Betty and Steve MacKenzie Enjoying Alymer Lake in the Arctic

Betty and Steve MacKenzie just got back from a spectacular fly fishing trip to Alymer Lake Lodge located in the North West Territories. Betty was quite enthusiastic about the experience she and her husband Steve had. I can tell that the fly fishing was outstanding although the scenery in the barren lands is quite special. There is no question that there are so many lakes in the far north with incredible fly fishing for lake trout and rivers teaming with arctic grayling. Alymer Lake Lodge has an incredible fishery that is mostly untouched by man. The Lodge is the only set up on the lake as well. So much of Canada's north remains unexplored. I am sure there are parts of Alymer Lake barren lands that has never seen a human footprint!

Well Done Betty

Here is Betty's e-mail note that she wanted to share with everyone.

I wanted to share our trip with you so you can post it to our club page.  It really should be on every fly fisherman's bucket list!  Alymer Lake is a Jurassic Lake of the North. 

We spent a couple days seeing the sights in Yellowknife, then took a 2 hour float plane Northeast to Aylmer Lake.  The camp includes a main lodge and guest cabins along the shore of the lake.  The main lodge has sink and hot shower, and pit toilets are out back.  It's a wilderness experience, but the food was wonderful, the hosts very attentive, and the views spectacular.

We fished along the shore in the evenings for grayling and small lake trout. Each morning, we went out to a fishing spot for the day.  Sometimes we would cast from shore, and sometimes we trolled.  We caught fish doing both, with the large lake trout being caught when we were trolling.

Although Aylmer is really deep, the water remains very cold in the summer and the lake trout are usually caught in the top 20 feet of water, usually less than that.  We could often see the bottom when we were trolling.

The fishing was truly memorable.  We caught tons of lake trout in the 5 to 20 pound range, a few 20 to 25 pounds, and then some truly massive 30 to 44 pounders!  I had tied some dragon tail flies, lots of deceivers and clousers, and a few other types and I was pleased that they all worked well, especially the dragon tails.  A 10 foot chunk of 15 pound leader was all we needed between fly line and fly.  We used 8 weight rods which did very well, but the big fish put quite a bend in them.

My largest lake trout were 38 and 33 pounds, and Steve caught a 35 pounder and then a truly memorable 44 lb. fish.  That's over the world record for fly caught trout, but we didn't want to kill the fish to officially weight them.  We kept a few smaller trout each day, as baked trout was one of the menu items most days.

The weather was decent, with sunny days and temps of 17 to 20 most days.  We were glad we were there for 10 days, as we lost a day and a half to high winds, and were shore bound for a while with rain another day.

Pictures just can't do justice to the beauty of the tundra and the lake.