If you’ve followed this blog for a number of years than you’re aware I have a horrific track record when it comes to flight travel and weather. Today was day three for trying to get from Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge up to Courage Lake on the tundra. Saturday we got delayed out of Winnipeg and hit big wind by the time we arrived here. We put the flight north off for early yesterday. Yesterday we were postponed for big wind again. Today, pouring rain started at 5 am, and long story short, we waited a couple hours to see if it would clear but it didn’t. Postponed again.
No big deal though. Like I mentioned yesterday, we planned four fishing days at the lodge and four up north at Courage. Once again we decided to push our four days at Courage back a day. We unpacked our gear, rerigged and at 11 am Granny and I headed back out on the lodge lake, Egenolf, and fished with Tyler again.
The rain remained steady when we started. And today temperatures have plummeted since we got here Saturday. When we left the dock not only was it wet but it was a raw 47°. Toss in the wind and it was flat out miserable. Especially for Granny.
By the time we got to the first fishing spot Granny’s hands were too numb to fish. I’m a maniac so I jumped up and went to work. Tyler and I began where we left off yesterday, trying for lake trout in the shallows. We worked around some rocky points and submerged reefs. Places where fall lake trout stage before they spawn. But they weren’t around.
We fished several of Tylers regular spots. 20 minutes at one then off to another. We moved ten times and picked up zero lakers. Luckily there were a few decent pike up to about 32” that were hungry but the lack of lakers had Tyler extremely puzzled.
Granny was unhappily cold by 1 pm. Even in gloves her hands never warmed enough to make a cast and after sitting in one place so long she was frozen. I asked Tyler about returning her to the lodge and though we were a 30 minute boat ride from the lodge he said no problem. We dropped her off just before 2.
I must admit, I wasn’t exactly warm either. Even Tyler was cold. But the rain finally eased off and the clouds slowly lifted. I wasn’t about to pack it in and Tyler and I decided to go 100% lakers for the rest of the afternoon. He was as determined as I to figure the dang mystery fish out. Tyler actually said, “This is the first time getting completely skunked on lakers”.
We traveled a long way hitting every spot Tyler knew. He has a fish finder and in his “trout holes” we saw fish on bottom anywhere from 20 feet to 40 feet down. I can get my fly there but the fish showed no interest. The highlights while stripping jig flies and Clouser’s with no luck were the mass numbers of geese and sandhill cranes migrating in full V’s above. You could hear them coming well before we spotted them a mile above.
At 3:30 we reached the far west end of Egenolf. For the first time since we’ve been here the massive Canadian lake was calm. There was a small stream entering the lake. The leaves on the birch trees and ground shrubs were changing to their fall colors literally as we watched. It was beautiful and there was even a patch or two of blue sky miles away. I kept stripping my heavy fly on my sinking line when finally I went tight.
I’d gone tight a few times today and despite being down deep I kept coming up with pike. The pike are everywhere here. But this time the fight was different and I’ve caught enough lakers to know. I landed the first laker of the trip and although small – we weren’t skunked on lake trout!
Despite fishing until about 4:45 and continuously trying for lakers, this fish was the only one I caught. That is until we went back to the lodge.
Last time I was at Gangler’s I caught several beautiful walleyes on the channel not far from the lodge dock. I asked Tyler if he minded swinging by there before we called it so I could make ten more casts. If I got nothing we’d call it a day. Off we went. On my first cast I landed my best pike of the day. Then a few casts later I went tight again only this time the fish took off pulling against my heavily tightened Bauer drag. I only caught a glimpse of the fish and I couldn’t tell the species.
It’s only 8 feet deep here and the fish ran out about 60 feet. It was all I could do to stop him and bring him back. His tail raised out of the water for a split second and I could tell it wasn’t a pike. But walleye don’t scream off line like this.
It was a wild fight for about two more minutes. We got more glimpses. Tyler thought pike but I wasn’t so sure. I thought I saw the spots of a laker. Sure enough it was. And after a couple chaotic attempts, Tyler scooped up the laker we hoped for!
This is a skinny old male working his way into the shallow spawning grounds. Often males will be thin and beat up like this. I’m not sure why but I’ve seen it many times. If you look at the head only of the fish he seems huge but then he tapers off to nothing. A long laker however – 36 inches!
Skinny or not this laker was a great fish to end the day on. Tyler and I had a laugh too. How could we hunt lakers all over in the best spots with basically nothing all day then find one right next to the lodge? That’s fishing.
We packed it in around 5. I was ready for a hot shower and a hot chocolate. Then Granny and I followed that up with another delicious Gangler’s dinner. And good news. The weather looks excellent for tomorrow and Granny and I will head north on the Gangler’s Haviland Beaver at 9 am.
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