There really was no last day magic needed for our final day at Gangler’s. No matter what happened, fish or no fish, even if the weather was so bad we couldn’t fish, the trip has been no less than exceptional. The fun we’ve had with Ken and his family, his lodge staff, the bush pilots, our guide Marcus, the naturalists on hand and the other guests could not have been better. And the fishing. . . . . it’s been ridiculous.
With the poor weather conditions we encountered yesterday, right up till bedtime last night, we expected to end our trip today on Egenolf Lake. But things improved overnight, and the lodge closes in a couple weeks which means each and every outpost motor needs to be flown back to the lodge. Ken’s theory, why send an empty Beaver to collect the motors. At 9 am we flew to Booth Lake for one last fun day for pike, lake trout and of course, one more shore lunch!
I won’t go crazy here. I’ll let you know we got our shore lunch pike on the first cast. Not only the shore lunch fish but we spent a good hour and half releasing beautiful pike ranging from 25” to 34”. It was incredible.
Just before noon I packed up my pike rig with that peculiar chartreuse pile of feathers I tied 20 years ago and pulled out my lake trout rig. There were patches of sunshine and Booth Lake turned to glass. We prowled the reefs and lake edges near fast drop offs and absolutely crushed laker trout. As usual they weren’t bigger than 26” (do I sound spoiled yet?) but they were all stunning in their fall suits.
We didn’t do our shore lunch until almost 2. That was perfect however. The dabs of sunshine had temps in the low 60°s and we were able to cook right next to the boat. Marcus worked his chef skills while Granny and I sipped cold Canadian brews. We were being bad too, eating the homemade fries before lunch was ready. With extra salt. It really couldn’t get any better.
The plane was scheduled to return at 4 so we had about an hour to catch more fish. With my pike rod disassembled and packed that meant one thing – lakers. More lakers because we will never get enough of this amazing char.
Ironically the last two lakers of the trip for me were my biggest. Though this 35” was an inch shorter than the big one yesterday, this one had more weight to it and it fought so hard, when we saw it in the water, we thought it was 40’ plus. Regardless, what and fantastic fish to end the trip on.
Actually, I’m wrong, that laker above was not the last fish of the trip. We decided to set up a cool photo of me casting when the plane arrived. You know, try to have a cast going and the plane landing on the water in the background? Well it didn’t go exactly as planned; it went better. As the plane got close, I launched a cast so that I could pick up and be ready when the plane was right close. Believe it or not, when I picked up, I connected with one more laker. This place is unreal!
As if we hadn’t accomplished all our dreams. We got invited to go look for the wolves before dinner. I’ve gone in years past and we’ve gone twice this week with no luck. Tonight was our lucky night. We got a good glimpse of this beautiful animal tonight. The photo is courtesy of Sheryl, one of the ecotour folks that was along too.
Now its dinner time and you guessed it, Gangler’s is sending us off with a bang. Its prime rib night and this is one of my all-time favorites.
This closes the book on Gangler’s 2025. Tomorrow we begin the journey home. This has been a lot of fun and we had a ton of successful fishing. What a blast. If you haven’t been to Gangler’s yet, don’t short yourself. This place is amazing and every serious fly angler needs to go at least once!
A special thanks goes out to our buddy Ken Gangler. Ken makes this adventure to Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge possible for Granny and I. Every angler should try to make a point to fish trophy pike and lake trout on the fly at least once.
Ganglers is on the list now! Wow!