Lake of fire

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Mike B
Mike B's picture
Lake of fire
<p>My city is under seige. All around us are forest fires. Ash falls from the sky and the air is filled with smoke. Our only highway link out has been closed intermittently for a month.The total area burned is the size of Massachusetts. In short, it&#39;s the worst forest fire season the Northwest Territories has ever seen.</p> <p>Nonetheless, my parents are in town and fire or no fire, my old man wants to do some fishing. Not only that, he&#39;s never caught a pike over 40 inches long before so he wanted to do that too. Last weekend was worse for smoke and road closures than just about any other this past summer but Sunday was THE DAY. So at quarter to seven in the morning we hoped for the best and head down Highway 3 toward Behchoko to our gator hunting grounds. As it turned out, we were the only people on the road. In some sections smoke from fires near the road had visibility down to only a few hundred feet. When we got to Behchoko the parking lot at the dock was empty. A few locals lingered nearby though. One of them came over to ask us if we could help search for the &quot;dead bodies&quot; of two people who went missing while seadooing the day before. We awkwardly begged him off while we got the boat ready (Fortunately, the fellow was quite wrong about the facts as the two men and their missing seadoo were found alive earlier that morning).</p> <p>It was quickly evident once we got onto the water that our GPS was going to play a big role in safely getting us to our destination that day. Smoke or no smoke -- I can&#39;t stress how important these devices are in aiding navigation on large bodies of water. We had 30 miles of breadcrumbs to follow and visibility was worse on the lake than it was on the water. The air was not that nice to breathe either.</p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Russell%20Lake/P1150731_zps1ea707dc.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /></p> <p>We were not entirely sure what we would see once we got to the spot. Would the place be more or less than as it was the last time we visited or a burning ring of fire? The truth proved closer to the latter. Fire had burned down right to the shore on the west side of the bank and hot spots were still smouldering.</p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Russell%20Lake/P1150729_zpsc5f83ef7.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Russell%20Lake/P1150714_zps3b6d3e6c.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 579px;" /></p> <p>Fish were still there though. Nothing more solid a feeling than a lunker northern grabbing your lure.<br /> <img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Russell%20Lake/P1150711_zps4ff05bb2.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /></p> <p>We each caught several northerns over 40 inches -- all on big plugs and plastics. Gord again took the prize for longest fish with this specimen that taped out at 48.5 inches. <img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Russell%20Lake/P1150702_zps02a99728.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 388px;" /></p> <p>I got a nice ones too, including this 47 incher that bit twice! Gord caught his 48 and a fiver again too.<br /> <img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Russell%20Lake/P1150709_zps138f43ed.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 428px;" /></p> <p>My dad didn&#39;t catch anything quite as long but did catch a couple fish breaking the 40 mark, including this 42 incher.<br /> <img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Russell%20Lake/P1150717_zps71e5b570.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 550px;" /></p> <p>On the shore we noticed a few hot spots were begining to billow smoke. We went over to investigate. The ground radiated heat and was barely tolerable to stand on.</p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Russell%20Lake/P1150724_zpsec2955b1.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 800px;" /><br /> Before long a breeze picked up and the smoke began to intensify. Suddenly, several hot spots began to flicker flames and some trees on the opposite shore simply exploded in fire. &quot;Time to go guys,&quot; my dad said. Off we went as fast as we could. It was hot, really hard to breathe -- I&#39;m still coughing up gunk -- but I&#39;m glad we went. My dad got his fish and we got to go on an adventure when most people were resigned to sticking in town. The road from Behchoko to Yellowknife closed the next morning, by the way.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>
Deftik
Deftik's picture
Now that's hardcore, you nort

Now that's hardcore, you northerners know how to fish Mike! 

Bubbajoe
Bubbajoe's picture
Badass.   that is all

Badass.

 

that is all

Gunnar
Gunnar's picture
Wow.

Wow.

I would've been tempted to catch another pike for a photo with flames and exploding trees in the background.

 

Redhorse ID cheatsheets, gars, suckers: moxostoma.com


2020: 10 days fishing 11 species 0 lifers. 2019: 34/45/13 2018: 39/40/5

Mike B
Mike B's picture
I tried taking pictures of th

I tried taking pictures of the flames but my camera lense didn't do them any justice so I didn't include them in the post. Even though the really good stuff was only a couple hundred yards away they just didn't look like anything. Fire in trees can be surprisingly difficult to photogragh. I should've taken some video.

mike b

Corey
Corey's picture
What a trip

Some serious perserverence dodging the fire for those pike! Kudos.

Dr Flathead
Dr Flathead's picture
Hope they get that stuff snuf

Hope they get that stuff snuffed out soon man.  Must be hell having to breath that air in everyday.  That pic of Gord with the big one is a great pic.  Huge freaking Pike.

Eli
Eli's picture
Good to see the esox are righ

Good to see the esox are right where they should be but I'm super pissed about the complete lack of fire management in the NWT. It should never have been alowed to get this bad. 

 

Eli

 

 

Hengelaar
Hengelaar's picture
Where do bad folks go when they die..?

The insane stuff just keeps coming. More stunning Pike of the North.

Fantastic, Mike! Just a treat to see.

Not a treat to see that everything around you is on fire, of course...

Fishn sure is neat

TonyS
TonyS's picture
They go to a lake of fire and fry...

Crazy fish man.  Nearly 3 million hectares, that's what 17% the size of my home state... That's a lotta burning, forest fires are good and all but...

Moose439
Moose439's picture
Don't go to heaven where the angles fly...

Kick ass man, those are some big mu truckin fish. Makes me wonder if I'll ever see a report entitled "Pike Fishing The Apocolypse By Mike B". Cool report, glad your pops got his fish.

andy
andy's picture
Awesome stuff.

Sounds like something I would see in my dreams...thanks for the cool story and awesome photos, Mike!

Muskymags
Muskymags's picture
Very very cool!  So do you gu

Very very cool!  So do you guys ever get small Pike?  Monstorous Esox for sho!

 

RiverRat
RiverRat's picture
That is pretty intense man, g

That is pretty intense man, glad the trip didn't end up a skunk. Hopefully all that fire and ash gets under control soon.