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There are literally thousands of fishing trips to choose from here in Canada, but most of them, for good economic reasons, are set up to handle lots of people in a fairly uniform manner. If you want an individualized trip into country few people visit, the options are few and far between. However, I did manage to come up with the following trip suggestion that I think will whet the appetite of the most demanding traveler. Frankly, it even whetted mine!
Northern Lights Fishing Lodge, located on Labrador’s Ashuanipi watershed, sits square in the middle of some of the finest wilderness fishing left in Canada. Fishing right around the lodge is nothing short of excellent, but lodge operator, Yves St. Pierre, has sweetened the pot of late by offering some three day and six day Adventure Packages that are the stuff of dreams.
Anglers who book his Adventure Package trips use the main lodge as a base, as anglers do in Alaska, but they fly out daily to fish unspoiled trophy brook trout waters for fish in the five pound plus range and/or for landlocked salmon weighing up to six pounds. Occasional lake trout and trophy northern pike are a bonus. The floatplane is at the disposal of the angler, so the choice of where to go each day is his (or hers). St. Pierre even provides a tent and basic gear, should anyone decide to overnight on a particularly good water.
The best time to take this trip is any time between mid July and the end of the season in mid September. During the early season, water levels in the remote headwater lakes are too high for prime fly fishing. The cost of the six day Fly Out Adventure is $2,985 (Canadian) per person, but to get that price you’ll need a party of four anglers. For parties of less than four, the price is substantially higher. The price includes transportation to the main camp, all meals and accommodation in newly built log cabins, plus the daily flights to various Labrador waters and guides to help you fish them.
If the idea of the fly outs appeals to you, but the price is a bit stiff, you can book only three days of fly outs and spend the other days fishing waters accessible by boat from camp. The price for that is $2,485 (Canadian). The lodge can accommodate eight guests per week.
In order to protect the trophy brook trout fishery, incidentally, St. Pierre has imposed a one fish kill limit. He’s put his life savings into Northern Lights Fishing Lodge, he says, and he’s not about to watch it melt away through slipshod management of the camp or the resource it’s based on. Access to the lodge is by way of daily scheduled flights by Intair between Montreal and Labrador City. You pick up a floatplane there on to camp. All trip packages are Saturday to Saturday. You can get more details from Sportravel (*). Enjoy! George Gruenefeld.