The most important tip: keep it simple. Almost everyone brings far more tackle and gear than they need.

While you don’t need to bring a single rod, reel or lure, we realize that planning and packing for a fishing trip is a big part of the excitement and the experience. We will not deny our customers that aspect of a northern adventure.

First, A Little About Our Fish

Tackle

Spinning and Casting Rods/Reels

If you are bringing your own rods and reels make sure they are heavy enough to handle big fish. We have had a lot of guests bring their soft-tipped walleye rods which just can’t set the hook on the hard mouths of our pike. We also want a heavy enough rod to bring in the fish in a relatively short period of time to prevent literally fighting a fish to death. Typically, these will be . The Shimano Terramar 7′ MH series is the rod of choice at Scott,, a Medium-Heavy Fast Action model. But don’t buy one: we have them. The Terramar bait-casting rods are also excellent if you want to use casting reels. Again, we have them. Most importantly you need a stiff enough rod to handle strong test lines. We use 30lb braided line (Power Pro or Suffix 832) on our spinning and casting reels and 65lb for the trolling reels. We love Shimano reels and have a wide variety of them. Again, for spinning and casting rigs make sure the reel can handle at least up to 30# line. For leaders, we like to suggest that you just buy them at the lodge. We’re not trying to run up your bills. We just have learned not to trust many brands, most without the cross-locked snaps. We have custom-made titanium leaders that hold up to the savage hits of northern pike. If you do bring leaders, they should be “muskie” leaders.

Over the past ten years, plastics have been moving to the top of our guide’s and many angler’s tackle trays. At the very top of the tray at Scott will be the Storm Wildeye Pike in the 4”, 5” and 6” size. It’s been a killer. So has the Savage Hybrid Pike in the 7” size. The Berkley Havoc Grass Pig in 5” size with the deadly 7/0 Trokar screwhook is another winner. Other great plastics include the Svartzonker McRubber 5” Paddle Tail and the Savage 3D Burbot. This list could go on and on but like with rods and reels keep it simple. The fish of the far north rarely require many lure changes. Accurate casting and presentation for sight-casting opportunities (most of our big pike chances) is much more important than the lure.

For our big lake trout, we have narrowed down our choices to around a half-dozen. All our guides have the 4.5” and 5.5” Lucky Strike spoons in their box. It’s our #1. The big Daredevil Husky Sr still brings home some fatties as does the classic Williams Whitefish C90. There are some guides who swear by the T-60 Flatfish, but other guides swear at it. There are also times when jigging is the way to go. A basic 3 or 5-ounce white bucktail jig will do the job or the massive but effective 11- ounce Bondy Bait. It’s hard to go too big. Years ago, we had a body shop make some giant spoons over a foot long. They worked. As with all decisions about tackle just listen to YOUR guide’s advice. All our Scott guides are in their second or third decade of fishing northern waters. Go with their instincts not something you read in a fishing magazine.

For grayling, the ultra-light spin angler doesn’t need many tools. The 1/8^th ounce Panther Martin has long been a favorite. (The small Mepps spinners will work but it takes a foot of two of retrieve to get their blades moving—go with the Martins.) Any small rubber jigs in the 1/8^th ounce will work well. Things that work well for crappies or stream trout will work for grayling. We have a selection of grayling lures at our shop.

Fly Fishing

Flies

Even more than spin or bait-casting anglers fly anglers tend to obsess about what’s on the end of their line. Fly boxes are always overflowing with flies of every description and color. Well, for pike at Scott Lake it’s quite safe to trim those boxes way down. You might need to adjust the size of your flies to the conditions (mainly water temperature dictated) but the patterns are pretty simple. You will need a bunch of leech patterns in various sizes. Black has always been the number one favorite, but any color, well presented, will trigger a strike. And you need a variety of baitfish patterns: the basic Lefty’s Deceiver in black, red/white or chartreuse will always work as will the Whistler (one of our best-selling flies) and Clouser in the same colors. Bring a few top-water offerings as well. Nothing is more exciting that watching a mouse pattern or gurgler disappear in a violent explosion. Overall, presentation is far more important than style or color. Get your fly well in front of the fish (four to six feet unless it’s moving then make it ten to twenty feet), make it move and hang on. Our fly wall at the lodge will provide all you need at prices far less than most fly shops. For the all-important bite tippet there are many options. Our favorite is the Surflon Mirco Supreme made by American Fishing Wire Company which we sell, but Rio makes a good Pike/Musky wire and Scientific Angler has a great Predator tippet. Don’t play around with even heavy hard mono as a bite tippet. Our experience is that the smaller pike will slice off even the toughest 80 and 100# test mono. Stay with wire. Pike’s teeth are not just numerous; they are serrated.

For lake trout the Whistler seems to be the top fly both spring and fall, but Deceivers work well too. Our fly anglers get quite a few lake trout early and late in our season while they are fishing for pike. In June, lakers are cruising around in shallow water all over the lake. It’s an opportunistic sight fishing game. The key is a long cast and a very fast strip. You can’t strip too fast. Make it as long a cast as possible though since lakers have a pronounced habit of following before hitting. Just don’t stop the strip or the laker will quickly disappear. Late in our season (the last few days of August and early September) lake trout move into shallow water again; this time to spawn. If the water temperature is low enough (around 50 degrees F) our final group or two can have an incredible lake trout experience fishing our many rocky spawning reefs. Any baitfish pattern will work then.

For our grayling fly fishing we have a surefire program. There are only two flies that work for grayling: those that float and those that don’t. It’s an old lodge joke but it indicates that fly patterns are not critical. Just keep your dries rather small (8- 12). Adams, Royal Wulff, Elk Hair Caddis, Humpies, Black Gnat, small hoppers all work well. In a cold front go to nymphs like a Pheasant Tail beadhead, any dark colored stone fly nymph or a standard woolly bugger. Nymphs can be fairly large (6-10). Grayling are active fish found in low “protein” rivers. They look for your fly. This isn’t a match the hatch process or what’s often termed “technical” fishing. This is fun fishing. Just enjoy it.