Northwest Territories - Piscatorial Penultimate

It was a sunny morning when my teenage son and I left Yellowknife for a three-hour charter flight into the central coastal Arctic. We flew over an extensive expanse of forest which eventually gave way to a seemingly endless blanket of tundra, sun-dimpled by countless lakes and rivers. Our bird's-eye view enhanced the sinuous eskers, scoured glacial bedrock and drumlins, pointing out the path of an ancient, vanished ice field.

On previous trips we had successfully caught lake trout, graying and freshwater char on flies. This time our tent camp was located on high ground near a sizable coastal river. After disembarking on the gravel beach, we met with the camp boss, who had spent most of his working life in the Canadian Arctic, and his Inuit assistants. Leisurely, we discussed our strategies, for there was no rush to go fishing in the northern summer when day merges into the twilight of night only briefly. Arctic char was our target species, and I reflected on the Inuit wisdom of following the rhythm of the seasonal timetable. After the inland passage of migrating caribou herds, the Inuit headed for the coast to make a fishing camp at the same site. They were good fishermen. As soon as the river is free of ice, char that have overwintered in fresh water head downstream to salt water, and then later in the year, other year-classes of large, anadromous arctic char return to the river to spawn.