K63 & All -

Selwyn Lake Lodge is located about as far north in Satchatchewan that you can go.  When you boat out of the bay the lodge is located in, you cross the 60th parallel & enter the Northwest Territories.  That's where we did all of our fishing.  Ice started to come off of Selwyn Lake on June 9th and was fully off on June 23rd.  We got there on July 10.

Northerns were fairly abundant.  I, myself, caught three or four that easily exceeded 40 inches, my biggest topping out at about 42 inches.  Our Dene Indian guide would drive the Lund boat powered by a 40 HP, four-stroke motor right into the weed beds of shallow bays, chasing out the Northerns.  Then we would have at'em, sometimes on fly rod (not me!).

Lake Trout were all over the place.  Some had started the dive into deeper water.  I caught my 37 inch, 20+ pounder at about 35 feet down in 60 feet of water.  Most of our Lakers were taken in very shallow water, however... some on fly rod.  One fellow at the Lodge caught a 26 pounder in just 12 feet of water.

Each boat had one Dene Indian guide per two customers.  There were four of us from my company and an average of 18-20 "customers" at the Lodge on any given day.  It took 3 flights out of the Twin Cities just to get there, the last one was a float plane out of Stony Rapids, about a 45 minute flight.  It was gourmet food every night - seafood, pork tenderloin, duck, lamb - and all the fancy desserts you can imagine.  We were really "roughing it"!

On Day Two out of four fishing days, we ran across three nicely trimmed, heavily-laden canoes that were evidently "tripping" through to Hudson's Bay.  I mentally stepped out of my posh existence momentarily to reflect back upon my usual reality... canoe-camping.  You know, despite our fancy digs, etc., I REALLY did sort of wish I was tripping with THOSE guys.  I salute them, whoever they are.  I even picked up a couple books about canoe-camping above the 60th parallel back when we got back to the Lodge that afternoon, just to follow along with those adventurers, vicariously.

A pesky black bear appeared at the Lodge around evening on Day One.  Later in the evening, & unbeknownst to myself & the the other guests, our host took it upon himself to shoot it.  He/they skinned it & threw the carcass on the shoreline of the lake.  The next morning, when I awoke at my usual 4:30am Central, I heard their Airedale Terrier going bananas.  Later, I caught up with its owner.  She told me the dog barks when bears or wolves are around.  Apparently either one or the other had hauled off the carcass of our bear!

Later that day, another bear shows up around dinner & gets chased off.  That night - such "night" as they experience up there (I woke up at ALL hours & it NEVER got any more than dusk-ish) - bear #2 ransacks all the "shore lunch" fixings in the guides' boats & leaves a mess on the dock.  The following night, while the guests ate dinner, our host blows away bear #2.

I found myself not really happy about the bears being shot.  I guess I would have preferred better Lodge hygiene that would keep the bears away in the first place.  Perhaps, though, the host had no alternative.

We also found a couple other pesky critters around the place.  See:

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The doggone things constitute a pink contagion that is now infesting even the more remote sections of the Great White North.  Too bad the Selwyn Lake Lodge host/bwana couldn't blow a few of THEM away.  They were EVERYWHERE!  Geez, I had to remember to keep my hands to myself & away from the bow each morning during our daily 20 mile excursion to the fishing hole.  The pink peckerhead simply wouldn't fly away & would surely have nipped off a few carelessly placed fingers!

All-in-all, it was a fine trip... if you want to go in for the fancy approach to the wilderness.  For me, it was a nice change of pace, but NOT an experience that will replace canoe-camping anytime soon.  Given my druthers, I'd rather take the money my Company spent on me for this trip & plug it (& about six weeks' time) into canoe-tripping the TRULY wild areas to the west, north, & east.  

K63, Selwyn Lake Lodge only carried info on its OWN outposts on the periphery of the lake.  NONE of those are serviceable this year.  I'm thinking if I get serious about THAT kind of trip that I will check out what's available out of the Yellow Knife area.

That's about it.  I might have a big fish pic & maybe one of some nut actually swimming in Selwyn Lake to post later this week.

I'm already thinking about a Fall trip someplace....

Jimbo   8)