Week 19 in Review: This is the end…almost

It isn’t easy to sum up the feelings of the final week. The culmination of so much work, so many memories made and shared. It’s bittersweet; the end is in sight, but somehow you are never quite ready for it.  Especially so on the nineteenth and final week of the 2025 season. Fall in the north showed her true splendour, and the weather was perfect. It was hot and sunny during the days, cooling off for perfect bonfire weather in the evening. Geese flew overhead as the full moon and the northern lights lit up the night sky. There were fish stories galore, the trout were shallow, the pike were feeding ravenously, grayling pounded dries, and the annual whitefish run was on. Our final crew was wonderfully wild; the excitement that showed off the planes on the first day was the same as when we sent the last group south. It was a lot of fun…the fishing was on fire!

Big pike made up the bulk of the 188 trophy-sized fish that our anglers hauled in this week. These toothy predators are as fat as can be in the fall, each fish bulked up after a summer of feeding. The sun and light winds made for some great action on the rocks and weedbeds of Scott and the flyout network. Eleven super-sized pike over 45” were landed, including three 47” fish caught by Mike Rogers, John Heinmiller and Dave O’Donnell. This brings our record-setting season total up to 39 giant pike over 47”!  Dave and John both added a 46.5” pike to their fish tales this week, James McCain hit a new personal best at 46”, and Priscillia O’Donnell added a 46” also. Many of our anglers shared tales not just of pike over 40”, but those in the 36-39” range that came in droves this week. They fight hard and make for incredible fishing days. Each week, during the introductions, we encourage people to enjoy each fish…this week, they certainly did.

Fall is trout time, and this week did not disappoint.  As the lakers stage to spawn on well-oxygenated cobblestone reefs and points, they develop bright orange or yellow bellies and the leading edge of their fins turn a brilliant white colour, betraying their Char genetics. Lake Trout belong to the genus Salvelinus, sharing genes with Brook Trout and Arctic Char.  This was just the start to the spawning run, with the smaller males making up most of the catches, however, some big females were up shallow, testing the light tackle.  Sweetwater Mike Rogers waited until the last afternoon to land a 42” shallow trout, the fight sounded epic, and Mike led the way with 108” for his entry to the 100+ Club. Clay McCain found a 41”er, David Stetzler a 39.5 and Dan Spielman and Galen Faulconer both tallied 38” ers to round out the top trout action.

Grayling love sunny days in the fall. John and Julie Heinmiller found this out as a part of our last plane to Tukto, they both found 20” grayling in the rapids on the tundra lake. Bill Sandbrook, Joe Mayhew and Clay McCain all got into 19” fish on their days in the rapids. The dry fly action this time of year can be exceptional. Watching these northern fish clear the water to take flies never gets old. The same goes for northern lights and bonfires, we had both in fine numbers this week. The Last Cast happy hour was a full house each day with excited tales and fish and wildlife…bears, muskox, moose, otters and wolverines were all sighted and photographed. It was a fine week to end off a superb year. Thank you to the anglers who closed out the season with us, and thank you to each adventurous angler who visited us in 2025. It was a big year for Scott Lake Lodge; we can’t do this without you!  Though this is the end of our regular season, the work for 2026 starts today. Constant incremental improvements to our infrastructure, flyout network and the beginning of our procurement and hiring process are already in the works. We won’t rest until we meet our goal of the best lodge fishing experience in Canada.