YELLOWKNIFE - A lodge owner anticipates that the coming fishing season will draw no better than the average number of fishermen to NWT lakes.

Norbert Vornbrock, of Pincher Creek, Alta., was one of many tourists to visit Trophy Lodge during the summer of 2006. - John Curran/NNSL photo

Jim Peterson, owner of Peterson's Point Lake Lodge, said he is approximately 60 per cent booked for the coming season, which is ahead of the number booked at this time last year.

"The old-timers that used to come up here years ago are dying off and there's no one really replacing them," Peterson said. "The newer generation doesn't seem to have the same interest."

The old-time guests would take three or four trips a season to Arctic fishing lodges, Peterson said, but people have less disposable income now.

"The first thing you want to do is cut out all the frills and a holiday would be it," he said.

To complicate matters further, Petersen expects that the strong Canadian dollar and new passport requirements will have an impact.

"It certainly hurts us as small business people because we charge our U.S. customers U.S. funds," Peterson said.

Wallace Finlayson of Trophy Lodge is more optimistic about the approaching fishing season. His lodge is 85 per cent booked, slightly lower than the same time last year.

Finlayson doesn't anticipate that the strong dollar and new passport requirements will hurt business.

"There's been many numbers of trends over the years. Right now I would say it's probably at an up trend."

The Tourism and Parks division of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment reports that there were 4,403 people in 2005-2006 whose primary reason for visiting the NWT was fishing.

That was up from 4,138 in the 2004-2005 season.

According to Tourism and Parks, visitors who travelled to the NWT to fish spent $8.3 million in 2005-2006, compared to $17.4 million spent by hunters and $13.4 million spent by aurora viewers during the same period.

Peterson complained that the territorial government isn't "pumping a lot of money into marketing fishing."

"With the few dollars NWT Tourism gets from the government, when you try to spread it across all the different sectors... we certainly don't get a lot of money out of it."

Peterson said that it's hard to compete with other jurisdictions that have tourism budgets of between $10 and $40 million.

The director of marketing with NWT Tourism was in New York at press time and was unable to comment on how much money is spent promoting fishing.