Spinning/Casting
First and foremost, remember that Scott Lake provides rods and reels for your use at no charge for all the types of fishing we do. You do not have to lug big tubes full of rods. You will be fishing with all St Croix rods and reels as well as Shimano reels such as the: Calcutta 400 for trolling and for bait casting the Coriolis 200 Low Profile, just like the bass pros use for getting into the tight corners and throwing all day. Spin fishermen will enjoy the smoothness of the Shimano Stradic 4000. If you really want to bring up some rods keep to the heavier side as you want to stay in control of your fish. St Croix has a great selection. For spin fishing the PS-ES66MHF 1&2 and for casting the PC-ES 66-7foot MF & MHF1 &2 piece rods. In short, you will want a 6.5 - 7 foot medium- heavy fast action rod. This will work for casting and trolling. You will be running 12-17 pound mono or up to 30 pound in the braided line. Using braided and synthetic lines takes a lot of care to stay off the rocks and to not "over set" the fish. If you do use Braided lines be sure to have a more forgiving rod for the initial hit. Overall trust your guide's advice on tackle. If he thinks you're under gunned, he'll bring the Lodge gear. It is free for your use.
At the end of your line you'll want some of the standard Scott Lake lures: Mepps #5 in gold, red and white, orange or chartreuse; a few Johnson Silver-Minnow in the 1 ounce size, a selection of sluggos for lethargic fish, a range of spoons (like half-waves or Daredevils) for pike. The Minus-1 and other suspending-diving plugs are proven fish-getters. Husky Jerks, Yozuri Mag Minnows are close to the sure thing for pike. For big trout you want BIG baits: Husky and Husky Jr., Daredevils, 2-4 ounce jigs and super sized deep divers. The Flat Fish T-60, or the Largest Kwick Fish sort through the smaller trout. Anything with pink and pearl is a good choice for our trout. We have a good selection of these big boys in the tackle shop at camp. We also have bulk mono in a range of weights. Consider respooling at least once during your stay; the rocks are very hard on any line. Make sure your leaders (especially the snaps) are tough. We like the cross-lock snaps in heavy sizes. For grayling the Lodge provides St. Croix ultra light rigs with 4# test. Small spinners and jigs are also available at the tackle shop.
A typical tackle box for your trip to Scott might look like this:
10-20 heavy leaders 60# snaps, minimum
10 heavy snap swivels
1 pack of #1 3-way swivels
2 Manns 1- fire tiger and chartruese
2 Husky Jerks Suspending Clown and Brass
1 pack of Slug Go assorted colors
3 assorted Eppinger Hunky Sr. or Jr. spoons
1 Flat fish T-60 in pearl white
6 assorted Mepps or Blue Fox size 4 & 5 spinners
1 pair polarized sunglasses
If you'd just rather leave your box at home, our Fishin' Hut is always supplied with all of the most effective pike catching/trout banging lures.
Fly Fishing: Pike
For pike you really want at least a 9-weight rod. An 8 is OK, but a little light to pull a big fish out of the weeds or bring it that last 3 feet to the boat. A 10 is not too big. Don't worry about hundreds of yards of backing on your reel. These are not bonefish. 100 yards is adequate. The large arbor reels are great if a big fish charges the boat and pike will do that. The Lodge has for complimentary use St. Croix 9-weight rods and quality reels.
The type of line you have may be more important than what is on the end of it. A lot of our pike fishing is done with floating weight forward line, but when the big gals are sitting right on the bottom you will want to get down quickly. A sink tip line usually works but a lot of anglers like the control of slow sinking, intermediate line. The "slime lines" like the Scientific Anglers Mastery series or the Orvis Intermediate Sly Line Wonderline work great for sight casting to the bottom resting pike or for blind casting rocky drop offs. Having two rods rigged and ready to cast is the way to go. For severe cold fronts or fall (September) pike fishing a full fast sinking line like the Orvis Depth Charge Wonderline is nice but not vital. Another option is to use a sink tip line as your primary rig. The Scientific Anglers Wet Tip Line, the Teeny T Series or the Orvis Hy-Flote Extra Sink-Tip will all cover most of the pike fishing most the trip. If you had to use only one line it would be the sink tip but the combination of a floating and intermediate sink is better. The Lodge boats have both floating and sink tip lines.
An essential piece of tackle is your wire tippet. You must use wire. Don't consider even heavy mono. Pike can cut through 80# salt-water mono like it's a 7x tippet. One excellent tippet is the Surflon Micro Supreme made by the American Fishing Wire Co. (www.americanfishingwire.com). Anything in the 15-25# test is fine. The Lodge tackle shop stocks Microsupreme in 26# test. The lighter the test the easier it will be to tie. Don't worry about the rest of your leader. Six feet of straight 20 or 30# works great if you're not into line class records.
Flies are a very personal thing. You could probably bring 3 types - a Bunny leech, a deceiver and a top water - and catch nearly every pike you see. Presentation (make it look alive) is far more important than fly selection. But flies don't weigh much so bring all you want. Saltwater patterns like Sar-Mul-Mac and Whistler work well. Red/white, red/yellow, chartreuse, and orange/black are hot colors on Scott. The Lodge has a great selection of flies for sale and a quality bench area with plenty of materials. Many of the guides will tie custom (the "secret" fly -of-the-week) patterns.
Fly Fishing: Trout
Most of the lake trout caught in June and July are caught when sight fishing for pike. Nearly any pike fly will work for trout. It's an opportunistic game. If you see a trout, throw your pike fly and strip it very quickly. If you see a trout following, swing your rod tip to really speed up the retrieval. If you are targeting trout in July or August go with the fastest sinking line you can buy and put on large white or blue/white streamers. Count it down to 30-60 feet (the fish locator will tell you where the trout are) then strip as fast as you can. The way to hook lake trout is that fast-as-possible retrieve. You do not "tease" a trout (unlike a pike) into eating. For fall (on the spawning reef) trout go with fairly small Deceivers, Muddlers, or Clousers.
Fly Fishing: Grayling
This is the easy part. Grayling will take two kinds of flies - those that float and those that don't. Just keep your dries small (10-16). Adams, Royal Wulff, Elk Hair Caddis, Humpies, Black Gnat, small hoppers all work well. In a cold front go to nymphs like Pheasant Tail Bead Head. Any dark colored stone fly nymph is a killer as are the standard woolly buggers. Nymphs can be fairly large (6-10). Grayling are active fish found in low "protein" rivers. They look for your fly. This isn't a match the hatch process. Keep your rod light. Grayling rarely get over 20 inches in these parts. A 3 or 4 weight is perfect. The Lodge has 4 weight rods for grayling as well as "no sweat" waders. On flyouts the Lodge provides all the grayling flies you will need.