North West Territories

North West Territories

Moving west we come to the North West Territories home of two of the largest lakes on the planet at number 8 in the world Great Bear Lake and at number 9 in the world Great Slave Lake. Both of these lakes produce world class Lake Trout fishing with 40, 50 and even 60 pounders a possibility. Great Bear has held the world record for both lake trout and grayling for many years. The current record for lake trout sits at 72 pounds!!! There are only two other North American freshwater fish that can grow to these enormous sizes, the first being the Muskie (the current record is 65 pounds) and the sturgeon which can grow to over 1000 pounds!!! Other fish available in this area are northern pike, walleye and whitefish just to name a few. there are literally thousands of fishy lakes in the NWT, from these giants to small intimate lakes. Lake Trout are notorious for following a lure, changing speeds and direction when casting or trolling will produce more strikes. For casting, heavy compact spoons such as the ones for char produce well. When trolling top producers are large spoons such as Len Thompsons, Dare Devile Husky Deviles and Luck Strike HalfWave. T60 Flatfish and Luhr Jensen Kwikfish also catch plenty of gray trout. The one fish that truly symbolizes the North is the Arctic Grayling also known as the sailfish of the North because of it's sail like dorsal fin. The world record is 5 pounds 15 ounces caught in 1967 at the mouth of the Katseyedie River a tributary running into Great Bear Lakes north shore. Grayling are a member of the whitefish family and therefore have small mouths. Accordingly the anglers offering should be on the small side. With Great Bear grayling averaging between one and three pounds the most productive hardware is 1/8 ounce jigs in white, black, purple and olive, small spoons in the 1/4 to 3/8 ounce size in red & white, fire tiger, and my most productive colour potato bug (orange with black dots). Spinners are another top bet for these feisty little fish, top producers are silver or gold Blue Fox Vibrax spinners in size 2 or 3; although any spinner this size will work. Many anglers make the mistake of bringing spinners that are too small (size 00, 0 or 1's) These fish are very aggressive and take these tiny offerings deeply often injuring the themselves. Probably the best way to catch grayling is on the fly, fishing nymphs and woolybuggers along rocky shorelines can produce non stop action. Next we have Esox Lucius, The Northern Pike. These long lean ambush feeders are plentiful here in the NWT, with the more southern regions with their longer growing season producing the larger fish. Pike at times will hit just about anything, however when the water is cold at ice out they are quite sluggish. When they are in this mood slowly presented vertical baits like jigs and plastic baits are tops. When the water warms up however faster horizontal baits such as large spoons and spinners are more productive. Top colours for Pike are fire tiger, yellow and red five of diamonds patterns and the venerable red and white Dare Devile. By far the most exciting fishing for these aggressive tooth filled monsters is on top. Any top water lure will catch Pike but the best are lures that can be fished in a straight retrieve. These lures are easier for the fish to hone in on. More often than not they miss the strike and a steady retrieve ups the odds of a hook up. My favorite top water bait is one I make myself using a large single barbless hook, 24 inch steel leader, some Styrofoam and an aluminum cigar tube. Pike to 50 inches are caught each year here, with an average fish going 30 to 35 inches. Fly fishers have great success after ice out on shallow weed flats that the pike use to sun themselves. Large streamers and Dahlberg Divers in white, black or red and white are top producing flies. Whitefish while not heavily targeted by sport fishermen are a blast to catch on a light four or five weight fly rod. Small nymphs in black, brown or olive fished at the mouths of lake tributaries or in the rivers themselves are top spots.

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