Granny and I are getting lucky with the elements up here in the north of Manitoba at Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge and because of the excellent weather, Ken Gangler told us to be ready to fly again this morning at 8 am. It didn’t matter that we were a bit groggy from watching the Northern Lights until 1 am, we were absolutely stoked for our fly out. And the forecast was good. We had a second day of clear skies and unseasonably warm temperatures in the 70°s.
We fished with Marcus again and the lake we went to is called Mistahi. Marcus requested this opportunity from Ken because its one of his personal favorite lakes for quality northern pike. It was about a 20-minute flight on the de Haviland Beaver with our pilot Jeremy.
Once Jeremy dropped us off, we prepared the boat for the day. These backcountry boats always have water to bail out and todays also had one of the chairs torn apart from a curious bear. Marcus must see this all the time because he packed seat cushions. That was a nice touch and soon Granny was up front casting to a weed bed and literally on her second cast she came tight.
In a matter of seconds you could tell this wasn’t your average pike. When Granny strip-set and drove the hook in, her fish didn’t move much. There was heavy weight and then began the slow not too concerned swim. After 30 seconds of playing around the hefty pike began to do battle. Granny had a wild fight for about 3 minutes before Marcus slid his huge net under the fish.
The pike was by no means a monster but it was her best of the week. The thick northern measured just over 35 inches. We were close to shore so we left the fish in the net and drove over to get some pictures. Big pike are tough to handle and the pics I got of just Granny holding it were a bit of a rodeo. Marcus of course, handles pike for a living.
Less than an hour later, Granny hooked up with another large pike. This one was even bigger. This massive fish ate her fly right at the boat and we all saw it and shrieked in excitement. And unlike most big pike, this guy took off with most of the fly line then went deep.
Pike are the perfect fish in my opinion; they fight hard for three minutes then give up. They’re impressive looking and extremely hearty so after a few pictures, they release well and strong. Once Granny led her pike to the net we took it to shore as well and this time Granny insisted on handling it herself.
I’ll give you a little sequence here because the determination on Granny’s face to get a handle on this brute is fun.
Once Granny finally got the beast under control it measured 38”. I realize this is only 2” longer than the one she caught and hour earlier but with pike, every inch adds at least one pound of fury and sometimes more. Let’s just say – this fish is a beast!
I tried to keep track of how many pike we caught today just for kicks. Its hard because not only are you catching a bunch but your mind and eyes are always wandering taking in the fishing and the gorgeous scenery. The fall colors are truly unbelievable. I’d say give or take five – we caught more than 30. While the two Granny caught were the largest, we caught numerous fish in the 30-35” in range. Incredible!
Today was our fourth day fishing and I’ve only used two flies. I showed a chewed-up fly at the end of day 2. I switched to a big chartreuse fly yesterday which was day three and left it on through today. But after about 60 pike there’s nothing left as you can see. I’ll be returning this one when I get home – ha!
The plane retrieved us at 3 pm and we were at the lodge drinking a 1919 beer on the dock at 4 in shorts. Today was the warmest day I’ve experienced ever here at Gangler’s. And being its not affecting the fishing negatively by any means, I hope the nice weather continues.
Like last night, we took the side-by-sides out with the ecotour folks in hopes to see a wolf but did not. We returned from the wolf search to catch the chef loading the grill with steaks. Steak night is my favorite night. Time to eat. Tomorrow we’ll fish from the lodge on Egenolf Lake.
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.