Week 5 Update: Despite The Weather, The Fishing Trophies Keep Coming

Week 5 Update: Despite The Weather, The Fishing Trophies Keep Coming

by | Jul 6, 2017 | 2017 Season

It was an auspicious week. We didn’t just celebrate Canada Day on July 1 with flags, toasts, a rousing performance of O Canada and a glorious feast of elk loins, maple glazed cedar plank salmon and ribeye steak topped off by a Maple Leaf birthday cake; We celebrated the 150th birthday of our host country, the land of polite people, hockey madness, French fries with gravy AND cheese and the land of giant northern pike. To make that point absolutely clear, our intrepid group of anglers put on a real pike show for the week. Leading the way, with one of the best pike days ever seen here, John Green put his guide’s memory skills to the test. Without writing things down could you remember this string of landed trophy pike: a massive 48-inch pike, two 44s, a 43, a 42, a 41, a 40.5 and a 40? John wasn’t alone with big fish: there were 28 trophy pike caught on that day alone. For the week, there were seven pike over 45”, our designation of a “supersized” pike. Gerry O’Brien got his personal best with a 47 on the first day. John Green two days after his orgy of big pike caught another 47 and added three more trophy pike. On that day, though, he played cameraman more than a few times for his fishing partner, Brent Laing, who landed not just a hefty 46.5” pike but he added six more trophy pike to his memorable day. We specialize in memorable days here. All 26 anglers in camp caught at least one trophy pike. That’s spreading the love around. Jim Klenk did double duty this week, landing a 45” pike and one of the biggest trout of the season, a very fat 42 incher. Earl Zagrodnik kept another iconic Canadian fish in the mix. He and his fishing partner, nephew James Zagroknik, had a spectacular grayling day on a river 30 miles north of Scott Lake. Earl landed a dandy, a 19 incher. With so many big fish with big teeth around, the arctic grayling tends to be a forgotten player. For those with a love of fly fishing a day on one of the rivers in our region can be very satisfying, even their most memorable day of the trip, as it was for Earl and James. Gerry O’Brien successfully went after grayling on his final day, getting a 16.5” sailfish of the north and hitting 101 total trophy inches to earn his 100+Club jacket. His fishing partner Andrew Troop just missed the jacket but got his Trophy Triple hat as a reminder of his great week. Quite a week that boat had. Weather-wise this was not a perfect week by any means. On the third day of the trip a cold front moved in with a nasty east wind, predictably dropping the trophy count to just ten that day. The temperatures changed the next day, maybe too fast. It hit 80 but in the far north with that kind of heat often something gives. It did. We had a savage thunderstorm. Being in a boat with graphite fishing rods that double nicely as lightning rods just isn’t smart. Most of the boats on Scott Lake came in early that day and just enjoyed the light show from shore. But that was only on Scott Lake. On our fly out lakes our anglers (16 of them that day) enjoyed a perfect day, proving yet again that all weather is local. All in all: it was an excellent week, with 93 trophies landed, and, despite some bad weather, three more hog pike were put in the books. Through five groups we have now tallied nine 47” pike, six 48” and one 51”, putting us on track to meet or beat the all-time big fish record of last season when 34 pike of 47 or better were caught. Stay tuned.
Northern Pike Lake Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 5

Biff and Brent with a massive trophy pike.

Lake Trout Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 5

Gerry and Guide Jan with a 100+ Trophy Club Trout.

Northern Pike Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 5

Dale and Guide Poacher with a great trophy pike.

Lake Trout Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 5

Cory and Jim with a trophy Trout.

Week 4 Review : Return of the sun, return of the Fishing trophies

Week 4 Review : Return of the sun, return of the Fishing trophies

by | Jul 2, 2017 | 2017 Season

WEEK 4 UPDATE: Back to back years, back to back trophy fish!

Does lightning ever strike the same place twice? Can two pike of exactly the same size in two separate lakes ever be caught on the same day exactly a year apart? How lucky or good can one angler be? These are questions as deep as our northern lakes, but one would have to ask Joe Novicki. He has the answers. And they are all “yes”. In June of 2016 on Joe’s 33rd trip to Scott Lake Lodge since 1997, he set the bar for big pike at Scott Lake Lodge with an impressive 51 incher. In June of 2017 on his 34th trip, he put the bar right back there by landing an even heavier 51” pike, the kind with big shoulders. And the same day he put three more trophy notches in a belt that now has more notches than leather. And again his long suffering fishing partner, Bill Calabresa, got to play cameraman for the second straight year. (Joe got even but we’ll get to that later.) It’s a great fish story and many others were written during our fourth week of the season. Jim MacDougall used his fly rod like a magic wand to bring pike of 48,45,44,44,41 and 40” under his spell. Then on bait casting gear added lake trout of 36 and 37”. Allen Wortz Jr. got in the big pike game, landing a 47 and a pair of 45s. His fishing partner, Craig Mataczynski, joined the fun with a 45 and three others over 40”. On his first ever Canadian fishing trip Joey Manship brought five trophy pike to the boat. His dad, Mike, contributed two more. Judy and Conrad Schmidt, on their 33rd trip, teamed up for five trophy pike. So for some more southern fishing lodges these numbers might add up to a pretty damn good season. For lodges in our neighborhood, that might constitute a solid week. Here at Scott Lake Lodge all of that happened in JUST ONE DAY, the first day this group hit the water. Yes ONE DAY.

Well, we cheated. We had a day of beautiful sunshine and just the right winds. Sun is the secret sauce for pike fishing. And this group got lucky. We had sun most of the time for all five days of their trip and the fishing reflected it. Our guides and anglers did have to contend with some vicious east winds that made travel by boat a bit more of an adventure than most people enjoy, but the fishing more than made up for it. The big fish just kept on rolling in. Connor Dannewitz hit the big time with a 48” pike adding a 45” and a 42” to the day. His dad, Chuck, got four trophy pike that day as well. After their big day on Day 1 of their trip the Manship duo, Mike and Joey, together landed nine trophy pike in a single day. Phil Robers and Andre Lechowicz each had a four- trophy pike outing.

Our old friends Bill Calabresa and Joe Novicki were in camp for ten days and never took their feet off the gas pedal. Every year they are gunning for the 100+Club jacket. After Bill got his massive 45.5” lake trout, he got serious about pike and grayling. Then Joe got the 51” pike and put himself in a good position for a run. Both got big grayling but Joe couldn’t put up a big trout number. So on the last day Bill bags a 46” pike to give him a huge total—109.5 inches, a number that will be tough to beat. Joe ended his quest at 106.5”, a very healthy number. Both will proudly wear their jackets. Jim MacDougall also joined the Club, getting 102.5 total inches. Steve Doerter ended his trip with a big fish, a fat 40” lake trout. The best part about this week: everyone got into the trophy game. All 26 anglers in camp got a trophy pike pin. A grand total of 137 trophy fish were caught, 122 of them pike, on this windy but sunny week. Want to have the same kind of fishing on a trip next year? Just pick a week with five straight sunny days. Any week of our season could be the very best or the most challenging of the season. So just come up whenever you can.

Northern Pike Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 4

Ian & Biff with a day 2 trophy pike.

Northern Pike Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 4

Connor is just a little excited about this trophy pike.

Lake Trout Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 4

Bill & Jan with a 100+ club lake trout.

Northern Pike Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 4

Joe & Jan with a bruser of a pike.

Northern Pike Lake Fishing Saskatchewan

Week 4

Charles & Red with a trophy pike.

Week 2 Update – The Return of Summer

Week 2 Update – The Return of Summer

by | Jun 22, 2017 | 2017 Season

     

 

The Return of Summer

What a difference some sunshine makes! During our first week (we call our 5-day trips weeks because, well, just because it’s easier) of operations, there were precious few times when the rays of the intense sub-arctic sun hit the faces of our anglers in their boats or the backs of our pike in their bays. That changed in Week 2 and so did the fishing. It was a fantastic week on Scott Lake and our 18 fly out lakes with some amazing individual days.

Trophy Fishing is Heating Up!

Let’s start with a day that John Heinmiller will never forget. John and his wife Julie have a cabin in northern Minnesota where big pike do fall into nets now and then, but nothing prepared him for the experience of having ten pike over 40” end up in his guide’s boat in a single day. These weren’t skinny pike with length and no body. These were healthy, battling fish with substantial girths, one topping out at 46”. That’s a good day of fishing. Peggy Light had two incredible days of fishing. On her first day of the trip she got a 45” pike with four more trophy pike. On her second day she bagged a six-pack of pike with another 45. Mike Rogers and Jameson Viljaste were a two-man wrecking crew, getting 30 of the 147 (that’s a big number) of trophy pike caught this week. They have some destroyed spinners as mementos.

Along with some enchanting sunsets (around midnight), wonderful shore lunches, lots of bear sightings, dozens of loon, eagle and osprey sightings, those fish plus a few big lake trout and grayling created some powerful memories. Few more powerful though than the ones fueled by the images of four-feet, yes 48 inches, of beautiful pike in your guide’s hands. Bob Noble, after over 50 years of fishing throughout Canada, now as that memory. It was his biggest ever. Joe Daugherty equaled his personal best, also caught at Scott, with his 48” pike, caught on his fly rod no less. It was Joe’s 40th trip to Scott (he’s not that old—he just comes to Scott more than once a season, a smart man). Will they ever beat those marks? We might find out next season because like many of the other Week 2 guests they will be back in 2018 for more.

We are off to a great start in 2017. Our thanks to our Week 2 guests for making the trip north.

Big Northern Pike T Bones a Smaller one

by | Jan 26, 2017 | Northern Pike, video

Have a look at what northern fishing is like at a pristine Canadian Fishing Lodge. Trophy northern pike eating smaller specimens right off your hook? This takes sight fishing up a notch!! You see the pike, cast, watch him eat and set the hook…all of the sudden the it feels like you’re hooked on the bottom. The food chain unfolds before your eyes! What a story to share at happy hour in the lodge!