BOYS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN (TOO)
Cyndi Lauper famously sang “Girls just want to have fun”. Well, at Scott Lake Lodge in mid-July it was the boys who just wanted to have all the fun. This was a rare all-guys week here; they made the best of it. Starting with raucous applause during the staff introductions at the first evening’s orientation program and running right up to the final Happy Hour at the Last Cast Bar just before the float planes carried the very happy crew off the island, fun was the modus operandi of the week. Laughter was the language and song its finest expression. Just one example of many: one evening at the Lake Lodge bar someone innocently started a karaoke evening (without the benefit of course of a karaoke machine). Before the bar closed there were several renditions of Hotel California that could be heard throughout our 12-acre island. It would have been disturbing if it hadn’t been so damned good. Well, these boys really did just want to have fun.
Boys love to fish too. These guys were serious about fun AND fishing. While there may have been a couple of late mornings and maybe a missed fly out or two, there were very few missed hook sets. They made things happen and their big fish totals were impressive: 105 total trophies with ten of those chunky pike of 45” or more. Ken Williamson Sr wasn’t the leader of the karaoke fest, but he was the leader of the pack with big fish—an impressive 47 incher. The rest of the Williamson clan followed his lead. Al Williamson got a 46 and two 45s. Bill land a 46 as well and Ken Jr pulled a 45 into his guide’s net. That’s a lot of big fish pictures for the family album. The O’Shaughnessy clan were a triple threat. Mike O’Shaughnessy scored the top trout of the week, a spectacular 42.5” hog of a fish and picked up a 46” pike as well. Patrick was right by his side, landing a 41.5” and a 38” lake trout plus a 45” pike, one of his first fish of the trip. Gerry O’Shaughnessy wore a permanent smile, probably because he landed 10 trophy pike including a 45 incher.
Seth Degroot supersized his pike fishing as well getting a 45. Ron Spork had a great day with a mixed bag of three trophy trout, including a 38, and a trophy pike. Dave Dalvey, a guy with a long history here of getting a lot of big fish, had a hell of a trip, landing a total of 14 trophies. He finally cracked the grayling code. It’s been a very challenging season so far for the sailfish of the north; the high, fast water in our grayling rivers has made things tough. Many have tried but few have had much success. Dave didn’t let the high water affect his grayling quest. With big mends of his fly line he kept his flies in the zone and landed a bunch of nice fish with an 18” and a huge 19.5” topping his grayling adventure. With some big pike and a nice lake trout behind him, that grayling gave him entry into the 100+Club (getting a trout, pike and grayling with collective measurement of 100” gets one into the club and gets a dashing custom jacket with the trophy lengths and the angler’s name embroidered on the front). Patrick O’Shaughnessy also joined the Club this group. Dave and Patrick were only the 2nd and 3rd anglers to make the grade so far this season. (Plenty of huge trout and pike have been caught but not many big graylings.)
There were more than big fish to cheer about at the nightly “fish du jour” picture show. There were a lot of moose sightings which starting this season awards a moose pin to the viewer. Every moose picture triggered an enthusiastic chant of “moose, moose, moose” etc. etc. We thank the group for injecting so much energy and, well, positive vibrations into lodge. It was fun for everyone, especially our guides and shore staff who loved the excitement and energy. One could not help but recall the comment of Joseph Heller, the great novelist: “When I grow up I want to be a little boy.” Send Scott Lake Lodge some men and we’ll return some boys, happy boys. It’s our secret sauce. We’ll keep cooking it up.
P.S. Just to keep up to date on the entire season: it’s been an incredible one for really big fish. Our all-time record for pike over 45” was set last season—138 monsters. After this eighth group’s contribution of ten, we now are standing at 94 with 50 fishing days to go. If you’re a betting person, bet on a new record. It will probably be a new record for the mega pike (those of 47 or better). Last year was the all-time record there too—40. Now after just 40 days we are at 19. Another record could fall. We’ll keep casting.
