The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: May seventeenth, snagging brook trout in heaven.

The Ungava Peninsula defines the northeast edge of Canada's Hudson Bay. Black bears, wolves and caribou forage freely through this vast, treeless wilderness a thousand miles north of Montreal. Crystal clear rivers and lakes lace the landscape, and though teeming with giant brook trout, some Ungava waters are seldom if ever fished.

Like ravenous torpedoes, these crimson-bellied behemoths, weighing five pounds or more, ravenously ram their way through glassy runs and white riffles in search of any edible morsel. When that morsel is a fly on the end of your line, you're in for a sublime thrill.

Standing thigh-deep in the icy water that surges over clean gravel, you feel the rod bend double with the strike. It may take many minutes, with the full weight of nature on your line, to work the fish into the net. Overhead, eagles and osprey screech, jealous that another being is poaching in their private preserve. Other than that day's dinner, the fishing policy here is strictly catch and release, but something undefinable from each fish stays with you. In Ungava, this can happen 40 times a day. At night, when the Northern Lights unfurl bands of silver, green and blue over your head, magic is everywhere.

Though intrepid souls still plan their own summer canoe trips into the Ungava, most fishers catch charter flights from Montreal and make arrangements with a local outfitter. As angling expeditions go, trips to Ungava need not be expensive, unless of course, they become a habit.

FMI For information on a variety of Ungava outfitters: call Auberge de la Riveiere George 418-877-4650 Jean Paul NorPak Adventures 1-800-473-4650 or www.norpaq.com.

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