Sideslip Lake
I was headed south on the Cassiar Highway, having turned around after my last stop at Eddontenajon Lake. It was only mid-August ’26, but I had a long ways to go, and a lot of business to attend to back in civilization. In the meanwhile, I planned to stop at as many lakes as possible along the way to take advantage of the fishing up here. Join me to see if I found any more fish.
I was sad to be heading south again, having discovered such a nice area on the Cassiar Highway. But that leaves me with areas to explore further north the next time I make it up to this part of the world. In the meanwhile, I head to deal with the usual resupply, needing water and dump plus groceries this time. I was still an hour south of Dease Lake, I didn’t want to travel that far north for groceries. However, Iskut was only a few minutes north of where I was. It looked to have a gas station with some sort of small grocery supply. I figured I’d go check it out then see if there was anything to get water and dump around there.
Abandoned cabin on Sideslip Lake, only accessible by water
I arrived at the gas station/store in Iskut, resolving to fill up no matter the high price. That fill would get me back down to the junction of Highway 16 and 37, where the gas station would be cheaper for sure. In the process of filling up, I encountered the manager of the sewer system in town. If anyone would know where I could dump, it would be him. He directed me to out of town, to Red Goat Lodge (and RV park) just south of town that allowed dump and water fill for $25. Iskut was a neat town, with new housing on paved residential roads, and generally nice looking facilities. There is supposed to be a new RV park being built in town that will have dump and water facilities, but it won’t be ready until 2027. It’s good to see the town is building for tourists passing through the area.
Inside the cabin
I checked out the small grocery section in the store, finding it to be a better selection than expected. They did have enough fresh fruit and veg selection to get me by, you just can’t be picky about brands or expect more exotic selections. Even the pricing wasn’t that bad, I’ve paid more in convenience stores in the south for the same stuff. If I was going to explore around the area for a couple of weeks, I could get by with the selection they had here. I headed back south, stopping at Red Coat Lodge to dump and get water at the same time. The proprietor was quite knowledgeable, giving me quite a bit of information I’ve shared in this and my last post. I was most interested in his answer to my query about how large the fish got in Eddontenajon Lake; he didn’t know exactly other than it was in the several feet range. Feet?! I definitely need to get back to this lake someday and try again for these fish in the ‘feet’ range. He did mention that the fishing is good in most of the big lakes up here, so I guess I shouldn’t get too obsessed with one lake.
It was ok, for a camp lunch
I started back south, having a fairly long drive to my first stop at Meziadin Junction, where the 37A goes off to Stewart. I stopped there for lunch, hoping the gas station store would have a better selection of goods to fill in some holes in my grocery shop. Unfortunately, this store had very little in groceries, you really need to head into Stewart for a proper resupply on this part of the highway. I was hoping for something interesting for lunch at the lodge next door to the gas station. It was not interesting at all, unless you’ve never been to a work camp canteen before, which is exactly what this was. They just had a sideline selling to travelers passing through as well. While the food wasn’t bad for a canteen, it was nothing special for a restaurant, with the ambiance being exactly like a work camp other than the addition of some interesting native art from the area.
Sideslip Lake entrance
I continued on, planning to stop and checkout Sideslip Lake, which was close to the highway. If that looked good, I’d stay there, otherwise I’d continue onto Derrick Lake Recreation Site, which was close by and further off the highway. I stopped where the road to the lake went off the highway, deciding to walk down to the lake first. This isn’t an official recreation site and the road was just a cart path. Since it wasn’t far down to the lake, it was worth walking down to see if the road was OK and I could turn around down there.
Two or three RVs could camp down at Sideslip
Arriving at the lake, I saw that there is a decent clearing with enough sky to get a Starlink signal. The road continues down to the water, but is more a foot path than a road down to the lake. There are signs that people have camped here, with remnants of camping structures, and a firepit. I could hear some road noise, but I also had a nice view of the lake from my RV. I decided it’s worth staying for at least a day of fishing to see if there is anything in here.
Two little rainbows for dinner
The lake has a pretty view with some islands and peninsulas sticking out, with the coastal range mountains as a nice backdrop. I got the kayak out, setting it up at the camp and carrying it the short distance to the water. Where the road ends is not very open with only a bit of an opening in the brush and reeds to get onto the water. You would be pushing reeds out of the way to get a small boat in even. But I could already see fish jumping in the water, so I knew there was something to catch in here. I paddled upwind toward southeast end of the arm I was on, getting some small fish at the end of the arm. But the wind was brutal, even at the end of the arm where I was somewhat sheltered, I was getting blown about. Fishing was cut short for the day after catching a couple of little fishies for dinner.
The cabin is above the lake a bit
I decided to explore the lake more thoroughly the next day. There are several islands to paddle around and arms to explore down. The wind remained a problem in the morning, but calmed down, allowing me to explore most of the lake. I found an old cabin by the water in the next arm over to the southeast. It is built on a peninsula, so may be there as a destination to the lake, from the days before the Cassiar Highway was here. There are no trails leading off from the cabin, but it looks to not have been used in a while – trails may have faded away.
White and red meat fish
The fishing was on and off, with 9 inches being the largest I managed to catch. I decided to try for one more day, fishing all over the lake to try and find some bigger fish. But all I managed was fish of different flesh color – some being white meat, some being red meat. They both tasted decent, with an edge to the red meat fish. There was no color by size either. I’ve seen it before where the smaller fish are white meat and the bigger ones that eat shrimp down deep have read meat, but not here, it was random colors regardless of the size of the fish.
Derrick Lake
As I wasn’t catching anything that big after having explored the whole lake, I decided to head over to Derrik Lake for a few days as I knew that would be far enough off the highway to have no noise. It wasn’t super noisy here, but I figured I’d try for one more quiet spot since it was close by. I packed up and drove over, following roads off the highway that gradually became fairly grown in, but not so bad that I was pushing aside branches. Derrik Lake has spots in two areas – the farther area is better, with a boat launch/dock and more open skies. I had the whole place to myself so I picked the best open spot close to the boat launch.
John and Tina go fishing
It was a good thing I’d come in early as a couple came in while I was still leveling the rig off at my site. I could have taken the spot they ended up taking, but it was farther from the water and not as sunny. I ended up meeting them – John and Tina were from Prince Rupert, so not quite local but close. Tina works for fisheries, the federal one, which assured my fish were not going to be checked by her – freshwater fishing is a provincial jurisdiction. She has a different job anyways – she dealt with the native fishery quotas for a region that was being reorganised by the government. The usual confusion in government seems to be prevailing as far as who does what now. Evidently dealing with the natives is not all government vs. natives. Some of the tribes hate each other more than the government. So, if you wonder why it is so hard to get pipelines built across native land, there is your answer – you only need one native tribe that hates the pipeline to cause problems in routing.
Gave two fish away, plus a caviar treat for me
I got out to fishing not being sure at first if there was much going on. I didn’t see any fish rising, but that doesn’t mean much. I fished across the lake, staying in the arm I was in as the wind was blowing down arm. Even so, it was quite the chore paddling back towards the camp. I did find the fish which turned out to be much bigger rainbows than Sideslip Lake, I kept nothing smaller than 11 inches here, the biggest being around 14 inches. I had enough fish that I gave two to John and Tina, again to keep me under my limit. The fishing was quite good at times, but the wind was a pain here too. I actually took my anchor out for the first time so I could stay put at a good spot down the lake where it narrows. There were some bigger fish there, hanging out near the reeds but sometimes in the middle too.
Best fish haul out of Derrick
I definitely could have stayed at Derrick lake longer, but my time was getting short. I needed to get moving as I still had a lot of distance to cover. I packed up only reluctantly, vowing to come back here again and try for an even bigger trout that seemed possible from what John had hooked into one day. Join me next time, as I hit my last couple of stops before I’m back to civilization for a while.
