BOYS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN (TOO)

Cyndi Lauper famously sang “Girls just want to have fun”. Well, at Scott Lake Lodge in mid-July it was the boys who just wanted to have all the fun. This was a rare all-guys week here; they made the best of it. Starting with raucous applause during the staff introductions at the first evening’s orientation program and running right up to the final Happy Hour at the Last Cast Bar just before the float planes carried the very happy crew off the island, fun was the modus operandi of the week. Laughter was the language and song its finest expression. Just one example of many: one evening at the Lake Lodge bar someone innocently started a karaoke evening (without the benefit of course of a karaoke machine). Before the bar closed there were several renditions of Hotel California that could be heard throughout our 12-acre island. It would have been disturbing if it hadn’t been so damned good. Well, these boys really did just want to have fun.

Boys love to fish too. These guys were serious about fun AND fishing. While there may have been a couple of late mornings and maybe a missed fly out or two, there were very few missed hook sets. They made things happen and their big fish totals were impressive: 105 total trophies with ten of those chunky pike of 45” or more. Ken Williamson Sr wasn’t the leader of the karaoke fest, but he was the leader of the pack with big fish—an impressive 47 incher. The rest of the Williamson clan followed his lead. Al Williamson got a 46 and two 45s. Bill land a 46 as well and Ken Jr pulled a 45 into his guide’s net. That’s a lot of big fish pictures for the family album. The O’Shaughnessy clan were a triple threat. Mike O’Shaughnessy scored the top trout of the week, a spectacular 42.5” hog of a fish and picked up a 46” pike as well. Patrick was right by his side, landing a 41.5” and a 38” lake trout plus a 45” pike, one of his first fish of the trip. Gerry O’Shaughnessy wore a permanent smile, probably because he landed 10 trophy pike including a 45 incher.

Seth Degroot supersized his pike fishing as well getting a 45. Ron Spork had a great day with a mixed bag of three trophy trout, including a 38, and a trophy pike. Dave Dalvey, a guy with a long history here of getting a lot of big fish, had a hell of a trip, landing a total of 14 trophies. He finally cracked the grayling code. It’s been a very challenging season so far for the sailfish of the north; the high, fast water in our grayling rivers has made things tough. Many have tried but few have had much success. Dave didn’t let the high water affect his grayling quest. With big mends of his fly line he kept his flies in the zone and landed a bunch of nice fish with an 18” and a huge 19.5” topping his grayling adventure. With some big pike and a nice lake trout behind him, that grayling gave him entry into the 100+Club (getting a trout, pike and grayling with collective measurement of 100” gets one into the club and gets a dashing custom jacket with the trophy lengths and the angler’s name embroidered on the front). Patrick O’Shaughnessy also joined the Club this group. Dave and Patrick were only the 2^nd and 3^rd anglers to make the grade so far this season. (Plenty of huge trout and pike have been caught but not many big graylings.)

There were more than big fish to cheer about at the nightly “fish du jour” picture show. There were a lot of moose sightings which starting this season awards a moose pin to the viewer. Every moose picture triggered an enthusiastic chant of “moose, moose, moose” etc. etc.  We thank the group for injecting so much energy and, well, positive vibrations into lodge. It was fun for everyone, especially our guides and shore staff who loved the excitement and energy. One could not help but recall the comment of Joseph Heller, the great novelist: “When I grow up I want to be a little boy.” Send Scott Lake Lodge some men and we’ll return some boys, happy boys. It’s our secret sauce. We’ll keep cooking it up.

P.S. Just to keep up to date on the entire season: it’s been an incredible one for really big fish. Our all-time record for pike over 45” was set last season—138 monsters. After this eighth group’s contribution of ten, we now are standing at 94 with 50 fishing days to go. If you’re a betting person, bet on a new record. It will probably be a new record for the mega pike (those of 47 or better). Last year was the all-time record there too—40. Now after just 40 days we are at 19. Another record could fall. We’ll keep casting.

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.