by John Cleveland

As my friend Patrick Walsh and Ientered the narrow side door of the CessnaCaravan in Yellowknife, I couldn’t recallever having a bad day after getting into afloatplane to fish in Canada’s pristinenorthern wilderness. We were lookingforward to an awesome ice-out pikeadventure. In less than an hour the TwinOtter had arrived at Lac La MartreAdventures in the Northwest Territories.We set up our tackle in anticipation ofcatching big pike in shallow water—thepike did not disappoint.

Fish early springFishing is about being in the right

place at the right time and discovering therhythm of a fish during a particularperiod. There are few better times of theyear to catch a “trophy of a lifetime” thanduring the weeks after the ice has meltedon a lake inhabited by good numbers oflarge pike. Ice-out is a window ofopportunity to catch trophy fish inquantity because the large female pike areconcentrated in predicable locations for afew magical weeks of shallow-wateraction. In the early spring large pike willbe found in areas that warm up early suchas shallow dark-bottom bays, flats andespecially areas that have creeks or smallriver channels flowing into them. Thenorthern pike begins its spawning ritualswhen the water temperatures are in themid-30s to 45 degrees. Pike deposit theireggs in the weeds and other vegetation in

these shallow areas and remain in thesewarmer areas after spawning to recover.They begin to feed with gusto as the risingtemperatures energize their metabolisms.The large females will remain in thisshallow water until it reaches the mid-40sto 50 degrees and then will migrate to thedeeper, cooler water they prefer during thesummer.

Pike will be looking for high-proteinmeals that take little effort to capture asthey recover from the rigors of the spawn.Relatively small baits such as the 3/4- and1-ounce Dardevle spoons worked slowlythrough the water column can beextremely effective on early-season pike.Using a plastic trailer on a spoon to add anelement of seductive action is alsoeffective for enticing big post-spawn piketo attack. For the fly angler, articulatedBunny flies, Clouser minnows andMurdich minnows are three favoriteofferings when the pike are being finickyand need a more nuanced presentationthan most hard baits are capable of. Ialways recommend heavy tackle whenpursuing large trophy pike. A medium-heavy, 7-foot spinning or bait-casting rod,and at least a 9-weight fly rod areminimum standards to properly handle bigfish.

Big spoons in skinny waterAn excellent early-spring spoon

January 2016Page 72 MidWest Outdoors “Helping you enjoy the outdoors”

Trophy Adventures in the Northwest Territories

Twenty-two-pound lake trout taken on a 1-ounce ‘Gray Ghost’ Dardevle spoon.

A collection of some of John Cleveland’s favoritespoons and flies for ice-out pike in the NorthwestTerritories.

Large lightweight flutter spoons enable you toeffectively fish shallow water in the spring.

Fly rod catch and release, line-class, world-record ice-out pike.

technique is to use a large lightweightflutter spoon with a single hook in shallowwater. It will enable you to keep the spoonmoving slow and seductively withoutgetting snagged on shallow structure. TheEppinger Dardevle Big Ed flutter spoonworked like a charm one morning as wefished a skinny water bay catching adozen marauding pike in water less than18 inches deep. This would not have beenpossible with a heavy casting spoon.Large flutter spoons are also very effectivelater in the season when weed beds arejust a foot or two below the surface. Youcan run these lightweight spoons slowlyjust under the surface of heavy weed bedsand pick up large pike, otherwiseinaccessible with other presentations.

Enamored by tradition Spoon fishing and fly fishing are two

of the oldest, most traditional methods ofpresenting artificial lures to fish. Beingmarketing director of EppingerManufacturing Company has enabled meto experience many incredible fishingvenues in North America and has quiteliterally fed my family for the past 15years. Fly fishing has been my passionand has fed my soul with its wonder,beauty and mystique for over 50 years.Spoons and flies are simply my favorites,and I believe the most effective deliverysystems to the magic world of fishing. Iuse both to my full advantage whenpursuing large predatory fish.

The Gray Ghost and the trout bayAs I stood on the deck in front of the

lodge at dawn sipping my first cup ofcoffee on day three, I had a feeling thiswould be a special day. The wind hadsubsided and the surface of the lake hadsmoothed out to a slate-like flatness. Itwould be a good day to travel and that’sjust what we did. We headed for the northside of the lake for what had the potentialto be an outstanding day of early-springfishing for both lake trout and pike. I hadfished this area last July with my son Daveand knew it could be one of the highlightsof the trip—if the fish were on like lastyear. We had already enjoyed twoexcellent days of fishing, albeit with thewind blowing 15 to 25 mph making fordifficult, yet manageable sight-fishing.Our guide Zack Brown has just led us toover 100 pike in the 8- to 12-pound rangeand 8 to 10 pike over 40 inches in twodays, including a beautiful pike thatqualified as a fly fishing line-class catchand release world record on day two!

As we entered the bay, Zack told us toget our spoons in the water as we wereentering a trough that often had some nicetrout in it. Not a minute later, my rod wasstruck by lake trout “lightning” and Ireeled in a powerful 15-pound trout. Iquickly released it and within minutes hadanother trout on. This time it was a 20-pound fish that had inhaled my 1-ounceBlack Pearl Dardevle, nicknamed the“Gray Ghost,” and put up a stubbornunderwater battle before finally surfacingto Zack’s net. This scenario repeated itself7 or 8 times in a 30-minute period, and I

was feeling pretty successful while myfriend Patrick figured I must be cheatingas he had not even had a bump on hisCopper and Chartreuse Dardevle. Feelingguilty, I gave Patrick the “Gray Ghost” ina gesture of friendship and camaraderie.He had a fish on almost immediately asthe spoon disappeared into the depths ofthe bay. I now watched as my friendcaught fish after fish in the mid-teens anda few over 20 pounds with my lucky BlackPearl spoon. The 1-ounce Five ofDiamonds I was offering was completelyignored by the trout. I figured this wouldbe a good time to break out my fly rod andtry trolling a large Black and Red Clouserminnow fly. The Black Clouser wasalmost immediately hit by a 25-poundtrout when it got to about 10 feet in thewater column. Lake trout put up an epicbattle on a fly rod, and this fish was noexception as it sounded for the bottom anddid his best to snap my fly rod for the next5 minutes before giving up to Zack’s net.Patrick tried his hand with his fly rod withthe same impressive results. We proceededto catch almost 20 lake trout with nine ofthem weighing between 22 and 28 poundson 1-ounce Gray Ghost Dardevle spoonsand Black Clouser flies. What an awesomesurprise for an ice-out pike trip! Zack hadnever had a guest fly fish for lake trout.And he was pretty impressed with howeffective large streamer flies are for biglake trout, and also surprised that a blackspoon and fly would attract big trout likethe force of gravity.

Mousing mayhemLate in the afternoon Zack suggested

we check out a couple of bays that hadpotential for topwater action. We hadalready caught nine lake trout over 20pounds and several pike over 40 inches.There would be more surprises to comebefore we headed back to the lodge. Weentered the bay through a cut between tworocky peninsulas to find a flat, windlesswhiskey-colored bay only a few feet deepwith dozens of log-like serpents prowlingunder the surface. Neither of us hadthought to bring any topwater baits for ourspinning gear, but I did have a fewfloating foam mouse flies and weproceeded to lob them at the cruising pike.The reaction was swift and raucous asthree or four pike at a time would swarmat the flies like wolves to a kill and T-bonethem with the swagger only big pike canproduce while launching themselvesseveral feet out of the water like acrobaticcrocodiles. We were now in the middle of

a spectacular topwater pike bite. We hadhits on almost every cast, but the hook-uprate was only about 50 percent, as the pikewere so aggressive they often missed themouse or we would short-strike the fish inanticipation as they torpedoed the fly withan explosive splash. We spent the nextcouple of hours immersed in “mousing”mayhem. That afternoon we caughtseveral pike over 40 inches and dozens inthe 30- to 35-inch range, all whilechugging small black mouse flies acrossthe surface of the bay. You can bet the nextpike trip I won’t forget to bring a fewtopwater baits with me for my spinningrig.

In all the years I have fished, this daywill stand as one of the most spectacular,with a mix of trophy pike, shallow-waterlake trout over 20 pounds and anunbelievable topwater circus. As the daycame to a close, Mother Nature treated usto a beautiful display of tumbling cloudsrolling across the mirror-like surface ofthe lake as we headed toward the lodge forrest and reflection here in the NorthwestTerritories. MWO

John Cleveland is marketing director forEppinger Manufacturing Company and may becontacted at john@eppinger.net or 313-582-3205.

Page 73January 2016 MidWest Outdoors “Helping you enjoy the outdoors”

Book your dream adventure today!Lac La Martre Adventures – Where dreams are made and records broken

Give us a call for the trip of a lifetime:Greg Dussome1-877-335-8855Email: sherrid@telus.net

Dave Thompson1-810-334-9381gobluedave@comcast.net

www.nwtfishing.com

Patrick Walsh with a 27-pound, shallow-water spring lake trout.

Topwater pike action was spectacular in the lateafternoon.

Zack Brown putting the sizzle on lunch.

For more information...For more information contact Eppinger

Manufacturing Company eppinger.net. Visit or contact Lac La Martre

Adventures at nwtfishing.com. Contact Greg Dussome at 877-335-

8855 or sherrid@telus.net. Contact DaveThompson at 810-334-9381 orgobluedave@comcast.net.