On the Miramachi

• We fished for one more day up on the crystal clear Bonaventure river, and Pete hooked a couple of salmon - but both decided to come off !! One was a proper fish as well, but that's salmon fishing. You can see the big blue skies we have been having, which is somewhat different to the "changeable" weather that I am hearing about back home. Please be nice weather for my trip over to Ireland next weekend......

• Sight fishing to fish as magnificent as the Atlantic salmon is something very special indeed, and all reports around here are of a very good season this year. We left the Bonaventure early yesterday morning and drove further south into New Brunswick and the mighty Miramachi, one of the world's most famous salmon rivers. Pete and I are staying right on the riverbank at the Country Haven Lodge, another fantastic place where the people can not do enough to help you. Canada is a country that is easy to fall in love with, and I am even hearing about some awesome striped bass fishing not that far south from where we are right now.

• The Miramachi is a huge river system, with many tributaries that fish well on various water levels, and conditions here at the moment are pretty good. The river is a kind of tea colour, so it is not sight fishing, but still the guys are using lots of dry fly techniques and single handed rods to fish these waters. A 50lb plus salmon was landed recently, and one of the guys here took one of 22lbs yesterday morning.

• This is our guide Pete from yesterday - he lives right on the banks of the Miramachi and tells me that in winter they race up and down the frozen river on snow-mobiles. Salmon fishing out here is a religion, and everybody seems to be involved with it somehow. I am blown away by how few people there are in this part of the world, and just how friendly they are. When you come to a place like this, it certainly opens up your eyes.

• This is Pete McLeod wading the mighty Miramachi just as we lost the light last night - he hooked a really good salmon which decided to practise its own form of catch and release and come off !! Mildly frustrating, but we have a few days here to get the job done. Loads of fish are moving through the river system at the moment, so with some time on the river we will hopefully see a few nice fish. Anyway, it's about breakfast time here right now, so I had better grab some food, get the camera gear together, and head back out.