When it comes to tackling giant lakers, the NWT’s remote Great Bear Lake Lodge offers the full-meal deal

The first time I visited Great Bear Lake Lodge, I knew no one. On this trip, however, I was lucky enough to have teamed up with Michael, as well as George Wallace and his buddy Sly Trudel, an ex-military man with our shared passion for fishing. They shared a boat with guide Ed Ledin. Throughout our time on Bear, our two boats largely plied the water within sight of one another, and we dined, had cocktails and compared notes together back at the lodge at the end of each day. I first met George 20 years ago when he was general manager of the first-ever Bass Pro Shops outlet in Canada, the Outdoor World in Vaughan, Ontario, and we’ve been friends ever since. Now the GM of the Beretta-brand distributor Stoeger Canada, he’s fished at the lodge eight times, twice with his dad and two younger brothers. For George, the outstanding fishing is just one of the main ingredients that keeps luring him back.

So, what else is in the mix? I put that question to George one evening on the deck back at the lodge. “Honestly, I would say the isolation. I like my alone time. No phone,” he tells me. “It’s also the peace and tranquility. No sirens. No people yammering. No hum of traffic.” George lives in hectic midtown Toronto, so I get it, having worked down there myself back in the day. As we continued talking, a pair of loons cried out in the distance, as if on cue.

When it comes to chasing lakers on Bear, meanwhile, George has a rather philosophical take. “It’s world-class fishing, but there are so many variables. Indeed, luck. Do I come here to catch a big fish?” he says. “No, but knowing I could is great.”

Inside the lodge, meanwhile, the weekly wine-and-cheese mixer for staff and guests was getting underway, featuring some tasty bites assembled by Michael and the kitchen’s Red Seal chef, Tony Glasgow. And that brings us to the most important ingredient in Bear’s recipe for success: the 35 folks who keep the place running.

During my visit, that included everyone from support staff manager Maureen “Mama Mo” McNeilage, who prepared fresh-baked pastries every morning, to nine-season vet Kate Bollum behind the bar (she’s a school teacher during the off-season) to the attentive dining room servers and the shop guys keeping the 40-horse Mercs purring. And managing it all, often with a clipboard in hand and a sly quip or two at the ready, was Chuk, who also oversees Plummer’s other operations on Bear, the Tree River and Great Slave Lake to the south.

As George says, “The people are great. They look after you.” And perhaps no one takes better care of you at Bear than the fishing guides. That was unquestionably the case with our guide. An environmental scientist back home in Lloyminster, Alberta, Reid has been guiding at Bear for 11 years now. And as head guide, he definitely knows where to find the trophies, and how to catch them. Unlike George, I wasn’t so Zen about the angling prospects at Bear. No, I wanted to catch big fish. More importantly, I really wanted to catch that new PB, and Reid seemed quite confident we could make it happen.

And happen it did, on just our second full day of fishing. Plying an area the guides call the “Fish Tank,” Reid determinedly put Mike and me on the fish. Remember, hunting for the big grey morphs is not a numbers proposition, but by the time we headed back to camp, we had put a respectable 21 lakers in the boat. Along with several 20-pound-plus beauties and three double-headers, that included my new PB, a 41-pound silver beast I enticed with a pink Hawg Nose in 50 feet of water. Recipe for success, indeed.

In the end, I’d like to say I had my fill. But the truth is, by the time I climbed aboard the ATR twin turboprop for the flight back to Yellowknife, then home, I was only left craving more.

Editor-in-chief Patrick Walsh has an insatiable appetite for catching and releasing big fish.

LODGE LEGACY

Full disclosure: I am good friends with Chuk Coulter, the overall general manager of Plummer’s Arctic Lodges, who also serves as lodge manager at Great Bear. Then again, everyone who meets Chuk believes they are good friends with Chuk. He’s just that type of gregarious guy. We originally met during my first visit to Bear in 2008, when he was assigned to be my guide. He had been guiding for four seasons already at the time, and would continue guiding until 2011, when he was promoted to lodge manager. At any rate, I learned a lot about fishing for big lakers from Chuk—he calls it hunting—and had a blast in the process. In the story I wrote back then, I described him as “gung ho.” He still is, and that’s a good thing.

This past April, the owner of Plummer’s Arctic Lodges, 81-year-old Chummy Plummer, announced it was time for him to step back and sell the operation. Among the group of four new owners? Chuk Coulter. The other three partners include former Plummer’s GM Shane Jonker, former veteran guide Bobby Richardson and long-time regular guest Herb Fritch. Was it difficult for Chummy to let go of an enterprise that had been in his family since day one back in 1949? Not with this new team in place, he says.

“The lodges will remain in good hands with folks who truly love the place, and who have built careers and families around it,” Chummy wrote in the Plummer’s newsletter. “I feel good knowing what myself, my dad and my grandfather have built will continue to operate and offer the same high level of service we have been offering for over 75 years. The Plummer’s name will live on as the finest fly-in fishing operation in the North.” If I know Chuk, he will make sure of that.