Guide Team

Many are called, few are chosen.

It’s not easy being a Scott Lake guide. We need guides who can do more than just find fish.

They have to be: competent navigators (learning over a million acres of water isn’t easy), accomplished wilderness cooks, entertaining communicators, comfortable using complex GPS and fish locating equipment, infinitely patient and yes, fun to be with.

You will spend about 10 hours a day with your guide and we want to make sure each of those hours is both productive and enjoyable. We are very proud of the team we have assembled in this remote wilderness. Each member of the group has the knowledge, dedication and communication skills needed to assure that your time on the water is both memorable and enjoyable. They understand that their job is giving each angler the trip of their dreams.

All have specialized first aid training, including CPR, and all are certified by the Saskatchewan Outfitters Association. Safety is their top priority. Each guide is equipped with an FM radio as well as a two-way satellite communication device, a first aid kit, and proper emergency gear. Planning and preparation are part of their daily routine. Regular team meetings ensure that all guide members know the where and when of fish activity as well as the how. Inexperienced anglers can be assured that teaching casting skills (spin, bait cast or fly) and general fishing skills is something our guides actually enjoy. Even first time anglers get into fish.

I wanted to thank you for the outstanding experience we had. It was the best fishing trip I have ever been on. I appreciate the 1st class operation of Scott Lake! Everyone was awesome.

Bill Williamson

Jordan Baker

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Hometown: Kenora, ON

Some guys have all the luck—they grow on water, beautiful water. Jordan was born in Kenora, Ontario in the spectacular Lake of the Woods country. He spent his youth wisely, hunting and fishing from an early age. He never looked back. By the summer of 2003 he was in the back of the boat, guiding. He spent a decade guiding for pike and walleye in Ontario but he couldn’t get visions of truly giant pike and lake trout out of his mind. He became a Scott guide in 2014, always looking for that “once in a lifetime fish”. A lot of guys get excited when there is a big fish on the line but Jordan gets more than excited; he starts speaking in tongues. But he never forgets how to net the big ones. Once the leaves start turning, Jordan turns to Manitoba where he does waterfowl guiding. When the birds are gone, he heads west to British Columbia where he trades his fishing rods and shotguns for heavy duty mountain snowmobiles in search of that next powder day. For Jordan it’s an outdoor life for every page of the calendar.

Graham Coulombe

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Hometown: Monteville, ON

Another Ontario native who just had to move further north, Graham grew up in southern Ontario in the Lake Nippissing/French River area. From a large family he was welcomed into the hunting and fishing world by uncles and cousins who instilled a deep love for the outdoors. Graham started guiding in 2001 near Ear Falls, Ontario. Once he got the taste for the guiding life he never stopped. There is nothing else he ever wanted to do. At Scott Lake Lodge since 2010, Graham loves the Scott routine and loves his systems. He is usually the first guide at his boat in the morning and his boat is always flawlessly organized, as is his fishing day. The off-season finds Graham in his cabin deep in the woods on a Lake Superior tributary river, Canadian side of course. His winters are filled with making improvements on the cabin which now should be called a house. There is deer and moose hunting and fishing for steelhead and musky. It’s a guide’s life and it’s a good one.

Cory Craig

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Hometown: Port Jimenez, Costa Rica

WCA stands of course for World Class Angler. And don’t worry. It wasn’t Cory’s ego that coined his nickname. It was a Florida guide who watch Cory throw an incredible cast with his 8-weight fly rod, hook, fight and land in heavy mangroves a snook weighing double digits. The nickname stuck and Cory earns it every time he’s on the water, as guide or angler. Cory is the Scott Lake Lodge Head Guide, earned by his skills, leaderships and longevity, now 25 years on Scott’s water. Born in Toronto but raised in Bermuda, Cory has been around water all his life. He spent a decade in Winnipeg where he found freshwater fish to his liking. Another eight years in Calgary added fly fishing to his resume. He fishes. Plain and simple. In winter Cory heads to Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula where he runs his own charter fishing company, Tropic Fins Adventures. He was always a patient angler but he claims his two beautiful children, Tosh and Kaya, brought him to a new level in that department. He can handle kids, first time anglers as well as experienced clients. If he has spare time it will be spent fishing, surfing, fishing, woodworking, fishing, diving, fishing—you get the idea.

Mike Demyen

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Hometown: Prince Albert, SK

Mike is a guy that can see for forest for the trees. A professional forester, Mike recently retired from Saskatchewan Polytechnic (a bit early because the waters, salt and fresh, called). When he wasn’t the woods over the past two decades or so he was on the water, chasing big fish. A lifelong angler, Mike joined the Scott Lake Lodge team in 2010 after a few years of guiding at other lodges. It was love at first fish for Mike. He thrives on chasing the big pike and lake trout at Scott. His guests also appreciate his skills as a world class shore lunch chef. Recently Mike renovated and opened a Hostel, The Chill Inn, in Nicaragua. Like loons and geese, many guides feel the pull of water in its liquid form when Canadian water is as hard as a hockey puck.

Nick Echelson

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Hometown: Thunder Bay, ON

Nick is no stranger to Canadian fishing. His passion for the outdoors began young in the city of Thunder Bay, a town that rests on Lake Superior. He recalls not only fishing on this Great Lake but going across the provinces with his family to explore. His first big trip was to the Bow River in Alberta. Only being 10 years old at the time, his eyes grew wide when he started throwing dry flies for Brown and Rainbow Trout. After getting “hooked” on the sport, he had a knack for catching Walleye and Great Lake Steelhead. Nick’s outdoor career has brought him to the mountains of Banff and now, to Terrace, BC. You can find him roaming the rivers with a rod, backcountry skiing and hunting big game animals. Having worked at Lac Seul and Wollaston Lake, Nick is well-versed at the multi-species guiding that he will also find here at Scott Lake. We welcome Nick to the notorious guide team.

Paul Hamilton

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Hometown: Winnipeg, MB

Paul started his guiding career on Great Slave Lake where he chased giant trout. He moved to Scott in 2003 and has parked his boat at the same north dock ever since. A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba Paul attended Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Yukon College in Whitehorse in natural resource management. At Scott Lake Lodge, he manages our resources well, putting guests on trophy pike, lake trout and grayling. Paul also is the Construction Manager for the lodge. Every year it seems he is the last to leave the island and the first to arrive, typically by helicopter. He has supervised the building of staff and guest cabins, construction of new decks and every other physical improvement that the lodge has seen. Paul is our man for all season. Once out of the lodge, you would find Paul fishing salmon in Alaska, hunting in Saskatchewan, playing and watching hockey, and indulging his new passion—bone fishing. His distinctive and frequent laugh along with a killer smile are an important element of our island vibe—it’s a great one.

Greg Hamm

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Hometown: Saskatoon, SK

Greg did not take the normal path to the Scott Lake Lodge Guide Team. Most of our guides worked at other lodges and worked their way up to Scott. Greg came in through the backdoor by working in the kitchen as a dishwasher at the ripe old age of 15. (Was that even legal?) It was a life changing opportunity. Greg watched the guides and knew that’s what he wanted. He hounded every guide on the island to pull every ounce of fishing information he could out of them. It worked. They marked up his maps and shared their wealth of lake knowledge. After a few summers in the kitchen Greg was taking out shore staff and going out on his own. He learned the lake and earned the respect of the guides and Scott management. Fourteen seasons at Scott later Greg is a top guide. Off season Greg runs Bone Quest Outfitters in White Fox, Saskatchewan, guiding hunters on their quest for trophy white-tailed deer and black bears. On the water and in the woods Greg helps people make lasting memories.

Shaun Ledoux

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Hometown: Prince Albert, SK

You can’t miss Shaun around the guide den. He is the one with the smile from ear to ear. The reason is simple: he loves guiding. That smile is quite familiar to Scott Lake Lodge regulars. Shaun has been around the lodge a long time, sixteen years to be exact. He started at the lodge in 2001 as a sous chef in the kitchen and spent nine years, five as Head Chef, turning out great meals for our guests. During that time, he was learning the waters around Scott. He became the unofficial guide for the shorestaff, giving the kitchen, maintenance and hospitality staff members a chance to get out on the water. Many of the Scott guides were surprised (and not always happy) to see Shaun at some of their favorite spots miles from the island. He really wanted to guide. So, he turned in his chef’s hat and joined the guide team. After five full seasons on the water, Shaun is a veteran. He took off a year to earn a business degree but his real business is finding big fish. Shaun loves golf and ice fishing and spends a lot of time with his two daughters, ages five and ten, in his home in Price Albert, Saskatchewan. His favorite shore lunch—The Closer. Just ask him.

Steve Lindner

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Hometown: Saskatoon, SK

Don’t call him Steve: he is Biff. He has been at Scott for in his words “18 short years”. Time flies when you’re having a good time and for Biff that’s the only time he knows. He grew up fishing at a family cabin and on northern Saskatchewan fishing trips with his dad. After working at a lodge on a big lake to the south, Biff heard about this interesting lodge on the 60th parallel. He found a home as a “lifer” in a guide team full of them. It would not be an exaggeration to call Biff a professional entertainer, at least that’s what Scott’s customers claim. If the fishing is slow (don’t worry—that’s rare) Biff fills in the day with running riffs that double over guests. And his guiding doubles over their rods as well. Biff loves the recent explosion of new fly out lakes at Scott, getting in the floatplane whenever he can encourage his customers to fly. His intense summers allow Biff to pursue his other passion—world travel. Winters will find him somewhere in a beach community, usually in South America.

Jan Phoenix

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Hometown: Winnipeg, MB

It’s impossible to sum up Jan’s life in a few sentences. He’s not that kind of guy. A Saskatoon native, in 1993 Jan ended up in Whitehorse, Yukon where he is close to the moose, caribou and grizzlies that he chases in the fall. Jan started guiding in 1993 at a lodge a bit further south, but joined the Scott family in 2000. He has collected a lot of stories over that span and isn’t shy about sharing them in the boat. There are no dull moments in his boat. Over the past few years Jan has wintered in Costa Rica which counting the lodge and Whitehorse he considers his 3rd home. If you see Jan in the lodge with his laptop ask to see of the results of his intense life of hunting and fishing. Jan’s plan is simple: spend summers on Scott for “many more years” and head south every winter.

Chester Porteous

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Hometown: Selkirk, MB

Don’t let the nickname scare you. The Poacher abides by all fish and game laws, but now and then he used to poach a little water off other guides. But that was a long, long time ago. The Poach came to Scott is the rich recruiting year of 2001 when four other guides on this page started their Scott Lake Lodge career. Growing up in Selkirk, Manitoba Chester was all about hunting and fishing right from his childhood days. Poacher is not a three-month guide: he is a full time, professional, guiding for black bear in the spring, finding waterfowl, whitetails and caribou in the fall and hunting down big walleyes when the water gets hard. It’s in his blood. You can spot Chester easily at Scott. He’s the one who never quits smiling (unless his guest loses a big fish when he known to pout for a few minutes). His laugh can be heard all around our island. He not only hooks fish. He hooks customers. His list of repeat customers is long. A committed family man, Chester lives for his wife, Hayley and his three wonderful daughters. You will be lucky if you can poach the Poacher off another Scott customer.

Josh Reischer

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Hometown: Corbeil, ON

Josh grew up in the beautiful lake country of Ontario, right on a lake in fact. At the tender age of ten he was hooked on fishing. He recalls the exact moment: he was dragging in his worm when something huge inhaled his bobber. It certainly wasn’t a bluegill. That was it—Josh was a fisherman. He never caught that fish of course but since then he’s caught countless thousands and each one is still a thrill. He quickly became a musky fanatic. Despite starting down a med school path with an undergraduate degree in “biological molecular physics”, he could not resist the siren call of the water. He became a doctor of fishology, guiding at Silver Water Wheel and Wollaston Lake lodges over the past decade. He’s a two-season guide, adding hunting guiding for elk and stone sheep in the Alberta mountains. Josh clearly fits the Scott Lake Lodge guide mold. He now lives in Terrace, British Columbia where steelhead are at the top of his off-season fishing menu. We welcome Josh to the guide team.

Jason Terris

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Hometown: Winnipeg, MB

No one knows for sure how T-Bag got his nickname (drinks too much tea?) but everyone knows for sure that there is only one T-Bag. At Scott he is an institution, a guide’s guide. Thoughtful and understated, Jason makes every minute in his boat count. Extremely well organized, Jason always knows exactly where he’s headed and now he is heading for his 17th season at Scott. He had guided at two other lodges before landing at Scott but knew his first week on the lake that Scott would be his last guiding home. A Winnipeg, Manitoba native, Jason felt the pull of the wild North Atlantic coastline and established himself in New Brunswick where he now spends his winters hunting and fishing, working on cars and trucks (he was an auto mechanic a long, long time ago and a pilot to boot). Unlike a lot of Scott guides, Jason does not have the travel bug anymore. When he heads home to New Brunswick, he stays until it’s time to make the long trek back to Scott where he will continue do what he does best—finding anglers the fish of their dreams.

Spencer Vandenberg

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Hometown: Rosetown, SK

If you look up “Outdoorsman” in the dictionary, you just might find a picture of Spencer holding a fish or fat greenhead mallard. As he puts it, “If I’m not hunting or fishing guiding, I’m hunting or fishing for myself”. A native of Rosetown, Spencer knows the province well. Since high school he has been guiding bird hunters every fall in the southern half. In summer he has been fishing the northern half, starting his guiding career at Hatchet Lodge, and then guiding for three seasons at Wollaston Lake Lodge. Big pike are his passion; he can indulge that passion at Scott Lake Lodge where hundreds of thousands of acres of prime big pike water are scattered over nine million acres of outfitting landscape. That will keep Spencer busy exploring and guiding for decades ahead. We welcome Spencer to the Scott Lake Lodge guide fraternity.

Jon Wimpney

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Hometown: Last Mountain Lake, SK

The J5 thing goes back to 2001, Jon’s rookie year at Scott, when as the new kid on the block he guided a lucky customer to a 50” pike, so he was “J50” for a while. It was just too hard to spit out, so the nickname was edited to just J5. Like all nicknames it either sticks or it doesn’t. This one did. Jon was raised on the shores of Lost Mountain Lake (by the way, there is no mountain there) where his uncle Sparky put a fishing rod in his hand before he could walk. That was walleye country. Then Jon went to a lake where walleyes like he caught as a kid would be bait. That was Scott Lake, Jon’s first and only guiding home. And it quickly became his home: he immediately was hooked, enjoying the lodge life and the guests that travel north to get a taste of wildness. He now counts many of those guests as close friends. No one knows the Scott guests better than Jon because his off-season life is still all about Scott Lake Lodge. Jon is the company’s Sales Manager and spends all winter emailing and talking to hundreds of Scott clients and would-be clients. His sales pitch comes natural because he spends 85 to 100 days on Scott Lake and the fly out lakes. He knows how good the fishing is. All he needs are some spinners and a few Turbo Jacks to connect guests with fish. And he loves creating shore lunch magic. On the water or on the phone Jon is a key player in the Scott Lake family. Just don’t agree to play poker with him…he’s ruthless.

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