Canada’s greatest catches: 216 fishing hot spots from sea to sea to sea

Advertisement

20 N.W.T. HOT SPOTS FOR LANDING TROPHY LAKE TROUT—BY THE DOZEN!

Lake trout from Great Slave Lake (courtesy Steve Buchart)

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES: LAKE TROUT

Why this is one of Canada’s must-have fishing experiences

It’s one of the few undisputable facts in fishing: the N.W.T. is the best place in the world to catch lake trout, with the frigid depths of the territory’s north-country lakes home to a simply astonishing number of truly giant fish. If you catch a 20-pound laker anywhere else, it will likely be your fish of the season. In the N.W.T., however, when you get a 20-pounder, you admire it for a moment, then quickly release it so you can keep hunting for an actual big one. Fish of 30 pounds are common, and on these trophy waters, any bite could be a leviathan of double that size.

But Far North trout aren’t just heavy. Life in the Arctic also makes these lakers thickly muscled and shockingly powerful. They don’t fight fancy, like their rainbow trout or Atlantic salmon cousins, but lakers will doggedly pull and dive and pull, stressing tackle—and the angler—to the breaking point.

Advertisement

Incredibly, the world-record 72-pound laker caught on Great Bear Lake in 1995 has been informally bested more than once. Registering a new record requires killing the fish, however, which the anglers refused to do and let their records swim away. There’s no better measure of the awe and devotion inspired by these magnificent fish than that.

WHEN TO GO: July and August

HOT TACTIC: Vertically jig a paddletail swimbait on a heavy jig

Advertisement

LEARN MOREwww.spectacularnwt.com

THE HOT SPOTS

  1. Aylmer Lake
  2. Blachford Lake
  3. Duncan Lake
  4. Gordon Lake
  5. Great Bear Lake
  6. Great Slave Lake
  7. Harding Lake
  8. Hearne Lake
  9. Ingraham Trail Lakes
  10. Kasba Lake
  11. Lac La Martre
  12. Mackay Lake
  13. Mosquito Lake
  14. Nonacho Lake
  15. Point Lake
  16. Prosperous Lake
  17. Sambaa K’e
  18. Scott Lake
  19. Stark River
  20. Watta Lake