YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T.
You know
the fishing’s got to be good if people are willing to
live through eight months of winter, minus 50 temperatures,
24 hours of daylight and thick clouds of mosquitoes. Ask most
Yellowknifers why they love their city, and they’ll tell
you it’s because they don’t have to go more than
five minutes away to catch a fish. Built on the shores of Great
Slave Lake, and with more than a dozen lakes, rivers and ponds
within the city limits, there’s no shortage of fishing
options.
And with all those bodies of water, and only about 18,000 people
to fish them throughout the year, it’s so easy to catch
fish here that sometimes you wonder if they aren’t on
your side—like the time a six-pound pike jumped six inches
out of the water to grab my lure as I was walking along the
shore to find a spot to cast. While many anglers pay top dollar
to head to northern lodges, Yellowknifers know they don’t
have to go far to get their fill of hit after hit.
 |
| Close
to home: Skip the fly-in and catch big pike in Yellowknife
Bay |
| FISHING
FACT |
|
Some areas around Yellowknife are best fished as
catch-and-release. Kam Lake, for example, once housed
the town’s sewage, so toss back those pike.
And Giant Mine left behind lots of arsenic in the
waters of Baker Creek, so don’t take the Arctic
grayling home with you either. |
| ANGLER
ATTRACTION |
| Stop
by the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre to see
a 74.5-pound lake trout netted in Great Slave Lake.
The fish is estimated to have been more than 120
years old. Contact: (867) 873-4262; www.northernfrontier.com. |
|
73 Cinnamon Island
A 15-minute boat ride up the Yellowknife River lands you at
Cinnamon Island, a pike hot spot. Tie on a good leader, because
30-pound monsters are a regular occurrence here any time of
year.
74 Baker Creek
It may look like nothing more than a drainage ditch running
past the old Giant Mine site, but each spring Baker is thick
with Arctic grayling. Cast small Panther Martin spinners.
75 Yellowknife Bay
Along the shores near the old Con Mine site, toss spoons opposite
Mosher Island on summer evenings. You’ll catch two- to
five-pound pike until the sun goes down—which it doesn’t.
76 Long Lake
In the spring, drill a couple of holes in the ice a few hundred
yards out from the float plane launch; drop down a dead silver
shiner with a hook through its back to catch two- to three-pound
whitefish.
77 Grace Lake
When the ice leaves this lake, the walleye get an appetite for
jigs tipped with white grubs. Head to rocky points along the
shoreline, either by canoe or on foot, where you can catch three-
to seven-pounders.
78 Kam Lake
On the hottest summer days, catch lazy northerns the size of
your arm as they warm themselves in the weedy patches near shore.
Try a Dardevle or Yellow and Red spoon.
79 Great Slave Lake
Troll the waters opposite the city in late summer, using a Wolverine
Phantom or Yellow and Red spoon, and you’ll find 10- to
20-pound lake trout sitting down in the cold, deep water. |
