A Fish for All Seasons by Tom Klein
Almost everyone inquiring about a Scott Lake trip has the same question: “When should I come?” It’s a simple question with a complex answer, involving many variables. Some anglers want lots of fish, size being relatively unimportant. Others want BIG FISH and only big fish. A few are more focused on the weather; they want it warm or even hot. A few more want shallow water lake trout fishing or a chance to experience the Northern Lights. And some really don’t care about any of these issues; they just want to escape to a pristine wilderness, enjoying great food and service.
The question deserves an answer. I’ve been fishing Scott and its adjoining lakes, Wignes and Premier, for a decade. Over the past five seasons I’ve averaged 100 days on the water, fishing from ice-out until the first blizzards of late September. Let’s look at the seasons within the season at Scott, keeping in mind that weather drives the fishing. Any week at Scott has the potential to be red hot or challenging depending on the temperature, wind, hours of sunshine, barometer and probably a few other things we don’t even know about. Early or late (like 2002) ice-out will also affect this attempt to follow the fish of Scott through their seasonal movements. (Obviously there are enough weasel words here to keep a lawyer happy). At the end of this exploration one will probably conclude that there are many “best times” to be at Scott. It depends on the angler’s goals and expectations, as well as their experience, motivation and skill.
Early Birds
Right after ice-out is a popular time with Scott customers. There is a powerful excitement involved with being the first “in”. I recall my many years of canoe trips in the Boundary Waters Wilderness and Quetico Park region of the Minnesota-Ontario border country. I always wanted to paddle in just after the ice left. It’s a bit like “opening day” of hunting seasons. Joe Novicki and Bill Calabresa, Chicago area fishermen, answer to that drummer. They were iced out in 2002 but are booked for early June 2003 and 2004. (Bill as requested the first week of June “for life”). Joe calls early June simply “the best”. Just after ice out virtually all the pike in the lake are in shallows searching for warm water, sometimes in just inches of water. South facing bays and heavy silt bottoms are key. Joe calls this shallow water fishing the northern equivalent of bone fishing. It’s a totally visual experience. He knows that July can produce bigger pike (see accompanying chart) since the larger females usually take longer to recover from spawning, but he sees plenty of big fish at ice out. And he loves the idea that “its just between you and the pike”. You can see them: it’s up to the angler to make the right cast and set the hook. Bill loves the “first in” feeling as well and finds each season what he wants: “big fish and lots of fish”. Bill’s not subtle about his objectives or his hook sets. He really drives the hook home on his pike.
Connie and Judy Schmidt, weather-hardened Minnesotans, love the early season as well. They are also booked for our first week in 2003 and 2004. It didn’t hurt their opinion of June fishing when they got a trophy double on Scott in June of 2002, about five days after ice-out. Judy battled a 46″ pike while Connie pulled in a 42″ fish and they got two more trophies that day. They love the sight fishing for pike and have acquired fly fishing interest and skills over the past several seasons, thanks to their guide’s encouragement and instruction.
Generally all of our fly fishermen love June. Harry Murphy, a June regular and ardent fly fisherman, loves the “you vs. fish face-off”. He loves the confrontation: “they’re not afraid of you and almost dare you to hook ëem”. Harry and many other fly fishermen have added lake trout to their sight-fishing menu. Until early July Scott’s lake trout cruise the shallow sand bars, especially in the morning, evening or on cloudy, low-light days. He views these cruising lakers are more than bonus fish; they are superb fighters and more challenging than pike, offering a lot of angler satisfaction.
So in June one can expect to see and catch a lot of fish. Both on Scott and its flyout lakes days of 100+ pike are not uncommon. The big lake trout are cruising the shallows but are difficult to pinpoint. Usually lakers are caught while hunting for pike. If your goal is a 30 lb trout, the odds are better starting in mid-July. If you want lots of action, June is hard to beat. That’s probably why June was completely booked for 2003 by September of 2002. What always amazes first time June fishermen is how all these pike are just “hanging” there in open, shallow water. Blake McGehee is a serious Louisiana bass fisherman. He’s used to fish holding tight to some structure. Here were all these big pike, sitting in 1-4 ft of water right out in the open. His first impression was that he was transported to a huge pike aquarium. And he loves it. He and his wife Allison have had lots of 100+ fish days, and are booked for 2003, in early June of course.
What all these June anglers have in common is a tolerance for unpredictable weather. June can see some mean cold fronts, which do slow down the pike fishing. A few good snowstorms have even hit in late June. I recall a camping trip on a flyout lake where we woke up on June 28 with about six inches of snow pushing our light tent right down to our faces. That trip started out in 70F weather. June has also had, as in 2001, incredibly hot weather with the mercury pushing 90f on a few occasions. We don’t predict the weather at Scott; we just enjoy it.
Warming Up
As the temperatures warm up in late June and early July so do the fish. There are times in June when you can find the fish but you just can’t get them to eat. By early July the pike are typically active and aggressive, but the same warm surface water is starting to push the lake trout to their holes, concentrating the fish and increasing the odds of catching big lakers. It’s a great time for big pike and trout. Andy Johnston has had three straight years at Scott and loves the end of June/early July stretch. This year he had five beautiful sunny days and had a ball sight casting, usually with the fly rod, to big pike. He compared the experience at Scott this time of year to hunting. He loves the “stalk”. Recalling one big pike, he remembers his guide sneaking the boat to a position for a cast. His first cast was off target and the fish spooked. Then he had to throw a long cast, which was right on target. The 44″ fish followed almost all the way to the boat before it sucked in his bunny leech. “It just doesn’t get any better”, Andy says. This from a guy who fishes all over for all kinds of fish. Andy came up with a new medical term this summer: “Scott sick” is the terrible feeling of being away from Scott Lake for extended periods of time, like homesick only far worse.
Mike Borden is another big July fan. He knows the big female pike are now ready to rumble. Mike has become a Scott addict, making two trips a season. He loves it anytime but favors mid-July when he gets “more fish and bigger fish”. “The idea that you have to come to Canada in June just isn’t true up here” he noted. Mike and his group of six all got their Trophy Triples this July. Mike loves to get in the Beaver and explore the flyout lakes. All were “terrific” this past July. While on Sandy Lake, Mike’s two boats brought in 14 trophies. But Mike remembers one August trip as well when he landed with a fly rod a 50×24″ pike, certainly the heaviest pike ever caught at Scott. Since he likes getting those Trophy Triple hats, Mike always goes part of a day for grayling, which are very cooperative on warm July days.
Like Mike, Fred Woolf loves the July period. He’s fished Canada for 40 years and has never found better fishing than Scott and its flyouts in July. He too loves the sunny days when sight fishing works so well but he also likes trolling for trout and the entire experience of being at Scott which he calls (we’re too modest to say something like this) “the finest fishing resort I’ve ever been to”. The relaxed ambiance and the spirited camaraderie “separates Scott from all the others I’ve fished; it’s an incredible experience”. Fred also fished August this summer and had a “blast” catching lake trout. His fishing partner, Jerry Peacock, got about 30 in a couple of hours and loved the action. He noted that in August the pike were not in the shallow bays everyday but they did find shallow water pike on sunny days. Did he get as many fish in August? “No”. Did he have as good a time? “Yes”. He’ll come back whenever he can.
Dante Palange travels from Ohio every season and has sampled June and July. He and his group have settled on the third week of July because they like big pike AND big trout. By mid to late July the trout are settling in their deep water (60-100 ft) holes. They love going after “Jaws” and working that deep water. Dante believes his late July spot is tops for big trout. Calling themselves the “grinders” they plow deep and reap quite an annual harvest of monster trout.
July is a great month for both pike and trout as well as grayling, which can play hard-to-get in June. High water in June often makes river fishing difficult. By July the high finned grayling are always looking for a little protein. Dry fly fishing for grayling stays consistently good in July and August. By late July the pike start moving a lot more. They will be in the bays for a few hours and then off to deeper waters where they’re looking for whitefish, cisco and burbot. Sight fishing isn’t as consistent but the action is still great.
Dog Days of August?
In many areas of “the north” August can be a very difficult period for pike fishing. While pike don’t shed their teeth as the old wives’ tale contends, they do drift to deep water in lake systems that got just too warm. On Scott and other lakes “way up north” the pike move out of shallow water for the opposite reason ñ the bays become too cool as the decreasing sunlight makes for cool “nights” and cools off the shallow water. The deeper water is then warmer and as importantly, more stable temperature-wise. Pike hate quick temperature changes. So they spend more time in deeper water where it’s comfortable and where their prey hang out.
On Scott in August the pike do disperse. Unlike its many flyout lakes, Scott has minimal aquatic vegetation, especially “cabbage”, to hold and concentrate the fish. A lot of big pike are caught on Scott in August but they are usually found off rocky points and in the deeper water outside of bays. It’s generally blind casting rather than sight fishing and the fish are spread out more. That’s not the case on Scott’s flyout lakes where the shallower, more fertile waters grow lots of “cabbage patch pike”. On lakes like Ivanhoe, Thomas, Sandy or Moss August pike fishing remains sensational, comparable in most people’s opinion to the best Scott June fishing.
Ask Andy Anderson, a South Carolinian who had 14 days at Scott this last August. For Andy, every flyout was a “winner” and lake trout fishing on Scott was “tremendous”. His 49″ pike on Gardiner Lake didn’t hurt that opinion but he also had pike days where he “could hardly count them”. His wife Carolyn, who in her words, “came as a martyr” ended up having the “time of her life”. Thanks to the support of her guide she found herself in the “double digit trophy club”. Tip to you guys: listen to your guide ñ they know more about this kind of fishing than you do. (Sorry Andy).
Early August does the trick for Ken Vickerstaff as well. He and his gang all got their Trophy Triples this summer and had a memorable day grayling fishing at Gardiner Lake. Within minutes he had a 16″ and an 18″ grayling which he thought was as much fun as getting a 40″ pike. He and his son Scott, fishing dry flies like they do at home in Colorado, caught 15 grayling over 16″ in a couple of hours. He also had an incredible flyout day where they got “dozens” of pike over 36″. Add a few fat Scott lake trout and you have a perfect August trip. That week produced a lifetime memory for one of the Vickerstaff group. Harold Simmons on Scott Lake on August 2nd got into some huge lake trout ñ a 41″ by an incredible 26″ fish and a 47″ by 24″ monster. Those are fish worthy of Great Bear or Great Slave without battling six-foot swells. On Scott August is the time for the big trout. You have to pay your dues and put in the hours trolling but 40″+ fish are there. Ask Ed Carlson about his 44 incher, Kathy Riss about her 43.5 incher, Herminio Llevat about his ridiculously fat 45″ by 28″ fish or Mike Thornbrough about his 45.5″ trout. These are all fish-of-a lifetime and all were caught right on Scott. Al and Kathy Riss have made 17 trips to Scott Lake in 10 years and mid-August is their preferred time. They like the “usual” warm weather. (Predicting weather on the 60th parallel is dangerous but August is usually warm). While Kathy’s big trout, 43.5×24.5, was unforgettable, the volume of trout everyday make their August trips special. They love the mix of casting for pike then motoring a short distance to fish for trout.
Even terrible weather in August didn’t bother Dave Viale who likes the mid-August slot. This summer he and Bill Knox endured the worst weather of the year but he still landed four trophy trout and had a great time. “We laughed for five days straight” he recalls and terms his time at Scott a “terrific experience”. The president of St. Croix Rod Company, Paul Schluter, gets around the fishing circuit. His favorite time is late August at Scott. He compares pike fishing at Scott to musky fishing back in Wisconsin with one critical difference: you always catch a lot of big pike. Paul and his brothers Jeff and Dave like to fish the big cabbage beds on Scott’s flyout lakes. On Sandy Lake this past season they had an incredible day, getting “over 100 fish”. And these late summer (actually you could call it fall) fish are fat and feisty. On a couple of sunny days they still found big pike back in the shallow water. They also had a big pike day on Scott. Paul and Dave landed five trophies on the first day on the water. While Paul was throwing the big baits, one of his sales reps, Dan Johnston, was throwing flies. In late August he scored dozens of shallow water pike including two 44’s and a 48.5″. He added a 20″ grayling to he remarkable trip. Fly fishing is not just for June or July.
Another Wisconsin resident called the August pike fishing “spectacular”. Dave Worth has made two straight late August trips to Scott. In 2001 his partner Jeff Martin caught a 46″ pike on the first cast of the first day. In 2002 Dave and his partner Tim Copps captured 11 trophies and had a fantastic trip. He remembers the pike as unpredictable in late August, sometimes shallow, sometimes deep, but he found this challenging and trusts his guide to find the fish. Tim Kilpatrick absolutely craves the fall feeling of late August. He looks forward to the overall experience: the birch turning yellow, the geese and loons flying overhead and especially the northern lights. He delights in the majesty of the scenery and the enjoyment of sharing the experience with other like-minded anglers. It’s not that Tim doesn’t enjoy fishing. He loves it and gets lots of fish, but he’s also fishing deeper waters and appreciates the pristine setting and natural beauty of the area.
The Fall Frenzy
Late August starts to look and feel like fall but by September 1st there is no doubt, summer is over and a new game is on. In a typical year the lake trout are moving up on the shallow wind-swept rocky reefs by the first week of September. Due to the very mild weather in late August and early September, the 2002 season had a delayed trout spawn. The trout like the water temperature in the high 40’s but this fall it stayed in the mid-50’s. It wasn’t the typical “frenzy” but it was still good. For coastal Californian Mike McKenzie there is “nothing quite like” catching lakers on a fly rod in a couple of feet of water. Both he and his partner, Doug Lovell, caught 36″ lakers on flies and had shots on 40″ monsters. Mike has also been to Scott in June and calls it a “toss-up”: he likes both ends of the season. Dave Davley is Mr. September at Scott. He helped close the camp this summer and saw “awesome” northern lights and just loved to see lake trout swimming around in a couple feet of water. He noted the “fatter” and very “aggressive” pike and at least this past September, still caught pike in shallow water. Dave loves the catch and release philosophy at Scott. Holding that fish, reviving it and watching it slowly swim away is a powerful “interspecies connection” for him. It’s just his time to be in the north. The trophy stats don’t show September as a big fish month but there are a couple of factors to consider. Because there are so many non-trophy but great fishing lakers in shallow water a lot of September anglers spend a good part of their day on the reefs. Also the trophy system is by length not weight. September pike are incredibly fat and most 36″ September pike will weigh as much as a 40″ June fish.
Obviously a lot of anglers have their own special “time”. Scott has potent magic in its waters. Not every day is the wild, double after double experience. There are slow, tough days where a dozen fish to the boat is the best anyone can do. Cold fronts, east winds, a bad casting day, any number of things can lower the fish count. The fish move slowly through their season: the pike from the shallow, silt-bottomed days of June to deeper rocky drop offs in August and September; the trout from the sandbars of June to the deep holes of July and August to the spawning reefs of September. June will always produce the most pike, July the biggest and July and August the biggest trout. On Scott Lake August can be tough pike fishing but the flyout lakes with an abundance of aquatic vegetation produce best in late summer. These are the simple facts, complicated by dozens of variables. The one constant: fishing on the 60th parallel has integrity. It’s a quality experience even if the big ones ignore your offering.
So, the best time to come? Any time that you’re there.