The Great Canadian Happy Hour Podcast

The Great Canadian Happy Hour Podcast

by | Apr 8, 2020 | 2020 Season, Island Life

While up at the lodge this month the team discussed keeping in touch with our Scott Lake Lodge family now more than ever in these difficult times. So we started a podcast! Tune in to the first couple episodes as Happy Hour conversations…similar to summer at the lodge…cover a variety of topics.

We hope this is a way to capture the stories, history of the lodge and the people that make it so special. We’ll talk outdoors, fishing, hunting and generally have some laughs.

Let us know what you’d like to hear and be sure to tune in and SUBSCRIBE! Leave us a 5 star rating too if you like it!

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STAY SAFE ALL!

Tackle Tips

Tackle Tips

by | Mar 15, 2020 | gear

The most important tip: keep it simple. Almost everyone brings far more tackle and gear than they need.

While you don’t need to bring a single rod, reel or lure, we realize that planning and packing for a fishing trip is a big part of the excitement and the experience. We will not deny our customers that aspect of a northern adventure.
So, you do have options but keep in mind that the Lodge has for your complimentary use high quality Shimano rods and reels to cover all of our fishing opportunities. Each guide has an arsenal of great rods and reels: two each of open-face spinning, ultra-light spinning, low profile casting, heavy duty trolling, and fly rod rigs in both 4-weight for grayling and 9-weight for pike and trout. We have you covered. We also have a well- stocked tackle shop on the island with all the right lures and flies for our lakes. The lodge does not provide any terminal tackle (lures, flies or leaders) however we’ve put together a list of our most popular lures here for those that want to start shopping now. Keep in mind as you sort through your personal gear that Scott Lake pike and trout are plentiful, hard fighting and fearless, but they are not particularly selective feeders. Most anglers end up using maybe a half-dozen different lures or flies during their trip.

First, A Little About Our Fish

PIKE

Northern pike are found throughout Canada and the northern parts of the United States. With light spots over a dark background and a brilliant green to olive-green dorsal area, the northern pike is a striking fish. A voracious predator, pike are well known to attack almost anything alive, including small muskrats, ducklings, loon chicks, mice and about anything in the lake that isn’t big enough to eat them. A rule of thumb with pike is that they will kill and eat anything up to two-thirds their own size. Typical below the surface pike prey would be leeches, burbot, lake cisco, whitefish, lake trout and yes, smaller pike.

Our pike spawn as soon as the shallow marshy areas are ice free, usually in late May. Since this is typically a time when the main lake is still ice covered, we have never observed the spawning process at Scott. It lasts only a few days. The fertilized eggs will attach to vegetation and hatch into fry in a week to two weeks. The fry will live off their egg sacks until they start swimming and feeding on zooplankton and insect larvae. From tiny fry some real monsters, in the 30-pound range, will emerge some thirty or forty years later. Due to the cold waters and relatively low productivity (a measure of the “living things” in the water) pike growth rates at Scott are very slow, but Scott pike are long lived. In warmer, southern waters the maximum life span might hit 10 to 12 years. At Scott and in similar waters that age span will approach forty years for pike. In 2001 a group of fishery biologists from the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver conducted field studies as part of lodge funded research to determine the age structure of our pike population. Since accurate aging is a fatal process, we did not harvest trophy pike but we did keep some small and mid-sized pike to get aging data. Their research confirmed a very slow growth rate. Five-year-old pike were only 18-22 inches in length. At ten the average Scott pike is only 28”. One 13-year-old was only 29”. Our big fish (the 40-50 inchers) are as old as many of our anglers. That’s the reason why catch and release in far northern waters is so critical in preserving a quality fishery. Let them go and watch them grow. We’ve been watching for over two decades and due to the strict catch and release program our fish are getting bigger. Scott Lake and the flyout lakes are natural systems: nothing has happened here since the glaciers left about 8,000 years ago. There has been no stocking of any lakes and no introductions of any exotic species. These lakes are at their natural carrying capacity with fish that rarely see a lure.

Lake Trout

The lake trout really isn’t a trout at all. Technically it’s a char, like the arctic char, Dolly Varden or brook trout. Whatever you call it, the laker is a remarkable fish, probably the hardest fighting and strongest of all freshwater fish, including some tough customers like the peacock bass, the tiger fish or the golden dorado. Hooked in shallow water on standard pike gear, the lake trout has incredible stamina. They just don’t quit.

The laker’s deeply forked tail provides it with the tool for tremendous speed, making a rainbow trout or black bass seem like slugs. With that great speed, lake trout can catch just about whatever they want. Their primary forage is the lake cisco, whitefish and smaller trout—yes, another cannibal. Many trophy lakers have been caught on Scott and on flyout lakes with the tails of whitefish still sticking out of their mouths. At Scott we have yet to try a saltwater lure too big for big trout.
When casting or trolling for lakers, a fast-moving lure is usually the best bet. You cannot reel fast enough to get your lure away from a lake trout that wants it. Lake trout in the far north develop beautiful markings when they approach the September spawning period. The fin edges of males turn a bright white and both males and females change color dramatically. The basic silver-sided trout of summer add bright red/orange fish and usually get a darker brown/gold appearance with bright spots. The trout at Scott and other high latitude lakes do not spawn every year. Only about a third of the females spawn every year with a typical female spawning only every two to four years. That’s why in the shallow spawning reefs in September large numbers of smaller males will be swarming the rocks looking for fewer number of females. On Scott most of the spawning (this has been observed) occurs in the second week of September on rocky reefs with a depth of only one to three feet. It’s a wild time to fish for lakers. Actually, anytime is a great time to catch these magnificent fish. While we don’t have world record potential lake trout, we have caught lake trout approaching 50 pounds.

Grayling

For many Scott guests a trip to the north is not complete without a flyout to catch some arctic grayling – a true icon of the far north. Grayling are delicate, beautiful fish well suited to ultra-light spinning tackle or light (4-or 5- weight) fly rods. The grayling flyouts from Scott are all rivers or the short connections between lakes. In these shallow areas there are few if any lake trout or pike, so grayling can survive and thrive.

Grayling are spring spawning fish that feed almost entirely on insects. Most of the time grayling are feeding underneath the surface on the larval stage of a bug’s life. Black flies, mosquitoes, caddis flies and stone flies, either on the surface or below, provide most of the protein for grayling but the larger ones will eat small baitfish. That doesn’t mean that grayling will not take dry flies. Grayling are fantastic dry-fly fish, especially in warm weather. You do not have to see an insect hatch to fish grayling with dries. Try dry flies first, even with spinning tackle (a small bobber gives enough weight to throw the flies). There is something very special about watching these miniature sailfish raise to a drifting fly. They often catch anglers off-guard through, jumping for the fly but taking it on the way down. Wait until you feel the fish before lifting the rod. In cold fronts nymphs may be needed but a grayling caught on light tackle is a wonderful fish hooked either above or below the surface.

Tackle

Spinning and Casting Rods/Reels

If you are bringing your own rods and reels make sure they are heavy enough to handle big fish. We have had a lot of guests bring their soft-tipped walleye rods which just can’t set the hook on the hard mouths of our pike. We also want a heavy enough rod to bring in the fish in a relatively short period of time to prevent literally fighting a fish to death. Typically, these will be . The Shimano Terramar 7′ MH series is the rod of choice at Scott,, a Medium-Heavy Fast Action model. But don’t buy one: we have them. The Terramar bait-casting rods are also excellent if you want to use casting reels. Again, we have them. Most importantly you need a stiff enough rod to handle strong test lines. We use 30lb braided line (Power Pro or Suffix 832) on our spinning and casting reels and 65lb for the trolling reels. We love Shimano reels and have a wide variety of them. Again, for spinning and casting rigs make sure the reel can handle at least up to 30# line. For leaders, we like to suggest that you just buy them at the lodge. We’re not trying to run up your bills. We just have learned not to trust many brands, most without the cross-locked snaps. We have custom-made titanium leaders that hold up to the savage hits of northern pike. If you do bring leaders, they should be “muskie” leaders.

Lures

What to use at the end of that line? Fishing lures can be compared to the fashion industry. There is always something new, but not necessarily better. For pike, the Mepps #5 with or without a bucktail has been catching big pike for decades as has the Johnson Silver Minnow. A very popular spinner at Scott is the Blue Fox Vibrax #5 or #6 in gold. Another great spinner is the Buchertail 500 series in gold/red or black/orange. Even the old school red and white Daredevils will still entice a hungry pike. But not all the pike are always hungry. If you run into those, you need to get more subtle.

Over the past ten years, plastics have been moving to the top of our guide’s and many angler’s tackle trays. At the very top of the tray at Scott will be the Storm Wildeye Pike in the 4”, 5” and 6” size. It’s been a killer. So has the Savage Hybrid Pike in the 7” size. The Berkley Havoc Grass Pig in 5” size with the deadly 7/0 Trokar screwhook is another winner. Other great plastics include the Svartzonker McRubber 5” Paddle Tail and the Savage 3D Burbot. This list could go on and on but like with rods and reels keep it simple. The fish of the far north rarely require many lure changes. Accurate casting and presentation for sight-casting opportunities (most of our big pike chances) is much more important than the lure.

For our big lake trout, we have narrowed down our choices to around a half-dozen. All our guides have the 4.5” and 5.5” Lucky Strike spoons in their box. It’s our #1. The big Daredevil Husky Sr still brings home some fatties as does the classic Williams Whitefish C90. There are some guides who swear by the T-60 Flatfish, but other guides swear at it. There are also times when jigging is the way to go. A basic 3 or 5-ounce white bucktail jig will do the job or the massive but effective 11- ounce Bondy Bait. It’s hard to go too big. Years ago, we had a body shop make some giant spoons over a foot long. They worked. As with all decisions about tackle just listen to YOUR guide’s advice. All our Scott guides are in their second or third decade of fishing northern waters. Go with their instincts not something you read in a fishing magazine.

For grayling, the ultra-light spin angler doesn’t need many tools. The 1/8th ounce Panther Martin has long been a favorite. (The small Mepps spinners will work but it takes a foot of two of retrieve to get their blades moving—go with the Martins.) Any small rubber jigs in the 1/8th ounce will work well. Things that work well for crappies or stream trout will work for grayling. We have a selection of grayling lures at our shop.

Fly Fishing

The rod choice for pike on the fly is easy—go with a 9-weight. As an Orvis Endorsed Lodge, our complimentary rods are 9-weight Helios and Clearwater. The Clearwater is more forgiving to the beginning fly anger and the Helios is an absolute weapon! In the hands of a skilled angler, an 8-weight will work but bringing a heavy fish that last three feet to the net has snapped more than a few eights. If it’s late in the season when throwing heavy sinking lines is in the mix, then having a ten is a good option. For lines, floating will be the right choice for most of the time and most of the season. In a cold front however, pike just sink down to deeper (and counter intuitively) warmer water. Then you want at least an intermediate sinking line. Our favorite is the Scientific Anglers Sonar Titan Full Intermediate but there are many great brands with intermediate and full sink lines. In general, June and early July will be nothing but floating and the balance of the season will be a mix of floating and various sinking lines. For grayling go with a four or five weight rod with a floating line. For lakers, your pike gear is perfect.

Flies

Even more than spin or bait-casting anglers fly anglers tend to obsess about what’s on the end of their line. Fly boxes are always overflowing with flies of every description and color. Well, for pike at Scott Lake it’s quite safe to trim those boxes way down. You might need to adjust the size of your flies to the conditions (mainly water temperature dictated) but the patterns are pretty simple. You will need a bunch of leech patterns in various sizes. Black has always been the number one favorite, but any color, well presented, will trigger a strike. And you need a variety of baitfish patterns: the basic Lefty’s Deceiver in black, red/white or chartreuse will always work as will the Whistler (one of our best-selling flies) and Clouser in the same colors. Bring a few top-water offerings as well. Nothing is more exciting that watching a mouse pattern or gurgler disappear in a violent explosion. Overall, presentation is far more important than style or color. Get your fly well in front of the fish (four to six feet unless it’s moving then make it ten to twenty feet), make it move and hang on. Our fly wall at the lodge will provide all you need at prices far less than most fly shops. For the all-important bite tippet there are many options. Our favorite is the Surflon Mirco Supreme made by American Fishing Wire Company which we sell, but Rio makes a good Pike/Musky wire and Scientific Angler has a great Predator tippet. Don’t play around with even heavy hard mono as a bite tippet. Our experience is that the smaller pike will slice off even the toughest 80 and 100# test mono. Stay with wire. Pike’s teeth are not just numerous; they are serrated.

For lake trout the Whistler seems to be the top fly both spring and fall, but Deceivers work well too. Our fly anglers get quite a few lake trout early and late in our season while they are fishing for pike. In June, lakers are cruising around in shallow water all over the lake. It’s an opportunistic sight fishing game. The key is a long cast and a very fast strip. You can’t strip too fast. Make it as long a cast as possible though since lakers have a pronounced habit of following before hitting. Just don’t stop the strip or the laker will quickly disappear. Late in our season (the last few days of August and early September) lake trout move into shallow water again; this time to spawn. If the water temperature is low enough (around 50 degrees F) our final group or two can have an incredible lake trout experience fishing our many rocky spawning reefs. Any baitfish pattern will work then.

For our grayling fly fishing we have a surefire program. There are only two flies that work for grayling: those that float and those that don’t. It’s an old lodge joke but it indicates that fly patterns are not critical. Just keep your dries rather small (8- 12). Adams, Royal Wulff, Elk Hair Caddis, Humpies, Black Gnat, small hoppers all work well. In a cold front go to nymphs like a Pheasant Tail beadhead, any dark colored stone fly nymph or a standard woolly bugger. Nymphs can be fairly large (6-10). Grayling are active fish found in low “protein” rivers. They look for your fly. This isn’t a match the hatch process or what’s often termed “technical” fishing. This is fun fishing. Just enjoy it.

Lights Out: The Last Week of 2019

Lights Out: The Last Week of 2019

by | Sep 6, 2019 | 2019 Season, Website Fishing Blog

LIGHTS OUT: THE WEEK 17 UPDATE

Sometimes being last is OK. At least that’s the way it turned out for our final group of the season. They had a “lights out” trip, literally. Many of our guests had expressed interest in seeing the northern lights. Well, the lights were out and, for those willing to stay up late, they got a great show. Of their five nights on this island smack on the 60th parallel, four featured northern lights; two nights were average and two were, to borrow a phrase from the 60s, out of sight. One doesn’t need to understand the northern lights to enjoy them. It’s just a light show on a very big stage. While the lights seem to hover pretty close, they are actually quite far out. They do their thing in a range of 50-300 miles above the earth, the result of a giant electrical discharge created by a cosmic generator using the earth’s magnetic field and the solar wind which interacts with the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere. And that’s just the beginning of the science, none of which is nearly as poetic as the experience of just watching. Watch our group did, often right on the deck of the main lodge. It was indeed a highlight of the trip for many.

There were many other highlights. People do come here to fish and not just enjoy the many amenities of the lodge life. Fish they did. With the small to medium sized lake trout now up and shallow, the numbers were impressive. Of the several thousand fish landed in five days, 124 met our trophy standards, not a record week but a very good week. Jim Kusar had his own version of a lights out trip. He had a day any pike angler would dream about. How about six trophy pike in one day that included lifetime trophies like a 46 and a 48 incher? Just to rub it in, he added a 45-inch pike a couple of days later. That’s a trip. He wasn’t alone in watching huge pike slide into a guide’s big net. Joan Schackmuth, Adam Strobel, Gerry O’Shaughnessy and John O’Shaughnessy all had pike of 45 inches or better. For some it was a much smaller fish that made their trip. Grayling were back in the news this week. We have found a real grayling mecca. Mark and Rebecca Graf were there and pulled sixteen trophy grayling out of the rapids with both landing 18 inchers. Dave Dalvey, Debbie Blue and Grant Mitchell also put 18s in their guide’s grayling-sized net.

The lake trout were on the move. In late August and early September, thousands (maybe tens of thousands) lake trout move from the deep water to stage near their spawning grounds on shallow, rocky reefs. One of our 22 fly out lakes is smaller than others and has a history of an early trout spawn. Paul and Tess Rowland were there to meet them. The deeper edges of the spawning reefs were alive with trout. They caught dozens upon dozens. These weren’t the monster trout that we get trolling in deep water, but they were fighting fools of 25 to 35 inches. Pound for pound these far north lake trout can hold their own in fighting speed and stamina with any of the more storied freshwater fish like peacock bass, tiger fish or golden dorado. You just need to meet them on their own terms—cold, shallow water. Of their many trout, one was quite memorable; it was the disappearing trout. Paul brought a beautiful trout painted in vivid fall colors to his guides waiting net. The guide expertly removed the hook. The fish was calmly swimming in the huge net as he reached for the measuring tape, but when he put his hands in the net, he found not a heavy trout in his net but a hole at the bottom of the net. Always a good sport, Paul just admired a new quality in his guide—the magician who can make a trout disappear. In truth, measured and photographed, it would have been just another trophy trout. This way it’s a story. Many other nets had no holes and dandy trout were actually measured. Mark Graf, in over 30 trips to Scott Lake Lodge, has caught some huge trout, one of our biggest ever in fact, but he never landed a trout that looked as ancient as the 42 incher that came out of one of our newer fly out lakes—the picture says it all. Other big lakers made the trip for Grant Mitchell (a 40.5” lake trout that was in six feet of water and landed on spinning gear), Ron Juergens (a 39.5-inch beauty) and Liz Snyder (a deep water 39 incher). Patrick O’Shaughnessy had a four-trophy trout day topping out at 38 inches.

The group had four wonderful fall days until the fifth day when a cold wind sent many of our guests back to the lodge and the warmth of their cozy rooms. They had all caught plenty of fish and had their own stories and memories. Long time guest Dave Dalvey just had to go to one of his favorite fly out lakes. He got the last trophy fish of the season, just a regular nice 41-inch pike, but it was special to the lodge. It was trophy number 2,674 for the 2019 season, blowing away last year’s record total of 2,221. Yes, it was a good year, a very good year.

Falling for Fall: The Week 16 Fishing Report

Falling for Fall: The Week 16 Fishing Report

by | Sep 1, 2019 | 2019 Season, Website Fishing Blog

FALLING FOR FALL: WEEK 16 UPDATE

What makes a great fall fishing trip? There isn’t an app for that, but there is an old school checklist. A fishing trip with no annoying bugs? Check! Some wildlife sightings? Check! Northern lights? Check! An after-dinner campfire? Check! Pleasant conversation over fine dinners? Check! Great guides who actually help you catch fish? Check! How about some big fish? Double check!! It was clearly fall for our second last group of the season. While there were cool nights (make that some cold nights) and lots of cloud cover, those conditions didn’t seem to bother these fish of fall. Right off the bat on the first day, Zak Skolnick had a wonderful six pack day—six trophy pike.  Bob Nettune and Mike Menedeo, long time fishing partners, had a mirror image day on their first day: each landing three trophy pike with both getting 46 inchers—that’s friendly fishing. Unlike early season pike, fall pike are just plain piggy. A typical 40-inch trophy caught in late August or early September is about 20% heavier than the same fish was in June: they spend all summer eating, but chow down especially heavily in August. All week on the nightly “fish du jour” presentation we were seeing exceptionally fat pike, some with girths hitting 20 inches. There were two very heavy 45s caught this group, one by Zac Skolnick who had a fantastic trip and one by Frank Saraka who we saw on the big screen more than once. Carl Fernyak had a big day with seven trophies—two lakers topping out at 37.5 inches and five pike with the biggest 44 inches. That’s a nice mixed bag.

Like the previous week, grayling were in the news. Of the group’s 158 trophy fish, 62 were pike and 81 were arctic grayling. And there were some dandy grayling. Annamarie Fernyak, who earned the Trophy Triple hat in a single day of angling, the “Done in One”, and Scott Sheldon each landed 19.5-inch miniature sailfish in the fast water of one of our most northerly fly outs. Grayling of 18.5 inches were taken by Carl Fernyuak, Shane Benson and Bill Russell who used that big grayling to join the 100+Club. (Their big grayling also helped Carl Fernyak and Suzanne Billing join the exclusive club.) Still a huge grayling, 18 inchers were landed by Zac Skolnick and Gina Cabrera-Benson. When grayling are on, they are really on. Scott Sheldon landed 17 over our trophy size of 15 inches. Annamarie and Carl Fernyak ended up with 18 trophies on their grayling stop which is typically just an hour or two during a full day fishing for pike and lake trout; Suzanne Billing and Zak Skolnick had 18; Shane Benson and Gina Cabrera-Benson got an even dozen. Everyone who went out for this compact but beautiful fish got them in bunches.

 

The lake trout didn’t come in bunches this week. With a lot of cool weather some of the big trout were shallow, some were mid-depth, and some were still deep, making catching them a bit more challenging. Bill Russell was up for the challenge, landing a massive 43.5-inch laker on the first day of his trip. Mike Minedeo and Keli Wall almost hit our 40-inch super-sized mark with 39-inch beauties. There were another dozen trout trophies in the books as well.

So did this group fall for fall fishing. We can’t read minds, but we can read our rebooking results. Of the 26 anglers, 20 booked the same room, guide and week for the 2020 season. That says it all. It was a great fall experience.