IT’S A WRAP

The 2018 season closed like it began: sunny skies and plenty of fish, including a dramatic “fight of the season” when Kevin Morse, casting with spinning gear to a rocky shoreline, hooked a huge trout in just two feet of water. After twenty minutes of excitement he brought a 42” laker into the net. It made six long runs during the battle. A few casts later he got a 41” pike. That’s the way for an angler and a lodge to end the season. That was shortly before he joined his fishing friends and the entire Scott Lake staff, 30 strong, for probably the biggest group shore lunch in our history. And it was an amazing shore lunch. Every guide was part of the cooking team and the number of dishes was over the top. While there were clouds to the south, the weather held up to offer a wonderful ending for the four-day corporate group that was on the island for our final days of the season.

While fishing was a focus of the group, they were more interested in all the other reasons people travel to wilderness destinations—the peace and tranquility, the fine dining, the opportunity for bonding with friends and colleagues, and to simply have a good time, with a few drinks involved of course. They did all of that and worked in some massage time and even a hike before the final day’s shore lunch. They all knew that they would be in the far north at the end of the season where fall can be crisp. So, most guests had plenty of layers to fend off the cool fall weather but fall went a big beyond the norm this year. We had temperatures right around the freezing mark for a couple of the days. And we had some fierce north winds. The week started out with a bang when Todd Jaranowski landed a 45.5” and a 46.5” pike.  Larry Rohan picked up three trophies that day and Jerry Kolek, Scott Sarason,  Lonnie Thompson and Louis Koszewski each landed a pair. It was a great start, but mother nature had a real punch to land on the second day. The north wind roared all day. All fly outs were cancelled, and most anglers stayed in camp or very close. The trophy count shrunk to a single, barely over the mark, 35” lake trout. The next day things picked up with VJ Ciarlo getting a trio of trophy pike and Lonnie Thompson getting his Trophy Triple hat and joining the 100+Club, but it was very, very cold. Most of the big pike just went deep and waited for warmer water temperatures. The good news though is that the cold temperatures on Day 2 triggered a massive movement of lake trout to the shallow spawning reefs. While there just a few trophy-sized trout taken, there were hundreds of medium-sized lakers hooked on the many shallow, rocky reefs all over Scott Lake. It made no difference if anglers were throwing flies, spinners, plastics, spoons or well, anything else. These trout were banging on everything; there were bent rods all over the lake that day and the next. It was the first time in many years that we had guests in camp when this annual movement to the shallow waters occurred. We can thank the overall cool season and late cold fronts for bringing these beautifully colored spawning fish to the surface where sight fishing for lake trout could be enjoyed. It was a show.

The season ended with that festive shore lunch. Behind it there were 90 days of fishing action that broke almost every record we have every set at the lodge. One number—2190—tells it all. That was the record number of trophy fish taken over the season, 135 over last year’s record. We also set records for the number of northern pike, the number of pike over 45” at a whopping 168 (30 more than the record) and tied the last year’s record of pike over 47” at 40. Big numbers to match a big season.

FULL ON FALL

Our 18^th and second last group of the season meet fall head on. Since most of the crew had been up the same week in prior years, they knew what to expect—some cool temperatures, some spectacularly painted landscapes with the birch in full yellow dress and much of the ground cover a bright scarlet, maybe some northern lights and probably some big fish. They got what they expected and more. Ask John and Jim Heinmiller, a father/son team from Minnesota who came this far north for one reason–to get big fish. They succeeded, combining for 20 trophy fish. As frosting on their fishing cake, Jim was able to sight fish (yes, in late August) to massive northern pike. He had the ultimate fly angler’s thrill of throwing to a 47” and a and an incredibly girthy 49” pike and connecting on both, any angler’s dream. Dad got to watch that show, but he had his own with a 45” pike and a bunch of arctic grayling including an 18” beauty. They don’t have grayling in Minnesota or pike that look and act like muskies. Or ask Liz Snyder who left the heat and bright sun of Florida for 60 degrees latitude north, a place that rarely sees 60 degrees of mercury on the thermometer at this time of year. Why? To catch big fish. She did. Liz had one of the most incredible lake trout days we have ever seen. On a single day she landed six trophy trout. Just ogle this lineup: a 36.5”, a 37”, a 40” (now we’re in supersized territory), a 43”, another 43” and an absolutely porcine 44 incher. All in one never-to-be-forgotten day.  Joe Sauger likes big fish too! He had done well on his first two trips to Scott but on his third trip he was treated to the top of the line, a 49-inch northern pike that gave him the fight of his fishing life. Seth Snyder also found out how tough fall pike are, tangling successfully with a 46.

There were many never-to-be-forgotten days this week. With 153 trophy fish landed there would have to be. Mark Graf had an arctic grayling day for the ages. He landed over a dozen trophy graylings including three 18s and three 19s. For this part of the world, those are monster grayling. Dan Spielman had a powerful grayling trifecta, getting fish of 19, 19.5 and a season-tying record of 20 inches. Josh Lanagan got an 18.5 as part of his Trophy Triple experience.

While pike and grayling were taken in big size and in big numbers, this was another memorable lake trout week. In addition to the Liz Snyder Slaughter, there were other monster trout taken: Liz’s husband, Ed, got a 40” along with Dave Darling; Lonnie Thompson and Ron Spork got 41s; and Paul Lorusso put a 42 in his guide’s net. There were so many 38s and 39s we can list them all. Well wait, there is lots of room on the web. OK, here goes: 38s were caught by Ron Spork, Dave Darling (a pair) and Ken Wollin; 39s were caught by Ron Spork (a pair), Seth Snyder, Lonnie Thompson, Steve Baransky, Dave Darling and Mark Graf. There were 41 trophy trout to headline this great week of fall fishing. While it was cool, it wasn’t too cold. It was simply fall, at its finest. Next year a few of our Week 18 anglers might be wearing their new 100+Club jackets. Mark Graf, Paul Lorusso, Seth Snyder, Dan Spielman and John Heinmiller will all be getting their custom jackets with embroidered fish and their lengths. Everyone left with great memories of shore lunches, the frantic calling of migrating loons, fish landed and missed and a great bonfire by the main lodge. Like the season, it was a week to savor.