Nothing like the first day of a trip at an epic fishing destination. McKenzie River Lodge here in Labrador more than qualifies. I rigged my Winston 5-weight for dries and a 6-weight for streamers last night. Our guides for the week also tweaked our wading shoes by adding studs to them. The river rocks here are treacherous so the extra grip-ability will help a ton.
This morning I got up at 5:30 and wandered around the lodge grounds. McKenzie isn’t fancy and I like that. It’s a rustic lodge located on the shore of Andre Lake on one side and the mouth of the McKenzie River on the other. Our main fish target this week will be huge brook trout and if we’re lucky and they’re running, landlocked salmon as well. I was here back in 2015 with Granny and we had exceptional fishing for both species along with some pike too.
We had breakfast at 7 and after, friend Norm Thomas and I wadered up and it was off to the Quartzite River with our guide, Alexandre Levesque. I was stoked because Granny and I had a blast on the Quartzite. To get there requires a 20-minute boat ride across Andre Lake. And boy was it cold. Labrador is in the far north of Canada and we may have cold temps all week. We were bundled up like a winter day for the lake crossing.
After the chilly boat ride we arrived at the mouth of the Quartzite. There’s fishing here but we saved where it empties into the lake for the end of our day. We hiked upstream through the thick boreal forest for 20 minutes. The forest is nearly as thick as the Amazon rainforest and absolutely beautiful with a million shades of green as well as a variety of colored berries, flowers and lichens. Where we started fishing was absolutely gorgeous.
This is Norms first time to Labrador. Labrador brookies are so impressive I had to see his face when he caught his first. I kicked back and watched as he and Alex worked the first hole.
It didn’t take long to catch his first fish. Then his second. In no time Norm landed about five. He was amazed at each, even though by Labrador standards they were small. Small brookies here are still bigger than brookies almost anywhere else. Finally Norm stuck this beauty here. All he could do was smile and stare at the colorful char. “Holy crap!”, he said with a chuckle.
We caught about 20 brookies each. Only a few were big like the one Norm is holding above, but all were gorgeous. It was an outstanding day of dry fly fishing that ended around 4:30.
After the fantastic day of fishing we crossed Andre Lake back to the lodge around 5 pm. Our chef, Alexandre Cannesan, was ready for his hungry anglers to return. He had snacks waiting. We sipped a few beers and wine and then demolished a delicious meal.
For more pics from this amazing adventure tune in to my IG – @jeffcurrier65