It’s Just a Baby

The rain was coming down this morning when we left our cabin to chase the fish around. Not only that, it was cold and windy. Put those ingredients together at the latitude of northern Saskatchewan and you have a very nasty day for fishing. We rented two boats from Thompson Camp and headed out on Otter Lake. Otter Lake is actually an over swollen part of the Churchill River. On the map, Otter Lake looks to be about fifteen miles long and eight miles wide in some places. There are hundreds of islands and you could get lost quick. We weren’t too worried as we purchased a good map and had our GPS.

Even with the rain coming down we were comfortable, completely dressed in warm clothes and waders with rain jackets. We were also as pumped as you could be. Our main target today were big pike. Having the opportunity to fish for big pike doesn’t come often for we Rocky Mountain folks. The first place we stopped proved we were going to catch fish. We must have caught twenty small pike. Place after place we caught fish. Finally I stumbled into a decent pike by most standards, a fish of 6lbs, but for the locals it’s a baby.

The highlight of the day was hitting a favorite walleye area on the lake. The dude who rented us the boats recommended we try a particular spot. I was fishing with Bill and when we pulled up to this spot, Chris and Steve were already there anchored. They were jigging for the walleye and were excited to say they caught several. This was good news because despite being serious “catch and release guys”, fresh walleye for dinner was on the menu. I purposely brought along my 6-weight Ross rod and a Rio Type 3 sinking line just for the walleyes. I strung her up and on my first cast landed a gorgeous walleye. I released the fish and two casts later landed another. To make a longs story short I went on to land eleven in less than an hour. The fly performed better than jigging by far which is very unusual.

It was a great day to start the trip. The best part is we ended the day with sunshine and no wind. Perhaps our weather took a turn for the good. Tomorrow we will relax in the morning then drive two hours north to the small town of Southend on Reindeer Lake. At 4 pm we will catch a sea plane to Pagota Lake and spend the next four days. Because we will be so far in the backcountry, this will be the last report till we get out. Be ready for some exciting entries and photos in a week!