Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - "It's a big one," shouts Bob Davies, as his fly rod doubles over while trolling across a weedy patch of water a short distance from Enodah Trout Rock Lodge on Great Slave Lake's North Arm.

It's a common statement to make out here. The water is full of big fish, Northern pike to be exact, although there are also lots of feisty little ones too - all doing their best to match the pull of their larger brethren.

The giveaway sign of what's on your line is the weed trail. A smaller pike will zip around just under the surface and tire within a few minutes, quickly ending any pretensions that it could be a bigger fish. The giant ones though - the 40-plus inchers - dive deep through the weeds to the bottom, dragging line and leader with them.

By the time the angler has a monster pike within 30 feet of the boat, another two or three pounds of weeds have been added to the insistent weight pulling at the end of the line.

This is the annual Trout Rock fly fishing derby, and the weed trail is a very good sign for anyone taking part in it. See enough of them and you're sure to be the one holding the trophy at the end of the two-day weekend event and with your face on next year's poster.

Unless, of course, the leader gives out or the pike comes unpinned. There are a lot of heartbreakers swimming in the North Arm.

But not for Davies Sunday afternoon. He lands his fish - all 44 inches of it - and plus the clump of weeds that came with it.

"I was amazed by the weed trail," said Davies, branch manager for Ek'ati Services Ltd., which caters to the diamond mines and which also offered the food served during the derby. "I wasn't expecting that."

Trout Rock's fly fishing derby is in its 14th year. Most anglers, Northerners and anyone else in Canada for that matter, place Northern pike near the bottom of preferred catches - somewhere in between suckers and lingcod - but they're becoming increasingly popular among the fly fishing crowd.

Unbeknownst to lodge owner Ragnar Wesstrom, Trout Rock was featured in the book "50 Places to Fly Fish Before You Die" - a tome of recommendations made by fly fishers around the world.

Guests show up after reading the book with their steelhead gear in tow and no spin casting rods in sight.

This year has been particularly good. The typical pike season at Trout Rock is only six weeks long. They spawn after ice out and stay in the shallows around the myriad islands near the lodge, feeding on baitfish and each other before departing to deeper waters in mid-summer. The derby wraps up the season.

We've had lots of big fish this year," said Wesstrom.

"Last year spring came late and there weren't that many big ones around."

The biggest pike caught at Trout Rock this year was 53 inches with an estimated weight of almost 40 pounds - just shy of the North American record. Nothing that big was caught in this year's derby, although one competing boat claims to have seen one.

Unlike Davies, Audie MacDonnell had to suffer through his heartbreaker. A 50-plus inch fish was on his line but got away.

"It got wrapped around the anchor and the fly popped out," said MacDonnell. "That's the way it goes."

MacDonnell received some consolation later after he landed a 43-inch pike - good enough to put him into third place and better than Davies' fifth place total.

His fishing partner, Yellowknife's Ivo Mitev, went on to win this year's derby - his second in a row. Like last year, his biggest fish - a 45-incher - was caught within the last 10 minutes of the competition.

Mitev, who took on the nickname "Dr. Ivo (pronounced Evo) because of his resemblance to the Mike Myers character Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers film series, fly fishes all around the world.

His next two trips include an excursion to Mongolia to fish for Taimen - a gigantic salmon-like fish of central Asia - and to Botswana for tiger fish, which is noted for its two-inch, saber-like teeth.

Mitev is an obviously experienced fly fisherman. As last year's winner, the weekend's competition took on an air of everybody else against him. Friendly trash talk ruled the day.

"I'm expecting a year's worth of ass-kissing," said Mitev.

"My daughter told me if you win again don't make those remarks like last year," he added, with a shrug.

"We saw the gulls (chasing baitfish which also drew in the big pike), and closed in and finished the business," reasoned his guide Jim Golchert, who learned that his wife had given birth to a baby daughter back in Yellowknife the day before.

With Mitev's second championship complete, it came time for the prizes - a table-ful of gear supplied by First Air and Wolverine Guns and Tackle. Everybody got something, even those at the bottom.

"I think we need a new rule - no more professionals," huffed Martin Verschuren, at least in jest. He came in sixth.

He has been trying his luck at the derby for six years now. There's always next year. Verschuren, who rarely fly fishes except at Trout Rock and owns little fly gear of his own, looked over the prize table for anything that might improve his chances next year.

"I'm going to do it, I'm going to be a fisherman," he said.