Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 17/01) - When fish are needed for a feast in Trout Lake, there's one man the community can always turn to: Joe Punch.

Punch has a knack for pulling in nets full of trout and pickerel. He's also handy with a fishing rod. But bountiful Trout Lake offers a distinct advantage, he acknowledged.

Robert Larson, of Fort Providence, lands a Mackenzie River jackfish that measures nearly one metre in length and tips the scales at five kilograms. - Dave Sullivan/NNSL photo

"Our son-in-law, he's eight years old, he does his own fishing just at the beach, and he'll catch eight pickerel. It's pretty easy," he laughed.

When he's not fishing to feed neighbours and visitors, Punch periodically guides holidaying anglers on the local waterways. Last week he was out with some travellers from Rainbow Lake, Alta. He can't assure them they'll land a catch as big as his own -- he's pulled in more than one trout in the 30-kilogram range, measuring over a metre in length, he said. Just this past spring, his brother, Andrew Lomen, hauled in a net with a monstrous 33-kilogram trout entangled inside.

"That's a record. He said so," Punch said, adding that he has more than 200 pictures to authenticate his claims.

Down the road in Fort Providence, Serge Levasseur has no tales of enormous fish, but he catches his fair share of three-to four-kg pickerel along the Horn River. He loves to roll them in flour and fry them in butter.

"Ohhh, it's very good," he said.

Using a bulldog (horsefly) on the line greatly increases your chances of hooking a fish, he suggested. Otherwise, he uses a variety of coloured lures. He's had the most success with a green jig, he said.

But he'll readily admit that there are no guarantees.

"It's like hunting," he said. "I've seen the odd time out there not catching a single one."