Arctic Ice fishing

This winter I had the chance of a lifetime ice fishing Canada's arctic. the lake I chose to fish was laylor lake system, to give a size reference it is larger than Lake Simcoe and flows directly into the arctic ocean. The sheer size of this lake was intimidating, it was like no other lake I've fished. Water was so clear after wiping the first layer of snow you could see thru the 10 feet of ice down 25 feet to the bottom, This water way contains wintering arctic char and monster lake trout. My Inuit guild/friend told me I would not be unable to catch any fish jigging at this time of year due to the extreme cold and the fact that char barley eat in the winter mouths on these extreme northern lakes. tho I wanted to try and he agreed to take me. I only had 2 days off from my work up there so we decided to leave after my shift on Wednesday at 11pm and needed to take a 2 hour ski-doo ride over the ARCTIC OCEAN in order to arrive at this location. We rolled out of town with are kamotiks (sled) in toe, traveling for about 20 minutes in till the lights from the small town of igloolik Nu disappeared. The snow machine in front of me stopped, as I caught up my guild Ben looked at me, "I think you should lead, it would be more fun," said ben. I told him this wasn't within my comfort level with that seeing as it was my first trip on the ocean and we didn't even have a GPS. Ben told me just follow the previous trail others had taken to the lake and I reluctantly agreed. Right before I started my ski-doo up I said, "what if the trail splits" he shrugged his shoulders saying "maybe stay left?." so there I was alone on a skidoo, Ben decided rest in the back of the sled, it was one of the most terrifying experience in my life headed out into the arctic tundra in the pitch black nothing in front of my but endless plains of snow. After about an hour the trail split so quickly I barley had time to recognize it, I jerked left last minute. we continued on for another hour. Suddenly I hear a yelling behind me, I slowly stop the kamotik. Ben looked abit worried and said "we should be there maybe like 20 minute ago". Another group of Inuit hunters had came with us and were following a few km behind, as they pulled up I could see them cracking up laughing and yelling "I think you don't know the way Kudluna."(outsider) After back tracking we found the correct path and started toward the lake. Ben recognized a land mark and we found some good ice in the dark. We started chipping away at the ice using a 12 foot rebar chisel, I dug my flasher out of my gear and pressed it against the ice. It reads 11 feet of ice and 6 inches of water. I showed ben he laughed than said "your kudlana stuff wont work up here its too cold." I heeded his advise and put the flasher away. myself, ben, the second group of hunters alan and manasie started chipping a 3 foot wide hole into the ice as the sun rose. we finally smashed thru the ice Ben dropped a line down to check depth and looked very embarrassed. he looked over at me and said " Maybe your machine doesn't lie it's only 6 inches here" everyone started cracking up. we decided to make some tea before we relocated. Minutes later Ben taped me on the shoulder "look birds." 3 ptarmagan walked directly into are semi camp, and started to pick thru the smashed ice. Manasie and Alan had left with the other sled to find a new location. The only gun we had was a .270 cal, the gun we keep to defend against polar bears. He quickly loaded 3 bullet and shot the first bird, the other 2 looked up for 4-5 seconds than continued to eat, he shot the second bird the third decided he wasn't gonna stick around. we relocated to the mouth of the lake and punched thru. i fished for about 3 hours with a clankin rap hoping to draw some fish in. Soon after Switching my bait to a Berkeley 3' prerigged swim shad I marked a fish on the flasher. Starting the cat and mouse chase of raising the lure watching the fish follow up than dropping the lure hoping for a strike, after 3-4 lift and falls with the fish in toe boom hooked into a respectable lake trout. before I could unhook the fish another entered the flasher screen. the commotion had brought in 2 more fish. I dropped the swim bait down into the hole and watched a fish flying up the water column to meet it. The two images met on the flasher I set the hook without feeling a thing, BOOM fish on!! an arctic char YES the reason I came here. I fished another few hour with no bite of fish being marked. Ben had asked me before we left when i offered money for his guiding he smiled at me and said "Fishing dosen't cost any money." all he wanted was someone to split on gas and help him set his nets so he could feed his family in the winter mouths. I fished on and off in between helping clean fish and set nets with no other luck. over night Ben had caught 15 char in his net. This experience was one of the best in my life and I learn so much from my Inuit guild and friends if you ever get the chance take it.