My raison pour for writing this article is to provide a brief history of each of the lodges that once, and in some cases continue to operate in various incarnations on the big lake, including information regarding their outpost camps, available side trips/fly outs, and much more.

Having missed 2 consecutive years, the first by Government fiat with the second being self-imposed, despite numerous challenges which I will outline in due course, we finally made it – barely…

While it probably comes as no surprise that Great Bear Lake’s legendary reputation is based primarily on the world class angling it offers but having said that the “Bear” and its environs also provides the visitor with many other unique opportunities to do something other than fish, which at first blush may not be readily apparent to those who have a singular focus.

Thanks to the Plummers family we dodged a bullet that for most of us was not even on our radar.

https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1964/10/17/how-wealthy-sportsmen-are-plundering-our-last-frontier?fbclid=IwAR1QH-IsuFIKBIfWabQ8jY1Iu1_wWfGfH4nO7HXA1ka8KXVgYT4d0XZp3Q0 

Having given Char fishing a miss last year, I decided that a return visit to the Tree River was in order, and together with GBL angling buddy Kenny Gold, we booked into the main lodge, with our sights set on being the first to fish the Tree since August of last year.

From the tying bench of Josh "Jelly" Gelinas comes a great early, mid-season Char fly - and it's not too shabby when it comes to Lake Trout either.

Anyone reading this who has either heard about, or been fortunate enough to visit the Tree River in Nunavut, is likely of the view that this little piece of heaven on earth is justifiably famous for both its breathtaking natural beauty and the world’s biggest Arctic Char.

I’m not going to go into too much detail regarding how to tie these because ANY WILL WORK WITH THE METHOD WE USE TO FISH THEM!