Catch Of The Day
Yukon photographer Cathie Archbould headed to the Southern Lakes region recently with a group of friends to spend a day…
Ice fishing
Ice-fishing with kids
If you don’t make it fun, they won’t like it. Going out again will be unlikely. In that respect, it’s like summer fishing, only it’s cold as well as boring. Kids need to be entertained and that’s your job. They also do better if they have stuff to eat and numerous cups of hot chocolate …
Portable Burn Barrel
On a recent half-day ice-fishing adventure with our son, I got to experience some of the benefits of a portable burn barrel that he has been using for the past five or six years. He puts it to use throughout the year, but spring/autumn hunts and hard-water fishing are when it sees pretty consistent use. …
Burbot Fishing at Little Atlin Lodge
From the day we came to Whitehorse it was my partner’s dream to catch a burbot; the only freshwater member of the cod family is found in most Yukon lakes and large rivers. We were told that they are easily caught overnight on baited set lines, as they are bottom dwellers. In December we wanted …
Telling Stories
Sandra Grace Storey’s Words Like Birds exhibit digs deep into all that we struggle to express. It finds a great tenderness there. Storey has created an exhibition of small, focussed sculptures for the solo show room at the Yukon Artists @ Work Co-operative art gallery. Storey works in stoneware ceramics coloured with earth-toned oxides. White …
Ice Fishing, Part 1 of 2
In southern Canada’s ice-fishing season, lakes have been traditionally dotted with wooden ice huts or shanties. These are frozen in places with propane or home-built oil drip stoves to keep the anglers warm. Rarely in the Yukon have I seen such huts, but occasionally a collapsible tarp and plywood structure are seen. The modern ice-angler …
Fish on Porcupine River
Sitting at a fish hole in the dark on the Porcupine River, in the Yukon at Old Crow in the fall, is not unusual. Excitement stirs when the ice begins to freeze on the Porcupine River. My friends and I begin to prepare ice augers, fishing lines, favourite fish hooks, and all-time baits. We do …
Ice; It’s Always Changing
With warm weather things change quickly, as we have seen this year. By mid-December there was a great freeze on most lakes, with little snow. Then the pineapple express brought warm weather and bad ice. But as the weather cooled, the winds came up, and the ice blew clear, so it is back to ideal …
Finally Fishing Time
Leaning against the counter at my wife Heather’s staff party, I listened to tales of hiking trips, caribou hunts, broken ATVs and fishing trips good and bad. With the plethora of personalities involved we heard many perspectives of a similar story, until the topic of ice fishing came up. Even the least experienced outdoors person …
Pimp My Ice Shack for Christmas
Given that it had been a mild winter thus far, the thought of bone-chilling cold was not top of mind. Rather, I was preoccupied with first negotiating the time away from family obligations and, secondly, preparing for my first ice fishing trip of the year. The destination was Squanga Lake and the objective was jigging …
Fly Fishing on Skis
“Skis?” you say. I say, “Yup, that was me out there in a snowmobile suit, a fly rod and a set of cross-country skis, need I mention on some very thin ice on Fox Lake.” You see, some of us can hardly wait … That was my case; you see, the ice just could not …
Ice Fishing: So Much More than a Trip to the Mall
When some of us see snow on the hills, they quiver and start to sink into their couches for the winter. Then there are a few of us, like my wife and I, that think it’s almost time for ice fishing. When the temperature starts to drop at night and puddles form layers of ice, …
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A World Beneath the Ice
As Oliver Barker tells it, fish taught him how to walk. “My family had this fish tank balanced on a crate in our living room,” he explains. “I used to haul myself up using the edge of the crate to see the fish—but every time I did that the fish would spook and swim to …