Fishing at Merrice Lake, Carmacks, Yukon

• Overview

  In Yukon, Merrice Lake falls inside Carmacks. The land about it is sage and rock. At about 44 hectares, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. The margin runs to about 5.9 km in total. On size it sits at the modest end of our Carmacks list. Nearest place of any size is Whitehorse, 194 km away. The big place round here is Anchorage, 708 km distant. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Merrice Lake

  No depth figure appears in our records, so the bank has to tell you. Where the bottom changes texture, fish gather; find that line. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Open biodiversity records for Carmacks list Chinook salmon, Arctic grayling, northern pike and lake whitefish. Some of the species recorded here are protected or tightly regulated, so check what may be targeted before you fish. Read Merrice Lake before you fish it and the day goes better.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July runs about 14°C on average, January about -25°C. Winter runs most of the calendar, and everything worth doing happens in the gap. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near mid May. Going by climate averages, expect open water from about mid May until roughly late October. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. Merrice Lake runs to its own calendar within the local pattern.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Nothing is mapped in the way of a ramp or car park within a short radius. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Coal Mine Lake, 29 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Nothing on Merrice Lake should be assumed from this page alone.