Week 15 Recap: Trout Time

For most of the summer big pike have ruled the waves of our blog posts. Finally, it’s trout time. Our “freshwater tuna” (that’s how hard they fight) are now down in the deep holes of our lakes where our experienced guides with the latest electronics can target them. They showed up in both numbers and size. Matt and Amanda Yackel gave the vertical jigging technique a shot and tallied 306 lake trout (yes, they counted them) in one memorable day. Jigging doesn’t get our biggest lakers, but it does rack up the numbers and who doesn’t enjoy having a doubled over rod almost continually during a day on the water? With an average size of around six pounds each, the haul that day was close to a ton of trout. Trolling spoons deep is the technique to land the bruisers in these parts. Our guides did a lot of that this week, finding our guests many hundreds of trout, catching 21 lakers over 38”, a fat and feisty fish. We did have a clear winner in the Lake Trout King of the Week category. Brad Courvelle has landed a lot of lakers here at Scott over his three trips here but never one that stretched the tape to 44-inches, one of our biggest of the season. It was a brute taken on a flyout to Flett Lake, one of our best flyout pike lakes. A pair of 40-inchers were taken on Selwyn Lake by Colleen and Larry Lee. Another 40-incher was landed on Scott Lake by Megan Wolff. Lakers of 39 were taken by Jason Ziegler who got a pair that size and Rebecca Sawyer. Trout of 38-inches were caught by John Baumann, Laurie Yliniemi, Paul Sawyer and Amanda Yackel. It turned out to be our best trout week of the season.

Late in the season when the trout go deep, the Arctic grayling come shallow as the rivers connecting our flyout lakes drop in volume and become very fishable for light weight tackle, either ultra-light spinning or 4-weight fly rods. We had a record number of trophy grayling this week with 69 over 15-inches. Brad and Adam Courvelle had a wild grayling afternoon on the Dubawnt River about 100 miles east of the lodge. They caught dozens of grayling and 16 of them were over 18-inches including some 19s and a 19.5-incher. Rebecca Sawyer caught an 18-incher as well. Paul and Rebecca Sawyer, Amanda and Matt Yackel, Aubrey Hegge and Megan Wolff also took a pause in their quest for big pike and trout and caught grayling on our rivers. While grayling don’t make our headlines often and while not all our anglers appreciate fish without teeth, grayling provide for those that enjoy light-tackle fishing one their most satisfying northern experiences. While lake trout and pike can be caught many hundreds of miles to the south, grayling are a species of the far north. And they are a cooperative fish. When conditions are right, they will attack anything the right size that resembles a small fish or a bug of any kind. We have an expression here about fly fishing for grayling. We have studied fly fishing success for grayling here over almost three decades and have concluded that there are only two flies that work for grayling: “those that float and those that don’t”. Catching grayling on dry flies is as entertaining as fishing gets.

While pike didn’t make the top of the week’s marquee, they weren’t exactly hiding either. We tallied just under 100 trophy pike. The total was lower than in many weeks but there was a baker’s dozen over 44-inches. Mark and Amy Occhipinti, Judy Withrow and Chris Hegge hit the 44-inch mark. Karen Flynn, Amanda Yackel, Mark Occhipinti and Adam Courvelle added an inch with Brad Courvelle landing a pair of 45s on the same day. Mike Withrow and Larry Lee got 46-inchers and Rebecca Sawyer and Aubrey Hegge landed the biggest pike of the week at 47-inches. Aubrey’s was a buzzer beater on Scott Lake on the last day. When pike turn on, they can be caught in bunches. Both Jim Flynn and Chris Hegge got five trophy pike on the same day. Larry Lee had a day he will never forget getting a 46.5” pike and a 41.5” lake trout on the same day. There has to be an Honorable Mention for Tom Bauman who on the same day caught three pike between 39.5 and 39.75-inches, just a fingernail short of our 40” trophy size. Now that’s an honest guide!

The weather was a mixed bag for the Week 15 crew. We had a little of everything—some sunny days, some rainy days, some cloudy days but the fishing was remarkably consistent. And as every week the wildlife show went on with sightings of muskox and moose as well as the standard loon, eagles and ospreys. We did get the first hints of fall this week with some birch leaves starting to turn yellow and a few early-bird geese heading south. We had a brief northern lights display one night, but the night skies were generally quiet this week. As the nights get longer and darker, there will be a lot more displays in the weeks ahead. And there will be more giant fish too. We are getting near the end of our season but based on our history the best is yet to come.