Things To Do
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Fishing Northern Frontier
Fish are abundant in Northern Frontier. Just stop at the side of the road and try your luck with a spoon or a Mepps. You don’t need bait. But please purchase a licence before you go fishing, and follow the rules for catch and release – our fish grow slowly in long winters, and small lakes have only a few. Fishing licences
Fishing on your own
The Yellowknife River bridge on the Ingraham Trail features a day use picnic site and a boat launch. Pike and sometimes lake trout are caught here by casting from the shore. Rent a boat and cruise upriver in to a quiet spot and troll as you drift back down. Keep an eye out for a variety of songbirds and perhaps a bald eagle nesting beside the river.
Pontoon Lake on the Ingraham Trail is a medium sized lake well suited to a quiet paddle. Shallow and weedy in places, it’s home for pike and a variety of ducks, loons and terns. Beaver, muskrat, and even weasels can be seen in the quieter corners. There’s a day use picnic site with boat launch here, or you can try your luck from the rocks by the highway.
Prelude Lake, about 29 km from Yellowknife on the Ingraham Trail, is the site of a major campground, with picnic sites, scenic trails, and a boat launch. Head away from the cottages to any group of rocky uninhabited islands and try your luck. Your likely catch will be a hungry pike.
Walsh Lake, about 10 km from Yellowknife and half an hour by boat from the Vee Lake boat launch, is a large, deep, wilderness lake which can turn dangerous with a shift in the wind. Careful boaters will find gorgeous views, pike, and perhaps even a trout or two in its cold waters. Walsh’s rocky shores offer good camping and exploring.
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Fishing for lake trout
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Catch of the Day
In larger lakes in Northern Frontier you’ll find feisty and tasty lake trout. If it’s size you want, the big ones range from about 12 pounds in medium sized lakes to over 60 pounds in Great Slave Lake. They feed near the surface in spring and fall when the water is colder, at the bottom in mid-summer. Trolling with a small boat is the best way to catch them, though fly fishing is gaining popularity. Take a picture and please put that big one back to catch again! Popular lures are called daredevil, five of diamonds, wobblers and spinners.
Northern Pike, Great Northerners or Jackfish are common in marshy or weedy areas of all our lakes. A great fighting fish, with a small head and very sharp teeth, they weigh from six to 40 pounds in this area. Pike are good eating, right out of the lake. Clean them, wrap them in foil and cook in the fire, until they sizzle. The delicious flesh just falls off the myriad bones. Daredevil lures, or a Mepps spinner are popular lures, and sometimes, small pike will nibble at a finger dipped in the lake.
Walleye, or pickerel, feed in stream and river deltas, and often can be found in large numbers in a favorite feeding ground, in the early morning or early evening. They are less abundant than pike or trout in Northern Frontier, but considered a local delicacy. Try a Rappala, jig or spoon.
Arctic Grayling are the tiny sailfish of Northern Frontier. Determined and showy fighters, they require considerable skill to land, as they have a soft mouth. Averaging one to two pounds, they can be found near deep water when they surface to feed in early evening. Try a Mepps or dry fly.
Photo: GNWT RWED J.-F. Bergeron Enviro Foto and Isabel Gauthier
