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THE FISHING

Fly fishing at High Arctic is a challenging and rewarding experience.  The opportunity for trophy lake trout and silver and red artic char abound.  Artic char is a very rare salmonoid closely related to the lake trout, brook trout and dolly varden trout (the term “trout” is a misnomer in these cases as they are all really “char”.)  Arctic char, as the name indicates, live in rivers and lakes with access to the Arctic Ocean where they feed.  They are a strong and beautiful fish and an incredible fighter.  They remain silvery with light spots until they spawn.  At that time the males turn a beautiful orange or red (i.e., Red Char).  Their cousin, the lake trout, is also found much further south (the Great Lakes abound with them) but they live in very cold water and so are usually found very deep (sometimes over 100 feet deep) in large lakes.  This makes it very difficult to catch one on a fly.  However, in the Arctic, they can be caught in a couple of feet of water since the water is so cold.  High Arctic Lodge provides the extremely rare opportunity for the fly fisherman to seek out a trophy lake trout on a fly.

Now, part of the challenge – conditions.  The Arctic can be a cold, windy and rainy environment.  However, there are times when the skies are sunny and you can watch the fish swim in the water near your feet (waders are absolutely essential due to the cold-water conditions).  From the airplane, Fred and his other pilot (Ivan) are actually able to search for schools of fish and then land the plane close-by (but not too close to frighten the fish) and give anglers a chance to cast to them.  Great sight casting fun!  While the arctic char can be elusive, we had great catches of both the lake trout and silver char.  In fact, Ed did hook, land and release an incredible 45x21 inch, 25 lb. lake trout in the mouth of a river on an 8 wt. fly rod with an 8 lb. tippet. What fun!!  The fight lasted 40 minutes!!!   Lindy too landed her biggest lake trout ever on the fly, being almost 10 lbs.  Wow!!  Below is a daily summary of the fishing for those die-hards who love all details!  Also, we want to acknowledge and thank our fishing buddies, Jim and Rich, who each were making their third trip to the Lodge.  We fished the same lakes from the same camps on a daily basis as we shared the float plane.  They were both great guys and we enjoyed sharing stories at night.  They heard about our fly fishing while we learned how they did using traditional fishing lures.

Saturday, 26 July:  Today we flew from Base Camp to West Lake with our primary target being lake trout.  Our Inuit guide, Gibson, manned the boat.  We primarily drifted so we could each cast a fly.  In the morning, Ed had the only fish, a 24”, 6-8 lb. lake trout.  Pretty nice first fish, esp. on the fly!  During the afternoon, we both caught fish.  However, Ed got his incredible laker that was a highlight of the trip.  It was caught at the river’s mouth and boy did it fight (some 40 minutes)!  After Ed landed the fish, it was measured at 45” long with a 21” girth and estimated to be 25 lbs.  It was a fat and healthy fish and had an unusually large head.   Wow!!!  Now, in addition to that beauty, Ed also caught a couple more lakers, one being 6-8 lbs. and the other 8-10 lbs.  Lindy finally did break the ice in the afternoon once she and Ed exchanged flies (Ed had the hot one).  She caught two lakers, one 6-8 lbs. and the other 7-9 lbs.  At the end of the day, we had a quick flight home and then enjoyed a great dinner and bed.

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Sunday, 27 July:  This morning we packed up a small amount of gear as we headed out for three nights – the first two at North Camp and the last at Hadley Bay.  At Base Camp, it was an incredibly calm day.  So, with five of us in the float plane, it took a bit to get off.  We were finally air-borne at 9:00AM after two aborted take-offs (fun and a thrill in and of themselves).  We arrived at North Camp at 10:00AM and were fishing shortly thereafter.  Our guide, Colin, also a fly fisherman, took us across the lake to the mouth of the river where char had previously been seen sunning.  We cast while wading out from the shore.  We had some great fish but they were all lakers; there wasn’t a char to be found.  Probably a weather-related change in behavior.  We each caught two fish with Ed catching the largest of the day.  It was a 30”, 12lb. lake trout.  Great!  That evening, we shared the camp with Jim & Rich and Colin and Damen, the other fishing guide.  The guides made some great char sushi from a small previous catch.  Delicious!

Monday, 28 July:  Today the weather was miserably rainy and windy.  In the morning we thought it was pretty terrible and in the afternoon, it only got worse.  So much for accuracy casting in these conditions.  We both were able to hook a laker but Lindy lost hers.  Ed did successfully catch and release one lake trout in the afternoon despite the tough conditions.  Jim and Rich were able to get some big char by trolling spoons.

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Tuesday, 29 July:  At 8:30AM, Fred arrived via float plane to transport us to Hadley Bay Camp.  It was 32°F (0°C) when Fred landed.  Brrr!!  Once we got settled in at the new camp, we fished a couple of eddies along the shore without success.  After lunch, our guide, Cleve, again a fly fisherman, took us up the river.  There Lindy hooked into one of those gorgeous red arctic char of 15-18 lbs.  It actually followed the fly almost to her feet once without taking it.  However, on the next cast, it took the fly hard.  After a spectacular leap, it took off down river with the strong current and ran off most of her 200 yards of backing.  Unfortunately, the char broke her 8 lb. tippet with that much line out.  Oh well, exciting to see and now a challenge to successfully land one of those beautiful guys.  That evening we relaxed with Cleve & Henry, the second guide, and Jim & Rich.  We sampled more char sushi.  Again delicious!  By the way, Henry’s wife, Mary, is the chef at Base Camp.

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Wednesday, 30 July:  This morning Fred returned to pick us up and act as our guide as we fished various spots before returning to Base Camp.  However, before doing any fishing, we went for a tour of the Arctic Ocean in search of polar bear (See, SETTING for more details).  We then next went to the Zim River, one of the lodge’s “hot spots”.  Ed had a green and white fly that the fish loved.  He caught four silver char, ranging from 8-12lbs. each.  These fish ran out of the river into the ocean and we had to chase them and actually land them on gravel beaches in the Arctic Ocean!  We next flew to Granite Bay where we fished an incoming stream.  Again Ed caught another four fish (silver char) while Lindy hooked one.  We ended the day at Round Lake where Ed caught his first red fin lake trout, a real beauty!

Thursday, 31 July:  We once again had Fred as our pilot and guide as we flew to various spots to cast our flies.  We began the day at Red Belly.  Unfortunately, the fish weren’t cooperative there as Ed was the only one of four anglers to catch a trout.  It was a very different story, however, at Jaimessee Bay, our next spot.  Lindy caught three lake trout, including her first red fin trout.  Ed caught six or seven; so many, we lost actual count!  Our final stop of the day was Halverson.  We both fished with an orange fly and had three doubles (both of us with a fish on)  – something we hadn’t had occur before while fishing these waters – and so many fish between us we stopped counting.  While fishing by wading out from shore, Ed caught another lake trout dream.  This one was 34x16” and 12 lbs.  It was the perfect way to end our week of fishing at High Arctic. 

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