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My goal for my July 2008 trip to Canada’s remote Northwest Territories (NWT) was catch some big northern pike in the cold waters and experience some of the scenic and wildlife wonders of this unique area. When I decided to give the trip a try, I would not do so in the conventional way, such as flying directly to the NWT. Instead, I wanted to earn the experience which meant flying west to Grande Prairie, Alberta, getting a rental vehicle then driving north, 632 miles, to Yellowknife on the north arm of the Great Slave Lake. I would return to Grande Prairie by way of British Columbia, thus maximizing my trip experience.

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The next day, Thursday, July 17, the scenery changed dramatically as I approached the 60th parallel and the Northwest Territories border. Canola and hard winter wheat fields gave way to black spruce, jack pine, white birch and poplar, trees characteristic of the boreal forest. In the agricultural zone, I saw deer each morning; though there are deer, both whitetail and mule, as far north as the Great Slave Lake, from the 60th parallel on I only saw moose and black bears. I was getting closer to my goal.

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Along the way I fished for grayling and pike, first at Reindeer Brook, farther on in Swede Brook. In both cases the bugs—millions of them-- attacked harder than the fish. Mosquitoes and bulldogs, the local term for horse flies on steroids, swooped at my head relentlessly. I wore a head net, preferring it to DEET impregnated insect repellent. Fishing was a challenge, but I landed and released a half dozen small pike in each brook, but no grayling.

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One notable stop was at Twin Falls Gorge Provincial Park in the NWT. Here, two magnificent waterfalls are almost side by side as the Hay River descends rapidly toward the Great Slave Lake, 35 miles to the north. I started at 100-foot high Alexandria Falls, cascading at full force, and hiked north 21/2 miles to Louise Falls, even at 50 feet quite impressive. Hiking provided a nice change from the driving. A black bear wandered near the highway just north of the falls. That evening, I overnighted in Hay River, NWT on the south shore of the Great Slave Lake, a major port for barge traffic and transportation on the big lake and MacKenzie River. The next day my dream would be getting closer to being fulfilled. I would get to Yellowknife in a rather unique way.

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Because I would backtrack by driving the side trip to Yellowknife (My plans called for making the complete Deh Cho loop), I chose to fly one way and drive the other, my vehicle transported for me by Ron Ostrom of NWT tourism. That meant a flight on the Buffalo, a 1940s vintage DC-3, part of the fleet of DC-3s flown by Buffalo Airways. It was different to say the least. After being seated on a plane filled largely with natives and with refurbished original seats, I waited while our pilot “Buffalo” Joe McBryan swaggered aboard from the rear, striding uphill to the cockpit. A woman wearing an orange top like the ones seen at road construction sites followed him. She sat down next to “Buffalo” Joe; it turned out that she was the co-pilot.

Finally, our host came aboard with tattoos circling each arm, a muscle shirt, and short brown hair. Without hesitation, he said, “There’s an exit here and here; any questions?”

There were none; we were off, the DC-3 tail swaying as it built up speed for the takeoff. Then the plane lifted skyward and we became airborne, the Great Slave Lake spreading out below us. To make a long story short, we cruised in a non-pressurized cabin 4000 feet above the big lake. Mid flight, we received a free snack and drink from our steward, and when it came time to land, Buffalo Joe put the plane down in one of the softest landing I have ever experienced in a prop plane. It took us 45 minutes to fly to Yellowknife, a city built on ancient, stark-looking Precambrian rock that makes up the massive Canadian Shield covering a third of Canada. Yellowknife is the capital of the vast, mostly uninhabited Northwest Territories.

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Yellowknife itself is a modern city with mini skyscrapers, hotels, restaurants-- all the amenities. There is also an old town that goes back to the first settlement in the 1930s when gold was discovered here and led to a gold rush as prospectors flocked to the area. Today, a diamond mine has replaced gold, and government job workers outnumber miners.

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There were a number of highlights during my first day, Friday, July 18, in Yellowknife, including a hiking to Cameron Falls off the Ingraham Trail 30 miles to the east, fishing for pike in the Yellowknife River, and a visiting the very popular Folk on the Rocks Music Festival, a big local celebration that features rock, folk, ethnic and native Dene music. The next day I would go after big pike (photo 17).

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When it hit, I knew it would be the largest northern pike I had ever caught by both the sheer force of the strike and because I was wearing Polaroid glasses, I could see the pike fighting in the clear waters of the Great Slave Lake.

After a moderate fight with it, I reeled the pike toward the boat where Carlos Gonzalez, my guide, carefully lifted it aboard. Quickly, we measured it at 37 inches, weighed it – about 15 pounds – and then sent it back to the cold water. It was a pike most anglers would be proud of, but not the “big” one I was after.

Carlos, owner of Yellowknife Outdoor Adventures, believes in catch and release fishing -- weigh, measure, photograph, then send it back to be caught yet another day – even in this lake loaded with large pike.

I was part of a party of four fishing the north arm of the big lake, larger than Great Lakes Ontario and Erie. The Great Slave is a lake of contrasts, with the island-studded east arm home to trophy sized lake trout (70 pounders have been caught), a large open water section, and the north arm most noted for trophy sized pike. It is a formidable lake that can get very rough, so all but the most experienced anglers use guides and outfitters to fish these big waters.

My companions, besides Carlos, were Terry and Michelle Thompson from Kawartha Lakes, Ontario. Michelle had won a radio contest offered by a Toronto radio station with this trip as a prize. It would be their fishing trip of a lifetime. The day before, the Thompsons had boated 50 large pike in half a day’s fishing, but no lunkers, just lots in the 10-15 pound range, average fish for Great Slave Lake.

We were 20 miles north of Yellowknife, fishing a series of weed beds in sheltered bays. The landscape was typical of the area – bare Precambrian rock of the Canadian Shield dotted with small black spruce and jack pine with the occasional white birch. On our way up the lake, we passed a soaring bald eagle looking for fish.

Our technique was a simple one: cast into the weed beds and use a fast retrieve. The pike, if it was interested, would strike fast. A 4-inch silver Luhr Jensen Tony Accetta spoon with a single barbless hook was our choice of lure and made catch and release easier (only barbless are legal in the NWT). Our St. Croix rods, equipped with 17-pound test, were pointed toward the lure, tipped slightly upward, ready to set the hook while we reeled in.

We had lots of opportunities to perfect our technique, what Carlos refers to as Pike 101, for in the first hour we landed 10 pike, all in the 8-15-pound range.

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After a short boat ride to another weed bed, the Thompsons and I set up to cast into what Carlos referred to as “big pike water.” Here we would catch fewer but larger “jacks,” the northern colloquial term for northern pike. Shortly after, Michelle hooked a really large pike and, though she is a small person, expertly played and reeled in the big fish. This was first pike that required a net to get it in the boat. Carlos measured the pike at 441/2 inches long and 21.5 pounds. Michelle struggled to lift the massive fish while we photographed it.

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I was catching my share of pike as well, most in the 32-36-inch range, my chance for a big one yet to come. Just prior to moving on to another bay, it finally happened. I saw the big fish stalk, then attack the spoon. A quick upward jerk of the rod secured the hook. Now it was time to boat the pike. As I worked closer, it made a short run. I soon gained control, and after a brief struggle, Carlos lifted it into the boat.

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The pike measured in at 40 inches long and weighed almost 17 pounds, not a trophy for Great Slave Lake, but an impressive catch, nonetheless. After some quick photos, it was released. We fished some more.

In all, the three of us caught 29 pike, none smaller than 30 inches, in six hours of fishing, half the time spent traveling to and from the weed beds. After the traditional shore lunch that included Great Slave Lake whitefish and homemade moose sausage, we motored back to Yellowknife, cutting through white caps as we went, the fury of the big lake unleashed as the wind picked up. In mid afternoon, we docked in Yellowknife.

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My adventure was not yet over, not by a long shot. There was the grayling and that meant some long distance traveling west via the Liard Highway to Fort Simpson, 396 miles to the southwest, then taking a day off to do a fly-in to Virginia Falls in the MacKenzie Mountains, a United Nations designated special area. The final leg to Fort Nelson, British Columbia and finally down the Alaska Highway before returning to Grande Prairie Grande Prairie would entail more than 1000 miles and four days of traveling. Along the Alaska Highway I would try for some grayling. On Sunday, July 20, I reluctantly left Yellowknife for Fort Simpson, the staging point for my next adventure. Before getting there, I would encounter one big surprise.

Midway between Yellowknife and Fort Simpson, the MacKenzie Highway cuts through the MacKenzie Bison Sanctuary, home to 2000 wood bison, some weighing in excess of 1600 pounds. They are the largest land mammals in North America. The sanctuary was set up in 1963, after a herd of pure wood bison were found in Wood Buffalo National Park in Northern Alberta and the Northwest territories. Most of the park bison had interbred with the slightly smaller, lighter-colored American buffalo brought in the 1920s to bolster the bison herd. Instead, they brought diseases like brucellosis. All bison in the MacKenzie Sanctuary are pure wood bison.

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At one point, I finally saw them up ahead—looking like very large boulders stationary in the highway. As I got closer, the boulders transformed to bison, and they were right in front of me. I pulled over, did my photo op, then slowly and carefully maneuvered around the small bison herd. Before leaving the sanctuary, I would count three dozen of these large shaggy beasts.

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At Fort Providence, a ferry ride is needed to cross the MacKenzie, though a bridge is currently under construction. After another one hour on the road, I again needed a ferry, this one across the Liard River, to get to by destination—Fort Simpson. From here, next day, I would explore the South Nahanni River, Virginia Falls, and the MacKenzie Mountains first by float plane fly over with Simpson Air, then on foot.

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"That’s the Grand Canyon of Canada," Simpson Air pilot Troy Rennie pointed out below. We were about 45 minutes flying time out of Fort Simpson on Monday, July 21, heading west toward Virginia Falls of the South Nahanni River. Then we flew over Deadman’s Valley, the sharp, mostly bare peaks of the MacKenzie Mountains rising above what, only 60 years ago, was believed to be a tropical valley in the midst of the sub-Arctic. Its name, Headless Valley, came from the decapitated bodies of prospectors found there, supposedly the victims of a 12-foot giant.

Famous Canadian author Pierre Berton flew into this valley in mid-winter of 1947 and found no tropical valley, just minus 50 degree temperatures and five feet of snow cover. He believed the prospectors were really decapitated by other gold seekers, and the rumor of the 12-foot giant started to keep people out of what they believed to be a gold-rich valley.

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Virginia Falls came into view seemingly out of nowhere; though twice the height of Niagara Falls, the 300-foot drop is deceptive from the air because the falls are so narrow. I was dropped off above the falls at a widening of the river for a 6-hour stay, while Rennie returned to Fort Simpson to bring out a rafting party that was doing a six day float trip. While there, I walked the very demanding 21/2 mile portage around the falls, talked with local park warden Marcel and took lots of pictures. South Nahanni Park is soon to be expanded.

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The final day, Wednesday, July 23 required a 374-mile drive, including one important stop at the Buckinghorse River Lodge, about two hours south of Fort Nelson at Mile 175 of the Alaska Highway. Here I would go after that grayling with my friend Heather MacRae, who I planned to met up with at the lodge restaurant. She and I had traveled the Alaska Highway last summer when she worked for Northern British Columbia Tourism. We had arranged the meeting weeks in advance and our timing was perfect. We would first fish the Buckinghorse, a fairly narrow river that has its source on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains 40 miles away. It was gravel bottom, shallow, fast water fishing. We drove across the road to the Wayside Provincial Park campgrounds, parked, and while Heather set up her fly rod with a mosquito imitation wet fly, a good choice considering the number of these annoying bugs flying nearby.

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We fished for about an hour, but got nothing, so we moved 12 miles to the south via the Alaska Highway to the Sikanni Chief River, a larger flow that also comes down from the mountains. We would be dealing with deeper water here. Our fishing spot was off a dirt road, upstream from Sikanni Chief Cabins. Here our luck changed, or rather Heather’s; almost immediately, she hooked on to a grayling. Finally it was time to go, though I hated to leave such a beautiful spot.

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Back on the Alaska Highway again at noon, I drove the final leg, stopping at Mile Zero in Dawson Creek for some photos before moving on 74 more miles to Grande Prairie. There, I turned in the rental vehicle and took a red-eye flight back to Albany, NY. In eight days, I had driven roughly a 1550-mile loop through some of the wildest country in North America and sampled some great fishing to boot.