Radical Fishing

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At lake manager Bennett's initiation and Sport Fisheries' ready acceptance, the number of trophy-sized lake trout an angler could take home from a one-week trip was sharply reduced, in 1978, from five fish to one. But Nueltin anglers did not complain: The largest trout caught and brought home 'in the next several years weighed between 40 and 55 pounds. And, more important, every angler at the lake landed an average of three 20-pound fish a week-far and away the best record in North Arnerica—and took home one of these impressive trout.

As the lake's reputation grew, so did its clientele, from 100 anglers in the 14-week summer season in 1978 to 480 *in 1985. But with a one-trophy-per-angler rule, that meant 480 big lake trout were removed from Nueltin each year. It was too many to guarantee a future supply of equally big trout, Bennett and Sports Fisheries feared, even in this large lake. So in 1986 the rules were tightened again 'in a kind of quantum leap, and Nueltin became Canada's first fly-in lake with a "no trophy" policy: Today, while fishermen and guides may kill and eat all the "little" fish they need for the daily, artery-clogging ritual known as "shore lunch"—trout, potatoes and onions fried in a full pound of lard—every fish larger than eight pounds must be returned, unharmed, to the water.

Additional safeguards were put in place. Since livereleased fish, especially big fish, can be *injured or killed if not lifted and released properly, all guides at Nueltin are trained both in gentle handling and in resuscitation-learning to sweep the fish slowly back and forth through the water to restore oxygen to its gills after a long struggle on the line. They are also instructed to tactually keep anglers from lifting fish carelessly or from posing overly long for trophy shots. In addition, while an angler may use any lure he wants except for live bait, all multiple hooks must be removed and replaced with a barbless single hook, provided by the lodge. Even on tiny three-eighths-inch dry flies used for grayling, the barb must be crimped down. This "barbless" rule, initiated at Nueltin in 1984, was created to ensure quick and easy release without the need to lift fish from the water. Nor may any fish, even a possible world record, be weighed with the traditional, damaging jaw scale. Instead, the length-girth conversion system that Merasty used to calculate the weight of my trout is mandatory.

Surely the most subtle of Nueltin's policies are designed to lead anglers away from temptation. For as every guide in the North (or South) knows, otherwise honorable men are fully capable of concocting creative ways to break or bend the law instants after landing a giant fish. So, to forestall any deliberate "accident" that results in a fish's on-board death, Nueltin created the simple rule-made known to all anglers in advance—that any fish caught and accidentally killed will become the property of the lake manager and cannot leave the premises. To underscore its point, Nueltin makes the standing offer of $5,000 cash to any angler who lands a world-record fish and returns it live to the lake.

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