Week 19 Recap: A Perfect Ending

Week 19 Recap: A Perfect Ending

“A PERFECT ENDING”

Another Fishing Season in the Books

One would think, after 90 consecutive days of managing, guiding, cooking, serving, cleaning and fixing, that the Scott Lake team would be tired, listless and ready to call it a close to the fishing season. Not the case. Maybe it’s like the horse who smells the barn and races back to its stall after a long ride: it knows the end is near and gives it his all. Whatever the inspiration, the Scott crew doubled down on their service commitment for the final group of the fishing season, or maybe they were just playing off the high energy of this fun-loving group (you know who you are) who brought to our island an incredible level of enthusiasm and excitement for the closing session of the season. They came to have fun and to catch fish, in that order. They accomplished both magnificently. It was a lively bunch who traveled from many hot spots in the lower 48 to enjoy the cool temperatures of the 60th parallel in September. They were energized. The sauna, hot tub, spa and our two bars (especially the bars) were jumping all week. This group had it all: great fishing, northern lights viewing, impressive wildlife sightings and interesting dining. There was a strong “let’s have a party tonight” vibe for the entire week, even when on Day 4 vicious winds shut down fishing for the day. Few ventured out that day in some very heavy waves. If they did, they didn’t go far. No trophy fish were landed that day (lowering the week’s trophy total significantly), but a black bear did make an appearance so at least one pin was handed out after dinner that night. (The lodge recognizes some wildlife encounters by awarding “trophy” pins for spotting black bear, moose or muskox.)

And there were plenty of actual fish pins handed out too. The week ended with 130 trophy fish landed, heavily leaning toward northern pike and Arctic grayling. While the lake trout did start their annual migration upwards toward the shallow reefs, they were late this year, probably due to the still warm surface water temperatures. Hundreds of smaller lakers were in the shallows but the big ones were still in deep water. Only four trophy lake trout were landed for the week, the biggest a 37.5” laker off Scott Lake taken by James Abell who landed big trophy fish in all three of our species, earning the 100+Club jacket. The big trout were generally still deep and with great pike fishing on Scott and the fly out lakes not too many guests spent time doing the deep trolling needed to bring them up. The pike fishing was just too good. Our northern pike were feeding heavily on windy, rocky shorelines and in the remaining weed beds. There were many hundreds of pike caught with 77 hitting the 40-inch or over trophy category, not our best week of the season but not shabby either. Tom Granneman, Francis Sun and Dan Spielman caught pike of 44-inches. Dan also got a 45-incher along with Jim Ward. The biggest pike of the week was on the line of James Abell, a beautiful 46-incher. There were many of pike in the 40- to 43-inch range with Collen Clark, Tom Granneman, Clay McCain, Mark Graf and Frances Sun enjoying days with three-trophy pike in the boat. Mark and Frances along with Dave O’Donnell also had four-trophy pike days. As with the previous group, there were frequent comments about the weight and girth of the pike that came to the boats. The typical 40-inchers in September probably weighed three pounds more than the same fish weighed earlier in the season. And it was common to hear about 100 or more pike in the boat for a single day; the pike were in the attack mode all week.

For those that ventured into our rivers, our grayling with their trademark high, iridescent dorsal fin were very cooperative. Grayling of our “supersized” mark of 18 inches or better were taken by Mark and Rebecca Graf, Dan Spielman and Frances Sun. James Abell and Randy Grooms had a big grayling day on the outflow of Odin Lake with their biggest were just under that 18-inch mark. Dry flies and sub-surface nymphs were the winning tickets for grayling action.

There were trophy dinners all week. The culinary team ended the season strong, featuring dinners like beef bourguignon, seafood risotto, lamb loin, smoked brisket and lobster with a tenderloin to name just a few of the offerings. Between the over-the-top group shore lunches and the lavish dinners, no one lost any weight on this trip. Many may have gained a few pounds, but all gained indelible memories of fishing at its best. We had an almost even split this week between long time regulars and first-time guests. Based on bookings and comments, we gained a lot of new regulars. It was simply a wonderful week to spend in the far north and a perfect ending to another fishing season our guests and staff will always remember as one of the best. Stay tuned for a season summary: it will have a big number for our total trophy count.

Week 18 Recap: Falling for Fall

Week 18 Recap: Falling for Fall

“FALLING FOR FALL”

Aggressive Fall Pike Fishing

There was no doubt. In earlier weeks we’ve had hints of fall but now it was for real: you could feel it in the cool morning air, the up tempo winds hitting your face; see it in the scuttling low clouds, the turning of the birch leaves from their drab green to brilliant yellow; hear it with the nighttime honking of migrating geese and the almost comical one-note call of migrating Pacific loons. And for our guests, more importantly, you could feel fall in the savage jolt of an aggressive northern pike trying to get an easy meal. Violent strikes were incredibly common for our Week 18 crew. The pike were on the prowl for the entire week. The action was steady for most anglers almost every day on Scott and on our two dozen flyout lakes. It could have been a windy shoreline, a patch of weeds or a deep drop-off. The pike seemed to be everywhere. And they were angry. These are “take no prisoners” pike that barely show a resemblance to the sometimes picky pike of early summer. The spinners, spoons, plastics or flies this week were often not visible when the fish were brought to the boatside. These pike were committed to their next meal as they put on weight in preparation for the long and relatively lean winter months. These are ferocious, feisty, fat fall pike—a fish you just have to love.

Typically, at this time of our season we get into the quantity vs. quality debate. The quality of fall pike fishing is undisputed. They are much heavier than they were a month or two previous. Often though, our trophy numbers taper off as we get near the end of the season while the size increases. This group had it all—QUANTITY AND QUALITY. The trophy count landed at 154, a respectable number even for June or July. Add the heft of this group’s catch and you have the ingredients of a sensational week. It was: there were fifteen pike of 44-inches or better, topped by a magnificent 47-incher.

We had 114 trophy pike and, as they often do, the big fish came in bunches. Ron Juergens, Seth Snyder, Paul Lorusso, Kevin Thorp and Liz Snyder landed a trio of trophy pike on the same day; Mike Strobel, Tom Davis, Brenda Gray, Paul Lorusso, Veronica Strobel and Seth Snyder (another big day) made it a four-pack; Valarie Strobel and Rebecca Graf each landed five trophy pike on their big days. Pike between 44-and 46-inches were as common as the yellow leaves on birch trees. Our guides term these monsters the “mids” as opposed to “regular” trophies between 40- and 43-inches or the “megas” between 47- and 50-inches. If you hook into one of these mids, you know that you have an impressive fish. In most Canadian settings they are pretty rare. Not at Scott Lake Lodge. Not during Week 18. Pike of 44” were caught by a slew of our anglers: Ron Wamsted, Seth Snyder, Jason Sikkenga, Dave McCarty, Mike Strobel (a pair of brutes) and Valarie Strobel (also a pair). Pike of 45” were taken by Seth Snyder (that name yet again), Don Thorp and Brenda Gray who landed two at 45, giving her an incredible trip. Mark Graf went to the top of the “mid” scale with a pike of 46-inches. But the fish-of-the-week belonged to Mike Strobel with a beautiful 47-incher. That is a big batch of QUALITY fish.

A week at Scott is not complete without someone landing a big lake trout or two or more. Our pike did not completely dominate the TV screens after dinner. There were some impressive lake trout as well. Mike Winegar pulled in a 39-incher; Don Thorp caught a fat 42-incher, along with a 38- and 40-incher. The Top Trout though went to Kevin Thorp who landed a 42.5-inch pig of a laker.

Grayling were in the game too. Only four anglers (Mark and Rebecca Graf and Kevin and Don Thorp) went after the acrobatic resident of the far north, but all cashed in on fish of 17-inches or better, big grayling in these parts. Those grayling catches gave a Trophy Triple hat to Mark, Kevin and Don. Hitting over 100 total inches, Kevin and Don also earned the 100+Club jacket.

As we’ve come to expect, there were numerous wildlife sightings. Fall is a time when all critters, both in the lakes or on the land, become active. The only missing entrée in the exciting fall smorgasbord were the northern lights. They were probably up there but we had five consecutive cloudy nights. But no one complained about not staying up late to watch the celestial show; everyone was tired from catching too many big fish! Simply put: it was a hell of a week, one that all our anglers will remember for the rest of their lives.

Week 15 Recap: Trout Time

Week 15 Recap: Trout Time

“TROUT FISHING TIME”

For most of the summer big pike have ruled the waves of our blog posts. Finally, it’s trout fishing time. Our “freshwater tuna” (that’s how hard they fight) are now down in the deep holes of our lakes where our experienced guides with the latest electronics can target them. They showed up in both numbers and size. Matt and Amanda Yackel gave the vertical jigging technique a shot and tallied 306 lake trout (yes, they counted them) in one memorable day. Jigging doesn’t get our biggest lakers, but it does rack up the numbers and who doesn’t enjoy having a doubled over rod almost continually during a day on the water? With an average size of around six pounds each, the haul that day was close to a ton of trout. Trolling spoons deep is the technique to land the bruisers in these parts. Our guides did a lot of that this week, finding our guests many hundreds of trout, catching 21 lakers over 38”, a fat and feisty fish. We did have a clear winner in the Lake Trout King of the Week category. Brad Courvelle has landed a lot of lakers here at Scott over his three trips here but never one that stretched the tape to 44-inches, one of our biggest of the season. It was a brute taken on a flyout to Flett Lake, one of our best flyout pike lakes. A pair of 40-inchers were taken on Selwyn Lake by Colleen and Larry Lee. Another 40-incher was landed on Scott Lake by Megan Wolff. Lakers of 39 were taken by Jason Ziegler who got a pair that size and Rebecca Sawyer. Trout of 38-inches were caught by John Baumann, Laurie Yliniemi, Paul Sawyer and Amanda Yackel. It turned out to be our best trout week of the season.

Late in the season when the trout go deep, the Arctic grayling come shallow as the rivers connecting our flyout lakes drop in volume and become very fishable for light weight tackle, either ultra-light spinning or 4-weight fly rods. We had a record number of trophy grayling this week with 69 over 15-inches. Brad and Adam Courvelle had a wild grayling afternoon on the Dubawnt River about 100 miles east of the lodge. They caught dozens of grayling and 16 of them were over 18-inches including some 19s and a 19.5-incher. Rebecca Sawyer caught an 18-incher as well. Paul and Rebecca Sawyer, Amanda and Matt Yackel, Aubrey Hegge and Megan Wolff also took a pause in their quest for big pike and trout and caught grayling on our rivers. While grayling don’t make our headlines often and while not all our anglers appreciate fish without teeth, grayling provide for those that enjoy light-tackle fishing one their most satisfying northern experiences. While lake trout and pike can be caught many hundreds of miles to the south, grayling are a species of the far north. And they are a cooperative fish. When conditions are right, they will attack anything the right size that resembles a small fish or a bug of any kind. We have an expression here about fly fishing for grayling. We have studied fly fishing success for grayling here over almost three decades and have concluded that there are only two flies that work for grayling: “those that float and those that don’t”. Catching grayling on dry flies is as entertaining as fishing gets.

While pike didn’t make the top of the week’s marquee, they weren’t exactly hiding either. We tallied just under 100 trophy pike. The total was lower than in many weeks but there was a baker’s dozen over 44-inches. Mark and Amy Occhipinti, Judy Withrow and Chris Hegge hit the 44-inch mark. Karen Flynn, Amanda Yackel, Mark Occhipinti and Adam Courvelle added an inch with Brad Courvelle landing a pair of 45s on the same day. Mike Withrow and Larry Lee got 46-inchers and Rebecca Sawyer and Aubrey Hegge landed the biggest pike of the week at 47-inches. Aubrey’s was a buzzer beater on Scott Lake on the last day. When pike turn on, they can be caught in bunches. Both Jim Flynn and Chris Hegge got five trophy pike on the same day. Larry Lee had a day he will never forget getting a 46.5” pike and a 41.5” lake trout on the same day. There has to be an Honorable Mention for Tom Bauman who on the same day caught three pike between 39.5 and 39.75-inches, just a fingernail short of our 40” trophy size. Now that’s an honest guide!

The weather was a mixed bag for the Week 15 crew. We had a little of everything—some sunny days, some rainy days, some cloudy days but the fishing was remarkably consistent. And as every week the wildlife show went on with sightings of muskox and moose as well as the standard loon, eagles and ospreys. We did get the first hints of fall this week with some birch leaves starting to turn yellow and a few early-bird geese heading south. We had a brief northern lights display one night, but the night skies were generally quiet this week. As the nights get longer and darker, there will be a lot more displays in the weeks ahead. And there will be more giant fish too. We are getting near the end of our season but based on our history the best is yet to come.

Week 13 Recap: The (Hot) Dog Days of Summer Fishing

“THE HOT DOG DAYS OF SUMMER FISHING”

If, like many of our customers, you hail from the upper Midwest, you’ve heard the expression “The Dog Days of Summer”, referring to the hot, muggy often miserable weather of late July and August. For anglers though it specifically referred to that time of summer fishing when you just can’t catch fish, especially pike. According to this perspective, pike lose their teeth in August and can’t feed at all. Of course, pike don’t lose their teeth and don’t stop feeding, but in the overly warm waters of the northern US this time of year, pike are very hard to catch. In the cool waters along the 60th parallel, our pike love heat and sun. We had it and that Northwoods legend was contradicted 147 wonderful times at Scott Lake Lodge during our early August, Week 13 session. And these big pike had plenty of teeth, somewhere around 700 each. Our pike know that fall is coming and they are putting on the feedbag.

It was, on all fronts, the perfect week to be in the far north. There were five consecutive blissful days of sunshine, warmth (shorts and T-shirts were the uniform of the week) and highly cooperative northern pike, Arctic grayling and lake trout. At Scott Lake the “dog days” became the “hot dog days” where everyone felt like the King of the Lake and feasted on all the sight fishing opportunities as the big pike moved into the warm shallow water. The result of the great weather combined with the experienced guides and enthusiastic anglers was a total of 181 trophy fish. In that total were some dandy big fish: there were 21 pike over 44 inches with seven of those at 46 inches or better, including two 48s, and six lake trout over the magic mark of 40 inches. Add a bunch of nice grayling and you have an incredibly productive week of summer fishing.

John Underwood led the pike parade with a day every angler dreams about but few realize. On a flyout to Selwyn Lake he landed dozens of pike. That’s not unusual, but to connect with pike of 40.5, 43.5, 45.5, 47.5 and 48.5 inches on one day is quite unusual. His fishing partner for the day, Brad Chapin, had the same kind of day with trophy pike of 41.5, 42, 43.5, 44.5 and 47 inches. That’s ten huge pike in one memorable day. The father/son team of Scott and Will Bixby had the same kind of day on a fly out to Wholdaia Lake where they caught 11 trophy pike including a 45 and 47-incher. Ketta and Russ Roberston had an eight-trophy day with a 45 and 46-incher. Those are all big days. But almost everyone at Scott had a big day. Pike of 44 inches were taken by Steve Pfeifer who got a pair, Dave Underwood, Will Murray, Ken Williamson Sr, Scott Bixby, Amy Brown who also caught a 45-incher. Scott Bixby got one of those and Will Bixby ended up with two 45s. Upping the ante Ketta Robertson, Jason Loughran and Bob Weyers landed 46-inchers; Will Bixby and Brad Chapin got 47s and the monsters of the week, girthy 48s, were caught by John Underwood and Steve Harty. Giant trout were taken by Lachlan Williamson who caught a 40.5- and 41.5-inch laker; Will Murray had a 41-incher; Wallis Higginbotham pulled in a 41.5-incher and topping the trout list was Taylor Rizza who on the last day at Premier Lake, adjacent to Scott, landed one of our biggest of the season at 43.5 inches. Bunches of trophy grayling were pulled out of flyout rivers by Taylor Rizza, Wallis Higginbotham, Lachlan Williamson along with Bill and Chris Hudspeth. Those grayling, along with their trophy lake trout and northern pike, gave Taylor Rizza, Chris Hudspeth, Wallis Higginbotham, Will Murray and Lachlan Williamson the Trophy Triple hat. Wallis, Will and Lachlan got enough total inches of our three trophy species to join the elite 100+Club.

With the warm weather there was plenty of water sports with some swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding. As frosting on the cake, the northern lights made an appearance. And there was plenty of real cake in the form of tempting desserts after the elegant evening dinners. Everything was sweet during this glorious week of summer fishing in the far north.

Week 10 Recap: Of Wind, Waves & Big Fish

Week 10 Recap: Of Wind, Waves & Big Fish

OF WIND, WAVES, BIG FISH AND FUN

The Week 10 gang had a little of everything for their trip: sunshine, heat, clouds, cold, flat water, big waves, big fish and most importantly FUN. It was like three or four trips in one. While it wasn’t the record-setting week we had for Week 8, it was much better than the tough fishing we had back on Week 7. This one was right in between which is not a terrible place to be. Predictably the weather was the controlling variable during the trip. On warm, sunny days like Day 4 the fishing was gangbusters with 41 trophy fish landed. On the Big Blow of Day 2 with outrageous wind and waves, it was a different story; most of the group followed the adage: discretion is the better part of valor. The elements made traveling around the lake nearly impossible and certainly not comfortable. Avoiding the vicious north wind that day was probably a good call—the cabins and main lodge were warm and inviting. As with all cold fronts up here, most of the fish landed that day ran from small to medium except for two trophy pike brought in by two brave souls named Ken Williamson Sr. and Doug Stepansky. Congrats to them for their stamina. The storm blew itself out in a day and we got back to business as usual, catching a lot of big fish. The week ended strong with a final trophy fish count of exactly 100, not a record but not too shabby. Most of those fish were pike with 77 landed along with 11 Arctic grayling and 14 lake trout.

Historically that’s not a big number for trophy lake trout for this time of the season when the big trout should be deep in their summer holes, but some very big lakers made an appearance on the TV screens during the nightly Fish-of-the-Day program. We saw Kathy Clay on the screen often. She loves those hard fighting speedsters. She had two 37-inchers and a 38 along with dozens of smaller fish on a memorable day. Fat 38s were taken by Dylan Williamson and Tony Trusso. Mike Trumbower added an inch to hit the 39-inch mark. From there the tapes just kept getting longer: Jim Williamson got a 40; Dave Hawker caught a 41 on his first ever lake trout trip, and Jacob Williamson caught the Trout of the Week with a very girthy 42-incher. That impressive fish pushed Jacob into the 100+Club ranks with 102 total inches of trophy trout, pike and grayling. Jim Tallman and Dylan Williamson came up just a little short on the 100-inch peg but took home the Trophy Triple hats.

There were plenty of big pike in guide nets as well this week. Pike of 44” were taken by Jim Williamson, Jimmy Kozlowski and Dan Romaine. It was a great week for the 45” supersized category of northern pike. Many guests got into those memorable fish: Todd Kalish, Brian Kozlowski, Mike Rogers, Ken Williamson Jr., Dave Hawker and Dan Romaine. At times the trophy pike came in bunches. Both Al Willaimson and Mike Rogers got a four-pack of trophy pike on the same day. Again, this week there were many interesting wildlife encounters with several muskox sightings and one enormous bull moose. For unknown reasons, it’s been our most active year for spotting wildlife. It added a new level of excitement to the trip for many guests. So, all in all, it was a great week to be at Scott Lake Lodge. After passing the halfway point of the season this week, we now look forward to “fall fishing” when the pike move into deeper water and begin their late season feeding binge and the lake trout are fully settled in their deep holes where with the aid of experienced guides (and fancy electronics) the big fish can be targeted and hopefully caught. Stay tuned for a lot of big trout action in the weeks ahead.