Best Fishing Spots in the Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories run the shortest and most concentrated season of any region mapped in Canada. Almost every water sits in the subarctic band, where ice holds from October or November into June and the open-water window compresses into roughly June through September. Through that stretch daylight runs nearly around the clock, which removes the dawn-and-dusk rhythm that governs fishing further south and lets anglers fish on weather rather than on light. Almost all mapped water is natural lake, including some of the largest in North America. Access rather than season is the real constraint: many waters have no road to them at all, and float plane or boat is the only way in. Across 6 counties of the Northwest Territories we hold 492 waters. The bulk are natural lakes; rivers and creeks account for most of what is left. Nothing here is larger than Great Bear Lake, at some 30,451 sq km. Great Slave Lake has the deepest published figure on our list, about 614 metres. Winter averages sit near -28°C, summer near 14°C. Break-up usually falls near early June on the average figures. Species reported most across these counties: Arctic grayling, slimy sculpin, lake trout and Arctic charr....