Welcome to Fall Fishing…Scott Lake Style – Week 12 in Review

Welcome to Fall Fishing…Scott Lake Style – Week 12 in Review

by | Aug 10, 2022 | 2022 Fishing Season, Uncategorized, Website Fishing Blog

WEEK 12 UPDATE

WELCOME TO FALL FISHING, SCOTT LAKE STYLE

It happened suddenly on the fourth day of this group. Fall fishing arrived. It’s not the fall on the calendar which is still a long way off, but it was the first feeling of fall. Maybe it was the slant of the light, just a little lower. Maybe the cool slap in the face of the morning air or just the crisp edge even a sunny day. Or was it the terns? Just a couple of hundred yards north of our island on the 60th parallel there is an exposed reef where a colony of terns has nested for as long as anyone can remember, probably hundreds of years. The come, about 60 strong, every year, arriving right after ice out. On Day 4 of Week 12 they made the big decision: they were heading south. On Day 3 there they were, noisy and agitated always, flying around any boat that gets too close, adding a little excitement to the day. On Day 4 the reef was empty; they were gone, not a feather to be seen on the rocks. First day of fall, for sure. One more signpost for fall—the first northern lights viewing of the season. While the lights were a bit ephemeral, they were still impressive, a preview of the more sustained and dramatic shows ahead.

Early Fall Fishing

So, how’s early fall fishing? Pretty damn good! Our early August anglers hit it hard, on cool, cloudy, sunny days. It didn’t matter: they fished and fished hard, pitching their offerings eight or nine hours a day. And many of those offerings were well received. The trophy count was right in line with the last several weeks—120 with a nice mix of pike, lake trout and grayling. That number included some dandies. The lake trout were in the spotlight again. Everyone gets excited about big trout—they are the ultimate freshwater predator. Whatever prey they want, they get. Some were fooled by shinny imitators. Bret Walker convinced a huge 43.5” laker that his spoon was really a whitefish. It was our biggest of the week but not by much. Nick Degaetani was right behind with a fat 43. Jim Tallman got a 40 as did Doug Abraham who added a 39 to his troutfest. Priscilla O’Donnell just missed the supersized mark with a 39.5” laker.

Northern Pike Fishing

Most anglers at Scott Lake Lodge are here for the northern pike fishing and it did not disappoint. There is an adrenaline rush when a hefty pike smashes into your fly or lure at lightning speeds that just can’t be matched. Pike don’t have the stamina of lake trout, but they know how to put on a show. Like with the lake trout top spot, it was Bret Walker who pulled the longest tape with pike, a 46.5” dandy. The pike parade was a long one. Dave O’Donnell landed a 46 along with a 45. The father/son team of Jim and Nick Tallman had quite a day, landing clones—a pair of pike each exactly 45.5 inches. And Jim got another 45.5” pike a couple of days later. Must be his favorite number now. A number of guests hit the 44- inch mark: Dave Wanderer, Randy Northcutt, Kathy Scott, Todd Kalish, Ryan Robbins and Chris Budeski. For fishing lodges to the south of Scott a week like this one would represent an entire season of big pike. Just another week here.

Grayling Trophies

Some big arctic grayling trophies were in play too. Jeff Towers and Ryan Rich almost got 20-inchers, a rarely seen number here. But they were quite happy with their 19.5” beauties. Nick Degaetani and Ryan Robbins pulled 19s out of the rapids and Nick Tallman supersized at 18”. You know what’s next. With all those big graylings, there had to be some hats and jackets earned. Indeed. We had plenty this week. The Trophy Triple hat was placed on the heads of Nick Tallman, Priscilla O’Donnell, Amy Towers, Jim Tallman and Nick Degaetani with the final three in this list upgrading to the 100+Club jacket. Nick had a big number at 106 total inches, putting him in third place for the season behind Kim Brown’s 106 and Mark Graf’s hard-to-beat 108.5”. But Nick did something no one else has done here: he got the QUAD, adding a lake whitefish, a 15-incher, to his trophy total. Whitefish are a wonderful gamefish but quite elusive. The QUAD has been done only a few times.
So early fall sounds pretty good. Add the typical great customer service, the solitude that guaranteed on our lakes, the elegant dinners and a moose and muskox sighting or two and you have a perfect week in the far north. See you next year.

Return of the Trout: Week 11 Report

Return of the Trout: Week 11 Report

by | Aug 3, 2022 | 2022 Fishing Season, Arctic Grayling, Lake Trout, Northern Pike

WEEK 11 UPDATE

IT’S THE LAKE TROUT RETURN

In last week’s highlights we gave the abundant lake trout of Scott Lake and our many fly out lakes a clear ultimatum: they had just a few more days to figure out where they should be! Apparently, they listened. While only sixteen trophy lake trout were caught in the prior fifteen days, our Week 11 anglers in just five days slid an impressive 23 trophy trout into their guide’s waiting net. These were not a bunch of barely over the line trout either. Nearly all were in the high 30” zone and many were monster trout; there were ten that broke the 40-inch supersized mark. Incredibly five of those 40s were landed by one angler on one day. That lucky and quite skillful angler was Rod Pace. He totaled seven trophy trout that day, his biggest a whopping 44.5” with two 42s, a 41, a 40, a 38.5 and a 36 backing it up. Now that’s a day of lake trout fishing. His son, Austin, added three more for a boat total that hit double digits. That is a day the Pace team and their guide will remember for the rest of their lives. Another big trout that the angler will not soon forget was on the end of the line of Kim Brown. On the last day of her trip, she tied into a brute of a 42-incher that put a 100+Club jacket in her future. She ended up with a very impressive 106 inches with that trout, a 45” pike and a 19” grayling. The big trout parade wasn’t over: Ron Spork got a pair of 41-inchers; Win Scott laned a 41.5- and a 40-incher. Dana Albright almost hit the 40-inch mark but was very happy with her 39.5” beauty. So, from typically being buried in the last paragraph of our reports, lake trout made the headlines for Week 11. Lake Trout season at Scott is late but officially ON.

Terrific Trophy Pike Fishing

There were some big fish besides trout. Pike trophies did outnumber trout trophies by over two to one, but the lakers were more impressive. Down from the prior week, pike trophies still were in the bragging range at 73, so big pike weren’t exactly sleeping, especially the big ones: we had eleven pike over 44 inches. Ron Spork got a pair of 44s while Austin Pace, Rod Pace, Win Scott, Aris Moulopoulos, Levi Rosenberg, Lonnie Thompson and Eric Davis all got 44-inch northern pike. At one more inch, we term our pike supersized and we had a few of those. Aris Moulopoulos landed a pair of 45s; the father/son team of Todd and Levi Rosenberg got theirs on the same day, and Kim Brown brought a 45 to the boat. It was by many anglers’ accounts a sensational week for those “almost” trophy sized, the 38s and 39s that typically are the hardest fighting fish in the lake. Let’s just say it was a terrific week for both lake trout and pike.

Arctic Grayling Trophies

We can’t forget Arctic Grayling either. They had their moment in the sun with 24 trophies, five in the supersized category of 18” or better. Dana Albright pulled a pair out of the rapids, a 19 and a 19.5”, tied for the biggest of the season. Bill Russell and Kim Brown landed 19s. Scott Sheldon caught an 18. Now that’s enough big grayling to produce some hats and jackets. Indeed, Trophy Triple hats were earned by Todd Rosenberg, Dana Albright, Win Scott and Kim Brown. In addition to Kim, Dana Albright and Win Scott entered the celebrated 100+Club where the total inches of all three of our trophy species hits or exceeds 100”, not an easy feat. Congrats to them and to all the Week 11 guests for hitting the trophy FUN mark. Everyone had a great time, as reflected in the bar tabs for the week. The abundant sunshine certainly had something to do with it. After many less than sunny weeks, we had four and a half days of glorious sun and pleasant breezes—just a perfect week to be in the far north.

The Guides Begin to Crack the Case of the Missing Trout: Week 10 Update

The Guides Begin to Crack the Case of the Missing Trout: Week 10 Update

by | Aug 1, 2022 | 2022 Fishing Season, Lake Trout, Northern Pike, Website Fishing Blog

GROUNDHOG’S DAY, AGAIN?

Trophy Pike and Trophy Trout

For the last three groups it’s been like the Groundhog’s Day film. With just a few name changes, the highlights of the past fifteen days have been close to carbon copies. Like the previous two groups, our Week 10 anglers had to endure some low-pressure systems, cancelled fly outs and a distinct absence of sunshine. Like the previous weeks, they also had some great fishing when things lined up. Again, there was just enough warm weather to turn the fishing on when things started to slow down. Just enough to give this group a season’s high total of 158 trophy fish, just over the totals of the prior two groups. The story again was pike and more pike.

Trophy Trout

The surprising storyline of this season has been the phenomena of our MIA lake trout. Typically, this is the heart of our lake trout “season”. Yet over the past three groups we have tallied only sixteen trophy lake trout, just a good single day for some year’s late July tallies. But of the seven trophy trout we got this week three were monsters. On her way to the 100+Club jacket, Julia Percell landed a fat 40 incher; Bob Masters landed a 42 and Eric Hall had the top trout of the week at 43 inches. Why the shortage of lakers? Well, anglers have theories about almost everything—solar/lunar tables, wind direction, water temperatures, how you hold your tongue in your mouth and, of course, bananas in the boat. For this season we’ll go with the highly erratic weather. These poor trout are totally confused about what depth they should be swimming in. By now they should all be in water at least 70 feet deep, but we have been catching trout on windy shorelines and even in shallow pike bays. The cold temperatures throughout this “summer” have allowed this undisciplined trout behavior. It’s the old “everywhere and nowhere”problem. We’ll give them one more week to figure out where they should be.

Trophy Pike

But the pike were exactly where they should be at this time of year—in the weeds, any weeds. Our guides slid their big nets under an impressive number of trophy pike, a 142 to be exact, a record high for this season. Big pike often come in bunches and that was certainly the case this week. When they were on, they were really on. Bob Tiegs and Art Wittern experienced that when they teamed up for five trophies in a single day as did Rebecca and Mark Graf; Ron Helm and Kevin Worthington landed a six-pack of big pike and Paula and Todd Lee had a crazy pike day, landing seven trophies with the top three at 45, 46 and 47 inches. That’s a day to remember. Kevin Denney also landed a 47. Pike at 44” were caught by several anglers: Ron Helm, Bob Tiegs, Art Wittern and Dick McCullough. There were nine trophy grayling including 18 inchers by Julie and Thomas Purcell. It was just enough big grayling to get Julia and Thomas their Trophy Triple hat along with Ava Hall and John Bruntz.
Mark Graf upped his 100+Club total to 108.5”, a big number that may be hard to beat this summer. But who knows? Mark has one more trip scheduled yet this year.

So, there is nothing wrong with carbon copies if the original is great. Lets just do it again for Week 11, but with a little more sunshine.

Glimpses of Summer and Big Fish: The Week 9 Wrap up

Glimpses of Summer and Big Fish: The Week 9 Wrap up

by | Jul 24, 2022 | 2022 Fishing Season, Lake Trout, Northern Pike, Website Fishing Blog

WEEK 9 UPDATE

DAY AT A TIME

This has been an interesting summer. We are getting it just one day at a time. We just can’t seem to get two warm, sunny days in a row. The pike have been a bit confused; they love warm water and a steady barometer. We’ve had a lot of cool north winds and wild swings in the barometer. But on the good days, things are very good. The big fish, the pike, trout and grayling are out there, just waiting for those perfect days and we’re getting just enough. Just enough was the Week 9 story: some great weather days, some not so great. But the great days trumped the not-so-great and the big fish totals looked wonderful—the second highest trophy count of the season at 141 trophies, just slightly behind the previous week. With the lake trout and grayling seasons moving to their peak, Week 9 offered a nice mix of trophies: 101 pike, eight lake trout and 32 arctic grayling.

Big Fish: Trophy Pike and Lake Trout

Among those 101 pike were four very nice ones. Bob Noble and Suzanne Noble, Mike Thornbrugh and Jeremy Stanford all landed 45 inchers, a length we designate as “super-sized”. But the big fish of the week was certainly the massive 45.5” lake trout that Mark Graf pulled in (after a lot of pulling on the other end). This was a team effort fish. It followed Rebecca’s (Mark’s wife) spoon right to the back of the boat, something an alert guide noticed. He quickly had Mark drop his spoon down to 25 feet, using the dropping, fluttering spoon as the dying whitefish trick. It worked. The big trout clobbered the Half Wave, and the battle was on. It took some time but Mark won. It was Mark’s second huge trout—the first he nicknamed Tubby, a fish that gave him the cover of the Scott Lake Lodge Annual Report. That one was a half-inch longer but no more exciting. Cindy Bixler also got into the big trout game with a 41- inch fish that also could have been nicknamed Tubby. Mike Sumeracki landed a 39 incher. Big grayling were in abundance . Chad Stanford had a 19.25” beauty along with a 19; Gratz Peters got a 19 and Brooks Stanford pulled an 18” miniature sailfish out of the rapids.

Big Fish: Triple Trophy Hats

With all those trout and grayling trophies there must have been some Triple Trophy hats presented during the evening awards presentations and indeed there were. Mark and Rebecca Graf got their hats along with Mike Sumeracki and Chad Stanford. Mark Graf on the back on that giant trout earned entry into the 100+Club. He has 106.5 total trophy inches and he still has five days of fishing to push up that number. With “only” a 43” pike to date he has a good chance of hitting a number we haven’t seen in years. Good luck to Mark.

Big Fish Plus Luxury

Of course all the other elements of a wonderful fishing vacation were checked off: festive shore lunches, splendid dinners in the lodge, high energy camaraderie, relaxing soaks in the hot tub and contemplative moments sitting on the big deck listening to the evening loon concert. It was a good week to be in the far north.

Northern Fish Tales: The Week 8 Fishing Report

Northern Fish Tales: The Week 8 Fishing Report

by | Jul 21, 2022 | 2022 Fishing Season, Lake Trout, Northern Pike, Website Fishing Blog

WEEK 8 BLOG POST

NORTHERN FISH STORIES—TRUE ONES

Show and Tell

How about a fish story? Imagine that you just turned nine years old. Now imagine that you are on a cool fishing trip way, way up north with your mom and granddad. You get in a big noisy airplane with floats under it and fly to an even more distant lake. You’re in a boat on a sunny day and you happen to look over the side and see a monster fish. Without really thinking you cast a big fat piece of plastic called a Sluggo in front of it. The fish quickly turns its head, streaks toward the lure, and engulfs it. All in a flash. You hang on for dear life. With some coaching from the guide and mom (but no help) you eventually bring it to the side of the boat where the guide slides a net under the huge fish. It’s over. You have just caught a 48” pike (a fish of a lifetime for any angler) and you are only four inches longer than the fish. That’s quite a fish story but for Cole Booth it’s a true one. He has pictures to prove it. By the way, mom, Jessica Word-Booth, landed a 46 incher the same day and Cole also landed pike of 42, 43 and 44 inches on that once-in-a-lifetime day. Now that’s a story for Show and Tell this September.

100+ Trophy Pike

Every guest during this amazing week had a fish story or two. Now Peter Myhre is a bit old for Show and Tell but he would have quite a tale to spin. In these five days of July Peter landed 31 trophy pike. Over his three group stay Peter did something no one else at Scott Lake Lodge (or maybe anyone at any Canadian lodge has ever done): he brought to the boat 106 pike over 40”. No that’s not a misprint. Over 100. In that incredible number were nine pike of 45”, five of 46” and two of 47”. Those are lifetime totals for most veteran pike anglers and Peter did it in just fourteen days.

Personal Bests

All our guests caught a bunch of fish, and many caught their fish of a lifetime this week. Scott Bixby had a great fishing trip already with a 44 under his belt, but on the last day he landed a very girthy 47 incher. The 45” mark was hit by several guests: David Wallace, Bob Smith, Tom Matthew, and Reece Rhys. On his first day off since he landed by chopper on the island with the early work crew in late May, Dawson Sawchuck had a chance to do more than maintenance work. He got to spend a full day fishing and he took full advantage of it, landing his personal best pike of 46”. There was a great trout story too. On a rainy cool day trout fishing seemed to be the best ticket for Bob Smith. He got a very fat 40” laker not far from the lodge. Along with his big pike and a 19.5” arctic grayling that trout gave Bob a Triple Trophy hat and the coveted 100+Club jacket with an impressive total of 104.5 inches. A pair of 18” grayling were taken by Mark Graf as well. The best time for big grayling is still ahead as the rivers start to lower and the aquatic insects start hatching. Watch for more grayling news in future reports.

Thunder plus Heart Pounding Action

For a week that started with a violent thunderstorm that delayed our guest’s arrival by three hours, the week turned out pretty darn good. It was our highest trophy total of the season at 146, mostly big pike. Lots of fish stories will be told and retold by people lucky enough to visit this far northern wilderness. And these stories are all true.

High Drama on the 60th Parallel: The Week 7 Review

High Drama on the 60th Parallel: The Week 7 Review

by | Jul 16, 2022 | 2022 Fishing Season, Lake Trout, Northern Pike, Website Fishing Blog

WEEK 7 UPDATE: HIGH DRAMA ON THE 60TH PARALLEL

Every life needs a shot of drama now and then. Our seventh group of the season got their share, from the waters and from the sky. First the water. As we have written often in this space over the past couple of decades, at Scott Lake Lodge and in most of Canada generally pike fishing and weather go hand in hand: cold temperatures with no sun equals cool fishing; warm temperatures with plenty of sun equals hot fishing. After several weeks of cool (no, call it cold) weather and slower than normal fishing, the weather turned starting with the sixth group. And then it just got better and better. The lakes warmed up and the pike woke up and looked around. They found Blue Fox spinners, Havoc soft plastics, good ‘ole Len Thompson and Half Wave spoons, flies like bunny leeches, whistlers and deceivers. They just didn’t see them: they engulfed them. The group’s second day was memorable. Everyone caught a lot of fish and big fish. For some it was extraordinary. Peter Myhre, a fifteen day guest, continued his hot hand and landed eight trophy pike, topped by a 47 incher, on that day alone; the father/son team of Mike and Nick Manship boated nine trophy pike, both getting 47 inchers as their top pike; Terry Walker and Tom Granneman had a banner day getting a baker’s dozen big pike with a fat 44 as their top pike. That’s just five anglers on one day. With 139 trophy fish taken there were many other great days and great stories. All thanks to the sunshine.

Outstanding Fishing Weather

The sun also turned on the arctic grayling. After catching dozens of pike on a nearby flyout lake, Marc Pierce and Nick Witaker hit the rapids to try dry flies for this northern icon. They found them by the dozen and landed fourteen trophies, each getting nice 17 inchers. The sun didn’t help the trout fishing (lakers prefer cloudy weather) but Nick Manship landed a 37 and 39 inch pair.
Big pike though were the show on Scott and our flyout lakes. In addition to the three 47s mentioned earlier, there were three pike at 46 inches (Mike Manship with one and Peter Myrhe with two); three at 45 inches (Mike Sackash with one and Peter Myrhe with two), and nine at 44 inches (Chad Castro, Mark Peterson, Terry Walker, Tom Granneman, Adrian Levy with one each and, yes, a few by Peter Myrhe, four to be exact). Peter had one heck of a week.

Fishing Weather Sometimes Just Becomes Weather

That’s a lot of fish drama, but it was only part of the week seven show. It was the sky’s turn. In this corner of the world, hot weather like we had isn’t common and it generally creates some turbulent weather. Really hot weather creates really turbulent weather. With temperatures nudging over 90, the conditions were ripe for some summer thunderstorms. Those with any outdoor experience could feel something brewing in the skies. Our management team and our pilots definitely felt it: they were focused on just one thing—getting the fish-eager new group in and fish-saturated group out. We almost pulled it off. All the signs for a real “frog-drowner” were there so we tried to hustle up our changeover. One group of nine arrived in a private plane before out charter flight, a Dash 8-300, from Edmonton landed. We quickly got that group on an Otter and headed them out on the 50-mile flight from Stony Rapids to the lodge. With lightning at their heels, they landed safely at the Scott dock. With three more flights to go, Mother Nature had her say. That was the last flight to land for another three hours. With twenty-six anglers at the lodge waiting to go south and nineteen still in Stony waiting to head north, all hell broke loose. The skies at both ends of that trip opened up with driving sheets of rain, steady drumbeats of arresting thunderclaps, and way-too-close lightning.
It was a Biblical storm, probably the most violent in the twenty-five years of Scott Lake’s history and of course it hit on a changeover day when all 52 guests wanted to get to Scott or get home. For the aviation crew all hands were busy triple-tying down the three remaining floatplanes. In a minute they were drenched to the skin. The folks at Scott were warm and dry in the Last Cast bar enjoying drinks but the folks in Stony were huddled in a small float base office watching a new river running down to the real river. Then the power went out in Stony, so it was impossible to fuel the planes. It looked like it might be a long night in a town not famous for nice hotels. Then just like that the cell passed and the sun came out. The power returned; the planes were fueled, and the plane parade south and north continued without incident. There was a wonderful opening night dinner at the lodge, just three hours late. The returning guests jumped on their flight to Edmonton for a midnight snack before continuing home the next morning.
Everyone stayed safe and dry (except the pilots and ground crew) and all had a bonus—a great story. Just another week in the far north.