Frequently Asked Questions

Fishing is the main show but we offer canoeing, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding or hiking as optional activities. Of course there is the Spa, the sauna, the  hot tub, new fitness center and two bars to help fill the evening hours. In August the northern lights, a bucket list experience, are often on the menu.

Glad you asked. Experienced anglers will always ask this question. If the answer is less than a ratio of one to one, keep looking for another lodge. At Scott there will be 30 people to take care of 24 customers, probably the highest ratio in Canada. It takes that many dedicated people to make sure everything runs well and smoothly. We have four people in the kitchen for example to make sure that all meals are timely and exceptional. Our guides guide: they don’t fix motors after dinner. And our managers manage. This is a well run organization with clear job descriptions and NO excuses. Our staff retention is amazing. And you will have the opportunity to meet all the staff during your stay. Unlike most lodges, we have staff share the same elegant meals as customers. You can, if you like, have dinner with your guide and share a drink after dinner. It is an open, friendly atmosphere. People come the first time as customers. After that they come as friends and members of an embracing extended family. It’s one of the key things that make Scott a unique fishing destination.

Our goal at Scott is not to be the least expensive lodge; it’s to be the best. We keep our prices competitive but feel our package is the most comprehensive in the industry.  Pricing is based on two anglers sharing a room and a boat. There is an additional charge for guests seeking solo accommodations and fishing.  The package includes charter flights from Edmonton to the lodge and all transfers. In addition to the standard items – guiding, meals, soft drinks – we include many non-standard items like house wine with dinner, your hotel in Edmonton on the homeward leg of your trip, complimentary use of the lodge’s quality fishing tackle and even a Medical Evacuation Insurance Plan. That’s a package that’s well wrapped, just like at Christmas. Optional items would be drinks at the bar, flyouts, massage, tackle or clothing purchases and gratuities—a pretty short list. 

Most guests love to explore new water. Fly outs are popular at Scott but they are not required to get into good fishing. Prices are set each spring based on the highly variable US/Canadian exchange rate and the cost of fuel but will start at around $400 per person for the closer lakes and go up with distance from the lodge.

It’s really in the middle of nowhere which is what makes it special. Find a map and look for the 60th parallel. Then find the middle of Saskatchewan. Let those line intersect and you will be very close to Scott which should be named on almost any map you have access to. We are right on the border of Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories. You will probably fish mainly in NWT waters but you will have the option of going south into the very northern part of Saskatchewan. The border bisects Scott Lake. The lodge is 505 miles northeast of Edmonton, the distance we fly you as part of your package price.

Our trips start in Edmonton. By summer 2022 we anticipate non-stop flights from Minneapolis, Denver, Huston and Seattle with more available in the post-Covid era. Most major Canadian air carriers also offer non-stop service into Edmonton and have connections to major US cities. Our customer service office can help with information on commercial air travel. We do not provide booking services but we do work with an agency, TravelEx (800-882-0499) in a northern Chicago suburb, that can find the most efficient and least expensive flights to Edmonton.

Your charter flight from Edmonton is on a Dash 8-300, a very comfortable commuter prop-jet. It has a bathroom and offers cabin service. Yes, that means free beer coming and going. This plane has a capacity of 50 people but to accommodate your gear and our fresh food we limit the flight to our lodge capacity of 24 guests. The flight from Edmonton, Alberta to Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan, our float base, is just over two hours. At Stony you will be taken less than a mile to the water base where you will board either an Otter or Beaver floatplane for a gloriously scenic flight to the lodge. The Otter flight is about 15 minutes; the Beaver flight about 25.

The fishing menu at Scott Lake Lodge is limited but satisfying. On Scott Lake the daily choice is simple: northern pike or lake trout. On many of our fly out lakes you can add arctic grayling to the list.

That’s a loaded question. Your catch rate will depend on many things, like the weather, water temperature and importantly your skill level and experience. And probably most importantly how well you listen to your guide (wives are much better at this than husbands). Let’s put it in this way: even if you are a terrible angler your guide will make sure you catch a dozen fish a day. A really good angler during ideal conditions (warm temps, sunshine and moderate winds) can bring 70 or 80 fish to the boat. Yes, that’s per day. We have had customers catch well over a hundred fish a day. The pike fishing can be fast and furious and the lake trout fishing is usually slower but more consistent. Anything under ten fish a day will push our guides to the edge of a nervous breakdown. We catch a lot of fish here.

Everyone wants to catch a lot of fish and a lot of big fish. We don’t claim to have the biggest pike or trout in Canada but we are in a perfect location to have huge sizes in both species. To the north there are bigger trout but the pike are typically smaller. And to the south the pike may be slightly bigger but the trout are usually smaller. Just like in the fairy tale at Scott everything is just right. Our top end on pike is 51”. Nearly all of our pike have very large girths and for trout we get a few around 46 or 47 with top weights around 50 pounds. In a good season with a full house (400 anglers) we get well over a thousand trophy pike each season and around four hundred trophy trout. (Our trophy pike are 40” and trout 35”.) We catch a lot of pike in the 35-38” size, probably the hardest fighting size slot.

At Scott the water is as clear as gin but better tasting. Most of the pike on Scott are seen before they are caught, creating a tremendous level of excitement. On some of the fly out lakes the water is less clear but we have sight fishing conditions whenever the sun shines and sometimes when it doesn’t. It’s a big reason why so many experienced anglers keep coming back to Scott.

Typically boats leave the dock between 8 and 9 in the morning and return between 5 and 6. Most customers love their fresh fish shore lunch so there is usually a mid-day break. But this is your vacation and the pace of the day will be set by you. Guided evening fishing is available for a $100 per boat fee but most anglers have a hard time leaving the lodge after an extravagant dinner.

The lodge has 18.5’ custom Alumarine boats with 40 HP Yamaha outboards. All are equipped with sonar, life jackets and a lot of safety and communication equipment. On fly outs the boats are 16” custom Alumarines with 25 or 35 HP Yamahas.

Yes, we have a lot of fly out destinations, 18 – 22 to be exact. They are optional because the fishing on the home lake system  encompassing a quarter of a million acres is great. Many of our customers just love to get in a floatplane though and explore a distant lake. Many of our fly out lakes are part of a major river system which makes them more productive (more vegetation, more forage fish, etc) on the numbers side. The biggest pike and trout every season still seem to come from Scott and Premier. Even if all 12 boats stayed on Scott, a fairly rare thing, there is still around 20,000 acres per boat to explore. We have a lot of water.

None. There is one private cabin on Scott that is used only a week or two a summer but you will have a level of exclusivity and privacy that just doesn’t exist in many places these days. You will rarely see another boat. You just can’t find more exclusive or private fishing anywhere.

The short answer is no. We take small pike and trout for shore lunches but all the big fish go right back where they belong. It’s been that way on Scott for 20 years and it shows. We still have a lot of huge fish!

You don’t have to bring a thing. Unless you really love your own rods and reels leave the tackle to us. Each guide has an arsenal of gear: open face spinning, baitcasting, 9 weight and 4 weight fly rigs, trolling tackle for big trout and even ultra-light spinning for grayling. This is all good stuff, top end St. Croix rods and Shimano reels. Using our gear will make your travels a whole lot easier and it doesn’t cost you a cent. It’s all part of your package. Ask any other lodge what kind of gear they provide.

We’ve learned the hard way that providing terminal tackle is a no-win situation. Most anglers have their special lures or flies. Bring what you have but remember that simplicity is the rule. For casting a few Mepps or Blue Fox spinners (size 4 to 6), a couple of Johnson Silver Minnows in the one and a quarter ounce size, a variety of Rapalas, a few Sluggos for the inactive ‘sleeping” pike and a bunch of the Storm plastics will fit the bill. We have a tackle shop with these and many more along with leaders and all the odds and ends you will ever need. Your guide may well pull out some of his favorites as well, but that’s between you and the guide. For fly fisherman it’s very simple—lots of leeches, black for sure and a few other colors with a size 1/0 hook, some Deceivers, Whistlers and a top water or two. And yes, we have these and many, many more flies at prices far less than your local fly shop. We do provide complimentary flies for our grayling fly outs but your standard stream trout selection will work fine for these opportunistic but exciting gamefish.

Many anglers who have been to Canada grind their teeth just thinking about the poundings they have had on some of the huge Canadian lakes. While Scott is big, over 100,000 acres, and Premier is a sizable lake as well, none of this water has an open expanse of more than 5 or 6 miles without islands or points to break up the “fetch”. Scott is really five distinct lobes with connecting channels and over 500 islands. The result is a watery wilderness without the huge five foot waves that can be encountered on lakes like Wollaston, Kasba or Reindeer for example. With no competing lodges the boat rides to fishing spots can be quite short. Our best lake trout holes on Scott are five minutes from the lodge. Typically you will be fishing within fifteen minutes of leaving the dock. Our longest boat rides are just over an hour but your guide will discuss your daily “fishing plan” and allow you to decide just how far you want to travel. On the fly out lakes the boating distances are all quite short. In short we will not shorten your spine and the guides are quite attuned to your comfort. A trip to a fishing lodge should be fun not painful.