Ena Lake Lodge vs. West Coast Fishing - Ena Lake Lodge Fishing Club

With its vast geography and beautiful landscapes, Canada offers one of the most amazing fishing destinations anywhere in the world. With three bordering oceans and the largest number of freshwater lakes of any country, Canada is truly an angler’s dream.

Around the world, West Coast Fishing has become a sought-after experience and there is no doubt that Canada’s West Coast offers incredible adventures for anglers.

The West Coast, however, is far from Canada’s only bucket-list fishing destination and Northern Canada continues to impress fishing enthusiasts from around the world with its amazing beauty and access to some of the best fishing on the planet.

Northern Canadian lakes are remote, pristine, hidden gems, that offer many advantages to the West Coast and is sure to impress even the most avid anglers.

Below we have provided a few benefits when comparing Ena Lake Lodge to West Coast fishing.

Benefit	Ena Lake Lodge (Ena)	West Coast Fishing (WC)
Time of travel	Travel from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to Ena Lake in under 2.5 hours and enjoy fishing on your arrival and departure days with no-overnight stays required on your travel days.	WC lodges often require lengthy travel times, with multiple hops on small planes to reach the lodge. Generally speaking, a day of travel is required each way for most remote WC experiences.
Private & Exclusive	Ena is a remote lake with no other lodges allowed to fish its water. And with a maximum of 12 anglers at the lodge, it offers a truly exclusive experience to its guests.	WC lodges are generally larger, and more difficult to book the entire lodge. Also while the ocean is vast, it is not private and thus the waters are shared with other anglers, tourists, and First Nations.
Proximity to lodge	Ena Lake Lodge has exceptional fishing spots within minutes of the lodge, you are always a short distance to your fish and a quick return to lodge for other activities or if you need to access the lodge for any reason.	West Coast fishing often requires long boat trips on open water to reach the top fishing hot spots.
Water quality / calmness	Ena Lake is a large, clear, calm, Canadian lake, with excellent shelter from wind. You can always find perfectly calm water within a few minutes of the lodge, making it ideal for those who get sea sickness and/or want a calm fishing experience.	West Coast fishing does offer many inlets and bays for fishing, but always has the potential for rough seas, storms and resulting sea sickness.
Tailored experience	As a private lodge, Ena offers an experience that can be tailored to the interests of individual groups.	WC trips are often part of a group experience with packages and activities fixed to accommodate a diverse group.
Remote	Ena Lake Lodge is in a remote, expansive and untouched part of Canada. This remote location offers a truly unique opportunity to access Canada’s beautiful northern wilderness and has never been commercially fished.	The West coast is conveniently accessed and thus is frequented by both sport fishermen and commercial fishing.
Access to Virgin Water	In addition to the main lake (Ena Lake), we now have a tourism licence for 4 comparable sized lakes (20,000+ acres each) in the Northwest Territories. This offers literally endless virgin waters to fish for our guests.	The WC is a public fishery, and thus can be accessed by anyone.
Sustainability	Ena prides itself on its environmental care and a sustainable catch and release program that ensures the lake will maintain trophy fishing for generations to come. Ultimately Ena has direct control over the quality of its fishery due to internal policies.	Fishery sustainability is well governed on the WC, but no lodge has specific control over its own fishery.
Eating/ Keeping Your Catch	With the cold Canadian Shield waters, fish grow very slow. In fact, trophy trout at Ena can be over 60 years old. As a result, we do not allow anglers to keep their catch so as to protect the trophies for generations to come. However, all anglers can enjoy their morning catch on a beach on Ena where their guides will prepare an authentic shore lunch experience.	A quintessential WC perk is for anglers having the ability to keep their own catch and stock their freezers for the year. One of the true benefits of a WC experience.
Canadian Shield Fishing vs Ocean	With lake fishing at Ena and our catch-and-release program, anglers know the fish are always there! They just have to find them. There are multiple different strategies deployed for lake fishing; including trolling, casting, jigging and fly fishing.	Ocean fishing does involve some luck of the draw due to anglers hitting the right timing of the fishing runs. This can work for or against an angler depending on the timing! Ocean fishing is primarily trolling, with some jigging.