Truly wild salmon fishing

• Yesterday over here was one of those days that I will remember for the rest of my life - we were taken into the middle of nowhere to fish for these famous salmon, miles up some logging trail, down what might loosely be termed a "track", and into the deep recesses of the woods !! Kind of sounds a bit like Deliverance I know, but it was truly special. We came upon this magical pool on the Little South West, a tributary of the Miramachi river, and for photos it was sublime. It is a big holding pool for the salmon, and with some rain the day before, our guides reckoned we should experience a bit of wild Canada. I am so lucky to have been to a place like this.

• To get to the remote salmon fishing out here, you need a serious four wheel drive vehicle, a compass in your head, and a deep understanding of your surroundings. I would get so lost out here. The guides that Country Haven Lodge work with are first rate, and salmon fishing runs through their veins - numerous generations of famous local guiding families have been involved in salmon fishing for ages around here. There is so much fly fishing for salmon out here that you could spend a lifetime fishing and still have more water left to discover - if you want to experience some hugely affordable (yes, salmon fishing does not have to cost the earth), world class salmon fishing, get in touch with Aardvark McLeod as soon as you can. This whole area is a hidden gem which we in the UK know far too little about.......

• There were a few salmon moving through the pool yesterday, and Pete managed to hook one on a dry fly - this is about as exciting as salmon fishing can be, taking these magnificent fish off the surface like a trout. The sun even came out to light up the scene just about perfectly.

• Here is Pete McLeod with his fish prior to release. What a special trip it has been out here - we fly back tonight, getting into Gatwick sometime on Wednesday morning UK time, and then I am heading back home to see my family. A couple of days later and I will be packing my gear up to head over to Ireland on Saturday to photograph some more of the awesome bass fishing. I hear that the weather has not been up to much, but surely that will change for me ? What a "summer" we have had !!

• More fly fishermen need to check out this eastern part of Canada, for there is so much awesome stuff out here. It staggers me that I have heard so little of rivers like the Bonaventure, Cascapedia and Miramachi - why is that so ? Easy flights from the UK, the fishing is not very expensive, and the salmon are all over the place. There is also great trout and striped bass fishing, plus whale watching, wildlife tours, and of course, the finest coffee in the world - Tim Hortons. Their coffee is my new addiction - far too nice !!

• Part of the reason that yesterday was so special was because we were give the most awesome barbecue right out in the middle of nowhere, on the side of the river. I have heard plenty about how good moose is to eat, and finally Pete and I got the chance yesterday to have some. This was the whole experience rolled into one perfect day. Our guide expertly cooked a whole hunk of moose on a portable barbecue, and it was one of the finest meats I have ever eaten - easily as good as everybody over here says it is. Just look at how civilised the whole thing was yesterday. These people out here really know their stuff big time. I really fancy wandering off into the woods to hunt me a moose of my own and bring it back for the freezer, but considering that the big bulls can weigh over 1200lbs, I think it might be a little hard to fit it all in my hold luggage !! Perhaps just a leg then......

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.

Dry fly fishing for salmon

• We had an awesome day yesterday on the Bonaventure river. Eventually the cloud cover gave way to big blue skies, and the rise in temperature really switched the salmon on. The water out here is crystal clear and you can see the fish lying up in the pools - the fact though that you can see them does not make them easy to catch !! These fish take real skill to nail, so it's good that I'm taking the photos and not fishing for them - my fly fishing ain't exactly pretty.

• Pete McLeod caught three fish, lost another, and rose perhaps ten more to his flies. There was nothing massive landed, but seeing salmon come up and take dry flies right off the top is seriously exciting stuff, and is a very unique way of fishing for them. There are some US clients here in the lodge who have been coming for this style of fishing every single year for ages now, it is that good. One of them had a fish around 25lbs yesterday on a dry fly.

• We saw some huge fish lying in the pools, some salmon had to be around the 30lb mark, and a couple of really big fish did rise to Pete's flies. The heart stops momentarily every time !!

• The dry flies are generally enormous bombers that sit high on the surface of the water and obviously annoy the salmon into having a go occasionally. It's very technically demanding fly fishing, something for the angler who really likes a proper challenge.

• Here is Pete leaning into one of his salmon as our guide Jean-Marc gets ready with the net. Such an exciting day and by the time the end of supper came I was falling asleep in my chair - the lack of sleep caught up on me big time. We are just about ready now to grab some more coffee and head out onto another stretch of river.