While perhaps an unusual way to start things off, I’m going to tell a joke, or rather provide you with a very broad outline of one.

This “Bear Tale” comes to us courtesy of Al Archibald, Great Bear Lake veteran, and in his own words “… a finely tuned athlete.” (lol) This tale clearly shows that fishing later in the season on Great Bear Lake, while having its challenges from time to time, can be otherworldly if you stay the course, and have the right attitude and approach.

Kenny and I were not the only ones who had fun getting to Bear, some of our fellow “Circlites” had their own harrowing tales to tell, particularly Barry Gold, who endured 33 hrs. of travelling and waiting, with only 3 to 4 hrs of sleep mixed in while enroute to YK.

But before going any further let me introduce you to “our gang”:

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…

Just Once!

That’s right, just once I would like to check in at the airport without some sort hassle!

Given how everything ultimately played out, you could easily say that these were the “lost” papers about a partially “lost” week – but more on this later.

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.

Nicely written trip journal by Great Bear Lodge guest Phil Allen*,  describing his Great Bear Lake adventure that we believe took place in the late '60's or early '70's.