What Happened During the 9th Week of Fishing at Scott Lake Lodge

What Happened During the 9th Week of Fishing at Scott Lake Lodge

by | Jul 29, 2018 | 2018 Season

FAMILY FUN WEEK

If there is such a thing as a typical Scott Lake Lodge guest, they would look, well, male for starters, with just a bit of white around the temples; they would own a business (or two or three) and would be experienced anglers. Half of the ninth group at the lodge didn’t fit that profile at all. This group was a lot more diverse: more female anglers than usual, a few guests living large in their early 20s, and a lot more kids—seven to be exact (since kids don’t like to be called kids, we’ll call them young adults or teenagers). It gave the week a wonderfully effervescent feel . The cheering during the nightly fish du jour show may have been a bit higher pitched, but it was infectious. It brought out the kid in all of us.

These teenagers were not sitting around consumed by their screens; they were out fishing. In fact, the big fish of the week, a monster 48-inch pike was taken by thirteen-year-old Ben Matherly. It was a beauty and caught in a well-known spot just a pleasant 15-minute boat ride from the lodge. And the person on the 100+Club leader board is now fourteen-year-old Thomas Purcell who fished hard and well and claimed a fat 18-inch grayling, a 45-inch northern pike and on the last day of his trip boated a very plump 39-inch lake trout, giving him a 102 total trophy inches, combining the lengths of his biggest pike, trout and grayling. Greta Hall at the young age of 14 also joined the exclusive club with her three big trophies, including a very heavy 42-inch lake trout, also on the last day of the trip and within sight of the lodge. Other young adults did well too: Kai Boland, Thomas Purcell and Greta Hall earned their Trophy Triple hats; Griffin Kristo nailed a 45-inch pike, and Andrew Matherly pulled a 40-inch lake trout right into his guide’s net.

Our adult contingent wasn’t sitting on their hands or texting on their cell phones either. They were catching big fish as well. Long time guest Art Rice picked a pair of perfect 46-inch pike. Pat Baker got a 46 and Steve Kristo matched his son Griffin’s 45. This was the kick off of our prime lake trout season when the big lakers start to congregate in deep water in search of cooler water temperatures. There were 19 trophy trout taken during the week, the higher number of the season so far. The Kracum clan did some real damage with the big lakers: John got two 39s; Matt got a 39 and a 41; and Rich Kracum got a pair of 40-inchers which helped him get into the 100+Club. Matt and John Kracum got the Triple Trophy hat trick along with Eric hall.

So, big fish and big family fun. It’s all in a season at Scott Lake Lodge. We thank the group of young adults for showing us the way to the pure joy of a day on the water, with or without big fish.

The 8th Week of 2018 Fishing Report

The 8th Week of 2018 Fishing Report

by | Jul 23, 2018 | 2018 Season

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 2nd and 3rd 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.

Week 7 Review

Week 7 Review

by | 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 60th parallel. They may be short, but they are intensely sweet. For four straight days our guests who arrived on July 9th 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

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

by | 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 .  .  .

 

Season Wrap Up

Season Wrap Up

by | 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.