Yellowknife (July 21/03) - Ragnar Wesstrom, originally from Sweden, came to the NWT in 1987, fell in love with place, and decided this was the place to be.

In 1991, he opened Enodah Trout Rock Lodge on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. The lodge emphasizes several hunting and fishing activities but their speciality is Northern pike -- quite possibly some of the largest to ever grace North American waters.

News/North: So what does it feel like to catch a huge pike on a fly rod?

Ragnar Wesstrom: Well, one story that comes to mind is this lady from Seattle, Wash. She really wasn't a professional fly fishing woman, but her husband was a professional fly fishing instructor. They were here for a week and they fished together and I was guiding them. Every day her husband was telling her what to do: "Don't do that, don't do this," and every single day, up until the last day, she out fished him. She caught the biggest fish every day between the two of them.

Then on the last day, we were out on Moose Bay, she hooked into this one on the wall there (trophy at the lodge), and I'm not lying -- she fought that thing for over a half an hour. She must've had five or six orgasms... She was just shaking, she was so excited, pleased, of course. It was 46 inches on the fly. Her husband couldn't say anything.

N/N: What's the main difference between fly fishing and spin casting for pike?

RW: It's more work, more exercise. You get tired especially on a windy day, and down here with the heavy weight lines and the big, big streamers doesn't make it any easier. But it's more honest. It's like with rifle hunting and bow hunting. Bow hunting is more honest, kind of. I think it's a little bit of the same with casting and fly fishing. It's more real because you're actually spending more time learning how to do it.

N/N: So you're a bit of an adventure guy. You grew up in Sweden, and you travelled the world as a big game hunter.

RW: I was a merchant marine since I was 16. I travelled the world from 1974 to 1979: Super tankers, boat carriers, chemical tankers, you name it. It was like I dream, I just loved it but they got too heavily unionized, this Swedish company I worked for, and they just demanded more, (wanted to) strike more, so the company said the hell with it.

N/N: Then you went off on your world journey?

RW: Well, after that I started my own company in Stockholm. I had a courier service and did very good. Then in 1984 I travelled to Alberta on a big game hunt. That was the first time I was in Canada. I really fell in love with the country, the people, the nature and the scenery. The hunting, fishing and outdoor attitude that's over here is the same as Sweden. We're an outdoors people.

So in '86, I sold my company and travelled around the world with my buddy Mike. Basically what we did was travel around the world one year just hunting, fishing, and partying. We came back to Canada in '87. Drove up to Yellowknife mid-summer, met my wife the first night (Doreen).

N/N: So how did Enodah get started?

RW: Well, she (Doreen) was born out at that red cabin over there (close to the lodge), that's where she grew up. So we went down here, on the Ski-Doo first and then by boat. There was nothing here, the red cabin was falling apart. I just saw the potential. I just fell in love with the place, I mean holy, this is paradise: No people, pristine wilderness. So we started renovating, fixing up her cabin a little bit. Then we got our licence I think '91 or '92 and put up tent frames to accommodate customers and hunters until 1998. That's when we built the lodge and the fixed cabins.

N/N: What's the basic philosophy behind Enodah?

RW: What we are, and this came from our Tempura guide (Mike Harrison), we are the custodians of the land down here. We preserve the environment, the culture. We make sure we teach other people about the land, culture, and the history of this beautiful, beautiful area.

N/N: Two of your guides (Chief guide Jonas Noel and Frank Drygeese) grew up here too.

RW: Frankie and Jonas were born and raised here. They've been with us since day one. The house Frank has is down here, Jonas lives in camp year round. So it kind of benefitted them in a way and also benefitted us because of their traditional knowledge and their knowledge of the lake, fishing and everything.

N/N: One of the things I've noticed about fishing lodges in the North is that they're usually very focused on one thing, like sticking to fishing for lunker trout or grayling. You guys always seem willing to do something different.

RW: You have to be inventive because with outfitters, people think it's an easy business. It's very tough. You compete with the rest of the world. You're not only competing with different lodges in the Northwest Territories, you're competing with the rest of the world.

You have to be innovative during the off-season to come up with products or services you can sell just to maintain the standard for the summer. So, we were fortunate when we got involved with the Japanese, and that's a big part of our business during the winter time. We introduced duck hunting in September. We've got ducks coming in from all four flyways. That's very, very unusual. We do caribou hunts up on the Barren Grounds.

N/N: You've been holding an annual fly fishing pike derby for 10 years now. How's that shaped up over the years?

RW: We've pretty much been fully booked since we started. It started with ourselves, Wolverine Sports Shop, and at that time NWT Air. Then over the years, NWT Air switched over to First Air but they still support us as a sponsor. Now we have Air Tindi as a sponsor, and Coyotes Bar and Grill, and Fenwick (Fly Rods). They've always been on board too.

It's just a fun event. It's reasonably priced for the local market. We don't make any money on it. It's just kind of giving back to the community. As you've seen yourself the fishing is very good, even into July now.

N/N: What was the largest fish ever caught here?

RW: The largest fish we caught here sport fishing on the rod was 56 inches. We had a 68 inch pike caught in a net. Jonas and Frank, they live here year round, so we had a whitefish run come through here in November/December. So they fish for whitefish and sometimes they catch these monster, monster pike... So there is potential here to catch records.