Week 3 in Review: Wow…just wow!!

Week 3 in Review: Wow…Just Wow!!

It was only three weeks into the season, and a record was broken. The fishing was simply incredible; it’s hard to find enough adjectives or superlatives to properly explain the Trophy Annoucaments and Fish Porn photo essay each evening. Following much more variable weather the previous week, the week 3 arrival day was picture perfect…right up until changeover. It took a few minutes’ delay and some great work by our team of pilots to ensure everyone arrived safely. The storms quickly passed, and the winds shifted south, which brought the heat up to the 60th parallel. That seemed just fine for the pike; they were headed to bays and were ready to attack anything that swam by them. Topwater strikes were recounted in the Last Cast, violent explosions on the calm surface of the bays, swimbaits were eaten, spinners inhaled, and flies chased down by big fish. We eclipsed the single-week record for trophies set last year in week 15 (269) with a mind-bending 287 trophy fish, nearly all pike caught this past week. All but 7 were pike infact, 3 trout and 4 grayling. The grayling were all caught byRoss and Barbie Purpura, the only crew to venture into the rapids in the new jet boat. Patrick Lynch led the trout team with an absolute slob 43″er, the type of girth that makes you wonder how many fish were currently in inside it. Next came Barbie Purpura with a 37.5″ laker and “Big Dog” with one of his perennial big trout within sight of the lodge at 35″. That’s it…other than the 280 pike exceeding 40″ 

It was a tie for top pike honours, somewhat of a duality of fishermen, on one hand Bill Calabresa who has come to Scott Lake almost 50 times over 30+ years hit his personal best pike at giant 48″ fish. While on the other hand CJ Schmidt, one day after catching his first pike, on his first trip landed another 48″er, there’s just something about it that seems right, although CJ might fish a lifetime before he finds another one that big! A pair of 47 and a half inchers came in next for Scott Erickson and Rory Wright, followed by 47s for Mark Tibbles and Dave Thome. The giants came out to play! In all 28 fish that eclipsed 45″ were caught, it simply doesn’t get much better than that. 

Bonfire and cigar smoke wafted over the lake each evening as the anglers took some well-deserved rest after R ‘n R time on the deck at the lodge.  Darts and cornhole games were played and bet on, while Joe Novicki and guide Paul Hamilton got their name on the trophy for winning the 10th Annual Ken Thome Euchre tournament, an event that sees a dozen or so teams compete for a bottle of Jim Beam and, more importantly, bragging rights.  Summer in the north is hot, and fishing was kind of easy!