CANADA PART ONE - SASKATCHEWAN

We have just returned from nearly six weeks in Canada, where we fished in three states (Provinces) Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia (BC).  We tried as many streams, rivers and lakes that we could in the time we had.  (Going back for three months next time).  For the trip  we took Eights and six weights, and wish we had taken a couple of four weights now.

First we visited Roggies son Richie at his home in Regina so we could have a look in Cabelas, what fun...Bass Pro was on the bucket list for the trip to Alberta.

Finally made it...shopping what fun.

Then we all went to one of the one hundred thousand lakes that State has, in a place called Thompson's Camp on the Otter Lake, north of Regina on the way to the Yukon Territory.   Log Cabins, float planes the whole thing. This map gives you some indication of the thousands of linking lakes in the area, a huge are to fish.

A lot of water to fish???

You can fish via boat or plane, and even off the pontoons

It's an absolutely fabulous spot, we were there at the end of the school vacation break so there was not a lot of people around.   As soon as we arrived Roggie, as usual, had to have a cast off one of the pontoons, .."Just to check the line", he said.   On his first cast he though he caught weed, but the second cast produced our first of many pike to the trip.   Not big, on a big 'No see Um' fly on the sloppy six weight, and as usual you couldn't shut him up then.

Not big, but a first on the six weight.

Richie and me at the front of our log cabin...Richie's Tundra (I love it) in the background.

Next morning bright and early we hired a boat and a guide for the day thinking that we would probably get lost on all the waterways if we were by ourselves.  Our first priorty according to the guide was to catch enough Walleye for lunch.   The boys got into it and started off with small ones then progressed to a couple a bit bigger.  There is strict limits on the amount of fish you can keep in these areas to prevent overfishing, and all the catch that was legal size was kept in a fish tank on the boat, and our guide, Austin, ( a young trout fisher from BC)  kept replacing the smaller ones as the boys got bigger fish.  They got heaps, but both Roggie and Rich were disappointed in the fight, even on 10lb leader and light gear they said the fish were a bit like weed to pull in. We kept the legal amount for lunch and a couple of larger ones for the guide and his mates to have.  I think for the day we got about sixty fish all up.  Landed that is.

Richie with the first Walleye for the day, too small and had to throw it back.

Austin cooking up lunch of Three different Walleye dishes.

Sweet and Sour,  Chilli and normal Walleye for lunch.

Our flash fishing boat.

After lunch the boys got Austin to change from the Walleye fishing so we could chase Pike, and got him to take us into spots that looked like you would get a Saratoga out of the weeds at home.   We had the Eight weights for this, with floating or intermediate 9 foot tips.  I think a sinking line would have worked in some spots too, but the pike were really there in large numbers, but you had to have a good wire trace as we learnt the hard way when a few bigger ones just bit the fly off.  Roggie cut the swivel off some six inch wire traces that Richie had and tied the leader to the top of the trace.   Worked for some, but we still had the bigger fish trying to take the fish that we had hooked and they would bit off the line a lot.   Lost a lot of big flies, but had a great time. Roggie had tied up a christmas fly last year and we had it with us so when we lost a lot of flies he put that one on.   It caught heaps until a smaller pike took it and this metre plus pike swallowed the lot.

Roggies Christmas Fly was a hit....until the monster from Otter Lake took it and a fish.

Richie with a typical Pike we were getting you can see the type of water in the background, shallow and weedy.

We will take single strand trace wire with us next time, because we couldn't get any in Regina, only the seven strand stuff and Roggie couldn't make up the proper traces like he does at home.  Old age I suppose but I better be careful there because he was the only one who could see, and without glasses, to tie 4lb leader onto size 14 and 16 hooks when we were after the trout.

As I said we stopped counting fish after sixty so what a great days fishing. We were trying to decide what to do the next day, hire a boat ourselves or take a road trip and fish all the accessible inlets.  We chose the inlets because initially in the morning it was cold on the water and you know who wouldn't stop whinging.

Too bloody cold.

It was cool but not too bad I thought, got quite warm in the sun during the day and then cooled off at night.   We had a 'Pot Bellied' stove in the cabin so Roggie got it going to warm up.   He had it red hot and we had to move the rods away from it before it melted.  Then had to open all the windows until it cooled down.

Don't let Roggie play with fire

Our plan for the next day was to go fifty kms or so and fish some of the inlets just to see what it was like.  We said that we would limit ourselves to half a dozen casts each just to see what was there and then move on.    Well the boys made the plan, and you've probably heard about the best laid plans of mice and men.  Ha Ha.

Our first stop the next day was only about 10kms north of Thompsons, it was one of the many little spots where you can pull off the road and launch a canoe or have a fish, a lot of these have little spots to camp as well with wood already cut for your campfire.  We were out of the really big flies so only used some about three inches long in difference colours and styles, but anything with yellow and green seemed to be the best there was not one spot that we stopped along the road, where we did not catch fish, sometimes only one or two but we covered three hundred (300) kms that day and had an absolute great time.   We only kept one rod rigged so had to have our six casts each.  In one spot we landed twelve fish in the first eighteen casts, and had huge fish, Pike we think, take some of the smaller fish as they were coming in.   It was not that deep and you could see the fish a lot.   The line was a 9 foot ghost intermediate tip with a floating back.  In some spots, where we could get room to cast in the trees behind us, I think a 300g might have coaxed a few more of the bigger ones up from the deep. With a big fly. 

There are little spots like this all along the rod and this is a typical pike 

Another 'First cast' fish, that was lucky to be landed because a monster trying to eat it.

The pike apparently grow to about 1.5m and 30kg, this one below might give you and idea of one of the big ones and you would almost need an 18 inch trace to stop it biting of the line?? We saw some huge ones, maybe not quiet this big, that took smaller fish we had hooked.   Ten weight and longer tracs next time.

Courtesy of fishing in Saskatchewan