There was a lot of excitement about the afternoon of lake trout fishing at supper and we found out that we were heading out first thing in the morning on our arctic grayling fly fishing adventure to the Sulky River. Time to change gears and get the lighter fly rods ready as well as small flies!
We woke up to rain but we still headed out to the Sulky River right after breakfast. The flight was short, perhaps 15 minutes. The Sulky River is a short stretch of current about 1 km long that drains one lake into Great Bear Lake! It is an absolutely stunning piece of water with a beautiful canyon and two waterfalls.
Once we arrived, the group of 6 fly fishers and three guides took a short hike and dropped gear at our lunch spot right at the falls. We geared up and we caught grayling almost at will. The grayling sizes were amazing. Many in the 17 to 19 inch category! Any dry fly got action. Rick caught 30 on his first 30 casts. That is right, 30 grayling on the first thirty casts.
Just as we started to fly fish, the weather cleared and we also were treated to a beautiful warm big blue sky day! The best fly fishing was at the top of the river where it dropped out of the upper lake.
As we got close to lunch, we started to keep 8 grayling for shore lunch. The shore lunch was delightful. Light flakey grayling cooked perfectly. After lunch we got right back to it! Karen and I fished the canyon. Again there were so many fish. It was nonstop action.
The weather started to change again. Thunder rolled and the dark clouds returned. John flew in to pick us up at 4 o'clock! Everybody took a few more casts and we slowly worked our way back to the single engine turbo otter for the short flight back to Plummer's Arctic Lodge. We had a spectacular day, several 100 grayling were caught. We found out that only 13 guests fished the Sulky River this year! That makes for outstanding opportunities.
We also found out that it rained heavily around camp with a lot of wind. We had an amazing day. This truly is a trip of a life time.
The video below is a great summary of the day. I spent a lot of my day taking pictures in this absolutely stunning stretch of river. Thanks Reid for taking us to the Sulky River!
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