Fishing on Lake Athabasca: Day 5

Another morning of sunny, blue bird skies meant one thing: more pike on the fly. This time, we boated straight to a honey hole scouted out yesterday by Lakers Unlimited owner Jeff Perela and his two anglers, Americans Dave Drobny and Dwight Hottle. Their information was sound: Bryan put Ted and I on no end of northerns, which we were able to sight-fish in the shallows. I’ve never bonefished before, but it sure looked like the fishing-the-flats videos I’ve seen on TV. It was just awesome being able to cast to giant shadows and watching them turn and pursue our flies. In the end, we stopped counting after roughly 15 fish apiece, all caught with an hour. Best of all, Ted and I both brought trophy 41-inchers to the boat. Sweet.

Meanwhile, the fishing gods thanked Dave and Dwight, both of whom are Athabasca veterans, for sharing their hot spot with us. Dwight boated the big pike of the week so far, a 27-pound beast stretching the tape to 46.5 inches, while Dave notched up a 23-pounder. Well done, gents.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, we’ll hit the pike again on the fly at the same spot — you just can’t pass up the opportunity to fish such a fly fisherman’s paradise.