An article for the fisherman or hunter planning to book a fly-in fishing or hunting trip and choose an outfitter and do it right the first time.
Allow me to dismiss the usual factors that one considers when planning a fly-in fishing or hunting trip, and cut to the heart of the matter to identify the most important quality to judge. For just a moment or two, allow me discard the subjects of driving time, gas, expense, food, accommodations, boats, motors and guides. These subjects take second position to the first consideration to make - the fishing! (Go to Moose Hunting for that argument.) Please don't skip to the last two lines of this article. What you read there now will spoil my ending. I want two minutes of your time to build you up to a realization of something exciting and almost beyond belief as it relates to true fly-in fishing!
A fly-in fishing or hunting trip is the ultimate fishing experience in the pristine wilderness on a lake or river in the Canadian or Alaskan frontier. A fly-in hunting trip is the ultimate outdoors vacation one can have in the north. Every year, experienced old timers return to their favorite outfitter for another few days in God's country to catch some fish and relax. Yearly, new fly-in fishermen and hunters realize their dreams and find a way to afford the fishing or hunting trip for the first time. Realizing the dream gets harder for both these fishermen because the true untouched northern wilderness can only now be found in the regions north of 50. Areas to the south are under pressure from too many fishermen. The same argument applies to Moose Hunting.
A fly-in fishing trip starts with a long car journey to the seaplane base of the outfitter or it begins after a complicated series of flights from a city hub to some northern city and then to a regional airline or to a car route to finally get to the operators float plane base. Either way, getting there is time consuming, tiring and expensive. Its no wonder that fly-in operators from cities closer to population centers do a brisk business, even in slow economic times. Their customers can get there faster, cheaper and with less effort. The lower overall cost of the fly-in trip is appealing.
Today, there are many operators flying fishermen to outpost camps on lakes that are fished every week, summer after summer despite the remoteness of the location. Do they catch fish? Yes they do but do these fishermen actually experience the ultimate fly-in fishing trip? Sadly, the answer is no.
One must go north of 50 (latitude 50) to find the tens of thousands of forgotten lakes! The secret to finding the ultimate fly-in fishing location north of 50 is simple. Go to a lake that has never been fished! Northern Ontario of over 100,000 square miles in area and tens of thousands of unnamed lakes. Northern Ontario is many times bigger than some US States and bigger than many other Canadian Provinces. North of 50 one can find true fly-in fishing!
While fly-in outposts are comfortable, even luxurious by some standards, they are fixed to the land and fishermen use them week after week, creating a constant pressure on the lakes they border. I acknowledge that the fishing outpost is a great concept but some are over used and lakes are over fished. To experience true untouched wilderness fishing you have to go to a fair minded outfitter north of 50 who regularly moves his camps to new untouched, forgotten and never before fished wilderness lakes. It's easy to test these lakes. On lands his float plane, turns off the engine, climbs down to the float and casts a lure from the drifting float plane. You can't cast far from a float plane as the wing and struts and propeller get in the way. One develops an underhanded or side handed casting technique. If you cast ten times and catch ten fish, you have found a new lake prime for a few weeks of fly-in fishing. You never reveal the name of the lake (if it has one). It becomes a secret GPS reference only.
Yes, expense, comfort, service and safety are to be considered. I will allow that safety as the most other important consideration to make. Our airline is organized and managed to the best level of training and maintenance you would expect from an owner who was also trained by and became experienced as an international airline pilot. That's me. But by the way, I was also raised in the Canadian wilderness and was guiding moose hunters long before I learned to fly with a briefcase!
Fly-in fishing should provide you with some fish, even lots of fish. A true northern wilderness fly-in fishing lake north of 50, where you can find a beach and set up a comfortable tent camp and fish all day long, will provide you with two hundred fish per day. This is what my pilots and guides mean when we talk fly-in fishing!
We apply this kind or explanation to fly-in Moose hunting too.
Sincerely,
Clayton Downton,
