KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE - Good business, good friends and a good lifestyle; for former caribou outfitter and fishing lodge operator Gary Jaeb, Warburton Bay Lodge and Mackay Lake Lodge used to embody all of those things.

Yellowknife-area Mackay Lake Lodge and Warburton Bay Lodge, operated by True North Safaris, are both up for sale, as are two fishing/outfitting camps owned by Yellowknife outfitter Boyd Warner. In this photo, taken in 2005, Charlie Huddy and his son each reel in fish at Mackay Lake Lodge as guide Malcolm Jaeb helps get the net ready. - NNSL file photo

Now, as Jaeb looks to sell both those Yellowknife-area properties – businesses that doubled as fishing getaways and staging areas for caribou hunts – they're just liabilities, a sign that the good times for caribou outfitters are over, and the going isn't much easier for fishing lodges, either.

Last month, both Warburton and Mackay were put up for sale by Jaeb, whose family business, True North Safaris, operated the lodges since 1986 and 1989, respectively.

While Jaeb is currently doing some consulting work, his sons Daniel and Malcolm have found jobs in the mining sector.

It's a different situation from 10 years ago, when True North employed as many as 30 people during the hunting season and averaged 150 hunters, according to Jaeb.

"It was the caribou that really was our bread and butter, and all those other things were good little sidelines. But in themselves, they're not viable," he said.

With the caribou industry now gone, keeping the lodges running as fishing hot spots or lodgings for exploration companies is tougher and tougher to justify, continued Jaeb.

"These camps are liabilities in the sense that they're out there and we don't have a viable business. We don't have caribou hunts. The fishing market's down. (But) we have to maintain them. We have to maintain the land use leases, maintain insurance."

Greg Robertson, owner of Bluefish Services, which offers day-long fishing trips on Great Slave Lake, used to work as a guide for True North.

Sport fishing isn't enough to keep lodges like Jaeb's open, he agreed.

"Those lodges up in the barrenlands, without the caribou, I think they're pretty well done. It's very expensive to open them up and shut them down again."

True North isn't the only tourism operator with property on the market. Boyd Warner, owner of Adventure Northwest, is also selling two of his camps – Thonokeid Lake Camp, located 200 miles north of Yellowknife, and White Wolf Lake Camp, situated 180 miles north of the city.

Warner could not be reached for comment as of press time.

Both properties are listed as having the potential to cater to the sport fishing and outfitting markets on Coldwell Banker's site.

As for Jaeb, he expressed doubt about whether his lodges will get any bites.

"Nobody's really looking to buy lodges in the Northwest Territories," he said.

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