by Tammy MacDonald | Aug 8, 2012 | 2012 Season
We went from blissful summer to invigorating fall in a single day here at Scott. There was a glorious run of fifteen consecutive days of full sun, blue skies and light to no winds. It was heavenly to be on the water. These were the lazy, hazy days of summer but the fish were a bit lazy too and our hardcore guides were screaming for a change in the weather. They felt there had been enough of the swimming at shore lunch, T-shirts and flip flops. They got their wish. On August 5th, the first day of our 12th group of the season fall arrived with authority. After days of flat water a huge west wind charged through the area, putting waves even in the smallest bays. Fishing on August 5th was rough and tough. It was difficult to get anywhere but the wind did its job, stirring things up very well. On cue on August 6th the winds dropped to a more reasonable level and the fishing just plain exploded. It was a day to remember. The number of fish caught zoomed up from single digits to the dozens and the size of the fish took a quantum leap. A total of thirty trophy fish were tallied in a single day. (That would be a good season for some lodges.) Just how big were some of these fish? Ask Brad Finney how it feels to land lake trout of 36, 39, 41.5 and 42 inches—all in one day. Ask Vianne Kucera about her day: a 39.5” laker, a trophy grayling and pike of 41.5 and 47 inches. Better yet ask her husband Jack. He had an epic day, one of the most dramatic in our lodge’s sixteen year history. He got his trophy grayling, added a trophy lake trout and watched his guide get a bit giddy putting the cradle under pike of, get this, 40, 41, 42, 45 and 49 inches. Both Vianne and Jack had the rare “Done in One”, getting the 100+Club jacket in a single day. What a day! So much for the old wives tale about pike losing their teeth in August. This August day at Scott turned out to be our best day of the season, so far, but there is a lot of August to go.
SUMMER’S END
The wonderful string of summer days did produce many fishing memories. Those two weeks since our last website update, July 20 to August 4, offered a more than boat rides. A lot of big fish were taken, especially lake trout. Lakers over 40” were landed by a bunch of anglers: Mike Stanford, Beth Rini, Jared Penfold, Wes Odeguard, Mike Scheidt, Mike Latcham, Tom Hellwig, Dave Wallace and Pat Purcell. All “supersized’ their lake trout experience. But the trout day of the summer belonged to Joe Wright and Dave Wallace. They had a reel Day on Beauvais, one of our premier lake trout fly out destinations. Between the pair they collected eight lake trout trophies, the biggest stretching the tape to 42”. Pike fishing with the glassy water was tougher. The ambush predator takes vacation days when prey and predator can see each other too clearly. But two fat 45s were caught, one each by Mike Thornbrugh and Ernest Papacek. Balancing the perfect summer days with the slower fishing produced a lot of very happy customers and a rebooking rate of nearly 100% for those three groups.
THE WINDOW IS CLOSING—FAST!
Speaking of rebooking rates this summer has been off the charts at Scott Lake Lodge. We don’t pretend to understand the economy or the fishing industry. We only know how to take care of customers. But our customers clearly want more of the unique, personalized customer service our team of 28 staff offers. Whatever the reasons for the surge we do know for a fact that for the period of June 11 to July 31 of 2013 we have 240 of the 260 available spots sitting with deposits right now. If you are one of the many who are “thinking” about a Scott trip for next June or July it’s time to stop thinking and jump to your phone or keyboard. Email our Sales Manage Jon Wimpney at j5@scottlakelodge.com or call the office in Rhinelander, WI at 888/830-9525 (715/362-7031 from Canada or abroad). There is only so much of the Scott Lake Experience to go around. Get some now. We did sell out 100% in 2012 but it took us right to the end of the selling season. This year it looks like an early sell out.We always give customers the right of first refusal for a next year’s booking so we will post August openings later in the month.
WILDLIFE UPDATE
The biggest news on our island this summer, apart from the sensational fishing, has been the Olivia/Oliver story. Our pair of island Long-eared owls successfully raised four owlets. Our last update showed the balls of fuzz in their nest. They have learned to fly now and all four have flown the coop. (They were just too spooky and quick to get any good photographs). By now they are already terrorizing mice, voles and other small mammals somewhere in our neighborhood. Congrats to Olivia and Oliver for another contribution to owldom. We’re not sure why but this has been the Year of the Moose around here. It seems like almost every night during our after dinner “fish du jour” show images of moose keep popping up. It could be that the huge fire seasons of four and five years back providing tens of thousands of acres of new birch tree growth—prime winter forage for the biggest land mammal in North America—helped a lot of moose get through the long winters here. There have been many black bear sightings as well. That species also benefits from fire, the new open area are perfect for berries of all color but especially the abundant blueberries. Eagles, osprey and loons of course are seen every day. What would you expect? This is a pristine wilderness area: it is home to a lot of species besides the common anglularius homo sapiens spotted around here.
More on the summer at Scott in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned. And be sure to follow the season via our website (www.scottlakelodge.com). Click on the News from the 60th and read the Tundra Times posted daily. You can read it before the anglers here get out of bed. And take a look at the Pic of the Day for a shot of fish adrenaline every day.
by Tammy MacDonald | Jul 22, 2012 | 2012 Season
The big lake trout of Scott Lake and its fly out lakes have gone on the attack! It’s downright dangerous right now to be a whitefish, a small lake trout or a spoon on the lakes of Scott Lake Lodge. While June was the month of huge fat pike, July is shaping up to be the month of monster lake trout. Every evening on the TV screen at Laker Lodge (part of our nightly “fish du jour” photo viewing of the big fish of that day) we watch guides struggling to hold up these hard fighting ‘freshwater tuna”. In our last dispatch on News From the 60th, we showed a photo of the 46X27.5” trout caught by Mark Graf in early July. It turned out that this was just the beginning of a series of fantastically heavy lakers. [singlepic id=329 w=320 h=240 float=right] We’ve had a bunch with girths of over two feet, including a pot bellied fish with a 27” girth caught by Mike Wunder on July 17. In total seventy-five trophy lake trout have been landed in just twenty days. Of those twenty-two of these have measured 40” or greater, the mark of a real super-sized lake trout.
Some of these trout were truly memorable. We have seen a lot of fish-of-a-lifetime. Like the 44” laker caught by Loren Larson. Or the super fat 43” that ended up in the arms of John Borden’s guide. Or the 42.5 inchers taken by Matt Quick and Jason Lukert. Or the 42s by Don Rohrbauch, Kyle Mohr, Mike Wunder and Bruce Wunder. Many of these trout had tails of whitefish or other lake trout sticking right out of their mouths. These are voracious, aggressive predators. And a lot of them are now finding themselves posing for photographs with trophy hungry Scott Lake Lodge guides and their happy clients.
The big pike haven’t exactly been hiding either. In the same twenty days a total of 156 trophy pike have slid into guides’ cradles. Some notable fish: a 46.5” hog landed by Jason Lukert; 46 inchers by Tim Buzzell, Mike Babyn and Dick Hutson; 45 inchers by Sonia Miloni, Brent Laing and Mal Myers. It’s definitely been a “you should have been here” period. Mark your calendar for 2013.
by Tammy MacDonald | Jul 13, 2012 | 2012 Season
The July trout season got kicked off in a big way on July 9th when Mark Graf, long time Scott Lake Lodge regular, brought a fish of a lifetime to the boat. It was struggle more familiar to salt water anglers than the typical freshwater fish fight. After about fifteen minutes and four attempts to get a massive trout within reach of guide Paul Hamilton’s waiting cradle, a lake trout of stunning size went from hope to reality. The tale of the tape read 46” in length by an incredible 27.5” girth. It was a beauty. Normally an articulate guy, Mark’s first comment on seeing the big trout by the boat was: “Holy ____ that’s a big fish”. Indeed it was. And it was a powerful moment. Eleven year old son, Foster, jumped in his dad’s arms when the fish was secured—a father/son moment that made the catch all the sweeter. The picture here is worth a thousand words but we will wrap it up with four—fishing can be fun.
by Tammy MacDonald | Jul 9, 2012 | 2012 Season
Discussion of weather has been the talk of the Guide Den this season. Unlike cities to the south, it’s not been hot at Scott. It’s just been strange. A few days of warm temperatures followed by cold fronts. One day of encouraging high pressure followed by a low that just hangs over the area. We have been predictably getting unpredictable weather. At times just plain weird.
Pike are creatures that love stability. They can get used to any temperature/pressure regime as long as it’s consistent. They hate this yo-yo pattern. Our weather in June has been very un-Juneish which typically is hot and sunny. We expected a big dip in our big fish numbers. But the conventional wisdom in the Guide Den has been dead wrong, well half wrong. Our total pike trophy numbers (216 in the twenty days of June fishing) are down but the really big fish numbers are up. Two dozen pike over 44” were landed in June; sixteen at 45 or bigger. Those are big fish and big numbers. Especially dramatic are the really, really big fish. Tim Buzzell has a 46 incher; Peter Mitchell a 46.5; Joe Daugherty a very fat 47 incher; Scott owner Tom Klein added a 47″ and Jack Barlo topped the list with a 47.5 inch pike. In 2011 we had thirty-one pike at 45 or over. For 2012 we are on a pace to race past that total. Why? Only the pike know and they’re not talking.
Not only have there been a lot of long pike, we have also caught hundreds of very fat ones. Our guide team, with an average tenure of ten years at Scott, have never seen such heavy pike at this time of year. Tails are sticking out of a lot of fish; big bellies are the rule this season. Large schools of bait, mainly lake ciscos, have been observed. No one knows why but fat fish don’t lie. This has been a tremendous early season for heavy fish. Just peruse through our Pics of the Day to see the proof.
Lake trout “season” starts in mid-July but we are already seeing quite a few hogs in the guides’ cradles. Six over 40” were landed in June, not a bad start. Grayling are always tough in June but this year it’s really been tough with extremely high water in our grayling rivers. When the water starts to drop down our grayling numbers will go up. So only one Triple Trophy hat was awarded in June — Carolyn Nelson captured that one.
We are still waiting for a stretch of high pressure and high temperatures. When it happens things will really bust loose. In the meantime we’ll keep fishing and catching.
by Tammy MacDonald | Jun 7, 2012 | 2012 Season
The eagle has landed! (In a tall spruce by the main lodge.) And loons, hundreds of geese and lots of ducks have been landing every day,along with Beavers of the de Havilland variety. We have taken control of this isolated birch and spruce decorated island right on the 60th parallel. It has been a wonderful set up period for the crew at Scott Lake Lodge. On June 1 the advance team landed in a small open stretch of water on the south side of our island home, but not quite enough of an opening to get the plane to shore. Manager John Gariepy had to wade in ice cold water to get a lodge canoe to ferry the rest of the group and some groceries to shore. There is always drama at Scott. Now five days later the advance group is twelve strong with more staff arriving daily. Compared to many of the past sixteen seasons at Scott, this will be a wonderfully leisurely opening. It is an annual ritual of considerable magnitude: there are 28 buildings to clean up/fix up; the boats need an annual fresh coat of interior paint; the store inventory needs to be unpacked, priced and put out; thousands of pounds of frozen meats and other food items need to be unloaded stored; the spruce chip walkways need a fresh coat of chips; the office needs to be organized. And for any of that to happen the two Beaver air lodge air force has to fly trips all day long and the days are pretty long now. The whole thing is quite like starting a new business every year.
Scott is now 90% ice free with only some north facing islands holding the remnants of last winter
For this year’s opening we have had extra challenges. A heavy snow load pulled down the two compressors that run our walk in freezer/refrigerator. Fortunately we found a Saskatoon based refrigeration company that could send a technician ASAP. He got things running just hours ahead of the 1,500 pounds of frozen meat. The ice did us no favors this year.
On June 3rd the wind pushed the ice against our south dock. There was nothing to do but watch as tons of ice pushed the stone filled cribs toward shore. No one messes with the power of moving ice floes. So four guides worked two full days to rebuild the dock. It’s all part of the game in the lodge business.
Our construction crew from Saskatoon puts the finishing touches on a beautiful new cabin
The new cabin, Raven, is now in the final interior phase of construction. It will be ready for guests on June 15. The lumberjack crew has cut hundreds of small spruce trees that will soon become the fragrant and soft walkways around the island. And today the sun is out and it is beautiful. Life at Scott is good. The geese are heading north in great numbers; the birch trees are almost fully leafed out and the lake has never looked more blue and inviting. And for our regulars who have been up recently it will be refreshing to see a “full pond”. The heavy snows of late winter have our lake levels back to normal after several years of very low water. This will open up a lot of small bays again that were impassable. The fish? They’re ready, willing and able to stretch your lines. (That has been recently tested as the picture included here attests.)
For 2012 we are now at 99% full. And we would love to be at 100%. If you have the itch for a wilderness fishing trip this summer now is the time to scratch it. Surprisingly we still have four spots in the prime shallow water pike week of June 30-July 5, perfect for fly anglers as well as hardware chuckers. That’s all we have left. Grab one now like a pike grabs a black leech. Email our Sales Manager Jon Wimpney or call our guest services office at 888/830-9525 to get one of the four last tickets to paradise.
Someone had to give the pike some exercise. Tom Klein with guide Chester Porteous holding one of several pre-season trophies.
