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Bradford Burns grew up in Friendship, Maine, a town south of Augusta made up of just over 1,000 people. It rests on a peninsula and hosts a public wharf used by dozens of lobster fishers.

That included his grandfather. He’d spend time with him on the boat helping to place bait in lobster traps. But, as he grew up, his taste for fishing brought him inland. First for brook trout. Then he hooked his first salmon.

“There's just a lot of things that scratched a lot of itches for me,” said Burns. “I really got into it, and I really sort of abandoned saltwater fishing after I came here and started making this the focus of my fishing.”

"Here" is New Brunswick. For the last 25 years, Burns has made the six-hour drive from Friendship to Blackville multiple times a year. 

This year, he stayed in New Brunswick from mid-June to mid-July, fishing the early salmon run before returning home to his wife, June.

This fall, he’ll spend another five weeks in the province fishing with companions he’s invited from the U.S. and reconnecting with locals.

He loves the wilderness and the people. But mostly he just loves a big fish.

“Every day it's a little different. Some of them pass up the river through the pool," Burns said.

"Those will stay here for a few days, and you'll see them jumping. You'll even get to recognize your particular fish for a few days, and then they're gone.

“It's just interesting to me and exciting and very natural and wild. And so I just like everything about it.”

At 75, Burns is very invested in salmon fishing. He’s bought multiple fishing camps on the shores of the Cains River and the Miramichi.