Late July is usually a great time to be at Scott but this year the thirteen days that closed out the month challenged all superlatives. It would be difficult to imagine a more perfect stretch of weather, fishing and profound enjoyment. Perhaps it could have rained beer for a few minutes every hour or so.
Or 45 inch pike could have opened their mouths and called out angler’s names. Or maybe the dinners could have been prepared in heaven and served by angels. Or maybe that’s exactly what happened.
We do know that the Scott Lake Lodge Guide Team, looking nothing like angels, was really on their game. They lived up to their reputation as a group with pride and professionalism and took our anglers right to the fish: the guests did the rest, bringing in huge numbers of fish and lots of big ones. The three groups that enjoyed this time in sun averaged over twenty trophies per day, nicely mixed with pike, lake trout and grayling.
It was some sweet music that played out on the waters of Scott Lake and the fly out lakes. The sunshine brought the pike into shallow waters and gave them a good appetite. And it kept the lakers tight in their summer holes where they could be located and caught. Some huge trout were brought right to the guide’s waiting cradle. Our new Lake Trout King, Mike Scheidt, was focused on big trout only, using large lures in deep water. After catching dozens of trout, Mike on his last day, within sight of the Lodge, got the one he was waiting for—an absolutely huge 44” lakers with a massive girth that started at the gills and went right down to the, well, all the way down. It was a beautifully colored fish as well, truly a fish of a lifetime. Aaron Fields and Jamison Bloebaum matched gorgeous 43 inchers, caught out of the same hole within minutes of each other. One was a light sliver; the other a mix of brown, gold and yellow. They were not the only ones to break the 40 inch mark during this July bonanza: Blake McGhee, Rocky Santuli, the father/son team of Bob and Kevin Krause, Jeff Thomses, Mark Treadway, Tony Welke, Jeff Seibert, Jared Penfold, Randy Word and Josh Lee all broke that super-sized barrier. Stuart Sullivan did it twice in a single day with a pair of 41s on Dunvagen.
Of the 270 trophies landed many were pike and many were real big. Perennial guest Mike Stanford led the pike parade with a huge 47” fish, his personal best. Mark Crossen got a 46 while Alec Kleinschmidt and Aaron Fields each caught 45s. Mark Treadway, Ted Barlas and Ed Ptak got 44 inchers. Just a lot of huge fish. Smalltree lake was the place to be for many anglers. Stacey Lobaugh and Blake McGehee landed five trophy pike each on a sunny day (weren’t they all?) there and Harley Weiss, a Nevada resident who felt right at home in the heat, got four trophies on his Smalltree day. There is nothing like a few 80 degree days in mid-summer to get the pike fired up. Grayling too. Several anglers had tremendous grayling fishing. Al and Brendan Knowles, fishing the river at Labyrinth put on a clinic for fly rodding the sailfish of the north and the Stanford group got into lots of 16 to 19 inch grayling on the same river.
The music just could not have been any better. And rebookings? Oh, almost 100%. Who knows when the perfect weather will attack next summer? Maybe every day? Come up and find out.