---

Yukon fishing lodges

By Jannik Eikenaar

Searching for the fisherman’s great escape? Look no further than one of the Yukon’s best catch-and-release lodges.

The great escape, the vacation to  end all, has at its heart the moment when you realize that this is the reason you came here, the perfect awareness of a  holiday gone unforgettably well. For the angler, Canada's  Yukon holds  these moments in abundance. The summer skies are endlessly bright, the waters  are pristine and the fish - the fish are huge. Here are three of the Yukon's best  catch-and-release lodges, all gateways to the fisher's great escape.

 

Dalton Trail Lodge

Dalton's  appeal lies in its variety: access to eight species of fish in over 20  different bodies of water. The lodge itself is reached by car, but the guides  rely on canoes, boats, floatplanes and even a helicopter to get the guests  where they want to go.

 

Thomas Staub and Hardy Ruf, two of Dalton's owners, sit down  with the guests after dinner each night to plan the next day's fishing. The  destination of choice is Clear Creek for sockeye salmon. The sockeye are the  only fish that can be kept, and the guides can arrange for your fish to be  smoked and packaged during your stay.

 

Hardy's favorites are fly-fishing  for coho salmon and trolling for lake trout, but he insists that catching  sockeye is a must. After all, what could be better than an edible souvenir?

 

Kluane Wilderness Lodge

Kluane lies on the shores of Wellesley   Lake, an aquatic  phenomenon renowned for the number and size of its lake trout. The  teardrop-shaped lake is almost completely self-contained, minimally fed and  drained by creeks, meaning that the trout population has nowhere to go and  nothing to do but grow.

 

Owner Brian Dack spends every day  on the water, fishing with guests and overseeing world record catches (nine, at  last count). Kluane, though, is for the truly enthusiastic and independent  angler. The lodge's 14-ft (4.25-m) Lunds are available at any time of day, and  Brian encourages his guests to fish as much as they possibly can.

 

Take a break from trout fishing by  casting for pike or lake whitefish, relax in the sauna, then head back out for  the big one. In 2006, guests caught, photographed and released four trout that  weighed in at over 50 lb (22.7 kg).

 

Tincup Wilderness Lodge

Co-owner and chef José Janssen sets  the day's menu each morning, relying on her mood, the guests and even the  weather to govern the creativity in her kitchen. Her self-styled gourmet comfort  food, ranging from breakfast pannekoeks to dinner curries, is the product of  her Dutch upbringing, Italian and Indian training and enthusiasm for using  local ingredients like dried morel mushrooms and fresh crab.

 

Tincup hosts a maximum of eight guests at a time, and Janssen prides herself on  producing meals that contribute to the relaxed family atmosphere around the  dining table. Whether it's sharing fly-fishing tips (the arctic grayling are a  challenge), discussing hot spots for trout or describing the moose wandering  along the shore, there's no shortage of conversation topics.

 

Don't miss the opportunity to hike  and swim with Chester, the tireless Chesapeake Bay retriever, and do your best  to reel in a lake trout for Janssen's paella, traditionally served on each  group's last day at the lodge.

 

Getting here

All three lodges provide  transportation from and back to Whitehorse, the Yukon's capital. Dalton is a 2½-hour drive  from the city; Kluane and Tincup are short floatplane flights away.

Dalton Trail Lodge, 1-867-634-2099, daltontrail.com
Kluane Wilderness Lodge,  1-888-488-0201, kluanelodge.com
Tincup Wilderness Lodge, 1-604-762-0382, tincup-lodge.com
Department of Tourism & Culture, Government of Yukon, 1-800-661-0494, travelyukon.com

 

Jannik Eikenaar is a Kelowna-based freelance  writer.