THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES
What a pleasant week at Scott Lake Lodge. It’s early fall, a wonderful time to be in the far north. While we had, (again) stronger winds than we would have liked for easy boat travel, we still had great fishing. It was another week with a triple-digit trophy result and a perfect mix of trophy pike (68), lake trout (20) and grayling (20). Everyone had lots of action as well. And again, lots of our supersized fish: eight Pike over 45”; four Trout over 40” and six Grayling over 18”. What made the week so interesting and enjoyable though was another mix—we had a lot of couples in camp. It changes the chemistry—for the better. Our women anglers bring a measure of civility and calmness to the proceedings. With the all-male groups (we’ve had a few), the testosterone gets a little heavy. While still outnumbered 19 to 7, the women brought some balance to the week—some estrogen to even things out.
This was not a true battle of the sexes like the Bobby Riggs/Billie Jean King tennis match, but there was an element of unspoken competition between spouses—there always is. Like Billie Jean in that famous match way back in 1973, these women brought their A-Game to this fishing trip. We’re not naming names here, but in every case the wives brought bigger fish to their guides’ nets than the husbands. Were they all just lucky? Were they better anglers? Or maybe they just listened more carefully to their guides? We’ll just let the results speak. These are facts: Mickey Moret landed a heavy fall pike that stretched the tape to 47”; Rhonda Trueman landed a 46”; Anne Harold on one of her first fishing trips got a 45” pike; Veronica Strobel pulled in a girthy 42” lake trout (with no help from anyone), and Patricia Jansma topped the grayling list for the week with a beautiful grayling just under 20 inches. Just luck?
Moving right along, the men on the island weren’t just watching the women land all these magnificent fish. They were busy getting supersized fish as well: Randy Moret with a 45” pike; Jon Myhre and Drew Plain with 46s; Peter Myhre with a 47, and Jon Myhre leading the entire pack with a gorgeous pike just over four feet long. Jon and Peter had one incredible day where they landed ten trophy pike between them—a real father/son bonding day. On the trout front, there was another huge day when Jack and Ben Waitkus teamed up to land six trophy trout in a single day, Jack topping out at 43” (just a massive fish) and Ben at 42”. Peter Mancuso got in the big trout game landing a another 42. The grayling fishing just keeps getting better as the season progresses. This was a great week. Everyone who flew to one of our grayling rivers had lots of action and some had some very heavy fish. Just like their trout day, Jack and Ben Waitkus cleaned up on grayling too, both getting a pair of 18” beauties. Dave Jansma landed a fat 19 incher.
With so many big fish, it was simple math that someone would be inducted into the 100+Club. There were three: Veronica Strobel along with Jack and Ben Waitkus. Patricia Jansma wore the Trophy Triple hat. The northern lights made several appearances for the night owls who waited up for them. They got a first-rate celestial show. Actually, the entire week was one perfect show. And almost everyone rebooked to do it all again in 2019.
