Sport Fishing

The excellent sport fishing of the more accessible
streams and lakes of northern British Columbia and Yukon
is widely known. The principal game species are rainbow
and cut-throat trout, Dolly Varden trout, steelhead, and
grayling. The tributaries of the Skeena and Nass Rivers
and headwaters of the Fraser River furnish some of the
best fishing on the continent, and while many of the finest
streams and lakes present some difficulty of access, they offer
a challenge to the sportsman, acceptance of which will be
wellrewarded. Areas formerly too remote or difficult of
approach are now made accessible by highway and air.
This is also true in Yukon where, in a setting of mountains
of exceptional grandeur and beauty in a summer climate
that is genial and dry, there are now many good rivers and
lakes accessible without great trouble or expense.

Among the most attractive of the game fish is the
grayling or blue-fish. It rises readily to the fly, is attractive
in appearance, and tasty for the table. Grayling are often
so plentiful that fishermen have reported taking them on
fly at the rate of thirty an hour.

Lake trout are widely distributed, reach a large size,
and are of excellent quality. In these northern lakes, the
lake trout are not forced into deep water by the warming
of the water in the surface layers, and hence deep trolling

is not necessary as it is, in summer, in more southerly
localities.

3681—55

For sportsmen seeking more distant fields, the North-
west Territories offer many attractions. Great Slave Lake
is famous for its lake trout, airplanes having been used
to reach this spot for years. The trout are numerous and
readily taken by casting from shore. The wonderful cliffs
and channels of the East Arm add to the charm of fishing
in this out-of-the-way area. Grayling are especially abundant
along the rocky north shore, in the mouths of tributary
streams and in the river channels at the west end of the
lake. There is excellent lake trout fishing in Great Bear
Lake and the source of the Bear River near Fort Franklin,
on Great Bear Lake, offers unique sport in grayling. At
this point, Professor J. R. Dymond, of the Fisheries Research
Board of Canada, has reported: “Grayling leap here all
summer and are readily taken on the fly”. Professor
Wynne-Edwards reports that grayling may be taken in the
Mackenzie River at almost all localities, from Providence
to Arctic Red River, and are also abundant in the clear
tributaries.

The Fisheries Research Board is actively extending its
studies in the Northwest Territories and also in Yukon,
where it is intended shortly to revise the Fishery Regula
tions making proper provision for the development of sport
fishing and for the enlistment of expert local advice in its
control and administration. A) great expansion of the
tourist industry in this hospitable and supremely beautiful
country may be confidently expected.

() Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Bulletin LXXII.

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