, Canada E9C 1A7
Eleven antique filled rooms, fine dining, licenses given to
guests for guided fly fishing, trout fishing and bird hunting trips.
Atlantic Salmon Museum 1-506-365-7787,
1-866-725-6662
263 Main Street
www.atlanticsalmonmuseum.com
Doaktown, NB, Canada E9C 1A9
Photo courtesy of Stillman Rogers Photography and the
Atlantic Salmon Museum |
