by Tammy MacDonald | May 28, 2013 | 2013 Season
Here comes the sun! The work crew at Scott Lake Lodge is basking in brilliant sunshine these days. With temperatures in the 70s for over a week the mass of ice is now black and starting to retreat from the shoreline. The forecast shows more of the same for the next week. We will have open water and great fishing for our first group arriving on June 11.
The beautiful weather has facilitated the spring work over the past few weeks. The damage from last fall’s marauding black bear has been repaired: the main lodge has a new floor and new lighting (that was a bad bear). A new kitchen range is being dropped in by helicopter next week—it’s too large and heavy for a float plane. We will have pictures of that. The routine “get the place ready for customers” tasks are being checked off one by one. The fleet of lodge boats has new floors and new interior paint. Wood chips are being laid down for the island walkways. The place is looking great. Plane flights for the Scott staff have been made and everyone will be at the island by June 9th. It is a time of high energy and excitement. The 2013 season is so close the crew at Scott can taste it. It’s almost time for patient Scott customers to take a bite.
by Tammy MacDonald | Apr 21, 2013 | 2013 Season
Report from the North:
Bear Repair
The work has begun to repair the damage that one apparently angry black bear inflicted on Laker Lodge at Scott Lake. For three weeks Chester Porteous (you know him as The Poacher) and our new winter watchman, Tell Keiper, have been cleaning up after our not so friendly bruin friend. The more they looked the more they found. Somehow this determined critter clawed through the floor under our ovens and destroyed all the controls as well as ripping off the doors of an commercial oven that weighs probably a thousand pounds. A new stove is ordered and will be put in well before our June 11 opener. Since it’s too big for the Otter it will make the trip from Stony Rapids dangling from a helicopter, maybe a first for any commercial oven. The lodge floor did not survive the attack either with parts of it ripped out. A work crew will be landing on the ice in late April to tackle all the Laker Lodge tasks, complete the work on reflooring all the guide boats and do the normal annual chores of getting the infrastructure in perfect condition, including the cutting of several hundred trees to create the wonderful spruce chipped trails connecting the guest cabins to the main lodge (Laker Lodge) and the boat docks.They will be essentially be stuck there until lake opens allowing float planes to again take to the air and land on Scott Lake. The job is big but the plan is tight. We look forward to seeing the faces of our several hundred “regulars” when they see all the improvements around the island.
Winter Hanging On
The winters at Scott are always long and cold. This year is no exception. There is a lot of snow which bodes well for a continuation of the high water levels we had last season which allowed the guides to get back into some of their favorite shallow bays. Unlike last winter when the lake just crawled with caribou, they have been scarce this winter with the concentrations to the north and east of Scott. It’s been a relatively quiet winter with a lot less snowmobile traffic on Scott. The Native hunters and trappers are heading further north this winter for their rendezvous with the caribou herds that travel hundreds of miles from the far tundra in late fall to spent the winter near the treeline just above the 60th parallel.
Report from the South
Full House
As we head into the final month of our booking season we are confident that we will have a full house all season at Scott. The number of repeat customers from last season was well over 300 and a lot of new guests have signed on for 2013. We are headed for a record number of guests this season, keeping all of our guides on the water straight through from June 11th to September 3rd. We thank all of our dedicated repeat customers and the new guests for their support and trust. The entire team at Scott is counting down the days to the first day back on the island. It is a remarkable community that develops every season at Scott. We have nearly all of our staff returning for the 2013 season. There will be a lot of hugs on the dock when staff and customers meet again. It’s just that kind of place.
For anyone still thinking about a trip to Scott this summer now is the time to make a move. Their are still some spots scattered through the season and we do get the occasional cancellation. Our Sales Manager, Jon Wimpney, is always close to his phone and laptop, even on the recent Guide Retreat in the jungles of Nicaragua. Give him a call at 306/209-7150- or drop him an email at j5@scottlakelodge.com for the latest availability. Or just call to talk fishing: it’s in his blood.
by Tammy MacDonald | Apr 21, 2013 | Guides
On the second of April, the Scott Lake Lodge guide team met in Managua, Nicaragua en route to a remote tarpon camp on the San Juan River near the border with Costa Rica. The Guide Retreat is a grand tradition, spanning a over a dozen years and diverse geography: Ascension Bay in Mexico, the bone fishing meccas of the Bahamas, the backcountry of south Florida, the sailfish infested waters of Golfo Duce in Costa Rica as well as closer to home places like the Frasier River in British Columbia where sturgeon measured in feet not inches are found and caught. This year the group wanted two things–hot weather and tarpon. The trip to the San Juan was planned and a dozen of Scott’s finest showed up in Managua.
After a couple of days of sampling the urban delights of Managua and seriously depleting the beer supply of the capital city, the group, led by General Manager John Gariepy, headed south by van to San Carlos at the bottom of massive Lake Nicaragua, then by boat for two hours down the San Juan River to the Monte Cristo Lodge near the small village of Sabalos. Set high above the river the lodge was a naturalist’s delight with an eco-theme featuring daily 4:00 AM wake up calls by a troop of howler monkeys who were right on time every morning. There were regular sightings of three species of monkeys, sloths, crocodiles, otters and birds beyond descriptions. And the fishing? Well, you can’t have everything. Let’s just say the some of the guides were missing the predictable action of Scott Lake.
The trip started with a bang: fifteen minutes into Day 1 owner Tom Klein hooked and landed a twenty pound snook which provided ample fillets for the first of many great dinners. Many other snook and lots of smaller but meaner fish, like the machaca, followed in decent numbers. But the tarpon quest was tough. They are moody fish and remarkably difficult to both hook and land. Bottom line: three tarpon landed and a dozen jumped (a nice way of saying they got off). A potential tarpon shutout was avoided when on Day 4, to use Scott Lake Lodge lingo, Steve “School Zone” Yanish drove his hooks into a heavy tarpon. For an hour and a half he battled the fish before declaring victory. It was dicey several times but Steve brought it to a shoreline for beaching. He then jumped on the muddy looking shoreline only to sink up to his waist in the mud and fall backwards on his right shoulder. But he held on with his left arm high and with the help of the Nicaraguan guide, Jan Phoenix and Tom Klein he literally wrestled (look at the picture) the well over one hundred pound fish to submission. For Steve it was a moment of profound satisfaction. He had dreamed of catching a tarpon since he was fifteen. Nearly twenty years later he held his prize. For others it will have to be a dream delayed until a future trip, except for Jan Phoenix who was not interested in dreams, but he will be dreaming for years about his experience on the very last day of the trip.
No one in the group had fished harder than Jan. At 5:00 AM on Day 7 Jan was out on the water while everyone else was still in bed. His faith and determination were rewarded. That morning he hooked three tarpon and landed two–the picture tell the rest of the story. They were both 100 pound plus tarpon. One required an hour and twenty minutes to land. This was a storybook ending to an exciting and rewarding trip. While this was not the tarpon bonanza the guys had hoped for it was for all a memorable trip. Fishing after all is fishing and results rarely meet expectations. (Well maybe at some places… maybe Scott Lake.)
But we were fishing for more than something at the end of a line. We were looking to reinforce and enhance the remarkable teamwork that defines the Scott Lake Lodge guide team. On that score it was a remarkably successful trip. John Gariepy summed it up best: “The fishing was tough and it was rewarding to see this group of guys work together to create opportunities to make the best of it. While the tarpon were “off their feed”, other fish were available and our guides knew how to make the best of a tough situation.” Head Guide Cory Craig put the real benefit of the trip into a perfect metaphor: “Being on the ‘other side’ of the boat really helps all of us better understand our jobs. We see what we like and what we don’t like in a guided fishing day. That makes us more aware of what Scott customers expect.” This was a week well spent that will pay dividends for all of Scott Lake Lodge’s customers, this year and many years ahead. Memories of fish, big and small, jungle hikes and kayaking will fade but the bonds built here in the jungles of Nicaragua will endure.
by Tammy MacDonald | Feb 12, 2013 | 2013 Season
It’s dark and cold on the 60th parallel in February. But it’s the time when the caribou move into the Scott Lake area and fleets of snowmobiles head north to meet them. It’s time for the winter watch at Scott. This year General Manager John Gariepy, Sales Manager Jon Wimpney and former head guide Ken Johnson went north to settle in Tell Kieper, the new winter caretaker, for his long vigil. It was a good thing we decided on a winter presence this year. What they found up north will involve a lot of extra work next spring. The story from Jon Wimpney:
Report from the North:
The Uninvited Guest
“Heading north to the lodge is always amazing regardless of the season. This trip was no different. At Stony Rapids we all jumped in the Twin Otter for the twenty minute flight to the lodge. The entire landscape was covered in snow and hoarfrost-a fantastic trip. When we started circling the island Johnny noticed that some of the plywood covering the windows in the main lodge was missing. Weird I thought I remember putting them up last fall with Paul Hamilton. We checked out the main lodge right away but we were not really prepared for what we found. The interior which we cleaned perfectly last fall was pretty much trashed. A bear clawed his way in through the back kitchen door and apparently just went berserk. It looked as though he had spent days inside exploring the whole building with his mouth. He even ate a big chunk of the leather couch in front of the fireplace. He was in a a nasty mood: the custom wood blinds were busted into dozens of pieces; wood trim was ripped off the walls; tables were tipped over; a refrigerator was dragged around the kitchen; everything in the kitchen was knocked over; a commercial coffee grinder was somehow destroyed and everything even remotely edible was eaten. He left through a window but didn’t bother to open it. Just one huge mess.
And the path of destruction wasn’t finished. He ate his way through the dry storage room, consuming thousands of calories of pasta, rice and many pounds of non-perishable foodstuffs. He peeled off the metal doors to the building like he was opening a sardine can. One tough bear. The worst though was knocking off the door to the battery storage room. That allowed the heat from the batteries which get some power from the weak winter sun to escape. The batteries were nearly frozen. Even after cleaning off the solar panels we could not get any power. For two days we sat in the dark playing poker by headlamps. That got old fast so we tried to start the diesel generator-at 44 below F. It took an entire day to get it thawed out enough to start it. But we got it going and finally had power and internet.
Hard Water Trout Fishing
On the bright side fishing was pretty good. Even though it was 30 below or worse every day we were able to wet some lines. We got lake trout every time we tried. Nothing is better than fresh trout dinner at Scott in the middle of winter. There was one trout though that was way too big for the pan. I pulled a hog 42 incher through the three foot deep ice, a depth that will keep increasing as winter stretches out. Ken Johnson snapped one picture before the camera froze. There weren’t many animals moving in the deep cold. A few snowmobiles went by the lodge but the numbers were low. We had a few mild winds while we were there. Our estimate of the coldest wind chill was around 60 below. Cold! It made the runs to the outhouse pretty quick.”
Report from the South:
Great Booking Numbers
Life was much easier in Rhinelander, Wisconsin where Shirley Albrent and Michelle Pyrchalla were helping out quite a few 2013 customers with their trip planning. It has been an incredible booking season so far with deposits now approaching 400. There is no doubt that 2013 will be the best numbers we have seen at Scott since the before the Great Recession. Except for a handful of spots opened up by recent cancellations, all of June and July is booked solid.
August Openings
August always seems to get a bad rap from pike fisherman. Everyone concedes that August is a great month for big trout but a lot of anglers hold out June as the month for pike. That’s certainly true for numbers, but not for size. Last season was like most at Scott over the past 16 years. In August last season we averaged six pike over 45″ per group, twice the number in June. In just 24 days of August fishing (our closing date in 2012 was August 24th) Scott anglers landed some massive pike: thirteen at 44″; eleven at 45″; nine at 46″; two at 47″; two at 48″; one at 49″ and the monster of the year at 51″. August pike are fat and mean. Fishing for August pike takes a bit more patience but it is often rewarded with jarring strikes and extended fights. We still have openings for most of our August trips, but at the current booking pace they will not be available for long.
If You Snooze You Lose
If you want a Scott trip in 2013 give our Sales Manager, Jon Wimpney, a call ASAP. He is now fully thawed out and eager to discuss your Scott Adventure. Call him directly at 306/209-7150. He can give you all the details of the 42 inch trout. For any customer service questions call the office in Rhinelander toll free at 888/830-9525. (From outside the U.S. call 715/362-7031.)
New Video
Denny Olson who spent five days at Scott with his HD camera has just put the finishing touches on a new (it’s about time) promotional video about the Lodge. He hit a great week with both a 45″ and a 47″ pike coming to the cradle just for his camera. The 18 minute film will be available on DVD from the Rhinelander office soon but is posted now on the brand new SLL YouTube Channel. Click here to check it out: The Scott Lake Experience
by Tammy MacDonald | Dec 22, 2012 | Island Life
Most Scott customers form a bond with their regular guide and often ask what they do in the off-season. It’s a tough group to keep track of but we have a lock on most of them. Not surprisingly hunting and fishing headlined most of the guide’s off season activities. After some southern Saskatchewan trout fishing, Head Guide CORY CRAIG took his family down to their winter home in Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica where he runs his saltwater charter fishing company (take a look at www.tropicfins.com for some exciting fishing opportunities). He has been busy there putting the finishing touches on his home and taking out his son Tosh for some inshore fishing.
CODY MYCHALYSHYN filled his fall with a lot of hunting and helped out at his family’s fishing lodge in Ontario. But he made time to head to Kansas City for the American Royal Barbecue Competition, the biggest in the states. Maybe Cody’s shore lunches next summer will have a little more kick. Soon Cody will head south to spend the rest of the winter roaming around South America. (It’s wonderful to be young. . .) And the young at heart, STEVE LINDER, much better known as BIFF, is also setting his sights for South America. He will be in Columbia soon, somewhere in a beach community just focused completely on inventing new ways of entertaining his Scott customers and maybe having a beer now and then. STEVE YANISH is staying put in Canada this winter. Steve has spent most of his off season getting his new hunting outfitting business, Alpine Valley Outfitters, off the drawing boards. He was successful. This fall he will be taking clients into a pristine mountain valley in British Columbia for some spectacular hunting. He did take some time out to bag a moose and a deer. GRAHAM COULOMBE also put a moose on ice this fall and has been doing a lot of work on his home near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Speaking of moose no one on the Scott team knows moose better than JAN PHOENIX. We don’t call him the Yukon Man for nothing. Every year he brings home the moose meat. 
This fall he took three buddies and they went 4 for 4 with racks from 41 to 53”. He also teamed up with GREG HAMM to tame some of the monster rainbow trout on Lake Diefenbaker, a huge flowage of the Saskatchewan River, famous for equally huge rainbows. They both got lots of double digit bows and Jan almost broke the 20 pound mark with a 19.5 pound pig of a fish. Greg is taking care of business in Saskatoon as an electrician but will spend a lot of time on the ice this winter. After Christmas Jan will head to his traditional wintering grounds in Costa Rica, near Cory’s home port. 
Super-sub Scott guide JASON HAMILTON has spent the fall shooting geese and catching big muskies in between his work as a field biologist working on whale and walrus research in arctic waters. 
Another Hamilton, veteran guide PAUL HAMILTON has kept his line in the water, fishing for sturgeon in Saskatchewan and coho salmon in Alaska. His top fish this fall was a five foot long sturgeon. And he’s bagged a nice buck. He will be heading way up north shortly to continue his research work on arctic char in the inland lakes of Baffin Island. This involves incredible (really life threatening kind of stuff) snowmobile trips over arctic ice to reach remote lakes where char are netted under the ice—not a job for wimps.
Most of the Scott guides did a lot of hunting this fall but none had success like CURT WOLOSYN and CHESTER PORTEOUS, known to most as just The Poacher.
They teamed up on an extraordinary whitetail hunt on Curt’s family farm near North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Curt and Poach always seem to bag big bucks but this year hit pay dirt. Using trail cameras, hunting savvy and a lot of just plain hard hunting, they each put massive whitetails on the ground (just look again at those photos). The biggest they named “Sr. Combs” and studied his movements for days. Poach got the chance and closed the deal—a true monster whitetail. 
Curt and Poach are both staying in Canada this winter. Curt is taking course work in Edmonton to earn his credentials as a National Construction Safety Officer. Poach will be studying the safety of the ice near his Winnipeg home, as he pulls 10-15 pound walleyes through it. JON WIMPNEY, or J5 if you prefer, has been logging a lot of hours as the sales ace for Scott Lake Lodge pulling in a record number of customers. But he has squeezed some time out for golfing, hunting and of course fishing. This fall he entered Canada’s largest walleye tournament and finished a very respectable 9th out of 160 entrants. He will be on the ice soon still looking for the walleye of a lifetime. And he is still looking for a few customers looking for their fishing trip of a lifetime. Call Jon just to shoot the breeze about fishing or book a trip at 306/209-7150.
Inspired by the hunting and fishing exploits of the Scott guides, owner TOM KLEIN spent enough time in the Montana mountains to bag a couple of elk and a whitetail buck. His freezer is full and his fishing obsession is in check, at least for a spell. He travelled back to his old stomping grounds in northern Wisconsin to catch his first musky on a fly and then trekked to the Agua Boa River, a tributary to a tributary of the Amazon, deep in the rainforest, to check out the peacock bass story. He can now verify that, yes, peacocks are a dynamite game fish. 
He brought about a dozen double digit peacocks to the boat on his 8 weight, including an 18 pounder. And as a bonus he got an arapaima or “lung fish” of 70 pounds or so to eat a fly, a fairly rare event. And then he landed the brute on his fly rod. This primitive fish, an air breather, grows to 400 pounds in the Amazon basin and has legendary fighting power. But he still thinks that lake trout caught in shallow water are the toughest freshwater fish he has encountered. So what’s General Manager JOHN GARIEPY been up to? With three kids five or under John is pretty busy around the house, keeping the kids and Scott Lake Lodge in line. But he will be on the ice soon both at Scott Lake and on Lake Winnipeg.
