WWFG Fishing Reports

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 Post subject: Misaw Pike get the wrist burning

Pike in Saskatchewan are so big, they make an angler's wrists hurt
By ERIC SHARP Knight Ridder Newspapers
MISAW LAKE, Saskatchewan — Remember the old fisherman's prayer? "Lord, let me catch a fish so big that even I won't have to lie about it."

For Bob Schultz, it had just been answered.

"This is what I paid my money for," he muttered, clinging to the butt of a severely bent, 10-weight fly rod while a 42-inch northern pike leaped at the end of the line. "To catch fish so big that they make my wrists ache."

With his Chicago Cubs cap askew, the angler from Carpentersville, Ill., worked the 20-pound fish to the rear of a 16-foot aluminum boat on Keseechewun Lake. Guide Tom Caisse netted it, measured it, eased the barbless streamer hook from its toothy jaws and slipped it back in the water.

Schultz wore an ear-to-ear grin as he watched it swim off.

"That's what I like to see in a fish—a head like a German shepherd," he said.

He gazed at the stunted black spruce trees around the lake at nearly 60 degrees North latitude and said, "So far, we've caught and released 25, 30 pike in three hours, half over 35 inches. And so far, fishing has been crappy" — by standards for lakes in this area. "But I think it'll get better as the day goes on."

Schultz had no idea how prophetic those words were. Six hours later, climbing back aboard the Beaver floatplane that had brought him to this wilderness lake 12 miles from Misaw Lake Lodge, Schultz looked back on a day when he and another angler caught and released nearly 200 northern pike. Seventy were 36 to 42 inches, and about four dozen were taken with a fly rod.

Making the day even more fun, the fish were caught with different techniques and lures, from trout-sized streamer flies to jerk baits as big as a yearling walleye, from traditional casting spoons to fat-bodied rattling bass plugs.

Near the end of the day, Caisse, an easy-going Cree Indian, backed the boat slowly into a bay where the shoreline sloped into 10 feet of water filled with boulders the size of a Jeep. I tossed an orange-and-yellow bucktail spinner to see how many fish I could catch from an area 50 yards wide, and Schultz continued to cast a red-and-yellow deceiver streamer.

Fifty minutes later, I had released 21 pike from 24 to 39 inches, and Schultz had landed 13 the same size on a fly. We horsed each fish in as fast as possible during a feeding frenzy worthy of a TV nature show.

Misaw Lake Lodge is one of Canada's dream destinations for anglers who like pike, lake trout and grayling, which all can be caught on the same day. Owner Bernie Gollings, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran and Pittsburgh policeman, has a exclusive fishing rights to roughly 3,500 square miles with 15 lakes and rivers.

Most anglers come for the pike, which abound in the cold waters more than 2,000 miles northwest of Detroit. The fish reach enormous sizes because they are almost unmolested by fishermen. The biggest pike caught at Misaw Lake while I was there was 48 inches and nearly 30 pounds (my biggest was 45 inches), and we saw several fish longer than 50 inches following our lures.

To put it in perspective, Michigan sold 1.3-million fishing licenses in 2004 and gave out 28 master angler awards for pike that met the minimum of 40 inches. In four days at Misaw Lake Lodge, 10 anglers caught and released about 40 pike that would qualify for a Michigan master angler award.

Pike live long in these climes but grow slowly. A 36-incher is 18-20 years old, and the biggest fish might exceed 30 years. To maintain quality fishing, most lodges practice catch-and-release.

Gollings hosts up to 16 anglers at a time in a season that lasts only from June 14 through mid-August. Some of the five lakes he used his year will be fished by fewer than 30 anglers.

The fishing can be spectacular, but anglers need to arrive with realistic expectations and lots of bug repellent. Like the fishing, mosquitoes and black flies in northern Canada must be experienced to be believed.

"This is an expensive trip. It's a once-in-a-lifetime or once-in-10-years thing for a lot of guys," said Gollings, who charges $2,500 for a five-day visit, which includes air transportation from Winnipeg, Manitoba, meals and lodging.

"People ask me how many fish they can expect to catch," Gollings said. "I tell them, 'What guarantee can you give me on the weather?' Usually, fishing is great, but a big storm front can screw things up. Our average is 4.5 pike over 40 inches per guest."

On this trip, we had one rainy, windy day when the two anglers in my boat caught 20-30 pike and a few lake trout; another day with 25- to 40-knot winds when we caught about 30 pike each; a sunny, calm day when we got only a dozen fish, and a sunny day with 15-knot winds when we released about 200.

Anglers who had made multiple trips to Misaw Lake and other lodges in northern Canada said this was a slow year with weird weather.

Marc Jaross of Staten Island, N.Y., was on his second trip to Misaw.

"Last year, we caught more fish the first day than we did in the first four days this year," he said. "We've been getting 10-30 pike a day and a bunch of lake trout if we want to go trolling. It's still great, but we know what it can be like. Last year, I came home with a torn muscle in my shoulder from playing big fish."

Then he and Brad Weimer of Roanoke, Va., took a 10-minute flight to Keseechewun Lake for what Jaross called "the best day of fishing in my life. Un-bleeping-believable."

Asked how many fish they caught, Weimer smiled and said in his Virginia drawl, "I'd tell you, but I'm afraid you'd call us damned liars."

That convinced Schultz and me to try Keseechewun the next day.

During one flurry of catch-and-release, Schultz slipped his streamer out of the jaw of a 30-inch pike, watched the fish swim away, then dropped the fly in the water as he leaned over the side to rinse his hands. He suddenly jerked upright as a 36-incher appeared from nowhere and went for his fingers, apparently drawn by his shiny wedding ring. When the ring disappeared, the pike spun around, spotted the dangling fly, charged and hooked itself.

"Geez, I've done a lot of fishing in a lot of places, but I never had that happen," Schultz said. "The damned thing tried to eat me."

When a lure hung up in the rocks, Caisse backed the boat toward it and said, "There's a big pike next to the fly. He's just staring at it." Schultz gave the rod a shake that popped the fly free, and we saw the pike dart forward and grab it.

"I don't believe this," Shultz said, his rod arcing like a rainbow as the 36-inch fish stripped line from the reel. "It was waiting like somebody standing in line for a hamburger at McDonald's."

All we need now is a lure that looks like a bag of fries.