Early on the morning of August 28, 2002, Al Scow, Jim Carlisle, Tom Carlisle, his wife Cinda, and cousin Jack Carlisle flew north on a long awaited fishing trip to the Inconnu Lodge in the Yukon Territory. After changing planes in Vancouver we continued on to Whitehorse, which is in the southwest corner of the Yukon. Early the next morning we flew into Inconnu Lodge, which sits on beautiful McEvoy Lake, 180 miles to the north east of Whitehorse. After arrival we had breakfast, met our guides, and settled into our cabins. Inconnu offers fishing with both fly and spinning tackle. Tom, Cinda, and I fly-fished the entire trip while Al and Jack split their time between fly and spinning tackle. After we settled in we spent the rest of the day fishing on McEvoy Lake. Al went off with his guide Jimmy and had an epic afternoon on lake trout on the fly rod. His biggest fish was 34” and was estimated at 22 pounds. It was caught on a tiny rubber leg nymph. Tom, Cinda, Jack, and I went with guides Colin and Dan to warm up on some grayling.

Inconnu is a full fly-out lodge, so on the following 6 days we never fished the same waters twice. The various lakes and rivers we fished were anywhere from a 15 minute to 1 hour scenic floatplane ride away. The target species were arctic grayling, northern pike, lake trout, and dolly varden. Fall was definitely in the air in the Yukon and we probably hit the peak of the Fall colors. The aspens turned more golden by the day and the red fire weed seemed to color all the hillsides. We were also fortunate enough to see the spectacular northern lights on two of the nights we were at the lodge.

The routine for the next six-days of fishing was a pleasure. Every morning at 5:30am one of the lodge staff left a thermos outside your door with the hot beverage of your choice. We’d all meet around 7am in the dining room for a hot breakfast. At either 8 or 9am it was time to fly to your lake or river of the day. We’d fish all day and then fly back to the lodge between 5 and 6pm. It was then time to relax and have a cocktail or two in the main lodge. Every night at 7 the daily 4-course gourmet dinner began. Dinner was a 2 hour affair every night and Chef Peter from Croatia never failed to amaze us with his spectacular dinners out in the middle of the wilderness. Some of his main courses included rack of lamb, duck, halibut, chicken stuffed with veal, and prime rib. The food was most excellent.

Enough about scenery and food, the fishing was pretty good too. Fly tackle consisted of 3-weight outfits for grayling, 6-weights for lake trout and dolly varden, and 8-weight outfits for northern pike. You’ll have to ask Al Scow what they used for spinning tackle. Depending on the conditions we either fished out of boats or we waded.

Grayling were probably the easiest fish to catch and the hot fly was the crackleback that Tom brought along. Luckily he had a box full of them. These things were a fish a cast at several places and are unique as they can be fished dry and wet on the same cast. The highlight grayling fishing of the trip was on the stream running out of Jim Cook Lake. The grayling run big at this spot with numerous fish to 2 ? pounds. They commonly get fish to well over 3 pounds there.

The lake trout had just moved into the shallows getting ready to spawn the week prior to our arrival. These fish were really in their beautiful spawning colors. We fished the lakers with both floating and sinking lines. Some of the hot flies were an egg sucking leech, small rubber leg nymphs, flesh flies, and flash flies. The lake trout highlight for me was catching 28”, 32”, and 33” fish on McEvoy Lake one cold day. The 33” fish was estimated at 18 pounds. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died that afternoon so I didn’t get a picture of the two biggest fish. I was also fortunate to see some fish that would go over 25 pounds in the shallows that same day. One got so close I could have poked her with the tip of my rod but she sure didn’t like the look of my flies. We also had outstanding fishing our last day at Tillie River. The spawners had moved into the river and it was like fishing in a big aquarium when you were in the boats. They weren’t the biggest lakers we saw all week but they were all decked out in their spawning colors.

Pike proved to be a bit more challenging to catch but Tom had a good day on them and Jack was fortunate enough to catch a big 44-inch fish. Dolly varden also proved most difficult to hook. They would grab your hooked grayling and swim around with your fish in their mouth but they were not at all anxious to eat the flies that we threw at them. I finally hooked one at Lee Lake and it was a nice fish in the 8 or 9 pound range. I guess they’d rather eat live bait than a bunch of fur or feathers on a hook.

Well, good things always have to come to an end. After 7 wonderful days at Inconnu Lodge, we flew back to Whitehorse on the morning of September 5. We stayed an extra day in Whitehorse so we could make the scenic 2 hour drive to Skagway Alaska. The next day it was time to return to Los Angeles. All in all it was a wonderful trip and I can’t wait to do it again. We had good company, great food, spectacular scenery, and good fishing. If you are interested in learning more about Inconnu Lodge you can check out their website (www.inconnulodge.com).

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This is the third in what has become a regular series of member submitted articles and photos. If you have something you wish to contribute, please contact Joel Greenberg, webmaster@LARRC.ORG.