It’s Summertime and the Fishing is Easy: The Week 4 Update

WEEK 4 UPDATE

SUMMERTIME AND THE FISHING IS EASY

The famous “Summertime” George Gershwin song has been sung for eight-five years and has been covered over 25,000 times. It also became the anthem of our Week 5 group. Finally, it was summertime and the living, along with the fishing, was easy. While it was a long and sometimes frustrating wait, summer did arrive here at Scott Lake just a few days after the official start of the season. The trend line was clear: our first group enjoyed good fishing but not a single day of sunshine; the second group had one perfect sunny day with a ton of nice fish; the third pushed it up to two (maybe two-and-a-half). Then on June 25th the sun finally decided that it was time to warm up the northern world. Our fourth crew enjoyed five straight days of blissful sunshine. It was all sandals, shorts, T-shirts, sunblock and smiles. Our guests loved it and so did the fish, the fishing is easy in the right conditions. Our pike and grayling, our two sun-loving species, turned on big time. We had 195 trophy fish landed in just five days with 51 on the first day of fishing. And when guests weren’t catching big fish, they were catching lots and lots of smaller fish. The fishing was easy, and that’s just the way we like it.

Leading the big fish parade was 9-year-old Coyen Kristo. On his first major league fishing adventure he landed 17 trophy fish! On a single day, with six pike trophies, he brought 211.5 inches of pike to the boat, nearly four times his height of 56 inches. His biggest was 46” backed up by pike of 44 and 45. It sounds like a tall tale but it’s all true. With some big grayling and lake trout, Coyen also earned membership in the 100+Club as did his older brother Griffin.

The big fish came in bunches all week, both on Scott and on our flyouts. Cam Godden who is a bit taller and quite a few years older than Coyen also had an incredible trip with a dozen trophy pike, including a six-pack of trophy pike on the same day his son, Andrew, landed five. There were big fish in abundance: pike of 44 inches were taken by Cam Godden, Andrew Godden, Joe Novicki, Rich Kracum, Tom Kristo and, of course, Coyen Kristo; pike of 45 inches were landed by Mira Lechowicz, Andrew Godden and Susan Saraka; pike of 46 inches were landed by Andrew Godden who got a pair, Coyen Kristo (again) and 13-year-old Kai Boland. The bruiser of the week though was a gorgeous 47-incher caught by Bill Calabresa who, after a stellar performance the previous week, added to his season-leading 100+Club standing, reaching 106 total inches for his biggest pike, trout and grayling. That’s a number that will be hard to beat but the season is young. Bill’s long time fishing buddy, Joe Novicki reached a 104” total. All three of Joe’s trophies were taken on a fly rod, perhaps (our records on that are fuzzy) the first time that has happened. Lake trout are tough to land on a fly rod, but Joe subdued a 39.5” laker, a great angling feat. And it was within sight of the lodge. Other big trout were caught by Mark Mataczynski and Rich Kracum, both getting 39-inchers. That 39-incher for Rich put him into the 100+ Club. He had an epic day on a flyout to the far end of Wholdaia, our most distant flyout. He landed two trophy pike, two trophy lake trout and two trophy grayling on the same day—that earned him a rare “double” Trophy Triple. Rich’s son, John, also bagged his Trophy Triple that day.

Our group left with a lot of memories of both an exciting and relaxing fishing vacation. There were lingering evenings on the expansive deck overlooking Scott Lake, cornhole games, leisurely shore lunches and some late nights at the Laker Lodge bar. To put it simply it was a perfect week: going 5 for 5 on both sunshine and fishing is easy is something this group will long remember.