Marvels of the Yukon
Ice fishing under the Northern Lights
In the early 1900s, an English translation of a Georges Dupuy story was published in Strand Magazine about a theropod dinosaur that roamed central Yukon’s Partridge Creek. The British magazine, well known for publishing short fiction and popularizing Sherlock Holmes, was widely read. However, people believed Dupuy’s tale, and the legend of a Yukon dinosaur persists to this day.
There are several other narratives of Yukon monsters, but none of them mention giant lake monsters. That’s because it doesn’t take Sherlock and Watson to know that monster-sized trophy fish such as Lake Trout, Northern Pike, and Burbot lurking within the depths are real. Kyle Callbeck of North Country Outdoor Adventure has seen them with his own eyes and knows exactly where to take you to find them.
Kyle Callbeck (left), Owner and Operator of North Country Outdoor Adventure with Experiencing Canada host, Nathan Coleman (right), in the tent ice fishing.
At the age of 3, Callbeck caught his first fish and was hooked. The experience set him on a lifelong path as an outdoor enthusiast. He initially spent his summers guiding expeditions in the Northwest Territories before relocating to the Yukon in 2020. It’s here that this expert fishing guide offers a variety of fishing experiences, including one package that includes ice fishing under the natural light display of the Aurora Borealis. However, the Yukon’s trophy fish can’t take credit for nature’s attempt to distract anglers away from the augured fishing hole. The Yukon is one of the best places in Canada to see the Northern Lights, and for good reason.
Northern Lights in the Yukon. (Credit: The Weather Network)
To truly understand the show that accompanies these adventures, Weather Network Meteorologist Scott Sutherland explains, “The Aurora Borealis is caused by high-energy solar particles plunging into the upper atmosphere from space, either carried here by the solar wind or in clouds of solar plasma known as coronal mass ejections or solar storms. On their way in, these particles interact with the oxygen and nitrogen in the air, energizing those atoms and molecules and causing them to emit tiny flashes of coloured light. With billions of these particles entering the atmosphere at any moment, even on a typical day, all of those tiny flashes combine to form the coloured bands and swaths of light stretching across the night sky.”
This awe-inspiring phenomenon isn’t limited to special occasions. Throughout the year and on most nights, an ‘arc’ of these cosmic auroral lights streaks across Canada from east to west. The Yukon is ideally positioned on the globe for this arc to appear directly overhead during many winter nights when the sky is dark. Darkness also provides an ideal time for burbot to engage in this nighttime activity. This freshwater member of the cod family can grow up to a meter long and weigh as much as 9 kilograms. With a voracious appetite at night, they are part of the Yukon’s wild nightlife. It’s this alluring dance of natural phenomena, combined with ice fishing with Kyle Callbeck, that makes a visit to the Yukon an unforgettable experience below the night sky.
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