Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 27/98) - For Vinko Strbac, Jackfish Lake has lived up to its name.

He hauled a trophy northern pike out of the lake Tuesday afternoon. "One hour, it took one hour" to land the fish," he said.

Strbac, who works for Kingland Ford in Yellowknife, said he often fishes at Jackfish Lake. Where he reeled in the monster is a popular spot -- it's just a few metres from the highway.

"I was using my son's fishing rod," he said.

To catch the pike, Strbac used a neon blue Williams Wobler spoon suspended by a slip bobber.

Strbac did not have a scale or a tape measure handy but a rough guess puts the big one at about 45 inches long. It could top 25 pounds.

"There's always big fish in that lake," Wolverine Sports owner Dale Johnston said.

Johnston also said about 15 years ago there was a plan to stock Jackfish Lake with rainbow trout. The lake was netted and a pike weighed in at 38 pounds. But the stocking was abandoned.

The NWT Power Corp. uses water from Jackfish Lake to cool its diesel engines. Water returned to Jackfish raises the lakes temperature promoting vegetation and bait-fish activity.

"The conditions are ideal. We're surprised there aren't more people fishing it," he said.

After Tuesday's catch, there just might be.