Esnagami escape: Lodge fishing in the season of social distancing

#3  The brook trout are beautiful

As far as I can tell, Mother Nature has never made an ugly brook trout, but the specimens in the Esnagami River are truly special. Two pounders are common, and the brookies can get as big as six pounds. And fly and spin fishing for them in the river’s swift rapids, gravel runs and plunge pools is as picturesque as it is exciting—or so I’ve been credibly told. Because, as sometimes happens, the trout portion of my trip didn’t go quite as planned.

I did spend half a day fishing for brook trout, and it was really enjoyable. But I didn’t catch any, thanks largely to a badly timed heat wave, which struck during my late-June visit, and dispersed the brookies to cooler waters. The brook trout season at EWL typically runs from May to late June or early July, at which time the river warms, and the brookies depart for cooler, inaccessible parts of the waterway. But while brookie fishing the river with my 6-weight fly rod, I did catch about 15 walleye, so that was big fun, and a unique experience in its own right. More impressively, my fishing partner, Cameron Tait, easily doubled my total with his spinning gear. But Cameron just seems to have a way with walleye…