Miramichi River

The river

The Miramichi drains a huge, sparsely populated catchment in central New Brunswick and runs clear and cool to the Gulf of St Lawrence. It is the last great Atlantic salmon river on the continent with a genuinely fishable run, and its tributaries — the Northwest and Southwest Miramichi and the Cains — each have their own character and their own tradition of dry-fly fishing for salmon, which is a North American speciality rather than a European one.

On this river

Dry-fly salmon

North American salmon fishing is done on the surface far more than in Scotland or Norway. Fish a #4 bomber or a Wulff on a floating line, cast across and slightly down, and let the fly skate on a tight line with the rod tip low. Salmon show with a bow wave and often miss the first time; keep the fly moving and let it come back for a second attempt.

Fishing a holding pool

Salmon in low water sit in the same pools for weeks. A productive pool is worked from the head down, covering it in a fan with one or two metres between casts, and it is worth spending two hours on a pool that visibly holds fish rather than rushing to cover three pools.

The safe release of a big fish

Use barbless hooks, keep the fish in the water, and do not lift a salmon by the tail for a photograph — the internal damage is real. A large salmon that has been played for ten minutes needs the same again in the current before it swims off, so hold it head-upstream until it stops leaning on your hand.