Why the NWT’s Great Slave Lake is heaven for trout anglers

Advertisement

Scott Gardner
Scott Gardner

The Aquarium and the Pigpen

A 40-minute boat ride from the lodge lies Christie Bay, where Great Slave plunges to an astounding 2,014 feet—the deepest water in North America. The Aquarium and the Pigpen are shallow, semi-enclosed basins just inside the bay, and that’s where we spent much of our first full day, trolling five-and-a-half-inch Huskie Devle spoons. We nabbed a lot of middling fish in the 10-pound range (top) and quickly learned just how strong these lakers are. When hooked, they just pulled and pulled and never gave up. It didn’t take long for us, however, to shift into the ridiculous, but inevitable, lodge mentality, where a trout that would be the fish of the year at home becomes utterly commonplace, leaving you hungering for bigger game.