lake trout Archives - Page 2 of 13

Week 14 Recap: Some Heavy Hitters

by Jason | Aug 20, 2024 | 2024 Season, Arctic Grayling, Lake Trout, Northern Pike

“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.

August 19

It’s as big as the head looks. This deserved a drumroll!! Mark and Poacher got this once in a lifetime pike yesterday. This year has been unreal. #canadianfishing #makingmemories #canadianfishinglodge #orvis #catchandrelease #findyourwild #OrvisEndorsedLodge #seewhatsouthere #pikefishing

August 18

What a catch!! Jim hauled in this absolute tank Lake Trout that measured in at a staggering 45.5″. Now, that’s how to cap off a trip to Scott! #troutfishing #catchandrelease #canadianfishinglodge #makingmemories #canadianfishing #OrvisEndorsedLodge #seewhatsouthere

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

by Jason | Aug 17, 2024 | 2024 Season, Arctic Grayling, Lake Trout, Northern Pike

“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.

August 14

On the last day of Tayler’s trip, she hooked onto this big ol’ Lake Trout!! This, along with a trophy pike and grayling, brought her into both the Trophy Triple and 100+ club!

August 13

To finish off the week with this monster Pike, what great memories! Joe and Biff enjoyed the sun, good fishing & smiles all around! #catchandrelease #pikefishing #OrvisEndorsedLodge #makingmemories #seewhatsouthere #findyourwild

August 12

Will caught this mega Pike with Poach today! With the sun shining and the fish biting, the days keep getting better and better! #catchandrelease #pikefishing #canadianfishinglodge #makingmemories #seewhatsouthere #findyourwild

August 11

What a way to spend your summer vacation, catching big Pike on a beautiful summer day in the NWT! #makingmemories #pikefishing #catchandrelease #canadianfishinglodge #OrvisEndorsedLodge

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Let the Games Begin! The Week 1 Fishing Report

by Jason | Jun 16, 2024 | 2024 Season, fly fishing, Lake Trout, Northern Pike

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.

The Heat is On: The Week 8 Update

by Jason | Jul 20, 2023 | 2023 Season, Arctic Grayling, Lake Trout, Northern Pike

THE HEAT IS ON!

SUMMER FISHING AT IT’S BEST

This has been generally a very cool summer, but this week the heat was turned on for summer fishing at it’s best. Everyone loved it, including the fish. For this far north it’s been HOT. The week started just nicely warm, then the knob kept turning higher until we hit 90 on the last day, a rare number to see in these parts. Finally, it was summertime. What do people do in the summer? They go fishing, have fancy dinners and outdoor cookouts, drink a few (or more than a few) beverages and just have a great time. We checked all those boxes and more this week. Fortunately, we had a group who knew how to party. The atmosphere in Laker Lodge when the guests come together as one large group for dinner and the evening program was lively, to say the least. To say the most, it’s possible that our nearest neighbors, just over fifty miles away, might have heard the roar of the crowd as huge fish after huge fish was shown on the TV screens during the nightly “fish du jour” experience. There was some high-octane energy in the room every night. We had a five-day celebration of great fishing, good times and enduring friendships, new and old. There was even a Hawaiian Night (it’s too long a story).

In between the fabulous shore lunches, the cigar puffing, the card games and the wildly competitive corn hole games, there was some summer fishing. And lots of big fish were landed, 170 to be exact. As is typical this time of the season, most of the trophy fish were northern pike. 133 to be exact again, but the lake trout started to make some guest appearances and the arctic grayling, well they are always cooperative. With warm temperatures and just the right level of wind, there were some incredible days. Longtime guests, Dave Wallace and Joe Wright, had the trip of a lifetime. One day they landed nine trophy pike. The next day they had only eight. And the biggest, caught by Joe Wright, was only 47”. Slackers. Other regulars, Tom Matthew and Rusty Brown, had four pike-trophy days. Jessica Word-Booth had a four trophy pike day as well. When pike are on, they are ON. Lots of guests had three trophy days. In the very big fish department, Gordon Jumonville got a 44 on his first day at Scott Lake. Jessica Word-Booth landed a 44 and a 45-incher, but the spotlight was directly on her ten-year-old son, Cole. His picture was on that TV screen every night. Last season he got a 48” pike. This kid is hooked for life, and summer fishing in the far north.

This was finally the week where lake trout made their presence known. They had been in the nowhere zone for several weeks, between their shallow water (but could be anywhere) period and their deep-water summer homes in 60-100’ of water, a nice cool place for fish that don’t care for water temperatures over 50 degreees. Well, they are home now and our guides have their addresses. Mark and Rebecca Graf love catching the big lakers (they are actually a char not a trout but that’s semantics—they are an incredible game fish). On the last day of this group they found the key to unlock the trout door. The each landed a girthy 41-incher along with a few dozen smaller lakers. Mark had taken a 40-incher earlier in the week. Some other dandies were caught this week. Lakes of 38 inches were scored by 14-year-old Jayden Brown, Brad Barousse, Mike Johnson and our Assistant Manager Dani Grunberg who managed to sneak out for an afternoon troll. Another Scott team member, Jesse Sawchuck, got a 39-incher. As the big lakers continue their descent to the deeper water they will be even bigger targets for our guides. Stay tuned for the full lake trout story.

There was just enough grayling fishing to create some Trophy Triple and 100+Club activity. Mike Johnson and Trevor Meyers waded some rapids catch some grayling and earn their Trophy Triple hats. Rebecca and Mark Graf had a banner grayling day with over a dozen trophies each. Mark’s 18.5” and Rebecca’s 19.5” arctic sailfish put them into the 100+Club’s custom jacket.

It was a great week with a fun group: good summer fishing, good times, leisurely evenings on the big deck overlooking the lake made it a memorable week for our group. It’s what a vacation is all about.

JULY 20

Rusty and Jordan went and found some trout on the last day of the trip! 40 inches and a beautiful colour.

July 19

Dave, Biff and BIG PIKE

JULY 18

Catch and Release is a priority. Let them go, let them grow!

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Some Hot Fishing & The Case of the Missing Terns: Week 7

by Jason | Jul 17, 2023 | 2023 Season, Arctic Grayling, Lake Trout, Northern Pike

WEEK 7 UPDATE

SUMMERTIME FISHING UPDATE AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING TERNS

First, the terns. The Common Tern is a striking beautiful and elegant bird: sleek in design, graceful in flight, wearing a smart black cap and sporting a very sharp red bill that leads the bird’s watery plunge to capture small fish. They are often seen flying with their small, silvery trophies. Just a very cool bird. We have been graced at Scott Lake Lodge with a colony of Common Terns within sight of our island. Every year they arrive and depart (early June and mid-August) on the same day. This has happened for the three decades of current ownership and probably for countless decades before. Except for this year. They arrived on time, and everything was normal with their excited vocalizations and aerial dances delighting our guests and staff. Then one day just over a week ago they were gone. All gone. Not a feather could be found on their breeding site, a non-descript exposed cobble reef perhaps sixty by ten feet and only a couple of feet above the water line. They had prospered there for years. Avian influenza? Their sworn enemy, the herring gulls? A parasitic jagger wandering by from it more northerly home? A mink, pine marten or wolverine that swam to their home? Only questions. No answers. A Scott Lake mystery. Our terns will be missed and remembered.

What’s not a mystery is why so many of the homo sapiens species return every year to their summertime fishing home. It’s obvious. They love the fishing, the food, the world class guiding and customer service, the serenity of our pristine wilderness backyard and of course the warm companionship of like-minded people. Our Week 7 guests had all of the above. The summertime fishing was wonderful. The catching wasn’t the best of the year, but it wasn’t the worst either. Sometimes good is simply good enough and it was. There were 99 trophy fish brought to the boats with plenty of heavyweights led by Nick Manship’s 46” pike. His dad, Mike Manship, on the last day weighed in with a fat 45. Other 45s were taken by Don Mewhort, Russ Gesme and, of course, Peter Myhre who continued his torrid run through the Scott Lake Lodge fly out lakes. Peter loves climbing into our vintage (but trusty) De Havilland Beaver, GQD, and exploring some of the nine million acres of northern Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories that we call home. What a week he had. On his first and second days of fishing he landed seven trophy pike (yes each day). On his third he got six. Then he had to rest on the fourth due to the wild storm that shut down for a day not only our fly outs but nearly all of the fishing on our main lake. Over his three five-days trips to Scott this season Peter has landed 47 trophy pike, an astonishing number. And he is coming back for more later this season. Tom Granneman and Russ Gesme were also into the multiple trophy game, getting nine trophy pike on a single day. Ron Donnall and Alan Carney had plenty of big pike also, each landing a 44-incher.

The lake trout summertime fishing action picked up considerably this week. It helped Tom Kehoe with his quest to join the 100+Club. Tom landed a 39” laker that with a big pike and grayling gave him 100 total inches from those three fish. His fishing buddy, Mike Sackash, had trophies of all three species and got the Trophy Triple hat but just missed the 100” mark. Other big trout were taken by Mickey and Randy Moret. The Kings of the Trout for the week though were two first-timers, the father/son team of Mike and Nick Hylant. They really got into vertical jigging for lake trout, a technique preferred by some guides. It worked. On a single day they landed 101 lake trout. Mike ended up with two trout trophies at 36 and 37 inches. Both anglers enjoyed a trophy experience with almost constant bent rods. They also had plenty of pike action.

The summertime fishing excitement wasn’t limited to fish. On a fly out to Smalltree Lake, all four of the visiting anglers—Tom Kehoe, Mike Sackash, Tom Granneman and Russ Gesme—watched a lone bull muskox swim across the Dubwant river. When the huge animal hit shallow enough water to walk he was a raging bull throwing a “bow wake” comparable to their boats. Check out this National Geographic quality video .

Lot of fish. Lots of fun. Wonderful memories were made. We expect most of our guests will return to our island next summertime fishing season, just as we hope our terns will come back to their rocky home.

JULY 15

Mike, along with his son Nick and Poacher, had quite a week. They always look to explore the north and catch some fish doing it. This 45 incher was an awesome catch.