Week 19 Recap: A Perfect Ending

Week 19 Recap: A Perfect Ending

“A PERFECT ENDING”

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 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 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 fall 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 a 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”

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 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 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 angers (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 14 Recap: Some Heavy Hitters

“Some Heavy Hitters”

Trophy Pike, Trophy Grayling, Trophy Lake Trout

It’s late summer, the heat of the pennant races and it’s time for some baseball talk. Going 2 for 5 in a game is darn good, a .400 average. It’s been 83 years since a major leaguer hit .400. That was Ted Williams who also happened to be a great angler. So, for Scott Lake Lodge to bat .400 during its 14th week of the season is more than good. Over the week we had two spectacularly beautiful days, one OK day and two cloudy, cool, rainy, windy days. Which days do you think were the two hits? If you’ve been following this blog over the years you know. Sunshine drives quality pike and grayling fishing. No exceptions this week. The two warm, sunny days averaged 49 trophies per day; the three not-so-nice days averaged eight. Sunshine is fishing catnip; the pike and grayling go a little crazy.

To hit .400 though, you need more than ideal weather. You need some sluggers. And we had them. We had anglers who could handle our trophy fish—pike over 40”, arctic grayling over 15” and lake trout over 35”. Our Week 14 team hit doubles, triples and homeruns every inning. When the dust on the basepaths settled, the home team had 107 trophy pike, 44 trophy grayling and 13 trophy lake trout for an impressive total of 164 big fish, some very big. We had eleven anglers who “super-sized” their trophies by landing pike over 45”, lake trout over 40” or grayling over 18”. We saw some seriously big fish on the big TV screens after dinner every night. And this is mid-August when fishing in most Canadian lodges in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan start to see their fishing fall off. In the areas to the south their big days are in June and early July. In August the water just gets too warm. In the cooler waters of the far north, our big days and big weeks happen throughout the season. Our first seven groups of the 2024 season averaged 146 trophies per 5-day session; the next seven, starting July 21 and wrapping up August 18th, averaged 151, demonstrating that any week of our season could be sensational; it all depends on the weather, not the calendar. Anytime is the “best” time to be fishing along the 60th parallel. Up here we don’t miss many pitches.

So, just who were the big hitters of Week 14? So many! Leading the hit parade though would have to be Mark Velleca who really hit one out of the park, getting an absolutely beautiful and girthy pike, a 49-incher, tying the mark for the biggest of the season. Another longball hitter was Jim MacDougall who brought to home plate (well his guide’s net) our biggest lake trout of the season and one of our biggest ever, a powerful 45.5-incher with a massive girth; ten other trophy fish were part of his batting production.

Many other anglers made contact with big pike using their fly, spinning or casting rods as bats. We had six anglers land 44-inchers (Dave Schauer, Dave Morales II who got a pair, Dave Morales, Stephanie Tilton, Bill Schuneman and Amy Blackstone); two got 45s (Dave Schauer and Susan Saraka); one got a 46-incher (Sam Velleca) and one (Stephanie Tilton) got an impressive 47-incher. We didn’t see many trophy trout, but we had some nice ones: in addition to Jim MacDougalls’ monster we had a 38-incher (Tom Olson), a 39-incher (Dave Morales II) and a pair of 40-inchers landed by Dave Morales. Grayling were a big part of the Week 14 game. Super-sized grayling (over 18”) were landed by Jim MacDougal, Amy Blackstone, Carl Sparks and John Replogle. At a distant fly out river, Carl and John hit a grayling bonanza, using fly rods to bring home 35 trophy grayling as well as a few trophy pike. Trophy Triple hats were handed out to Cintia Powers, Dave Morales, Dave Morales II and Jim MacDougall. The two Daves and Jim had enough big trophies to join the elite 100+Club with Jim gunning for our MVP award. He’s sitting at the top of our 100+Club leaderboard, currently edging out Jim Hambright with a 106.75 total inches for his biggest pike, trout and grayling.

There were other trophies as well. Kathy Lawler went home with some amazing northern lights images in her camera. With a lot of cloud cover and the full moon hanging around, she earned those, staying up until 2:00 AM on two different nights to hit her visual homerun. Everyone had trophy dining experiences with the Lamb Fesenjan, Lobster Risotto, Salmon Wellington and Beef Bourguignon scoring the highest. All things considered Week 14 was a winner, in contention for winning our Week of the Year award. It didn’t have the most trophies of the season, but with a 47” and 49” pike along with a 45.5” lake trout it was an All-Star week, definitely a contender.

P.S. While the Billy Jean King/Bobby Riggs tennis match was the great Battle of the Sexes, we saw a close battle here with seven couples in camp this week. In terms of total trophies landed who won? It was perfect, just like the Week: a tie 31 to 31.

Week 5 Recap: So Close… to 200 Trophy Fish

Week 5 Recap: So Close… to 200 Trophy Fish

WEEK 5 RECAP “SO CLOSE” TO 200 TROPHY FISH

At Scott Lake Lodge our fishing is all about having fun, not setting any records. Over the years we have probably set a few International Game Fish Association (IFGA) line class records but we’re not into that. We’re into guests enjoying their experience of world class angling with opportunities for catching that fish of a lifetime. But we do keep an account of the success of each group. And our fifth group at the lodge had extraordinary success. They were so close to hitting a number we’ve never seen—200 trophy fish in just five days. The cool, cloudy last day dampened the surge toward that lofty number with only four trophies on the final day. But the total was still 195 trophies (an all-time record of 169 trophy pike, 21 trophy arctic grayling and a lonely five trophy lake trout). Don’t worry about that trout number. Our hot “trout season” will start in a couple of weeks. With the kind of pike fishing we had no one wanted to stop to fish deeper for lakers. We know one thing for sure: we had a lot of happy guests. Every one of our 26 guests participated in the trophy haul with an average of 7.5 trophies per guest.

Our pike were on a search and destroy mission, attacking everything that came near them. There is a measure of skill involved with both our guests and our guides, but to understand what drove this fishing bonanza one simply had to look up. In June and early July, it’s sun on the water that makes our pike go a bit crazy. The first three days of Week 5 had abundant sunshine and high temperatures. It’s no surprise that 80% of the big pike (135 of the week’s 169) were landed during those three sunny days. Our shallow, silt-bottom bays were swarming with eager water wolves, attacking our guest’s offerings—flies, spinners, plastics, anything thrown at them.

When the guides found hot spots, those spots produced in abundance. Our guests were often getting more than one big one a day: 52 times our anglers landed two or more trophy pike in a single day. Jim Kusar and Ron Juergens accomplished that feat seven times out of their ten chances and ended up with an astonishing 37 trophy pike between them. We had a lot multiple trophy days. Four trophy pike a day were taken by Andrew Troop who accomplished that twice, Christal Stover, Kevin Edwards, Nancy Wahl, Gerry O’Brien, and Ron Juergens; a five trophy pike day was enjoyed by Bruce Kozlowski, and a six-pack of big pike was taken by Ron Juergens while his fishing partner, Jim Kusar, was landing 10 trophy pike—that’s a day of fishing. On the Dubawnt River Andrew Troop had a nine-trophy arctic grayling day, getting a trophy lake trout as a bonus.

So many huge pike. The angler list is long, but each fish represents a lifetime memory. Pike of 44” were landed by Darin Lyn Williamson, Cody Slover, Christal Slover (2), Chris Harris, Larry Noesen, Jim Kusar (3), Brian Grossenbacher, Marvin Wehl and Bruce Kozlowski (2); pike of 45” were taken by Christal Slover, Marvin Wehl, Cody Slover (2), Debbie Harris, Jack Libra, Bruce Kozlowski, and Larry Noesen who along with Jim Kusar got a 46.5-incher. The top fish of the week belonged to Nancy Wehl at 47.5”, a fish that at many Canadian lodges would be the biggest of the season. This year it’s just one of many of that size. At Scott Lake we think of the “good ole days” of fishing as right now. Week 5 was one for the books. When else can you almost, to 200 trophy fish.

Let the Games Begin! The Week 1 Fishing Report

Let the Games Begin! The Week 1 Fishing Report

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! WEEK 1 FISHING REPORT

It was a classic opening week with cold nights and mornings but hot fishing. For weather we had it all: wind, cold rain, clouds and just enough intense sunshine to wake up the slumbering giant pike. While it’s been reported in these posts often, it’s simply a fact that great pike fishing and sunshine go together like peanut butter and jam. We had just enough to drive a sensational week. While each day produced plenty of trophy fish, the fourth day of our five-day weeks was incredible. On that single day our guests landed fifty (yes, that’s 50) pike over our trophy standard of 40-inches with three trophy trout (35-inches) thrown in as a bonus. That’s a decent total for an entire season at many other Canadian fishing lodges. And there were some real hogs caught that day—four over 45-inches including a 47.5-inch beauty and a massive 48.5-inch tundra shark. Of course, that was the one day it was full sunshine all day throughout our nine-million acres of fishing territory which encompasses our 22 fly out lakes and the quarter of a million acres of productive water accessible from our docks at Scott.

The other four days weren’t shabby either: the week tallied 140 trophy fish—127 pike and thirteen lake trout. Four of those lakers found the end of Andrew Horan’s line and really made memories. He had a DAY on Smalltree Lake. At the inflow of the Dubawnt River into the lake, he found some dandy lakers, landing fish of 35, 36.5,39 and a monster of 43-inches. While lake trout numbers like that are fairly common in the deep water “trout season” of mid-July to mid-August, they are exceptionally rare for our shallow springtime fishing. And a trout of 43-inches is rare anywhere, anytime. To get a fish like that in water only a couple of feet deep is the angling thrill of a lifetime. Jim Meyer had a similar trout experience. At an inflow (lake trout love moving water in the spring) on Selwyn Lake, Jim found heavy lakers of 38 and 40 inches.

But the week still belonged to the big pike. The big screens at Laker Lodge were filled with huge pike photos every night at the “fish du jour” post-dinner show. Some barely fit the screen. The stats are impressive: seventeen pike taped at 44-inches or better. A bunch of those big ones were landed by Peter Myhre who had an epic pike week. It went like this: Day 1—six trophies; Day 2—six trophies; Day 3–three trophies (an off day); Day 4–eight trophies, and Day 5—eight trophies with a 46 and a fat 48. Peter had eight pike over 44 inches. That’s a trip. Stay tuned. Peter is hard at it right now on his second five-day stay. He did cover a lot of our huge fishing universe, flying to four of our fly out lakes—Selwyn (twice), Gardiner, Sandy and Wholdaia. He’s got some frequent flier miles going.

Sam Hana and Colin McConville also experienced the adrenaline rush of seeing a giant gaping mouth open to engulf their lure. Sam landed a 47.5-inch beauty and Colin saw his guide’s tape reach 48.5-inches end to end and 20.5-inches around the middle, a massive girth. We had so many big fish and big days. Chase Masuga had a seven-trophy day; the father/son team of Harry and Aris Moulopoulos put eight big pike in their guide’s net, including a 45.5-incher that Aris got on the fly rod; Paul Hana also nailed a 45.5-incher on his fly rod, and other 45s were taken by Bubba Morrill and Rob Shaffalo who also got a 44. Pike of 44 were landed by Tom Goebel, Ben Russert and Chase Masuga.

As if all these fish-of-a-lifetime weren’t enough, there were some exciting wildlife encounters. There were four black bears observed on Scott Lake while a wolverine and a muskox were seen at fly out lakes. Of course there were loons, osprey and eagles seen every day on all our lakes. While the weather for the week was variable, there was one constant—FUN. Our guides and customer service team know how to facilitate that #1 Scott Lake metric. While we do count and celebrate big fish, this place is about having a good time, on the water and on our island. Fun is difficult to quantify but easy to spot: it’s the big smile on ten-year-old Landon Gobel’s face as he pulled in his first pike or the smiles all around the room as the image of Andrew Horan’s giant lake trout hit the screen. Fun and food often go together. From our guide’s creative shore lunches to our Head Chef’s magnificent dinners, we satisfied every appetite. The only trouble was that no one wanted to leave. And nearly everyone signed up for 2025 hoping to repeat a memorable week.