The History of Inconnu Lodge.

The story of Inconnu Lodge is the beginning of catch and release fishing in the Yukon Territory. In 1974 Jack LaFave ventured into the wilds of the Yukon with aspirations of pioneering a new fishing resort. He viewed a fly in lodge located on Tincup Lake that the Yukon government had for sale, the lodge being originally been built by Ray Conant. In 1975 Jack purchased the property and finished construction of the lodge. The operation on Tincup Lake operated as fly out fishing utilizing a number of locations. In 1977 Warren Lafave joined his father at Tincup and it became a true family business. In 1981 the main operation was moved over to Wellesly Lake from Tincup. The new lodge accommodated 16 fishermen per week and is still in operation today, now owned by Brian Dack.

The mid 1980’s is when catch and release fishing came to be in the Yukon for the first time. Prior to this, the clients of all Canadian fishing lodges were harvesting many trophy lake trout all across northern Canada. Warren knew that if there wasn’t a change in the lodge’s policy, sport fishing in future years would suffer. Between 1983-1986 a catch and release policy was implemented at Wellesley Lake. At first, it limited clients to the retention of 1 trophy per trip, over the next couple of years it was clear, catch and release was the only way to go. In 1984 Warren started looking toward the eastern border of the Yukon for fishing opportunities among its vast mountain ranges. He chose an ideal location on McEvoy Lake amongst some of the eastern Yukon’s most scenic mountains plus multiple untouched lakes and streams, this is where Inconnu Lodge begins.

The spring of 1986 Warren and a crew of builders arrived on the shores of McEvoy. Their vision was clear, build and operate the Yukon’s first true catch and release fishing resort. Through the summers of 1987 and 1988 Warren as the pilot along with his crew, flew over 1000 loads of lumber hauled externally on the side of his DHC-2 Beaver. The crew worked vigorously, accomplished their goal and opened Inconnu Lodge for business the summer of 1988. It soon became apparent after the first season that Inconnu Lodge was redefining fly out fishing, utilizing a legendary Canadian bush plane, the DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver to service 30 fishing destinations, split between 2 Yukon watersheds. Inconnu lodge still operates on the values that it was founded on over 30 years ago, offering fly out fishing everyday of the week at no additional charge on a catch and release basis. Inconnu Lodge is still to this day operated by the Lafave family. Warren and Anita Lafave’s and son Shawn being at the center of the operation. Shawn has now taken the reins of flying C-FMPS, the DeHavilland Beaver Warren has owned since the 1970s, plus there new addition, a second Beaver we will bring on in June of 2024.

We are doing some major work on our main lodge during 2023 and part of 2024 so will not be open in 2023 and will open again starting August, 2024 for a maximum of 4 clients per week. For 2025 we will go back to handlinbg 12 clients per week, June 17 - Sept 7