Aurora Borealis Archives - Page 14 of 14

Week 7 Review

by Jason | Jul 17, 2018 | 2018 Season

SUMMERTIME IN THE FAR NORTH

The heat was on for the seventh group at Scott Lake Lodge. To the surprise of many, we do get summer here on the 60^th parallel. They may be short, but they are intensely sweet. For four straight days our guests who arrived on July 9^th experienced perfect, picture-postcard days in this pristine wilderness: lots of sunshine, warm but not too warm and pleasant winds mainly from the south—all ideal conditions for bringing big pike into shallow water where guides and guests can find the big ones and have that ultimate fishing experience of watching big fish engulf the lure or fly. In the clear waters of the far north, you can see it all happen. For our guides these are heaven-sent conditions. Standing at the back of the boat, they can spot the fish, direct the angler’s cast and get the net ready. That’s how it’s supposed to work and over a hundred times during the five-day trip that’s exactly what happened.

This was a group with a sharp focus on big fish. They were not disappointed. Our guides spotted a lot of big pike and our anglers didn’t let them down. Experienced anglers like Dave Wallace and Dan Hunt, who have been around the fishing block a few times, made the most of their opportunities. On a single day Dave found himself on the winning side of seven battles with trophy pike. Over his trip he ended up with two 45” pike and a 46. Dan had a big day too, getting five trophies in one day with two 46s and a 45 for his trip. Dave and Marian Bensema wanted big fish too. They got them. Dave landed a 45” pike and Marian caught her personal best—an absolutely beautiful 47 incher. Mike Van Poucke got a fat 47 as well. Trevor Meyers picked up a 45; Mike Harrell got a 46 and Rhys Reese got a 46 on a day when he picked up a six-pack of trophy pike. But Rhys always seems to do that on his Scott Lake trips. He apparently arrives with lots of karma points. The big pike honors for the week went to Curt Balogh who skillfully brought a monster 48-inch pike to his guide’s “big dipper” net. Quite a week—out of an estimated 4,000 pike landed by our guests in week 7, a baker’s dozen made the super-sized mark of 45” or bigger. And we’re not even talking about all the “ones that got away” which are almost by definition bigger than the ones landed.

There was a lot of trout action as well, including a big number of small to medium sized trout picked up while casting for pike. The big trout though have gone deep, in the 50-70-foot range. With the help of the guide’s fish finders, those big fish can be located and some are caught. Steve Nicholas and Scott’s Beaver pilot Riley Epp found that out when they landed 35 inchers. On the last day (a cool, rainy day that broke the sun parade), Sandy Riddell, after a week of catching many smaller trout, experienced the fight of her fishing life bringing in a girthy 38 incher to the boat. Cody Hunt got the big trout experience in spades. He landed the trout of the year—a 42” laker with porcine proportions. When the picture of that fish hit the screen during the after-dinner fish du jour show, there was a gasp from the group. It was that fat. It was a fish Cody will never forget. That’s what a trip at Scott is all about—memories. And that’s what this beautiful week in July delivered.

P.S. Our apologies to baseball fans for abandoning the baseball analogy for these periodic fishing updates. We just ran out of baseball terms and references. It was time to toss it back to the dugout. Or maybe it was just the seventh inning stretch. So, we cleaned off the plate and swung at some new pitches.

The Third Inning: A look at Weeks 5 & 6 at Scott Lake Lodge

by Jason | Jul 12, 2018 | 2018 Season

INNING #3: TALES OF BIG FINS AND BIG WINDS

Well, we’re still hanging onto the baseball theme. And the theme of one smashing at bat followed by another with struggles at the plate continues as well: our fifth group hit it out of the park and our sixth had most of their drives blown back onto the field. Here’s the box score from late June and early July.

Our fifth group in camp came to bat at the top of the third inning. They entered the park at the peak of a vicious cold front, probably the deepest cold front we have ever seen at this time of year, but that savage nor’easter that made the fishing so tough for our fourth group finally moderated. It also seemed like the fish, after five days of hiding in deep water, got used to the conditions and started to roam the field again. Or maybe they were just damn hungry. For whatever reason, the fish responded to the pitches of the new team. Throwing flies, spinners, plastics and plugs, on Day 1 our anglers had a very solid whack at the fish, landing 43 trophy fish, including one monster pike of 49.5” taken by Kurt Vincellete. For Bill and Kurt those big ones were just the frosting on the cake. Together they tallied a cool dozen trophy pike on their first day. Also on Day 1 Bill Williams and Mike Waltrip landed 45” pike.It was a very good day for all our anglers. Mike Demyen, our MC for the nightly trophy announcements, was busy. Before the top half of the third finished, the sun and nice weather returned and Mike was even busier; many more big pike and some big trout were scored.

The list is almost too long but slugging like this deserves an accounting. Pike of 45 were abundant: John Green got two; Debbie and Bruce Kozlowski each got one; Rob Petty, Andy Nardo and Paul Klenk also stretched their guide’s tape to the supersized length. Bruce and Debbie also had a day with a dozen trophy pike. The next set of bleachers up, the 46ers, was crowed. Brent Laing may have a record, getting three 46” pike in a five-day trip. His fishing partner, John Green, got one too as well as Paul Klenk, Bruce Kozlowski and Andy Nardo. Only one angler, Velon Herbeck, was sitting in the 47” section. Day three was particularly productive with 50 trophies announced that evening, just about two for each guest. There were some very nice trout taken as well. Andrew Troop lead the trout parade with two 35s, a 38 and a massive 44” laker. Andrew and his fishing buddy, Gerry O’Brien, pulled off the hat trick (it’s hockey I know but it still fits) by getting the Trophy Triple hat for their trophies in the pike, trout and grayling categories. The grand trophy total for the group—a very robust 152, over 30 a day. It was a very good week without even mentioning all the bear and moose sightings and the spectacular shore lunches.

And then there was the bottom of the third—group number 6. Talk about bad luck. There was for most of the group’s time on the water a huge wind blowing from the outfield; it blew a lot of long fly balls right back into the park. While most of the group did get out on the water most of the time, the conditions were tough. It was both windy and cold, not a good combination. There was only one-half day of sun and pleasant temps. That was the morning of Day 2 and on that day a very respectable number of trophies (35) were landed. That turned out of be nearly half of the 80 total trophies logged in for the group. Historically, week 6 has been on of our very top trophy producing weeks, but not this year; it was just plain tough fishing. The guides, due to rough water, just could not get to all their favored spots and some guest opted for the warmth of the main lodge for lunch and some breaks from the wind. To date no one has landed a big fish in the main lodge. The big fish count dropped from the prior week as well, but there were some highlights. Russ Geseme had a trip he will not forget anytime soon. He brought to the plate two 45” pike and two 47” pike. Those are big numbers for any week. His fishing partner got cramps in his finger taking all those photographs. Harold Goble, Bob Nettune and Ed Reisdorf landed 45s and Dale McCormick late on the last day got a beautiful 46.5 pike. Big trout were taken by Joel Mitchell (37”) and Dale McCormick (39”). Jason Andrade got the Trophy Triple hat. Was it a terrible week? Of course not. Guests were fishing, having great shore lunches and dinners, relaxing and catching more fish on a slow week than most have ever caught before. As it’s been said so many times here, fishing is all about the weather. Next season . . .

The Second Inning: Weeks 3 & 4 In Review

by Jason | Jul 5, 2018 | 2018 Season

THE SECOND INNING: THE TALE OF TWO TAPES

Keeping our baseball analogy as we document the season, we will make a diving catch to catch up on the fishing at Scott Lake Lodge. The first at bat in the top of the second (our third group in camp) featured some torrid hitting. It seemed like the fish had no answer for the 26 anglers and 13 guides who took to the waters of Scott and its fly out lakes starting on June 19th. These anglers pulled their rods off the rack and just started slugging. The guides measuring tapes were well used for five straight days as sunshine blessed the waters. They put their tapes on no less than 178 trophy fish, nearly all pike, an average of 6.8 trophies per angler. (Anglers and baseball fans love their stats.) There were some real scoring binges. On Day 2 there were 58 trophy fish announced at the after-dinner trophy pin ceremony, an average of 2.2 per angler. Day 4 had 47. Our trophy announcer, Mike Demyen (known here as Nuggets), could barely make it through the evening without taking a break for a drink.

Many of these trophies were not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill just over the line 40 inchers. We had some bruisers in the net this week. There were 18 pike of 45” or more, known around here as super-sized pike. Many of our players (14 in fact) played the supersized game. Pike of 45” were landed by John Sanderson, Jim MacDougal, David Thome, Steve Bandt, John Kroner, Rory Wright, Stan Gertzbein and Amy Blackstone. John, Jim and Rory added 46s to their hitting stats. Jeremy Maunus, Joe Novicki and Bill Calabresa also joined the 46 club. There was an elite group that pulled in 47s: Greg Larson, Steve Bandt and David Thome landed those fish of a lifetime. Then there was Jim MacDougal who had a Hall of Fame Fishing trip. He caught big fish wherever he went—on Scott, on the fly out lakes and probably in his sleep. On one memorable day—all on the fly rod—he brought to his guide’s net pike of 41, 42, 43, 45, 46 and yes, the biggest of the young season, a 49.5” beauty. We just don’t know how he missed getting a 44 for a Royal Flush. All of those fish were caught on a leech of his own design, making the experience even more memorable, if that’s possible. Rory Wright had a similar trip, landing three pike of 46” and many, many more of trophy size. He also became the first angler of the season to join the 100+Club, landing a trophy pike, trout and grayling whose total lengths exceeded 100 inches, not an easy task. What fueled this explosion of big fish? The secret was obvious to all. We just had to look up. We had five glorious days of sunshine. That’s all it takes. The water gets warm and the fishing gets hot.

That sunshine and warm water kept rolling into the top half of the second inning, the at bat for fourth group at the lodge. Life was good for the Mudville Nine on Day 1. With the sun on the backs of pike on Scott Lake and the 22 fly out destinations, our anglers drove their casts into fertile waters, filling up a thick stack of trophies slips for the evenings trophy announcements. There were 43 big fish announced, a great start to the inning. By the next morning though we were looking at a different world. A nasty nor’easter rolled in bringing vicious winds, rain and very cool temperatures. No, not cool—COLD. Our temps dropped about 30 degrees F in 24 hours, hitting a nighttime low of 44. Things were ugly. The big pike went into hiding, as they always do with a temperature drop of that magnitude. The trophy slip stack got pretty thin over the next four days—as low as six (that was a typical one boat total during the prior week). It brought to mind the old fishing doggerel:

“When the wind is from the west, fish bite the best.

When the wind is from the south, the fish open their mouth.

When the wind is from the north, the fish still go forth.

When the wind is from the east, the fish bite the least.”

That may not be true at all places, but it always plays out on this corner of the 60^th parallel. Fishing up here is all about the wind and temperatures.

We did have a group of determined anglers (many from Minnesota where cold is part of the culture) who fished everyday despite the conditions. They beat out some ground balls, got the bloop singles, stole a few bases and scrapped out a decent fishing trip. There were some bright spots. Mike Manship landed a 47” pike. Brad Finney and Noel Rush got 48s. Luci Defouw hooked into her first ever trophy pike a 41.5″er on the first day of fishing. While the previous group had 18 pike over 45”, though this group had just those three. In this Tale of Two Tapes, the guides had their tapes in their pockets for four days. It’s wasn’t that our group lacked the skills; they just needed help from the elements. The cold weather did keep the lake trout on top though. And our guides put this group on some nice ones. Gene DeFouw, Steve Meyer and Randy Doerter caught 35” trout; Dakotah Herr got a 36 and a 38 incher; Mira Lechowicz, after a long battle, pulled in a 40.5” beauty; and, on the last day casting a small plastic pike for big pike, Mike Halloway tied into trout of 36 and 42 inches. Nearly all trout of that size are caught with deep trolling. Getting a monster like that 42 on spinning gear is a thrill of a fishing lifetime. But in summary, the story of the bottom of the second can be summarized with this paraphrasing of a famous baseball poem:

“Somewhere on favored waters, the sun is shining bright;

The loons are calling, and hearts are light;

And somewhere anglers are laughing and want to shout;

But there is no joy on Scott this week, our might Caseys struck out.”

One tough innings does not doom the game. That cold front dampened our seasonal stats but it’s still been an incredible season to date. Through four groups we have tallied 607 trophy fish with a record for this date of 50 pike hitting or exceeding the 45” mark. Of those 50, 14 were over 47 inches. Will we beat last year’s all time highest count of 141 pike over 45? With 80% of the game remaining, that’s a pretty good bet. It depends on two things—our anglers and the sun. We’ll just keep swinging.

Trophy Northern Pike at Scott Lake Lodge

by Jason | Dec 19, 2017 | Northern Pike, video

Here a quick summary of what your pike fishing time at Scott Lake Lodge might look like. Whether you fly fish, spin fish or have never fished. Our guides will get you on the fish! Sight fishing is common and you can stalk Trophy Northern Pike in crystal clear water.

Season Wrap Up

by Jason | Nov 11, 2017 | 2017 Season

What a year! Not only was the quality of the fishing record breaking, the quality of the operation was smoothness in action.

All but one of our changeovers was textbook. From the time our charter flight from Saskatoon landed at Stony Rapids to the time the last guest stepped on our dock was always just a few minutes either side of an hour (yes, we do measure those things).

Everything just clicked this year: our entire guide team was able to stay for the entire season; there were very few motor issues with our outboards, other than the two at fly out lakes that were literally eaten by bears; fly out departures were almost always within a minute or two of planned times; our power system never failed, despite some problems with our inverters; the weather was warmer and sunnier than average (only a few days of the dreaded east wind) and most importantly our guests all appeared to leave happy as our evaluations have testified.

In short, it was a season of low drama, except for the fishing.

Tom was a very happy customer to land this 47″ pike beauty.

And there was plenty of drama with our fishing. It was again the season of monster fish. We thought 2016 was a season that we could never replicate. Starting with Joe Novicki’s 51” pike in June last year and going right through the season, the 2016 season was magic. We even dedicated a special four-page spread to capture the 34 pike that stretched the tape to 47 inches or better. We thought that would be a one-year deal. Not quite. Joe Novicki did it again this season with another 51” pike, from a different lake—not the same fish. And the giants just kept coming. By the time we closed shop on August 29th there were 39 more pike over 47 inches, a new record. Those big fish were spread over a huge swath of the far north—nine different lakes including a dozen from Scott Lake itself. Going back just a few years our pike over 47” rarely totaled more than a dozen from all lake combined. Total trophies also set a record with 1,965. Over the previous seven seasons that average was 1,371. That’s 594 more times that someone said “that’s a gorgeous fish”. Pike trophies also hit a record with 1,487, almost double the 882 that we averaged over the previous seven years. Lake trout and grayling trophies came in at very respectable numbers of 213 and 263 respectively.

“So many big fish. In the 21-year history of the lodge we’ve never seen anything like it.”

The Board-Up: Post Season Activities

While the last guests left our island on August 29th, the season didn’t end there. Not by a long shot. Fall in the far north is a compelling season, with the sunny, blue sky days mixed with far more cloudy, wind blustery days, but they are all wonderful. For starters, it’s a totally bug-free period of the season (our bugs happen in late June and early July); the skies are usually filled with the sights and sounds of migrating geese and loons and the reefs are full of trout. Throw in the birch trees with their lovely yellow splendor and the ground cover in rich russet and you have quite a picture.

It was the picture that the two dozen parents, children, boyfriends, girlfriends and just plain friends who came up to join our staff for our annual Friends and Family Week enjoyed. They did it all- plenty of fishing (and plenty of trophy fish and trophy experiences), a couple of nights of spectacular northern lights, and most importantly a lot of relaxed conversations around the dinner tables and fireside.

Jackie and her mom enjoying Friends and Family Week.

The atmosphere was casual except for the first evening when the kitchen staff wanted to show off a bit with table cloths and a fancy, guest-quality dinner. It was an opportunity for them to find out just what the Scott Lake Experience is all about and to find out if their friends or relatives had been exaggerating about it. No one had. The reviews were top notch. No one was counting the drinks but let’s just say that there were not too many folks eager for early morning fishing. This was a relaxed party, a perfect way for our staff to end their season.

When they left it was down to the Scott Lake Lodge worker bees who tackled the shut down process which is many days with many people and the main lodge renovation. That group lead by Scott guide Paul Hamilton, teamed up with his dad Ted, hit the ground running. Before they wrapped up the fall work on September 17th, they had the addition fully closed in and had put new shingles on the entire roof. There turned out to be a lot of talent hidden (not so well hidden it turns out) on the Scott Lake guide team. Who knew that Mike Demyen had been a roofer and that Cory Craig had framed houses in Calgary years before? We know now. Those projects never had a chance.

There were other just plain good workers diving into the construction tasks—Riley Epp, our Beaver pilot who can hammer as well as fly and Mason Merz, our office manager, who was all over the island helping to get things done. Guide Graham Coulombe took the lead in making the rounds of our 20 fly out lakes to service the outboard, repair lots of bear damage to boats and turn over the 16-foot fly out boats. That was a full three days of work with Otter pilot, Travis Peckham, working along-side Graham. Gerry Yanish, our own Silver Fox, directed the lodge shut down which involves boarding up every door and window on every building—all 28– on the island, draining the water system, beaching and winterizing the 15 guide boats based on the island and doing so many other things that this screen couldn’t quite hold it.

A different crew lead by Hospitality Manager Danielle Grunberg started staining log exteriors, cleaning all the guest cabins, doing mountains of laundry and putting it away for the winter. Claire Markle, Brenna Savery and Jackie Tourand all worked on those tasks. The big job cleaning and putting away everything related to the kitchen went to Eli Mahoney and Rachael Basler who stayed on after the Friends and Family week to cook for the construction crew.

But it wasn’t all work. Everyone got out for some fishing, especially some early evening trout fishing. If you followed our Facebook posts, you would have noticed some remarkably beautiful fish. A fall spawner, lake trout like all the other char species, have a complete makeover for their spawning season. By around the 10th of September the smaller males (small in this case being between 20-30”) were up on the shallow rocky reefs all over Scott, resplendent in their fall colors, a sort of mimic of the fall landscape. Flies, spinners, spoons or baby pike plastics—it didn’t make any difference. They crushed whatever came near them. It is that rare time when you can sight cast for lake trout, a special privilege. By around the 16th the bigger trout were starting to come up. The final Scott Lakers to leave (Jason Hamilton, Mason Merz, and Paul and Ted Hamilton) had some fantastic final fishing. Then the island for the first time since mid-May was quiet and empty except for the ravens, our many snowshoe rabbits, and some late-leaving loons.

Next Entries »