KAKISA - A total of 126 fish swimming in Kakisa River had close encounters of the human kind between May 4 and 6.

For those three days, six students from Charles Yohin school in Nahanni Butte and three students from Kakisa Lake school practised their fly-fishing skills on the river. The prolific student anglers had some professional help.

The students started their fishing experience with individual lessons on fly tying from members of the Canadian National Fly-Fishing Team, said Wayne Ingarfield, a teacher at Charles Yohin school. Mac Stark, an angler who's promoting fly-fishing to youth in the territories, arranged the meeting.

The team happened to be in Kakisa practising on the grayling run and volunteered to help the students, said Ingarfield.

"It worked out perfectly," he said.

After tying their flies the students headed into the river in chest-waders to see if they would fool the fish.

This was the third year students from Nahanni Butte have been taken fly-fishing in Kakisa. It was also the best year yet for grayling.

"It was spectacular," said Ingarfield.

Of the 126 fish that students caught, approximately 99 per cent were grayling, said Ingarfield. The students also caught every other kind of fish the river had to offer including some pike, pickerel, whitefish and suckers.

With 21 fish captured, Melvin Vital was given the honorary title of "Graylinator." He beat out last year's top student angler by one fish, said Ingarfield.

Every fish that the students caught was released. The catch and release policy was part of the trip's theme of promoting sport fishing, he said.

The trip was part of a program sponsored by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) aimed at exposing youth to careers around the North, specifically in tourism. Students were shown that if they enjoy the outdoors, being a guide for fishers is a possible career, said Ingarfield.

Jarvis Tsetso, 17, thinks he'll stick to fishing as a pastime, but said the trip was lots of fun.

Fly fishing isn't as hard as it looks according to Tsetso.

"It's easy," he said.

Tsetso admitted that he got his line tangled a few times, but still managed to catch around 20 fish. Casting the line is all about timing, he said.

Tsetso credited some of his success to tying a fly that looked like a stone fly, a bug that graylings like to eat.

Catching fish is definitely the best part of fly-fishing, said Logan Matou, 10. He personally caught 10 fish with the flies he made to look like stone flies and bumblebees.

While catching fish was also the best part for Dalton Simba, 10, he noted that you need some patience.

Sometimes you need to make a lot of casts before catching a fish," he said.

Students really take to fly- fishing, especially when there are lots of fish to catch, said Ingarfield.

"It's quantity, not quality to get them hooked," Ingarfield said.