Fall begins in July. That’s when savvy hunters and anglers unlimber their guns and stout fly rods. Though it’s tee-shirt and golf-short weather throughout the lower 48, it’s time to freshen your swing on those crossing shots; forego the bench and practice shooting your rifle off-hand, sitting, and prone; and work the kinks out of your heavy fly lines and your double-haul cast.
Rummaging through your gear always turns up stuff you thought you had, but don’t. Replace it now rather than the afternoon before next morning’s flight. And, given the vagaries of this year’s international and domestic travel, now may be the perfect time to look for deeply discounted stays at prime hunting and fishing lodges.
Fall starts in northern Canada, and there’s no finer place to welcome it than fishing for lake trout at Plummer’s lodges up on Great Bear Lake. Located a shade north of the Arctic Circle in Northwest Territories, Plummer’s operates five lodges on Great Bear, one on Great Slave Lake, and my favorite, the one up on the Tree River in Nunavut.
Tree River Lodge may offer the best fishing for river-run Arctic char in the world.
That lodge sits on a knob a few miles upstream from the Arctic Ocean. Arctic char spawn in the Tree, and fishing for them is superb from late June through late August. You’ll need a 8-weight — Spey or single-handed — wearing a reel with a great drag and spooled with a fast sinking line. Hard to believe that these black-backed, red bellied monsters that run in the 20- to 30-pound range are the genetic ancestors of the native 8- to 10-inch brookies in our southern Appalachians.
Plummer’s is the place to go for outstanding fishing for lake trout, the largest freshwater char. Forty-pounders are caught daily. The unofficial world record, a 78.5-pounder, was boated in Great Bear Lake. While there, don’t overlook great northern pike, marvelous fun on floating-diving flies fished in weedy shallows.
Known as well for superb fly fishing for grayling in streams feeding Great Bear Lake, Plummer’s also ranks among the best locales for hunting muskox. Modern descendants of a 3 million-year-old relative of sheep and goats, these shaggy beasts with their low curling sharp horns growing from their massive boss are hunted in August. After a short boat or plane ride to terrain where herds have been seen, you and your guide will walk and stalk until you’ve taken your trophy.
Hunters have been collecting great bucks at Westervelt for three generations
At Westervelt down in Alabama, fall begins southern style with dove hunting just after Labor Day. The season spreads into quail and archery whitetail hunting in October, a special weekend set-a-side for youth in early November before launching into the main event — free-range whitetails from mid-November through January. Only bucks with eight points and a spread of 16 inches are considered fair game, though guests can harvest a doe for the freezer as well.
Ladder stands, tripod stands, elevated blinds and shooting boxes overlook openings in the forest that have been planted with fodder. Others are strategically placed on trails and woods roads frequented by deer. A few stands sit on the edges of clear cuts. Guides deliver hunters to their stands before sun-up. Some guests elect to bring their lunches with them so they can sit and hunt all day. One never knows when a monster may defy convention and step into the open when the sun is high.
The racks at Westervelt are always bigger than the stories told in the Liar’s Lair.
Located in the famed “Black Belt” of deep nutritious soils about 20 miles west of Tuscaloosa along the Tombigbee River, Westervelt has hosted deer hunters for nearly three generations. Though intensely managed for deer, the lodge’s 12,000 acres also produce excellent turkeys as well as cover for quail. Populations of bobwhite are augmented with pheasants and chukar.
This group had a great morning bird hunting at Westervelt.
Westervelt’s lodge is elegant in its simplicity. Each guest has his or her own room, one of ten with private baths, in the main lodge. Adjacent are accommodations for four in the Liar’s Lair Lodge. Meals feature distinctly southern cuisine but with a modern, and dare it be said, wholesome, twist. If you’re worried about having nothing to do after you’ve harvested your buck or tom and taken your limit of quail, break out a fly rod and go play with bass and bream in Westervelt’s ponds.
No destination offers a better jump on fall than Primland, located on the cusp of the Blue Ridge plateau at Meadows of Dan, Virginia. You can start fly fishing for native brookies in high mountain streams and then move down to a private six-mile stretch of the Dan for browns and ’bows.
Tucked beneath the Blue Ridge, Primland provides superb rough shooting for pheasants.
Warm up on the championship sporting clays course before hunting fields heavy with yellowing knee-high broom grass and sedges providing cover for pheasant, quail and chukar. One to three hunters will share a guide and his setters or pointers. Also featured are driven pheasant shoots. Gunners, their loaders and dog handlers — all attired as if fresh from the Scottish highlands — are stationed by pegs in ravines. Birds are flushed from fields above. Recently Primland teamed up with Purdy for the ultimate UK-style shoot.
Trophy bucks hang out in Primland’s hardwood forests.
Primland’s forest is rich in oaks and hickories, and the mast crop is generally heavy attracting abundant bucks. The resort maintains a number of elevated stands and blinds overlooking woods trails and food plots. Some hunters prefer stalking and spotting. The season generally runs from October through December.
Winding along the crest of the plateau, Primland’s 18-hole golf course has been recognized by Golf Digest as No. 30 among America’s top 100 public courses. Add its full-service hotel, a range of private cottages and cabins, and even tree houses for short- or long-term stays. Taken all together, Primland may be the epitome of today’s southern sporting resort.
If you want to go:
Plummer’s Arctic Lodges
950 Bradford St.
Winnipeg, MB R3H 0N5, Canada
(204) 774-5775
plummerslodges.com
chuk@plummerslodges.com
Westervelt Lodge
69 Westervelt Circle, Aliceville, AL 35442
(205) 373-8212
westerveltlodge.com
scarroll@westervelt.com
Primland
2000 Busted Rock Road
Meadows of Dan, VA 24120
(866) 960-7746
primland.com
reservations@primland.com