South Slave gold

It was my wife's birthday last weekend so to do something different we went to Hay River!

Hay River, the community, is a town of 4,000 people at the mouth of the river bearing its name, which flows into the southern shore of Great Slave Lake. It's remarkable for several large waterfalls along its route and pretty scenery. Of course, there had to be at least some fishing involved if I was going to be near a river. Our main quarry were goldeye, which are delicious when smoked. In Winnipeg, MB, it's known as "Winnipeg smoked goldeye" and is sold in the best restaurants in the city. Here, most people wouldn't know it if it jumped out of a river and onto their dinner plate.
All we had to do was find them. I know they exist in some of the rivers of the South Slave, but they're not always easy to find. We tried the Hay River itself, but all we found were pesky walleye.

The next day we drove further down the highway to the Buffalo River, where I caught one solitary but enormous goldeye four years ago more than two pounds in weight. It's a broad, muddy, fast-flowing river flowing in from Wood Buffalo National Park.

I got a hit on a sinking nymph fly from what I believed was a large goldeye right away, but nothing doing for half an hour after that. I switched to a small spinner, but again more walleye.

After walking up and down the river for an hour and catching nothing but walleye, I went back to the spot where I Iost the first fish, casted a fly and blammo! I had a fish on, and it was a goldeye, but, but, oh know! It got away! I cast again, and another fish was on for a full 30 seconds, but it too came unpinned. Cara was getting tired of this, and reminded me we had a six hour drive back home, but I begged for one more cast. Another fish, and I baby it to shore. Yes, my first goldeye in four years!

I managed a few casts, lost one more fish, and landed another. Both fish I landed the hook popped out immediately. There's not much in their mouths to hold them in there.

Anyway, I quite like this fish, and I'm going to love eating it tomorrow night!

 

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