3-7 SS Old Days

Remembering the old days when fish were huge, the water was clear and the storyteller became a star in the NHL. Dennis Hextall who was a perennial star for the Detroit Red Wings back in the old days spent his youth as a hunting and fishing guide in Canada. He is an old buddy of mine and we reminisced a while ago about fishing up by the Arctic Circle. "We were after mainly the big lake trout and we fished Arctic Grayling which was a lot of fun because it gave us guys the opportunity to fish also. We would fish them just above or below the fast water. Most of the time they would fly us in in the morning and then pick us up late at night. Generally the big lake trout you would get into lunkers, every week somebody would get 20 pounds plus. When I say everybody I mean in the boat. We guided out of 16 foot aluminum boats with 20 hp Mercury's. Each guide had 2 men and you had them all week. Now exactly where was this Lake? Great Bear Lake which is right in the Arctic circle about 900 miles North of Edmonton Alberta. It was basically light tackle because you didn't go down very deep. The water was deep but you weren't fishing really deep. Most of the time we were just trolling but you could see in the water 30 to 40 feet down. You would think well I will just jump in and walk over here. Well if you jumped in it wasn't 2 feet deep it was 50 feet deep. That's how clear the water was.