A guide to reel pleasures

04-14-2002

Yesterday's opening of trout season in Pennsylvania's bountiful rivers and lakes was eagerly awaited by thousands of area anglers, but for fishing enthusiasts willing to go the distance, a world of other possibilities beckons all year.

Dropping a line in exotic waters was once a pursuit limited to the wealthy and adventurous, but jet planes and savvy outfitters have made the world of reel possibilities a bit more accessible. From Maine to Florida and California to Alaska, North America is literally ringed by great saltwater fishing spots, and its rivers and lakes offer endless fresh-water delights.

For example, there's the Ungava Peninsula, which defines the northeast edge of Canada's Hudson Bay. Black bears, wolves and caribou forage freely through this vast, treeless wilderness 1,000 miles north of Montreal. Crystal-clear rivers and lakes lace the landscape, and though teeming with giant brook trout, some Ungava waters are seldom fished.

Like ravenous torpedoes, crimson-bellied behemoth trout weighing 5 pounds or more ram their way through glassy runs and white riffles in search of any edible morsel. When that morsel is a fly on the end of your line, you're in for a thrill.

Standing thigh-deep in the icy water that surges over clean gravel, you can feel the rod bend double with the strike. It may take many minutes to work the fish into the net. Overhead, eagles and osprey screech, jealous of the poaching in their private preserve. Other than that day's dinner, the fishing policy is strictly catch and release, but something undeniable stays with you from each fish caught, and that can happen 40 times a day.

Though intrepid souls plan their own summer canoe trips into the Ungava, most fishermen and women catch charter flights from Montreal and make arrangements with a local outfitter.

The world of fishing extends far beyond North American shores.

For fresh-water anglers, three cold rivers -- Spey in Scotland, Alta in Norway and the Laxa in Iceland -- are legendary for their salmon runs. Fishing in all three, however, is tightly controlled and expensive. The salmon season on the Alta, for example, is limited to just one month a year. Expeditions to this beautiful, 26-mile, spruce-lined, black lava valley can cost $8,000 a week per person, not even including transportation.

Argentina, Chile and New Zealand also boast plenty of great, though somewhat less expensive, salmon rivers. New waters in Russia are now open to foreign fishermen, too.

In fact, fishing on several of Russia's rivers has been developed by a local company, Frontiers Travel. Though relatively unknown here, it has earned a worldwide reputation for sporting vacations.

Founded in 1969 by Mike and Susie Fitzgerald in the garage of their Wexford home to organize fishing trips for their friends, Frontiers has grown into, arguably, the world's leading outfitter of fishing trips, bird shooting, and photographic safaris.

They offer guided fishing and birding expeditions to dozens of destinations around the globe, from Baja and Belize to South Africa and New Zealand, providing more than 8,000 sportsmen and women each year with the time of their lives. Now run by the Fitzgeralds' children, Mollie and Mike, Frontiers employs some 80 people in Pittsburgh, in addition to its London office and on-site representatives around the world. Last November, the company moved into its new world headquarters at Treesdale.

One of Frontiers' more recent accomplishments is development of fishing on the Yokanga and Ponoi rivers on Russia's northeastern coast 175 miles from Murmansk. Home to huge Atlantic salmon, their waters cascade through boulder-strewn banks before emptying into the Barents Sea. In addition to helping manage some of the best fly-fishing imaginable, Frontier also helped create a lodge to accommodate its guests suitably.

Looking for bonefish? Frontiers offers exclusive access to some of the world's best fishing, on weekly excursions to the flat water atoll of Christmas Island in the Central Pacific. Lust after deep, salty water and big game fish? They offer more than a dozen different destinations.

None of Frontiers' expeditions are particularly inexpensive, but for devoted anglers, they're certainly the stuff of which dreams are made.

Frontiers International can be reached at 800-245-1950 or www.frontierstrvl.com. For information on Ungava outfitters, contact Jean Paul NorPaq Adventures at 800-473-4650 or www.norpaq.com.

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