Going after a 200 year old Lake Trout in Canada
This story took place in 2007 but I found the photos and decided I needed to share my experience. This is Carl and I in fishing in Kulane Lake, which is a 2 hour float plane ride from Whitehorse, BC, Canada. Carl moved to Baker, Oregon about 3 years ago and we do not see each other very often anymore. Back in the day, we used to roll hard, and roll hard we did. This is our story.
We arrived in White Horse, which is a neat little town North of Vancouver by a two-hour plane ride. It is a quaint little town that has some drifters, drunk Indians, and some meth heads. It also has some nice qualities as well.
Notice that either of us are happy, and have no beer or food? That is because no one is happy in Whitehorse, so acting happy makes them not want to serve you. We got service about 10 minutes after this photo was taken. We soon made friends with the bartender, I wonder why?? He told us about the major concert that was a pretty big deal in Whitehorse. AC/DC was in town. What are the chances of that I asked myself.
“We have to go Carl, this is huge!” I said, and he agreed. The concert was right next door in what I thought was a small venue for the biggest rock band in the history of rock bands. We each bought a ticket for thirty bucks, are you kidding me? They also serve beer before you get in and you can take it in? Canadians ROCK.
Wait a minute….
It wasnt AC/DC it was BC/DC a British Columbia knock off band. That their folks in the cow outfit is Angus…or a guy acting like he was Angus.
The next morning at first light we took a cab down to the river and was met by a plane and started our venture two hours into the bush.
It was a nice little ride and the pilot was very talkative. He asked me what I did for a living and I told him I was a retired Navy Pilot. He asked me if I wanted the controls, with my only experience being a computer game, I gladly took the controls. After flying at 10k feet for five minutes I said “This is probably a good time to tell you that I lied earlier and I am not a pilot.” The look on his face made Carl and I laugh hysterically like hyenas for ten minutes. He turned his music on his I pod up so we could only hear music on our head phones and he didn’t have to talk to us the rest of the flight.
We meet Brian Dack who owns the place and he shows us around. Everything you see had to be flown in or built from scratch. There are several little cabins with beds and a fireplace and bathroom and shower.
They are fully equipped and have a chef on the staff that literally tries to kill you with food consumption. They even have a self-serve bar. Notice where Carl is?
Basically this is the most relaxing fishing trip there is. You are totally on your own, with your own schedule. When you feel like fishing (like we did every morning bright and early at 10:00 am) you go out to your assigned 16′ aluminum boat and head out fishing. It is equipped with everything you need.
I cannot remember how big the lake is, but it is big enough not to see anyone else on. It takes 2 hours to cross it. The sun was out, no breeze and the cooler was full of Canuk beer.
The beer was going down pretty good. Nobody told us that Chilkoot beer had 8 percent alcohol.
Then about 3 pm rolls around.
Finally the weather got a little chilly, because it was 1 am and WHAM a big hit. Carl was getting a beer out of the cooler when it happened. I guess we learned we were trolling a little too fast for these lazy fat trout.
After landing a bunch of hogs we deicided to retire to the lodge because it was after all, 3 am. Brian had turned the generator off but we were pretty resourceful so we snuck to the garage and turned it back on.
The next day after the chef tried to kill us again with a 7 course meal that was in desperate need of two cholesterol pills at the end of the consumption we decided to explore this huge lake. It took us 2 hours to cross the darn thing.
We spotted a bull moose laying down in the grass. So I decided that since I was in the back of the boat with the motor and Carl in the front it seemed only fit to see how close I could get to the moose.
That evening Brian decided to join us on the boat and we enjoyed swapping hunting, fishing and trapping stories. Brian is also a hunting guide and trapper and had a lot of interesting stories. We caught lots of fish that evening.
The next day, Brian called on the radio and asked us to catch a few 8 pounders for a fish fry on the North beach. We complied and we met some of the other fishermen over there as well. They prepared a great beach lunch with trout and pike and surprisingly it was very good.
I was relieved that the chef did not show up across the lake with a ton of food. We enjoyed a great lunch and went back out on the water.
We had a great four days there and on our last night we saw what I believe was the coolest and best sunset of my life.
It was unbelievable. The three of us just sat back and enjoyed it.
This trip was several years ago, I thought I would blog it because it is a special place and great experience. I do not see Carl much these days, he moved across the state about 5 hours away. We had a great run though, lots of great memories. I returned to Kulane Lake once since this trip with a buddy of mine, Ryan. We had another great time. I highly recommend this place to anyone that enjoys the outdoors and fishing. They do a great job. When we were leaving, the chef gave us a big hug and cried. Probably because we were her finest eaters. Brian gave me a hug then pinched my butt. Damn Canuks.
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