Brook Trout Trip with Polar Bears

Drop into the Wild

The Turbo Otter took off from the remote drop off lake as we loaded the canoes for the 9 day float trip bearing toward the Hudson Bay. Albert, a native man and his family reside at the tiny outpost through the summer months, kindly gives us a tow 10 kilometers across the stillwater lake and drops us off at the headwaters to begin our 75 mile river journey. Albert's word of caution is "Don't run! The one who runs is the one to be attacked." This area is the furthest southern artic air reach and is a summer home for polar bears.

Six guys, 3 canoes, brook trout, polar bears and the furthest off-grid we've ever been. What more could a fly angler / outdoorsman want! Will the fishing be good? Will the weather be favorable? Will we see polar bears? All of these questions will be answered in the next nine days.

Upon our first afternoon shortly after being released to the river our first question was answered quite swiftly. It only took about a half dozen cast for all of us to find our first hookup. By the time we were setting camp that night the concern of the fishing experience was long since laid to rest. 

During the night the rains came and in the morning we woke to soaked in conditions and wet gear. River was on the rise and taking on color. We decided to stay at this camp another night to allow the warmth of the day to dry us out. 

The weather pattern on this trip seemed to rotate about every 24-36 hours with times of sunny warm and dry to times of rain, wind and total moisture saturation. Each event had us looking for the next change. When warm and dry the bugs were bad. Then wind would come and settle down the biters. Next came the rain and with each rain came dew point saturation. Next we were hoping for the return of sun to help dry out. As the sun came out so did the bugs therefore starting the cycle all over again. This pretty much was the course of the entire trip. 

By mid trip I came to realize the best approach was to take it day by day and prepare for the next weather change. No need to worry about the fishing as it remained good through all the weather events although notable that fishing seemed to get real good as the fronts approached. 

Where are the Polar Bears!

I think it was about day five or six maybe, my canoe partner and I were ahead of the others as we rounded a sharp left corner that had a deep back eddy off to the right. The piled up river debris before the eddy blocked our view of the deep cut in the river until we reached the apex of the turn. 

At that point we turned to look back up the cut to see the pure white, polar bear coat. Our bush pilot told us there would be no mistaking a polar bear for anything else white in this nature. He was dead right. That white is unmistakable. 

We instinctively back paddled quickly and put some distance between us and this cuddly looking, deadly beast. Next the cameras came out. Going to be a long photo shot but any photo will be better than none. A heightened awareness for our safety fell upon us all from this point in the trip onward. 

That evening we set camp at the confluence of another river. While exploring and fishing camp water one of the crew came across some pretty fresh bear prints. With the prints being on the small-ish size we concluded that they were most likely black bear prints. We didn't see much other 4 legged wildlife on this trip but the signs of their presence was all around including many moose and caribou prints. 

 

The Fish

This river passage is home to a native strain of sea run, migratory brook trout. They come to their home river for the fall spawn season. Strong and aggressive for their size which was generally in the 17" to 21" range. The experienced angler will tell a warning though to not think of these as your average 19" tailwater fish. If you do you'll get your 5 weight handed back to you in pieces. This is 7 weight water with an 8 weight not out of question to handle these migraters. 

Spey Water? Oh hell yeah! Lots of swing water and willing fish. There really was no wrong way to fish for these aggressive eaters. Our favorite was a mouse pattern fly. These brookie's would explode for surface offerings. Next favored tactic would be your choice, bugger flies, intruders and anything with bright colors. Coho flies are great here. Heavy streamers and jig tied flies dredged the buckets and picked the pockets. The back eddies held willing pike that seemed to also eat anything stripped past them. 

Next to our last day we woke in camp to soaked in conditions. The sun did not rise this morning. We all got up for morning coffee but as the saturated air soaked through our layers we retreated to tents and waited out the cold, damp morning. 

Late afternoon the sun finally appeared and the drying began. We had to make a decision. The details include the fact that we are 14 miles from the pickup point and the pilot would be there at 10am. Using our SAT phone we called the airbase to confirm they would fly tomorrow. This trip comes with a major warning that just because you are scheduled to fly on this day their is no sure bet that you will. Many stories are out there on the web with participants of this trip remaining in place an extra day sometimes even two extra days due to weather. 

Our conversation with the airbase concluded that more than likely we would fly out on the next day so we needed to be at the pickup point. Our choices were to pick up camp and move seven miles closer and reset camp or remain in this camp and set out early for the fourteen mile canoe sprint. 

Since already late in day we opted to stay put and float out early. There would be no time for fishing during the float. 

On the last evening we gathered our food for a last meal. We already had a pile of firewood we collected the previous evening that went unburned due to the inclement weather. With some last sips of bourbon we lit off a fire and laid back for a gorgeous evening. The moon rose in full over the tree line and the dry winds removed the dampness and late into the night the clear night sky gave us a view of the aurora borealis.  

Up early on our departing morning and coffee was the only other major priority other than camp breakdown. With canoes loaded we set out on our fast paced fourteen miles. About halfway into the paddle-fest the bush float plane flew overhead on his way to landing. He saw us and spent some of his wait time flying the coastline looking for wildlife. We arrived to the pickup point at about 10:30am. 

Besides us and our gear we would also strap on the canoes to the float plane gear and take them back to the outpost launch site. There we would unload the canoes and refuel the plane. Part of the expense of this trip is paying for the return fuel to be flown in to the outpost camp. The flight is too far to make round trip on the two internal fuel tanks. 

It's a long flight in a bush plane. About 3 hours to fly there and more like 4 hours on the return with including the layover. Cool part was back at the outpost got a opportunity to talk to Albert about our experience and thank him for sharing this incredible wonder and his wise words. 

The Beaver flew in our return fuel. The ramp was used to offload the 55 gal drums

Hard to put into words...

The experience of this trip for me was more than a fishing experience. By mid trip I had forgotten what day it was and was no longer missing email or social media. While I was there for the fishing what I soon realized was the release of the usual daily life concerns. My priorities switched into survival mode and I learned to be on mother nature's clock. "Take it all in" is what I told myself daily. Be open in adjustments to the plan and take each day with what is available. Dry and sunny: Be a good day to bathe. Windy and wet: Good time to fish. Coffee good anytime! At times a little homesick while wondering what my wife is up too and how much trouble our dogs are giving her. 

Soon came a feeling of one with nature. My usual daily concerns switched to food, water and shelter. Have a good tent you can trust is just one of many notes I kept during the trip. Don't skimp on the dry bags and waterproof clothing is another worthy note. This trip provided a solid test for my gear as well as myself. If I only have one remaining desire in this fly fishing sport it is to do more multi day river float / camp trips. A day of fishing is good for my soul. Nine days of a river adventure trip is renewing for my soul. It's like hitting a reset button, for my life!

Greg