Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 03/02) - Scott Naylor's passion is fishing and a few years back he jumped to Great Slave Lake's big leagues. Three years ago the 20-year resident of the North -- who moved to Yellowknife in 1985 -- bought a 24-foot Crestliner, a boat built for the vast distances of "The Big Lake."

Scott Naylor is looking forward to hoisting a more lunker lakers like this one from the waters of the East Arm this summer. - Richard Gleeson/NNSL photo

Yellowknifelife: Have you always fished?

Scott Naylor: I've had the bug in me since the time I was five or six years old. I always went fishing with my dad, on father and son trips, when I was a kid.

Yellowknifelife: So coming up here, living in different places, you've had a chance to try a few different spots.

SN: I didn't do too much fishing out of Hay River, though you can. But up in Cambridge Bay the trout fishing and the char fishing was unbelievable. You could walk out of the office and within 15 minutes you could catch your dinner.

Yellowknifelife: Char?

SN: Yeah. They run twice a year, in the spring and the fall. You just cast your line out in the river and you pick one up in a matter of minutes, no problem.

There was also big trout in the lakes outside of town.

Yellowknifelife: As big as you get down here?

SN: Just as big, if not bigger.

Yellowknifelife: What's the appeal of fishing?

SN: It's a sport. I'm a catch-and-release guy, so I just get a good charge from hooking a fish and having a good fight with it. I probably throw 95 per cent of my fish back.

Grayling fishing is a little bit more precise. You use smaller tackle and can get into tying your own flies. It can develop into a really nice hobby. But I like the big trout fishing on Great Slave Lake.

Yellowknifelife: Is the East Arm your favourite place to fish?

SN: It is now. I had a smaller boat, a 16-foot boat for about 10 years, up until about three years ago. I did all of the little lakes along the Ingraham Trail -- Walsh Lake, Prosperous, Prelude -- and had a good time fishing those lakes. But the boat just wasn't big enough to take me on a trip 120 miles out into the East Arm. So I sold that boat and bought a big one that was better equipped to get me out there.

Now I put that boat on Great Slave once in the spring and that's it, and try to get out to the East Arm as much as I can through the course of the summer.

Yellowknifelife: What made you want to get out to the East Arm?

SN: It's just more exciting fishing. You can have a good time fishing the smaller lakes, too, but the bigger the lake the bigger the fish.

And Great Slave Lake is a world-class lake. It's 300 miles long and 1,000 feet or more deep in places. And it's spectacular country out there and extremely appealing in the long summer days.

So it's really enjoyable and the fishing is always really good. Some days are slower than others, but for the most part its a great place to spend an afternoon trolling.

Yellowknifelife: Do you recall the first time you were out there?

SN: It was a fly-in fishing trip. I flew out with a group of guys to the Narrow Islands and spent four or five days out there. We camped and had little Zodiacs to putter around the bays and had a good time trout fishing.

Take a couple of boxes of food and some sleeping bags and some tents and your fishing gear and a couple of boxes of beer and you're all set to go.

Yellowknifelife: Is that part of the appeal, too, how nice the countryside is? Or would it be just as good if the fish were as big and there were houses on the banks and it was more crowded on the water?

SN: I enjoy the scenery and the pleasantness of the environment up here. There's not a whole lot of people on the East Arm in the summer. The peace and tranquillity is nice. The long summer days are beautiful and, of course, the topography out there is spectacular, the huge cliffs.

Yellowknifelife: What's the biggest fish you caught out there?

SN: The biggest I caught so far was a 33-pound trout.

Yellowknifelife: Was that bigger than any of the ones that got away?

SN: I don't know if I've hooked any bigger than that. You never like to say you lost a big one, but it does happen. It's pretty common to catch fish between 15 and 25 pounds out there. You spend any time at all and you're going to have pretty good success in that range.

Yellowknifelife: How well do you know the East Arm?

SN: I've only spent two summers out there in my own boat, so I'm still exploring and finding new spots. I'm having a good time doing that. There's some fantastic places on the lake. I'm looking forward to spending a number of years exploring the lake.

Yellowknifelife: Ever had a taste of any of the bad weather you can get out there?

SN: It's pretty wide open country so it doesn't take long for the wind to whip up pretty seriously. You have to go prepared, for sure.

It's a long ride out there, too, so you have to make sure you're leaving in good weather to make the four-, five- or six-hour trip. You don't want to be running into six-foot swells on the lake. When you do that you're just wasting your gas and it's dangerous, so you should pull into shore and wait it out.

I think last year I did four trips and probably a couple of them I had to pull over and spend extra time on shore and wait for the weather to pass. Mother Nature can play her tricks and you have to always make the right decision. Don't put yourself in jeopardy, always do the smart thing.

Yellowknifelife: There's a lot of people in town who have never hooked a trout, and many who have never had one on that's more than five pounds. How much different from an average Ingraham Trail trout does a big East Arm trout feel on the line?

SN: For one thing, you have to have the right fishing equipment for the job. If you're going after 25-to-30-pound trout, you need a boat-weight rod and big reel that cranks around nice and smooth.

When the larger fish take the lure, there's no mistaking it. They're normally stronger than you are for the first part of the fight. So you're going to be giving up line to them and giving them space to swim around. Sometimes it will take 10 or 15 minutes before it begins to feel like you're tiring it out or getting anything back on it.

It can be tiring on the arms, too, when you spend 25 or 30 minutes bringing in a fish. Use the right equipment and hang in there as long as you can.

It's a great feeling, catching a big fish and releasing it.