The Heat is On: The Week 8 Update

The Heat is On: The Week 8 Update

by | 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

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

by | 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.

JULY 14

Here we have some folks enjoying The Tundra Trail with Tom Klein. It is an incredible hiking loop in the Northwest Territories.

July 13

Can you even imagine this 46″ GIANT eating a topwater bait in 12″ of water?? Chaos!!!

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The Goretex Gang: Week 2 Update

The Goretex Gang: Week 2 Update

by | Jun 23, 2023 | 2023 Season, Arctic Grayling, Lake Trout, northern pike, Website Fishing Blog

If only . . . If only the entire week could have been like the fourth day of our Week 2 adventure. On that day we were gifted the most precious far-north commodity—bright sunshine. The sun on the water woke up the big pike and brought them scattered from deep water to bask in the shallows. Amazingly, it only took one day. And with sunlight, you could see the big pike in the shallows! For our anglers, it was a glorious day. For the after-dinner trophy announcements at the main lodge, the stack of trophy slips filled out by the guides was thick, 38 slips thick. That’s a lot of big fish for a single day (for some lodges further south of here that could be a week’s, a month’s or even a season’s total). And they came in bunches. There were four-packs of trophy pike for Rory Wright who landed a 44” and 45.5-incher, and Jeff Berg, who landed the biggest pike of this young season at 47.5”. There were three-packs of pike for Abe Martinez, Vinnie Purpura, Don Luke and Erik Luke. There was even Julie Heinmiller’s 40-inch trout thrown in for good measure. It was a hell of a day, but historically not an unusual day for the spring fishing at Scott.

Unfortunately, it was our only day in the sun. The other days, well to put it in a single phase—they sucked. It was cold, rainy or windy or all three simultaneously. Our anglers often had to work hard and fly far to find fish. Despite the tough conditions, there were fish landed on other days. We had a total of 115 trophy fish, not bad. Don and Eric Luke each landed four big pike trophies on Day 3, Don with a 44” and Eric with a 45.75” pike (now that’s a tight tape). On the same day, Jeff Quick landed three pike trophies including a 45-incher. Jeff Berg got a 47 (yes, he got two monsters on his trip). On Day 2 Conrad Schmidt caught four trophy pike. Notable fish were scattered throughout the week. One of our rare “first timers” at Scott, Al Malinowski, got his first ever big pike on his second day here and it was a dandy at 45-inches. There were 44-inchers taken by John Heinmiller, Abe Martinez, Peggy Light, Chris Luke and Jeff Quick. On the last day Ross Purpura Jr, not far from the lodge, brought a fat 47-incher into his guide’s net.

Given the high winds and limited sight conditions a lot of guides and anglers opted to troll for lake trout. There were many hundreds landed. Among those trout were some good ones. Ross Purpura Jr got a 38” laker; Ross Sr got a 37.5” lake trout; Peter Schmidt got in the trout game with a 37; Connie Schmidt landed a pair of 36.5-inchers; Judy Schmidt scored a 36-incher. The big 40-inch trout for Julie Heinmiller, along with a big 18.5” grayling and a nice 43.5” pike, gave her the first 100+Club membership of the season at 101.5 total inches for her trophy trout, grayling and big pike. Congrats to Julie.
So, despite having to bundle up against the wind, rain and cold our group did great in the fish department. And they all were determined to make the best out of some tough conditions. Our hats are off to them. Next time we hope they get only one day of rain instead of one day of sun. Then they can enjoy our marvelous shore lunch experiences and the sight-fishing we’re famous for. Of course, as all anglers know you fish what you get and our gang did just that, quite successfully.

June 19

Abe and Poach were found some in the bays today

June 17

Jeff and J5 worked with the elements to get this big ol’ 46 inch Northern.

June 17

Julie got into some shiny arctic grayling today. Her biggest being an 18.5″ beauty.

June 15

Judy and Jan found a rainy day pike on beautiful Ingalls Lake

JUNE 19

Casey Johnston found this awesome pike in the sun!

The Long Wait is Over: The Week 1 Update

The Long Wait is Over: The Week 1 Update

by | Jun 16, 2023 | 2023 Season, Lake Trout, northern pike, Website Fishing Blog

It had been 270 days since the last group of the 2022 fishing season stepped off the dock at Scott Lake Lodge and climbed in our floatplanes to head south. For all our staff and the many Scott Lake Lodge regulars, the wait for the new 2023 fishing season is a long one. But there is magic in the waiting. Stories are told and retold; that next deadly lure or fly is purchased and admired long before it hits the water; travel arrangements are made, and in the weeks just before departure, the anticipation hits a fever pitch. So it was with just over two dozen anglers who opened our 2023 fishing season on June 9th. They arrived at Scott on a beautiful blue-sky day. Unfortunately, that was the only blue sky they saw for the next five days. But they were watching for fish at the end of their lines not gazing at clouds. The cloudy and dark days did compromise the sight fishing for pike but plenty of pike and lake trout added their own sight to the equation and provided some classic northern Canadian angling.

Our opening day was warm and inviting. The south wind was what we always hope for to bring a warm wind. This one brought some smoke as well, but it didn’t bother the fish or the anglers. While there were twenty trophies brought to the guide’s hands, there was one very memorable catch. Twelve-year-old Anthony Ragone has been dreaming of being a Canadian fishing guide. He has some hoops to jump through with immigration. But catching a big pike on your first day of fishing in Canada can happen. And it did. Anthony handled a scrappy 41” pike like a pro and created a lifetime memory. His dad, Lou, landed a 40 incher the same day. Anthony is permanently hooked. It will be hard to go back to bluegills and perch. We had a great opening day with twenty-two trophies tallied. Chase Masuga had a big day, bringing in six trophy pike. His top fish was a 45.5” fatty. Peter Myhre a long-time guest with a knack for catching big pike had a nice string of five trophy pike with his biggest of the day at 43”. Peter ended up with a total of 14 trophy pike for his trip. Not his record but a very respectable number. There were some heavy-weights in the batch of 82 trophies for the week. Scott Manley and fishing partner Sam Hanna landed back-to-back 44” pike; Rob Shaffalo got a 45-incher and Ken Conley pulled in a dandy 46. But the fish of the week was another 46 that may turn out to be one of the heaviest pike of the2023 fishing season. On Premier Lake, another adjacent boat-to lake, Nathan Heiter looked down in a quiet bay and saw a “wolf pack” of big pike. Big pike are typically loners, but this was an impressive group of fish that were all way over 40”, our trophy mark. Fortunately, he threw his spinner to the biggest one. After an impressive battle a very impressive pike went into the guide’s big net. It didn’t look like a 46-incher because it had such an incredible girth. We get a lot of pike around here over 45” (124 last season alone). Most of those will have a girth of 16 or 17 inches. Occasionally we see a jumbo that tapes 19. Rarely does one, even the 48 to 50-inchers, pull the tape to 20”. That’s a fat fish! Nathan’s pike measured 21.5 inches around a belly that went from pectoral fin to caudal fin with essentially the same girth. It was simply a spectacular slob of a fish. What makes it so unusual is that a pike in June tends to be a bit skinnier than the same pike in August or September when they really put on the feedback getting ready for winter. If caught again this fall Nathan’s fish will be even more amazing. Everyone will be looking for that porker. Big pike weren’t the only story for the week. Early June is when the water temperature allows lake trout to cruise anywhere on the lake they want. They are comfortable in temps around 50 degrees, right where most areas of our lakes were sitting this week. Hundreds of lakers were landed, many while casting and many more while flat-line trolling just under the surface. Paul Hanna led the trout parade. His gorgeous spring trout hit our super-sized mark of 40-inches. A year ago Paul landed a 49” pike during our first week. He loves the early season. There were many other trophy trout (our trophy standard is 35”) this week: John Goebel and Patrick Goebel got a pair each while Lou Ragone, Tom Goebel and Chase Masuga all landed a trophy laker.

Bottom line: it was a wonderful opening week with very little sunshine and a determined group of anglers that faced cold and windy weather like pros. It wasn’t the sunniest opening week of our 25-year history, but it featured great numbers and enough big fish to keep everyone’s excitement level nice and high. At the main lodge the dinner hour echoed fish stories throughout the room. After dinner hour we had more stories and songs and a general excitement about the time and place we were all in. That’s what a fishing trip is all about—fish stories and the warmth of friendships created and or enhanced in an intimate wilderness setting. Add the world-class customer service that Scott Lake Lodge is famous for, and you have the ingredients of a fantastic week. Despite some tough conditions everyone left the lodge with a big smile. Just ask any of our Week 1 guests: the long wait was worth it.

The trout are biting!

June 13

Ken and Biff with this dandy 46″

Alexa & G found this huge 43″Pike today in the shallows

Poacher & Nathan found this huge gal on Scott today!

June 10

Chase and guide Josh found a honey hole today! This 45.5″ toad was the biggest pike of the season so far!

June 9

The Scott Lake ladies watching the first planes of 2023 touch down.