At this N.W.T. pike lodge on the Mackenzie River, the monsters are real

In the end, Mackenzie and his crew never made it to the Pacific Ocean on that 1789 expedition. Just 14 days after leaving Fort Chipewyan and continuing on down the river past Brabant Island, they instead found themselves gazing upon the Arctic Ocean. Dejected he hadn’t discovered an all-important northwest trading route to the Pacific, Mackenzie ordered the group to turn around and begin the arduous upstream paddle back south to Fort Chip. Altogether, the roundtrip took 102 days, covering almost 5,000 kilometres.

Despite Mackenzie’s disappointment, the expedition did at least chart out the entire river, setting the stage for future exploration and further expansion of the fur trade. Plus, Mackenzie earned the honour of having the river named after him. And this is no ordinary waterway. With its main stem sluicing through 1,738 kilometres of the N.W.T.’s boreal forest and tundra, it’s North America’s largest river emptying into the Arctic. Add in its tributaries and the total length is a whopping 4,241 kilometres, making it Canada’s longest river system, and the 13th longest on the planet.

Of course, John and I would not be searching the entire length of the river for pike during our seven-day stay on Brabant Island, if only because we didn’t have to. Within boat range of the lodge, we had access to more than 260 square kilometres of the river’s upper section, peppered with numerous inlets, channels, flats, points and islands, all promising a solid shot at besting my record.

Not that you had to go far to find big northerns, either. Fishing from the end of the lodge dock, where the river surges past at 4,835 cubic metres per second, lodge owner Peter Fox’s four-year-old nephew, Hayden, caught a 40-plus-inch bruiser during our stay. As Peter remarked, “The fishing just takes care of itself.” And he should know, having first guided at Brabant in 2016 before eventually purchasing the entire operation in 2022, along with his silent partner parents.

The way Peter sees it, the lodge is strictly for “hardcore” anglers, so much so that a standard day of fishing begins with a nine-hour session following breakfast, then a three-hour evening outing after dinner. “We are here for trophy fishing,” he told us. “Everything else is a waste of time.”

Peter is so confident in the fishery, in fact, that he offers a free trip to any guest who fails to catch a 40-inch or better pike. So far, he hasn’t had to honour that seemingly daring guarantee. On the contrary, the fish just appear to be getting bigger and bigger. The previous year, for example, a guest from Missouri boated an absolute whale, a 53½-inch beast weighing in at a hefty 32¼ pounds. With all that in mind, John and I set out with our guide, Luca DeCola, on our first morning of fishing to put Peter’s bold claims to the test.