by Tammy MacDonald | Apr 25, 2017 | Guides
Christmas came quite a bit early this year for the Scott Lake Lodge Guide Team—Christmas Island that is, an exotic island more formally known as Kiritimati, part of the country of Kiribati. Whatever one calls it, it’s a piece of paradise.
That remote speck of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Fiji was the destination for this year’s Guide Retreat, a hallowed tradition stretching back nearly twenty years. Over the past two decades our guides have chased bonefish in the Bahamas, tarpon in Florida, sturgeon in British Columbia, permit in Mexico, sailfish in Costa Rica, peacock bass in Brazil to name a few. Now the flats fish and blue water offerings of Christmas Island, one of the most storied fishing locales in the world, are part of the collective consciousness of the Scott Lake Guides.
Kiritimati, a spec of land between Hawaii and Fiji in the Pacific Ocean
As we have discovered over the years, there is nothing quite like being guided to improve a guide’s skills; this trip proved that in spades. Led by an energetic and highly organized Head Guide, Bita Kairaoi, the Christmas Island guides from Crystal Beach Lodge were experienced, skilled, professional and very patient. Even during some hellacious winds and rain, these guys keep their poise and carried on, even though they knew that day would suck. It’s what all good guides do. As happens with all fishing trips, the guides make things happen. No one knows that better than eleven Scott guides on this trip, joined by General Manager, Jason Hamilton, and the two Scott Lake Lodge owners, Tom Klein and Ron Spork. Our guys do it for 16 groups every summer on the 60th parallel, just 59 degrees further north than Christmas Island.
The Scott Lake Lodge gang rendezvoused in Honolulu, the jumping off point for the trip to Christmas. Because he wanted the group to have a first-class meal before heading to a place famed for its fishing not its cuisine, Ron Spork arranged an extravagant dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse where we were lavished with course after course of sensational food and wine. We would not see food like that again for a week, but no one cared; everyone was focused on fishing. Looking out the window of the Fiji Air jet on a blue bird morning was amazing, I could see absolutely nothing to see but blue water until we circled the 10X15 mile piece of land 1, 350 miles due south of Hawaii. Prior to GPS, how the hell did pilots find this place? With the highest point of land about six feet, there weren’t any mountains to help. While taxing to the “terminal” (a modest building no larger than the main lodge at Scott), it was a bit odd to note that apart from the plane we were sitting in there wasn’t a single aircraft of any size parked by the runway. Once a week that Fiji jet is the one and only plane in or out. With no nearby airports to land on this would not be a place for a small private plane—where would you go? As we rolled to a stop the sixty anglers or so anglers on board (there are four operating lodges at Christmas) were buzzing with excitement, stretching their necks and wiggling in their seat—kids in a candy store. All the planning, all the fly shop shopping, all the packing came down to this: we’re here. After a very basic custom’s check and payment of $50 for a fishing license, we were met by the Crystal Beach crew. They handed us a coconut drink and festooned our heads with floral garlands; we were the royalty of the Pacific. Very classy. We jumped in the back of the lodge’s trucks, our commuter vehicles for the week, and headed to the lodge in heat that this intrepid group of Canadians were not quite used to. It’s hot at one degree north latitude. Fortunately, each truck had a cooler of beer, a beverage that would be as common a sight in the hands of our guides as a fishing rod.
“As happens with all fishing trips, the guides make things happen. ”
It would be tough to imagine a more picturesque setting than what greeted us when we parked in front of Crystal Beach Lodge. It had it all—palm trees, sand beach, vivid blue water, the atoll’s reef creating pure white surf: it was the whole package, but no one ogled the scene too long. There was gear to unpack and rig. Within an hour the scene in front of the cabins was a forest of rods and reels. With four to six rods each (you need a 7- or 8- weight for bones, an 11- or 12-weight for giant trevally, a surf-sized spinning or casting rig for blue water plus plenty of spares) we could have stocked a decent fishing shop, and those rods got plenty of use. These guys came to fish: we were all on the trucks for the short drive to the harbor at 6:00 or 7:00 AM every morning. Like fishing at Scott, the decision about fishing at Christmas is binary. At Scott, it’s trout or pike. At Christmas, it’s flats or blue water. We all mixed it up over the week.
Unlike flats fishing in the Bahamas, the shallow water wading here brought lots of unexpected encounters; there are more than bonefish hiding out on the miles and miles of flats. Nothing is more surprising than meeting your first triggerfish, a multicolored oddity that tails like a bonefish but is much more finicky eater. While they will sometimes take a well-presented crab fly, everything must be perfect with the cast and strip. When hooked they are a tough customer. Over the course of the week, many nice ones were landed. There were also bluefin and golden trevally to be found, all spooky and challenging. Of course there were lots of bonefish—it’s what Christmas is famous for. We got our share. Some had more luck (or skill) than others. Cory Craig, the Scott Head Guide, was the bone whisperer of the trip. He just could not keep them off his hook. At one stop I was fishing with a Christmas Island guide just a couple hundred feet from Cory who preferred to guide himself. With his fish-spotting eyes why not? Every time I glanced his direction that damn rod was bent. Over and over. Before I had my first bone to hand (with a guide calling the shots no less ), Cory had landed a dozen or more. It’s why his nickname is WCA, as in World Class Angler. He was the master of the flats on this trip.
The biggest fish from shallow water belonged to Graham Coulombe who found himself and his 12- weight fly rod attached to a massive giant trevally. Ripping out about 300 yards of backing, that fish clearly wanted nothing to do with Graham. With an audience of five other Scott guides, Graham kept his cool and kept the fish in check, finally stopping the run by really putting a nasty bend in his rod. These fish are incredibly strong. In an epic battle it was a long “pump and gain” game to bring the fish back but Graham was up to it. He brought the 50 pound plus beast close enough to shore for a tail grab. What a fish! What an experience! Most of the gang landed smaller versions of GTs on the flats as well as a bluefin trevally or two. Wading the flats at Christmas was like cruising around a supermarket, just picking treats off the shelf.
A fresh frigate bird in this alternate Galapagos
Another treat for many of our group was the abundance of seabirds, especially in some inner lagoons that were fished on two days of our trip. There were nesting frigates and boobies that allowed us to walk up within feet of their nests—the new chicks hanging on the most precarious of nests. It was just like being in the Galapagos Islands. The absence of any predators creates a unique opportunity to see bird up close and very personal, just a wonderful grace note to the week.
“The real payoff for Scott Lake Lodge and its guests was the team building process that played out. It was a beautiful thing to watch ”
The blue water teams had some real rocking and rolling over the week. It was blowing for many of the days and, after all, this is the Pacific Ocean. There were some guys green around the gills on the blue water days but the action trolling or jigging made everyone forget about the waves. There was no problem getting into tuna, GTs, wahoo or a wide variety of bottom fish, most unknown species for Canadian freshwater guides. Every day the blue water crews provided the raw material for our evening dinners and probably fed the families of many of the staff at Crystal Beach Lodge. On one day when the wind was down, a single boat brought back around 500 pounds of fish, mainly tuna which were in the 20-40 pound range—all fighting machines. Jan Phoenix and Ron Spork were the ring leaders of the blue water group, going out nearly every day. Jan, who fishes salt water for most of the winter, was looking for a big wahoo. That species eluded Jan but not Steve Lindner, aka Biff Piston, who on the last day nailed a huge wahoo of close to 50 pounds. Another big wahoo was taken early in the trip by Jordan Baker. On the trevally front, Jan Phoenix landed a very nice bluefin and Matt Cornell got a 50 pound plus GT while trolling off the reef not far from the lodge.
There was a wonderful rhythm to the week: up early, fish hard all day, come back for cocktails, conversations with the Christmas guides, some very fresh tuna sushi, more cocktails, lots more beer, fish stories, more beer, and then dinner of fresh fish and rice (with the occasional lobster dinner thrown in) served under the stars, then more beer—a very tough routine. It was not unlike the summer pattern at a lodge 59 degrees further north. Like at Scott the vibe here was quite comfortable.
While fishing was center stage all week, the real payoff for Scott Lake Lodge and its guests was the team building process that played out. It was a beautiful thing to watch. On the water and at the lodge the Scott guides demonstrated the mutual trust and respect that makes the Scott Lake Lodge fishing experience so rich and productive. These guys really like each other. Maybe the roughly 900 beers the guys put down was an element but I don’t think it was a big part of the chemistry that developed. This is a brotherhood, a remarkable group of men who have a passion for fishing and a solid capacity for working together. Not content with just a week together, about half the group went to Molokai, one of the Hawaiian Islands, to chase the monster bonefish that inhabit those flats. It’s never enough. For the other half of the group the fishing trip ended sitting in the crowded waiting area at the airport listening to the anglers from the other lodges tell their stories–stories about bonefish landed, GTs lost and casts missed. Just change the species to pike and trout and you have the Day 5 experience sitting in the Last Cast waiting for the Twin Otter. Fish stories are an echo of primal instincts; our species really hasn’t changed that much since the time when hunting and fishing were survival skills not sports. The fish stories from the Christmas Island expedition will bounce around the lodge and in the boats all summer. Just another chapter in the Scott Lake Lodge story.
by Tammy MacDonald | Sep 4, 2016 | 2016 Season
At the 60th parallel late August isn’t late summer—it’s fall. That means fall fishing at Scott Lake Lodge, one of our guide’s favorite times. The changing of the season with the heavy migration of geese, the gathering of common loons, and the subtle shift in the color of the birch trees brings out the best in Scott Lake and our network of eighteen fly out lakes. The final fifteen days of the 2016 season were no exception. The fishing was good, even great at times. The last three five-day groups of the season averaged 19 trophies per day, just under the full season average. But there was nothing average about the fish. These are the hard fighting or, if you will bear the alliteration, the fat, feisty fish of fall. As typically happens in mid-to-late August, the big fish go on the prowl. They are putting on the feedbag, putting on some pounds to cope with the long, quiet winter ahead. At any depth the burbot, whitefish, lake cisco and even other pike are not safe from the relentless hunting of these voracious predators. Just the kind of fish we like.
SOME BIG FISH STORIES
The biggest pike caught during these final groups became our best story of the year, maybe ever. Peter and Kay Myhre have been coming to Scott Lake Lodge for a few years now, at first mainly to escape the Texas heat. They would trade 65 degrees for 105 any day of the week. They took a liking to the place. Being first rate anglers, they started to get some big fish. In 2015 Kay topped the 100+Club leaderboard: she can set a mean hook. That was the year that she and Peter had a memorable day on one of Scott’s fly out lakes on the last day of the season. It was also their 47th year of marriage (watch the numbers here). On that crisp fall day, they both caught 47” pike, two casts apart. So this year would, of course, be their 48th year of marriage. (You’re getting ahead of me.) So they did another fly out and yes each caught massive 48” pike—two casts apart. We think it’s an interesting way of renewing one’s marriage vows. We look forward to their 49th summer together. Maybe.
They weren’t the only anglers who went the distance with some of our angry pike. Another good story here. Joe Novicki, who is the 2016 100+Club champ, decided to introduce his good friend, Subhash Desai, to the sport of fishing. Subhash had never, not once, fished before arriving at Scott Lake for our final five days of the season. What do you think happened? Of course, on his first day here, he catches, with considerable and unnecessary coaching, a 47.5” pike, quite a girthy one. Many serious pike anglers have spent a lifetime trying to catch a fish like that. All in a day’s work for Subhash. Joe, on his second trip of the season, had to keep up appearances: he got a 47 incher to complement the 48.5” and 51” pike he caught in June. Joe is a man for all seasons. Ron Spork and Taylor Lajoie also brought in 47s. Pike of 46” were taken by Carol Freking, Patrick Spork, Kay Myrhe, Julie Heinmiller and Sue Ellen Readinger. Those last three names prompt yet another story. On August 22nd, one of five consecutive sunny, calm days, Kay, Julie and Sue Ellen all got their 46s. On the same day, husbands Peter, John and Mark also got trophies, 42,41 and 40 respectively. I guess wives listen better to their guides than husbands, but we’ve known that for twenty years around here. There were still more big pike. Fish of 45” were landed by Patrick Spork (again), Rebecca Graf, Mark Readinger, Suzanne Billing, Ronnie Williams and Judy Schmidt. Some big trout also made the Tundra Times. Not happy with just a big pike, Ron Spork got a very fat 41-inch lake trout on Premier Lake, an adjacent lake to Scott, about an hour’s boat ride away. Keith Huss got a 40” laker on Scott. Two big arctic grayling were taken by the Myrhe’s—really big 19.5 inchers. Grayling of 18” were landed by John Heinmiller and Bill Russell.
THE “MORE” IN WORLD CLASS FISHING AND MORE
Our final fifteen days offered more than just big fish. There were outlandish shore lunches, featuring stir fries, gumbos and elaborate bakes, lots of moose and bear sightings, and northern light viewing. It takes the dark to see the light and by mid-to-late August it finally got dark enough to view this spectacular phenomena of the far north. They didn’t disappoint. It was during the wee hours some nights but the lights were there. Sitting around the big bonfire at the lodge is a late season ritual here. With drinks served to people sitting on wooden stumps in a totally bug-free atmosphere, no one wanted the nights or the lights to end. To sleep or perchance to watch the northern lights: that is the Scott Lake Lodge dilemma. Some guests did both at the same time in the hot tub—that’s living large. Conversations around the fire, in the sauna and at the dinner tables were animated and far ranging. This is a place, first and foremost, for people to relax and enjoy themselves. That they did, making it a great year.
THANKS!
As the last floatplane pulled away from the dock, the thirty strong team of guides, pilots, chefs, housekeepers, servers, maintenance men and managers (what do they do anyway?) gave out a big cheer. Then they realized that it’s over. It’s a strong, bittersweet feeling. Their lives back home are calling everyone, but the pull of this little island in the north is strong. It’s a great place to stay and a hard place to leave. But the season was over and now it’s shut down time. It was a season of big fish, big laughs and big friendships. It will be remembered as one of the best. Thanks to our staff and to our loyal customers who made all of the above possible. See you all in 2017.
by Tammy MacDonald | Aug 20, 2016 | 2016 Season
Farewell to Summer
In most years the seasons at Scott Lake Lodge morph into each other seamlessly: you really don’t notice the divide between summer and fall. Not so this year. There was no ambiguity on August 18th when a vicious north wind brought 50 degree temperatures and spawned huge waves that kept most guests on the island for the day. There were warnings. On August 17th, with still balmy temps, giant Vs of geese were honking their way south, leaving their summer homes on the countless thousands of tundra lakes and ponds, heading to the grain fields of southern Saskatchewan. They knew that something was cooking. They beat fall by one day. Their friends continued flying through the night and into the next day by the thousands—it was the Grand Passage with all those geese getting a free ride south. There were, of course, other signs of the change of season. Many. We have a small reef within a few hundred yards of our island home. It is home every season to a flock of 40-50 common terns. Every year they all leave on the same day. They left, every last one, a few days before the big blow. The signals were everywhere: the ground cover was slowly taking on the reddish hue of fall; loons were flocking and calling wildly for about a week, feeding heavily and preparing for their long flight to the Florida coast; a few splashes of yellow popped out as the birch leaves start their annual transformation, and the tamaracks began adding some color to the lakeshores as they shifted from nondescript green to the haunting smoky gold of fall. But summer didn’t slip away. It just ended on a single day.
WHAT A SUMMER IT WAS
Summer is short here but so sweet. And what a summer this one was. We had our share of cool, cloudy day and rainy days but we had many of those perfect sunny days that bring our pike into the shallows where sight fishing—the purest form of angling—can be experienced. Many of our big pike were spotted by guides and targeted by our guests. We never have enough of those days but we had enough to run the table on virtually all of our fishing statistics. In our last newsletter, covering the season through July 20, we reported some fantastic fishing success. In this newsletter we can report that indeed the beat did go on. The fantastic fishing did not stop; in fact, it picked up a beat or two. From July 21 to August 14 our anglers landed a total of 603 trophy fish—394 pike, 79 lake trout and 130 arctic grayling. While that’s a ton (more like four or five tons) of big fish, it doesn’t tell the whole story. We’ve always brought a lot of 40” pike, 35” lake trout and 15” arctic grayling (our trophy standards) to hand but we have never seen so many really huge pike like we have seen this year. In the past three weeks we added five pike of 47” or better to push the season’s number of 25 of these mega-pike. Last season we had 13 in that size range and last year was our best ever. We’re not breaking records. We’re blowing them away. And we’re not even mentioning all the tens of thousands of “regular” nice fish that are caught and released every season without anyone taking note except the angler at the other end of the line. It’s been an impressive season by any measurement, including the most important one—customer satisfaction.
THE ANGLERS BEHIND THE NUMBERS
These big numbers don’t create themselves. Our anglers earn them, one at a time. Anglers like Rick Spork who had a day he will never forget: he got the biggest pike of this reporting period, a 49 incher, but on the same day added a 45”,44.5”, 44” and 41.5” pike. That’s a day. Other anglers had days at the same adrenaline level. Chris Miller got five huge pike on a single day—a 47”, 45”, 44”, 43.5” and 41”. David Jansema was a guest at Scott 20 years ago, at the beginning of the current ownership’s tenure. He discovered that, other than the quality infrastructure and better food, nothing much had changed. He had a huge day with pike, getting his five pack of pike at 47”, 45”, 44”, 42.5” and 40” and upped the ante by adding a 37.5” lake trout. Then on the next day he landed a 46” pike. Yes Dave, the fishing is still good up here as it was twenty years ago, maybe better. On her first trip to Scott Lake Lodge, on a very memorable day, Beatrice Emens got a six pack of trophy pike with the biggest at 47”.
Monster pike don’t always come in packs like that. Typically, you get one fish-of-a lifetime in a lifetime. Or up here maybe once a trip. Chip Webster got his lifetime fish, a massive pike of 48.5” with a huge girth. Eleven-year-old (yes, really only eleven) Griffin Kristo landed a 48-inch monster and then added a 45 incher on his last day. He also talked his way into the guides’ weekly poker game and took the pot in Texas hold ‘em. (This kid has a future but the guides may not allow him to either fish or play poker next season. He’s making everyone look bad.) Pike of 47 inches were also taken by Jeff Ryan and Tom Jones. Many anglers hit the 46 mark: Bill Sandbrook, Sonya Boone, Jackie Fields, Betty Chadwell, Jim Borden, Ron Spork and Joe Sauger.
Pike are only part of the fishing story at Scott. There were 79 big lake trout taken in this 25 day slice of the Scott Lake Lodge season with 14 of those trout of 40” or better. These super-sized lakers were taken by eleven lucky anglers. Trout of 42” were caught by Mark Harangody, Dennis Hanggi, Jackie Fields and Arnold Alfert. Trout of 41” were taken by Joe Sauger, Beatrice Emens and Dean Jensen. Forty inchers were caught by Priscilla O’Donnell and Bob Lorber. But the clear King of Trout for this season was long time guest Mike Scheidt. He wasn’t happy with just one fish-of-a-lifetime. He needed four: a 43”, a 42”, a 40.5” and a 40” trout. Any trout near 40” is impressive. Our lake trout here are really, really fat, living the good life scooping up lake cisco and whitefish to become the equivalent of aquatic pigs, only stronger and faster.
Arctic grayling are in this game too. We had 130 over 15 inches. Wayne and Clay Parmley put on a grayling clinic, getting way too many and each getting a personal best of 19”. Alaine Emens and Ramon Clark also landed 19s. Bill Ehmann, Beatrice Emens and Dan Clark got 18s.
100+CLUB NOT SO EXCLUSIVE ANYMORE
With so many trophy grayling, it’s not surprising that the 100+Club has a lot of new members this season. Our mid to late summer period added a dozen: Jim Borden, Priscilla O’Donnell, Amy Towers, Beatrice Emens, Alaine Emens, Jackie Fields, Joe Parker, Arnold Alfret, Ramon Clark, David Jansema, Sonya Boone and Darrel Massie (who by the way had never fished before in his entire life). Getting into the Club is not easy. An angler has to catch a trophy of all three of Scott’s gamefish and the total inches of their three biggest trophies has to reach or exceed 100 inches. The math is easy (just get a 45” pike, a 40” trout and a 15” grayling for but the catching isn’t. At this juncture of the season the top gun in the Club is Joe Novicki with 108 total inches (helped a lot by his 51” pike). Rhys Reese landed at 107 inches and Bob Noble is close behind at 106.5. But there are still three groups to go and lots of big fish out there.
IS THE BEST YET TO COME?
Over the past nineteen seasons our biggest fish, especially pike and grayling, are caught during the second half of August. Will history repeat? With so many big fish already in the book: we have a total of 1,532 trophy fish, only ten under last season’s record total with fifteen fishing days to go. Can we keep the beat going? We’ll let you know in a couple of weeks. In the meantime think about your own 2017 fishing calendar. We now have a clear picture of availability for next season. We have had a record number of rebookings (guests who booked their same week, guide and cabin for the next season before they leave our island) but there are still plenty of openings throughout the season. Give our guide/sales manager Jon Wimpney an email today to lock in your fishing adventure. Be part of the 2017 story. Reach him at j5@scottlakelodge.com The first step to your fish-of-a-lifetime is just an email away.
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by Tammy MacDonald | Jul 21, 2016 | 2016 Season
It’s summertime and the fishing, at least most of the time, is easy. Well it was easy most of the time, except when cold fronts creep into the 60th parallel. We had three days of cool and windy weather when our sixth group of the season was at the lodge, but they still caught a lot of trophies. Despite the often unstable weather over this early to mid-summer period, the fishing has been very stable, as in very, very good. Our spring fishing over the first fifteen days (June 10th to June 25th) of the 2016 season was sensational with intense action and some impressive trophy counts—so many huge pike, eleven over 47”. Fishing like that can’t be sustained over an entire season. Can it? You could ask the 130 anglers who fished between June 26 and July 20th. They would tell you that indeed it is possible. They landed 566 trophy fish with a staggering number of real hogs. The 25-day breakout: 358 pike, 148 lake trout and 60 grayling. Those are big numbers and they reflect some amazingly big days.
BIG DAYS
Over the past few weeks we have had some single day fishing experiences that will race the pulse of any Canadian angler right to the edge. Days that most anglers will only have in their dreams. How about a day when dad and his eleven-year-old son go after big trout for the first time after several Scott Lake trips of focusing on pike. Dave and Jackson Wanderer headed to the east end of Scott Lake to an area well known by all Scott guides. It always produces trout but rarely like it did for Dave and Jackson. While they caught only seven trout in their morning at Chester’s Hole, six of them were trophies. Jackson nailed a pair of 38” lakers, a 39”, a 40” and a 41.5”. Dad took a lot of pictures and contributed a 39” and 40” trout. That’s a good morning. Another father/son team, Gary and Garek Peters, had a very similar trout fishing experience. On a fly out lake Garek tied into a pair of 38 inchers, a 39”, a 40”, a 41” and a real hog of a 43”. Gary, like Dave, contributed a pair of dandies, a 36” and a 40”. You can’t make up fishing stories any better than this. The fishing stories just kept coming. Fishing buddies Ken Hartem and Rhys Reece had an even better day. Ken got five trophy trout with three over 40 inches. Rhys got three with two of them over 40. And together they added five trophy pike. That’s a DAY. Phil Nutt had one of those days too, getting trout of 39”, 40”, 40.5”, 41” and 44.5”.
JUST PLAIN BIG FISH
Typically, big fish don’t come in bunches. You earn them spending hours casting or trolling before you latch onto a big one. We had plenty of days where one magnificent fish made the day. Anglers who landed lake trout of over 40” (our standard for a “super-sized” trout) included Dave Bensema and Nicholas Kippenhan who both got a pair over 40. Ken Williams, Bob Noble, Greg Kippenhan, Gale Hamilton, Don Hunt, Doug Howard and Glen Perkins all had glorious memories of landing a trout over 40”—a true fish of a lifetime.
Pike were definitely part of the Big Fish story. They dominated it. In our 20 years of operations on Scott Lake we have never seen so many huge pike. We call pike of 47 inches or better “megas”. Over the past twenty-five days we added nine more megas to our season’s total. There were mega smiles on the faces of Bob Tiegs and Dan Jacobi who landed 49 inch girthy pike. The biggest smile though may have been on the face of Tamra Lee who early on her first morning of her first ever pike fishing trip she gets her first pike, a modest one. Then she lands her second pike ever, a ridiculously fat pike of 48.5”. You could hear the sobbing of grown men all over the north who have fished a lifetime without ever catching a fish like that. No crying though for Al Williamson, Tom Donaldson or Jerry Richardson who landed 48s. Nor from Dan Spielman, Ken Williamson or Harry Wilson who got 47 inchers. What a parade of pike!
HALF WAY TO A RECORD YEAR?
We are now at exactly the half way point of the season. It is on track to be our all- time trophy fish season. With 936 total trophies in the bag beating the record 2014 season of 1,542 is well within reach. We have already beat our all-time record for pike over 47”. Our record years were 2014 and 2015 when we had 13 pike over 47. In just a half season we have 20 over 47”. We are also looking at a trout record. We are sitting at 38 lake trout over 40” in the books, well on our way to a record. In 2014 and 2015 we had 30 trout over 40” for the entire season. So many big fish. We can debate the causes: more fly out lakes now numbering 18 spread over nine million acres of Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, better anglers, more experienced guides, better equipment, etc. But who needs to analyze fishing. It’s just fishing and it’s just fun. People quantify because it’s easy: it’s just counting.
BEHIND THE NUMBERS
There is no way to quantify the precious experiences of traveling miles over pristine waters to reach your guide’s “secret spot”, hearing the zing of your drag, watching an eagle take flight out of a spruce tree, hearing the enchanting loon calls at night or enjoying that first taste of really fresh fish at a shore lunch. The Scott Lake Lodge experience is certainly about fishing but much, much more. It’s about sharing this wilderness with like-minded people, watching the nightly “fish of the day” photographs together, enjoying a fine meal and yes, telling fish stories. All part of the adventure. And the story for 2016 is only half told.
THINK ABOUT 2017
If you are getting tired of just reading about fishing adventures, it’s time to send our guide/sales manager Jon Wimpney an email at j5@scottlakelodge.com While most of our anglers rebook for the following year before they leave the lodge, we do have a few spots open in our 2017 calendar. Camp opens on June 9. Check out the booking schedule and details on our website. But don’t think too long. You want to be part of the Scott Lake Fishing Adventure for 2017. Grab your phone, I-Pad, computer or any device you want and email Jon today.
by Tammy MacDonald | Jul 3, 2016 | 2016 Season
Here on the border of Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, Scott Lake Lodge offers three distinct seasons during our eleven weeks of operations that begin on June 10 and end on August 29th: two weeks of spring,six weeks of summer, and three weeks of fall. We don’t know what the summer and fall will bring but the two weeks of spring fishing are in the books. And what a first chapter to the 2016 fishing year. Three groups of anglers have thrown flies, spinners, spoons, plastics and about anything else you can put on the end of a line at the pike of the 60th parallel. Were these pike picky? Not in the least. They have been ferociously attacking anything they can see in these clear northern waters.
SHALLOW WATER MADNESS
Our first three groups with five precious days each have witnessed some incredible scenes. Imagine standing in the front of a boat in a quiet bay. Off to your left near the grassy bank, in water no more than eight inches deep, you spot a rather large tail sticking right out of the water. You gently toss your spinner to the edge of the grass. There is an explosion. You have the fight of your fishing life and then the guide scoops up a magnificent northern pike. The tape does not lie—51 inches of controlled fury. This not long after you landed a 48.5” pike under similar circumstances. If you’re long time Scott Lake Lodge guest Joe Novicki you don’t have to imagine it. You did it! Just one in a five day string of memorable days where Joe boated ten trophy pike. His fishing buddy, Bill Calabresa, didn’t do so badly either, getting eleven total trophies with some monster lake trout—39, 41 and 44”. That’s a great five day run. Fly out Team Lynch (Dave, Patrick and Mike) joined by fishing friend John Sanderson boated an incredible total of 20 trophy pike for the foursome. That’s great fishing.
IT’S ALL IN THE NUMBERS
For people who love the visual excitement of shallow water pike fishing, the first three sessions here at Scott are hard to beat. It’s all about temperature. When the sun beats down on our shallow bays, creating a temperature differential of about six degrees between the cold waters of the open lake and the warming waters of the shallow silt-bottomed bays, all hell breaks loose in those bays. It takes sunny days though. We didn’t get the sun every day and our second group of the season did get cheated with a three day cold front, but we got enough sun to write quite an opening chapter. The action was unreal. Conversations about landing 50 to 100 pike per day with many in the 35-38” range were common around the dinner table. And the trophy numbers were off our charts: raw numbers of big fish caught (not counting all the “ones that got away” stories) tell the story eloquently. In just fifteen days of fishing we racked up 370 trophy fish. The species breakout: 352 pike over 40”, 10 lake trout over 35” and 8 grayling over 15”. That’s around five trophy fish per angler. Sometimes numbers are better than words, if they are numbers like that.
The next set of numbers are even more inspiring: 32 pike over 45” with five of those at 47” (caught by Dan DeChamps, Don Granada, Dave Thome, Dave Lynch and John Sanderson (well his was 47 and a half); five at 48” (taken by Skip Jewett, Jake Jaffe, Joe Novicki, Mel Deane and Dave Thome, a double dipper; and of course that monster at 51”, fought to submission by Joe Novicki, a serious double dipper. We are on track right now to have by far our best trophy season ever. We’re not sure if the fish around here are getting bigger or our guides and anglers are getting better, but we do know that we have over the past five years been seeing many more huge pike. It’s enough to give one spring fishing fever.
CATCH THE FEVER AT SCOTT
Openings for the first three groups of our season are precious and rare. While there aren’t many openings for spring fishing at Scott for 2017, there are some. Our 2017 spring season sessions are June 9-14, June 14-19 and June 19-24. If you want to have a moment like Joe Novicki, watching a monster pike turn and savagely engulf your lure, give Jon Wimpney, our guide/sales manager, an email at j5@scottlakelodge.com When? Right now of course. Get a case of spring fishing fever at Scott next year. We held our prices for 2017. Our packages come very well wrapped: charter flights from Saskatoon, SK, hotel on your southbound return, use of high quality fishing tackle, wine with our extraordinary dinners, complimentary soft drinks and all transfers to the lodge are included. Just get yourself to Saskatoon. Our guide team which now has an average tenure at this Lodge alone of 15 years (a number no other Canadian lodge can even come close to) will take care of you in the boat. Our experienced and dedicated shore staff will take care of you on our 12-acre island in the middle of fishing paradise. Get a conversation going with Jon, now.
