Fort McMurray: Gateway to Big Fish Nirvana
Wild Fish Wild Places 09.19.13
Although it was my third visit to Fort McMurray, the booming exploration city in the northeast corner of Alberta, Canada, I was still excited to see the familiar city outline stretching along the horizon as my plane landed and 28 straight hours of travel came to a conclusion.
Fort Mac, as some affectionately call it, is the jumping-off point for floatplane rides to Lakers Unlimited Spring Bay Lodge, situated on the north shore of Lake Athabasca—my ultimate destination. When Team Wild Fish are travelling to film, we tend to fly in and out of whatever city or town happens to be the jumping-off point. This time ’round, we had arranged to spend a little time in Fort Mac, hoping to get the feel of this frontier city and to get an insight into its new identity as “the earth’s largest oil sands extraction hub.”
The sands
After a good night’s sleep in the Sawridge Hotel, I awoke fully recharged for the adventures that lay ahead. The buffet breakfast at the Sawridge will rejuvenate the flagging spirits of the weariest of travelers and our hearty breakfast saw the Wild Fish crew refueled and rarin’ to go.
Our first port of call was a visit to the Oil Sands Discovery Centre, which just happens to be right across the road from the Sawridge. The Oil Sands Discovery Centre is committed to increasing public awareness and knowledge of the history, science, and technology of the oil sands discoveries that form the largest-known reservoir of crude bitumen in the world, making Canada’s oil deposits the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia in terms of proven oil reserves.
We had a guided tour of the Centre, which provided a comprehensive walk-through of the area’s history, from the first discovery of oil to today’s mammoth developments of the extraction and refining plants that have mushroomed across this pristine land. We learned that the oil sands (known as the Athabasca Oil Sands) consist of a mixture of crude bitumen (a semi-solid form of crude oil), silica sand, clay, and water. The Athabasca deposit, along with the nearby Peace River and Cold Lake deposits, form the world’s largest subterranean reservoir of crude bitumen.
We also had the opportunity to climb up into a 150-ton dump truck, giving us a driver’s-eye view of the size and scale of the diesel-powered behemoth. Standing about four stories tall and sporting tyres that cost $55,000 each, this is where size does matter. A bit like Wild Fish Wild Places and the fish we hunt!
Denis and I could have spent many more hours engrossed in the impressive array of interactive displays and films. However, we had a plane to catch and giant pike to hunt in the many bays and river mouths that embroider the north shoreline of mighty Athabasca.
The waters
A week at Lakers Unlimited chasing big pike and lunker lake trout is my idea of “undergoing intense therapy.” Early morning breakfasts and firm friendships forged among guests and guides make for great starts to each day. And then there’s the fishing. Double hook-ups with a thrashing and flailing 20-pounder on Denis’ fly rod; a bad-tempered, acrobatic giant on my weedless spinner acting like its fins are on fire…action like that sets Athabasca apart from other fisheries. I laugh as I write this, remembering the outrageous spectacle as Denis set the hook on successive 20-pounders, in the same honey hole, on the fly! We laughed and joked with our wonderful guide, Kelly Riehl, at the non-stop, explosive action from a bunch of big pike we came upon when Kelly carefully eased the boat into a shallow river channel. What fishing, what memories!
A much-overlooked factor in the success and one’s enjoyment of any guided fishing trip (besides the quality of the fishing) is the knowledge, personality, and boat-handling skills of the guide. As with all of the Lakers Unlimited guide staff, Kelly is a true pro. He is one of the best big water guides that we have had the pleasure to spend a week with.
The pike fishing was simply out of this world, with eight fish surpassing the magic 20-pound mark. Although we didn’t spend as much time this trip hunting lakers, we still managed our share of 20-pound trout topped by a real beauty that took a liking to my Dodger from the Sand Drop.
Guides Kelly and Parker prepared a shore lunch feast of deep-fried lake trout in a sweet ‘n’ sour sauce while we basked in a sheltered sunny hollow on a windswept island. As we chowed down, a pair of nesting Bald Eagles kept watch from a distant pine. Athabasca magic!
Time flies on a Lakers Unlimited trip—such is the quality of the total wilderness experience on this unique water.
FISH AND FISHING. TWO WORDS HAVING A MYRIAD OF MEANINGS TO A MYRIAD OF PEOPLES. TO FISH FOR FOOD, FOR LIFE, FOR SURVIVAL; OR TO FISH FOR FUN, FOR SPORT, FOR MONEY.
When, almost 5,000 years ago in China, man first attached a hook and line to a bamboo rod to catch carp a little further from the river’s edge, little did he know that this creation would evolve into an industry which at the early part of this, the twenty-first century, is worth over $108 billion annually to the US economy in terms of sport fishing alone!
The variety of fish species is infinite. From cold water inhabitants such as members of the Salmonidae family, to warm water, tropical dwellers like the Cichlids. From the gigantic Tarpon of the Florida Keys to the gentler Arctic Charr spectacularly attired in their vivid courtship colors in the frigid rivers and streams of the arctic tundra. Take the celebrated Coelacanth, over three hundred million years old and still found today in the warm seas of the Indian Ocean around Madagascar, or the seemingly ubiquitous Golden Orfe, or the goldfish, which completes endless circuits in so many glass bowls in family homes in every corner of the world.
In this series, we will seek out great predatory fish. Fish that are much revered, fish that strike terror at the very mention of their name and fish that are the staple diet of many peoples subsisting along the shorelines and riverbanks of the great waters we will visit during our odyssey. Positioned at the very top of the food chain, these apex predators reign supreme in their own domain, be it mighty river, great lake or ocean.
Our quest will take us across cultures and continents to exotic locations of immense beauty and wealth as well as lands poleaxed by poverty. We will explore not just these wild and wonderful places, but the significance of our target species to the different groupings of peoples in terms of social, economic and cultural values.
Our travels in search of extraordinary predators will take us from the cold, unforgiving waters of the West of Ireland to the steaming jungle swamps of India. From the frozen, pristine wilderness of the Canadian subarctic to the sun-baked backwaters of Northern Australia. This will be a series of contrasts and comparisons where we will meet people who live to fish and people who fish to live.
