880 | Freshwater Flats Fishing for Giant Northern Pike with Nick Elcheson from Scott Lake Lodge

00;00;02;00 – 00;00;20;23 Dave There’s a moment at certain fly fishing locations where casting stops being the hard part. You’re standing on the bow of a boat, water barely moving, staring into a shallow bay that hasn’t seen pressure. No roads, no docks, no second chances. And the only real decision left is whether you’re willing to wait for the right fish or rush for the wrong one. 00;00;21;11 – 00;00;40;25 Dave That’s the reality at Scott Lake Lodge, a fly in fishery on the edge of the Northwest Territories where Northern Pike Hunt Lake, saltwater predators and patients matters more than power. This is the Wi-Fi Swing podcast, where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip, and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. 00;00;41;24 – 00;01;02;00 Dave Nick Eliasson is here and guides at Scott Lake Lodge that we’re going to be talking about shallow water, pike fishing, freshwater flats, fishing and what changes when you’re fishing? A place where the fish don’t always forgive mistakes. In this episode, you’re going to learn how to approach Pike when your site fishing. We’re going to find out why waiting for the right fish often matters more than covering water. 00;01;02;20 – 00;01;21;25 Dave We’re also going to discuss water temperature and how the seasonal changes throughout the year and how you can focus this for your next trip and what separates a missed opportunity from a clean eat. When sight fishing for big pike, lots of good stuff in this one today, including how small decisions near the boat can cost anglers. We’re going to talk about some mistakes as well. 00;01;22;04 – 00;01;29;07 Dave All right, let’s get into it. You can find Nick Eliasson at Scott Lake Lodge dot com. How are you doing, Nick? 00;01;29;15 – 00;01;30;08 Nick Good. How are you? 00;01;30;19 – 00;01;48;15 Dave Great. Great. I’m excited to talk about today. We’re going to talk about, you know, Scott Lake Lodge. I want to talk about Pike, you know, Northern Pike or probably talk about some other species. But you’re in this area. That’s pretty spectacular. I haven’t been there, but I’ve seen a lot of photos and I’ve we’ve done, you know, one podcast episode now and and I’m pretty excited. 00;01;48;15 – 00;01;55;21 Dave So we’re going to get into all that about Pike. But maybe first off, take us back real quick on fly fishing. Have you have you been doing this a while? What’s your first memory out there? 00;01;56;03 – 00;02;09;24 Nick Yeah. So I grew up in that area, Ontario, and started fishing at a young age. And it was actually my uncle that got me into fly fishing. Fishing the the north shore of Lake Superior for Great Lakes, Steelhead. And that was kind of what started the addiction. 00;02;10;05 – 00;02;13;05 Dave That’s it. So North Shore Lake. Oh, now that was Lake Superior. 00;02;13;13 – 00;02;14;00 Nick Yeah, correct. 00;02;14;04 – 00;02;20;05 Dave Perfect. And you also I thought I saw some out there. You’ve done some walleye fishing or is there some other species you’ve had over the years? 00;02;20;14 – 00;02;36;08 Nick Yeah, Yeah. They kind of grew up with the family Verde, Walleye, Pike Co, the inland lakes around the tree and then it branched out into steelhead and patrol and yeah, kind of worked my way out west and. Yeah. Now live in British Columbia. 00;02;36;08 – 00;02;43;06 Dave Oh, there you go. So you’re in Terrace. Oh, wow. Well, you’re right in the Yeah, you’re right in the steelhead capital maybe of the world. 00;02;43;16 – 00;02;44;24 Nick Yeah, it could very well be. 00;02;45;06 – 00;03;00;20 Dave Yeah. Cool. Yeah, that’s really awesome. We’ve been doing some stuff with with Brian Niska at the Skeena Space Lodge, and, you know, I’ve been wanting to get up there more often, you know, and just get up and fish, but it’s just, you know, again, you’re limited on the time that you can get out there. But. But this is great. 00;03;00;20 – 00;03;06;08 Dave And take us back to Thunder Bay. That sounds interesting. I’ve heard that before. What is what is the Thunder Bay Area? 00;03;06;08 – 00;03;22;06 Nick So it’s on the north shore of Lake Superior. There’s, you know, a bunch of really nice tributaries for, you know, Great Lakes, steelhead, coastal brook trout, Neptune rivers, a famous one for brook trout and about an hour outside of town. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, it’s pretty, pretty neat part of the world. 00;03;22;14 – 00;03;31;22 Dave That’s awesome. Yeah, I know. I think I’m talking to somebody. Recently there was mention that they’re heading up that way to chase. It has some pretty big breweries. Right? Is that. Was that the case up there? 00;03;32;01 – 00;03;35;01 Nick Yeah, sure does. World record came out of the Dominion over. 00;03;35;01 – 00;03;50;28 Dave There you go. That’s cool. Well. Well, we’ll probably jump it around a little bit and hear, you know, some different species. But let’s take us into the sky LAKE Is that how did was that a natural evolution that eventually getting up to I mean, it’s pretty far up north, right, as far as Canada is concerned. Your way up there? 00;03;51;05 – 00;04;01;11 Nick Yeah, it’s it’s right on the 60th parallel, right on the border of Saskatchewan in the Northwest Territories. Yeah. Super remote. Fly in only. Yeah, It’s a pretty, pretty special part of the world. 00;04;01;27 – 00;04;15;13 Dave What do you think it is about pike fishing? When people come up there, let’s say I’m sure you guys get a mix of people that a fish for pike in other areas. But what do you think is the biggest surprise when you get somebody new that comes up there, maybe their first time fishing for Pike or just to that area? 00;04;16;04 – 00;04;30;06 Nick I think probably how remote you are. There’s like probably one of the biggest surprises, like, you know, there’s no no roads or anything first, as far as you like, hundreds of miles type of thing. So but pike in general. 00;04;31;04 – 00;04;39;26 Dave Yeah. How do they compare to your you’ve mentioned a few other, you know, a steelhead, you know, even Big Brook is all I like. How do Pike fit in, compare to those other ones? 00;04;40;10 – 00;05;09;08 Nick I think the best way I can describe like fly fishing for Pike would be it’s essentially freshwater flats fishing. You’re kind of moving around shallow bays and like fishing for big fish and, you know, they’re they’re great for beginner novice anglers as well as a bad thing that you can kind of try to for four new people, try to catch your first pike and for, you know, more experienced people try to like target, you know, larger fish. 00;05;09;17 – 00;05;15;10 Dave Yeah, larger. And what is the you know, what’s the larger fish, What would be a larger one than what would be more of an average size? 00;05;15;24 – 00;05;26;02 Nick You know, average fish would probably be in that like 27 to 33 inches. And they start looking a little bit different when they hit that kind of 40 inch mark. 00;05;26;10 – 00;05;29;21 Dave How do they look different? Well, it’s just like the body morphology changes or. 00;05;29;23 – 00;05;38;07 Nick Yeah, like they just like the heads get bigger. They’re a little bit wider over the back. Yeah. Just they start, you know, really filling out. 00;05;38;15 – 00;05;50;13 Dave Right, Right. It’s their feel, not what it is. The freshwater flats is that is the site fishing a unique thing about this area. And do you, are you doing the shallow water throughout the whole season or does that change throughout the year? 00;05;50;21 – 00;06;12;09 Nick So it is fairly unique with where we are, like water stays fairly cold for quite some time, so we’re able to target these things in shallow water for a large portion of the season. Kind of like how our season works is these pike. They move into the shallows to spawn and then after ices out, they’re kind of looking for the warmest water, then being cold blooded. 00;06;12;12 – 00;06;41;14 Nick You know, half a degree can make a big difference. So they’re they’re in search of warmer water and shallow bays. They, you know, less water in there. They warm up quicker. So yeah, with the water being as cold as it is, we can target them in shallow base, you know, well into July and August. That’s kind of we’re looking more for whippets, which you still get some slick fishing, but it’s mainly kind of blind casting over, you know, cabbage beds, which for fly fishing can be, you know, very nice. 00;06;41;26 – 00;06;46;27 Nick All the fish are going to be in the weeds. So you’re not, you know, doing as much searching. 00;06;47;09 – 00;06;50;17 Dave All right. So you just find the weeds and you find the habitat and you’ll find fish. 00;06;50;17 – 00;06;51;06 Nick Exactly. 00;06;51;13 – 00;06;59;17 Dave Yeah. And then. And where do you find the big fish, you know? Or is it safe fishing where you’re just waiting to get that shot? You see a big fish earlier in the season? 00;06;59;27 – 00;07;19;03 Nick Yeah, exactly. You know, if people want to bend the rod, you can catch that whatever fish you want. But if you’re solely looking like Europe, you’ll stumble into big fish throughout the day. But if like, big fish is your your primary objective, Yeah, we kind of just wait till you find the one you’re looking for and hopefully you can make the show up. 00;07;19;03 – 00;07;26;05 Dave And make the shot. And then what does that shot look like? Is the shot are you getting pretty close or do the shots vary on the distance? 00;07;26;16 – 00;07;39;15 Nick Yeah, shots vary in the distance. You know, the further you can farther away, the less chance they have of knowing you’re there and you have a better opportunity. But they are pretty honest fish and you can get pretty close to begin. 00;07;39;15 – 00;07;55;22 Dave Yeah, and that seems to be the cool thing. So what you’re saying is earlier in the season you’ve got ice out, which everything’s cold and they’re fine in the shallows. The shallowest water where they can stay warm. But then as the summer goes on, the water starts eventually warming and then they’re eventually getting deeper to get the colder waters out. 00;07;55;22 – 00;07;56;17 Dave What they’re kind of chasing. 00;07;56;27 – 00;08;14;12 Nick I’d say like they’re kind of searching for bait, essentially, like they’re they’re trying to put on weight for winter and the weeds hold a lot of bait and smaller fish. They can be very cannibalistic. So they’re they’re kind of just putting weight on for winter. 00;08;14;22 – 00;08;29;02 Dave Yeah. So that’s it. So it’s all about I mean, just like most fish, right? They’re they know stuff is going to be changing and they’ve got to bulk up in the winters. There are not not easy, right. I mean have you ever been what’s the latest or earliest you’ve been up there in the winter. 00;08;29;12 – 00;08;38;17 Nick Oh, latest I’ve been up there is like middle of September and earliest I’ve been is middle mate and it is very much so winter up there. 00;08;38;19 – 00;09;02;22 Dave It is so middle September middle May when other places it’s you know it could be super nice, almost like summertime still it’s cold. And what is the I mean because you are Saskatchewan is right near the border of Northwest Territories, Right. I mean, how do you describe that area, that climate up there? I mean, very similar to other I mean, if you go across the latitude, right, just go over to, you know, Alaska or wherever. 00;09;02;27 – 00;09;05;18 Nick Yeah. Like the summers can be really warm. 00;09;05;25 – 00;09;06;11 Dave No, they can. 00;09;06;19 – 00;09;23;14 Nick Oh yeah, absolutely. Like you’ll be in the eighties I guess and Yeah, but you could also have the next day. It’s very variable. The next day it could be higher in the fifties type thing. It kind of you want to prepare for all seasons. You can see all seasons in one day. 00;09;23;25 – 00;09;40;03 Dave Nice. It was awesome. And I and I want to get into some tips too on on fishing but maybe take us back real quick on the on the Scott Lake. I might have missed that. But how did you find yourself maybe describe that because it seems like Scott Lake is pretty far, you know, up there. Yeah. Do you find yourself being able to guide it? 00;09;40;03 – 00;09;43;19 Dave One of the kind of most probably famous lodges for these species out there. 00;09;44;14 – 00;10;01;05 Nick So I was out. I’ve worked at a couple of lodges in the north over the years, and I have a couple buddies that have supported Scott for quite a few years, and there was an opportunity that came up that I couldn’t say no to and really found my home at Scott Lake. 00;10;01;16 – 00;10;14;16 Dave Nice. So that’s pretty much it. Scott Lake is one of those places, right? It feels like the site fishing for Pike is this when you compare to I’m not sure if you fished for Pike in other areas, but is it is it a pretty unique experience, what you get up there all. 00;10;14;16 – 00;10;32;14 Nick Around it really is. You know, there’s no other lodges on the lake. There’s no resident pressure. It’s pretty nice to know, you know, if you do a fly out, you’re the only people on the lake, right? It’s pretty special. It’s not too many places in the world that you can have a lake to yourself. 00;10;32;18 – 00;10;37;19 Dave No. So you’re in you’re probably not even seeing many other float planes flying over up there? 00;10;37;19 – 00;10;45;07 Nick No, very few. There’s a little bit of exploration in the geology world, but other than that, yeah, there’s not really there’s nothing up there. 00;10;45;15 – 00;11;02;07 Dave There’s nothing up there. Yeah, it’s really interesting because it’s it’s cool to see, you know, it’s at the top of Saskatchewan, but Northwest Territories is crazy huge. It’s like its own country, right there, right the size of that massive, massive. I mean, I’m just look at the map. It’s bigger than definitely bigger than Alaska, at least from the right. 00;11;02;07 – 00;11;03;01 Dave I mean, it’s huge. 00;11;03;10 – 00;11;16;02 Nick Yeah, it’s huge. And we fish both in Saskatchewan as well as Northwestern. Oh, you do? Where we have lakes. If you look at the Scott, they’ve got a map. The north end of Scott Lake is in the Northwest Territories and the sultans of schedule. 00;11;16;19 – 00;11;28;12 Dave Gotcha. Right. So when you look at it, you just see a bunch of you see a big lake, but then you see just blue everywhere. It is just lakes, right? I mean, this is just lakes. I see. But is it Scott Lake considers the multiple the whole thing. 00;11;28;20 – 00;11;35;12 Nick Multiple lakes. No, there’s like Scott Lake is a very large lake, but there is little bodies of water. 00;11;35;21 – 00;11;37;07 Dave There’s other named lakes up there. 00;11;37;16 – 00;11;40;25 Nick Yeah, yeah. There’s it’s almost there’s more water than lined up there. 00;11;41;03 – 00;11;54;04 Dave Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah, I see. Me. Yeah. Now I’m zooming in here. I see the also in the species. Why I talk about that I think is the pike you’ve got you got lake trout in Grayling. Are those are the three are there other species up there. You guys are catching. 00;11;54;14 – 00;11;57;04 Nick There’s other species but those are the three main ones we target. 00;11;57;14 – 00;12;00;10 Dave Gotcha. What are some of the other ones that you would catch other than those three? 00;12;01;12 – 00;12;09;23 Nick You know, later in the year the whitefish come up and spawn in the shallows. We also have bourbon, which are, you know, pretty tough to target, though. 00;12;09;25 – 00;12;12;18 Dave They are kind of like a bourbon. Like deep, deep. 00;12;12;22 – 00;12;19;01 Nick Yeah, exactly. They’re deep. I think they like to feed at night. Not I wouldn’t say on our target list. 00;12;19;09 – 00;12;33;13 Dave Yeah. Yeah. Most people are coming there. I’m guessing Pike is number one. And then after that, you know, maybe get some pike. You’re thinking, well, maybe a lake trout and Grayling, too. I know Grayling is on the top a lot of people’s list because it’s one of those ones that there’s only a few places you catch. Grayling in the world, right? 00;12;33;21 – 00;12;47;07 Nick Yeah. The. The Arctic sailfish right there. They’re pretty neat. You know, they they love coming up, eating off the surface, their beer does and colors and the big thing Yeah they’re they can be a lot of fun doing that for a day for sure. 00;12;47;13 – 00;13;02;17 Dave Yeah. Cool. Let’s just take it too. You know, we’re on the water. Maybe we’re getting ready on the water. What are a few tips? You know, in this Could be high level or in detail that you would tell somebody that they’re going out pike fishing. Maybe it’s their first time and you’re saying, okay, you need to be thinking about these things when you’re out there for the day. 00;13;02;25 – 00;13;04;26 Dave You know, there are a few things you’re always telling folks. 00;13;05;08 – 00;13;17;29 Nick Yeah. So just like rods you’re kind of looking for, I’d recommend somewhere in that 9 to 10 weight range, not necessarily to fight the fish, but more so for just throwing, you know, bigger, bigger flies. 00;13;18;16 – 00;13;30;28 Dave Okay. Yeah. And is it is it nine or ten? I always feel like, you know, the heavier you get I mean, I guess depends on the Rod brand. But do you feel like, you know, nine is equal to a ten or do you really want to have a ten if you’re chasing the bigger ones? 00;13;30;28 – 00;13;48;29 Nick I guess it all really depends. Number one, what you’re more comfortable with throwing. If you know you like fish and nine meat better than I would go with what what you’re comfortable with. But yeah it kind of will. I personally find that ten weight or throw larger flies a little bit easier you know, you can punch through wind a little better. 00;13;49;19 – 00;13;51;18 Nick Yeah. So it’s it’s all kind of personal preference. 00;13;51;26 – 00;14;08;09 Dave Okay. So ten weight and what’s the length on that? 99 five. So there’s no advantage because I know I’ve heard some folks down, you know, fishing for like musky. I know that’s a little bit different that they’re getting into even some two handed rods and things like that. Is that mainly because they’re tossing really big flies and are are pair? 00;14;08;09 – 00;14;10;13 Dave What would be the main reason you might want a longer Rod. 00;14;10;28 – 00;14;31;11 Nick Yeah I think that you know, with Muskies they’re throwing really, really big flies and stuff that doesn’t you’d need something pretty heavy duty, whereas we can get away with time. Pretty sparse flies, you know, early season, you can go anywhere from like kind of like a four inch to a six inch kind of baitfish pattern, you know? 00;14;31;21 – 00;14;36;17 Dave Yeah, 4 to 6 in what would be a pattern you like or a name pad or something you really love using. 00;14;37;03 – 00;14;44;15 Nick Just kind of a tie, like just baitfish style flies, you know, Anything Any rabbit works pretty well, right? 00;14;44;15 – 00;14;47;23 Dave Just like a something you’d almost use for you prey, almost used for steelhead. 00;14;48;20 – 00;14;57;28 Nick A little bit bigger and bigger. I prefer kind of synthetic materials or buck to a pot was to like the marabou and. Oh, right. And that kind of stuff. But. 00;14;58;05 – 00;15;05;23 Dave Right. So ducktail is the better material too in why is the buck tail better versus the mayor? Is it because it gets lighter when you’re casting it? 00;15;06;06 – 00;15;28;16 Nick It’s sort of like you you get a little bit more of a bulky profile in the water, I find. And these. Fisher they’re very they’re toothy critters. And I just find it it holds up better to catching multiple fish. I actually I’ve kind of switched to a lot of synthetic materials. I find it just holds up a little better for when you’re when you’re really on them. 00;15;28;27 – 00;15;47;25 Dave Yeah. They hold up in a right that’s that’s one of the advantage of the synthetics is they hold up there. We had Dave McPhail on the podcast recently. It was awesome. He’s kind of a big you know what ties a lot of trout flies. But he was saying he really loves mixing synthetics with natural materials. He thinks you get a mix of, you know, the best of both worlds. 00;15;47;25 – 00;15;56;07 Dave So I think, you know, durability. But then you get the natural action, which I think people love about naturals and stuff. But do you do any of that where you’re mixing those those materials? 00;15;56;15 – 00;16;05;04 Nick Absolutely. Yeah. It’s a it’s a pretty it’s a pretty good combo. So that takes hold up really well. And then, yeah, you have the benefits of the natural feathers and bobtail. 00;16;06;21 – 00;16;26;10 Dave San San Juan rod work started with a simple belief great fly rods and gear shouldn’t cost a fortune. As a family run company, they focus on building high quality fly fishing products that perform on the water without the premium price tag. You can try San Juan. Rod works for 30 days risk free right now, and if you’re not satisfied, send it back for a full refund. 00;16;26;22 – 00;16;46;19 Dave You can go to san juan. Rod recom. That’s sanjay. You and rod works dot com. So we got the rod. So let’s just say we’re going to go with the ten weight in nine foot ten weight and then what is a good line for pike is there one that just all around are you guys it sounds like it uses mostly dry lines. 00;16;46;29 – 00;17;01;10 Nick Yeah mainly dry lines. We can get into intermediates but you can pretty well fish dry like all year. I like shorter kind of heavier heads, the bone short being one of my favorites. Okay. 00;17;01;10 – 00;17;02;00 Dave Is that real? 00;17;02;06 – 00;17;14;27 Nick Yeah, that’s a real line outbound short. Okay. Yeah, it passes big flows. Really? Well, you don’t need a whole lot of line to load the rod properly. Yeah, it seems to work pretty well for us. 00;17;15;05 – 00;17;24;27 Dave Okay. And what is that? When you get that shot, let’s just say maybe take us on the boat. You guys describe the boat a little bit. What do the boats look like? Is this two people, one guy and two people on the boat? 00;17;25;05 – 00;17;30;03 Nick Yeah, one guy, two people. We run an 18 foot Marines. Open kind of concept. 00;17;30;17 – 00;17;31;28 Dave What was the name of the brand? 00;17;32;07 – 00;17;36;07 Nick A marine. So they have a big casting deck on the front. 00;17;36;10 – 00;17;40;15 Dave Oh, yeah. A little marine. Yeah, like Marine. Like mixing the aluminum and marine. 00;17;40;15 – 00;17;41;05 Nick Yeah, in the wind. 00;17;41;29 – 00;17;54;25 Dave This is cool. Okay, I’m going to get a look. We’ll have a link in the show. So we just did an episode with them. It was pretty cool with one of the, well, really one of the boat company that started kind of had a part of the jet. Right. I’m I’m assuming the of these all jets you guys are doing. 00;17;55;00 – 00;18;09;05 Nick No they’re they’re all prop boats although we do have have a jet we use in Well we actually just got it we’re putting it in on the lake that has a river system that will keep you excited to to explore. 00;18;09;12 – 00;18;13;26 Dave Nice. So you’re going to be doing some more. And that’s chasing is that chasing pike up in the river’s. 00;18;14;13 – 00;18;27;00 Nick Pike as well as like hope not to get off topic but we are early trout in the springtime and fall come up real shallow and you can target them in. Yeah, anywhere from that 2 to 6 feet of water. 00;18;27;07 – 00;18;38;08 Dave Oh, wow. Is that the time? Is that the time when you’re. So do they. Yeah, maybe. Just try that real quick on the on the tangent here is also on lake trout. Do they start in shallow water and then they go deeper and then they come back to shallow water. 00;18;38;14 – 00;18;58;15 Nick Yeah. Correct. So they come up in the springtime into shallower water. You can target them on the main lake in that, you know, 5 to 20 feet. And then they go down deeper into holes, spend the winter, or you spend the summer in deeper water, and then in the fall time come up. Shallow response, right course. 00;18;58;18 – 00;19;02;27 Dave And so if you were planning a lake trout, it might be better to go, Yeah, earlier or later in the year. 00;19;03;04 – 00;19;13;20 Nick If you want to read one fly. Yeah, absolutely. There’s we have a couple river systems that they’ll move into and you can actually swing flights for them, which is a pretty cool experience. 00;19;13;21 – 00;19;22;08 Dave Wow, that would be amazing. Yeah. You hear nothing. The lake shot, you always hear, Yeah, they’re down deep, they’re hard to catch. But I guess, yeah, that’s what’s cool. You guys have that opportunity there, too. 00;19;22;17 – 00;19;26;13 Nick Yeah, absolutely. You can catch bone dry fly or dry lines and. 00;19;26;21 – 00;19;32;24 Dave That’ll be cool. Yeah, I think I think this trip, we’re probably, I guess, July. That’s probably not going to be in that range. Forget lake trout on the swing. 00;19;33;06 – 00;19;40;02 Nick Never say never depending on, you know, conditions, stuff like that. But it’s a little bit later, but it’s always worth the worth to go check it out. 00;19;40;02 – 00;19;47;00 Dave Bring the stuff So maybe, maybe bring the speed rod and bring it up or whatever. What are the rods, you guys are you just using single hand rods or both? 00;19;47;11 – 00;19;59;26 Nick We have a couple trout speeds up there that are nice. You know, guests are more than welcome to use and get single hands. A couple of the spots. You don’t really have to worry about that. So yeah, you can you can get away with a single hundred pretty easily. 00;19;59;29 – 00;20;15;17 Dave That’s cool. Yeah, I was, I was mentioning the the boat. So it was wallbridge boats. They started down in Bob Woolridge, Glen Rollers, the great grandfather of the guest. I had, he started down the Rogue River in southern Oregon and he was run and he was the first person to ever go up the rogue basically go down at or up. 00;20;15;22 – 00;20;36;02 Dave And he was right back in the day. They were blasting out the river. There was rocks and they were the the federal government was giving them dynamite to clear the river so people could boat it and stuff. But it’s really interesting to hear the evolution because jet sleds evolved through partly a big part because of him. And he told the story about there is actually a video out there from probably the fifties of him going up. 00;20;36;02 – 00;20;55;11 Dave I think it was the Fraser River. People are saying, I think there was some crazy river section that was just rapids and they’re like, Thought he was nuts. But yeah, he did it. So yeah, I think we probably oh, some, you know, love to his history there just because it’s you know like you’re out you probably take for granted maybe how cool it is you’re going up in these hanging out these 18 foot boats all day. 00;20;55;21 – 00;21;00;20 Nick Oh my God. Yeah. Sometimes you have to take take a moment just to realize where you are and what you’re doing. 00;21;01;09 – 00;21;14;00 Dave So back to. Yeah, the rods. So we talked about the gear and what would be as far as. Okay, we got our gear. We’re ready. We’re ready to make that shot. What’s your tip for making the shot so you can have a better chance? Where we put in that fly. 00;21;14;23 – 00;21;35;25 Nick Make the first one count, you know, kind of three feet in front of them, three feet past them, let them see it, and kind of you’re looking to read the fish. If he speeds up, you want to speed up. If he’s slow and lethargic, you’re slow on the third tick. And yeah, you’re kind of just reading, reading the fish. 00;21;35;25 – 00;21;37;18 Nick Every fish will be a little bit different. 00;21;37;18 – 00;21;49;02 Dave Okay. And so you make the cast in front of the fish and then it starts. You kind of feel what it’s doing. If he kind of sometimes they might go faster, sometimes they might just go slow and you got to adjust your strip on that. 00;21;49;11 – 00;22;03;04 Nick Absolutely. Sometimes the fly lands and you don’t even have time to make one strip and he’s already on it. Other times, Yeah, they’re going to be slow and don’t be scared to bring it right to the boat. A lot of those fish will eat a rager out too. 00;22;03;12 – 00;22;12;04 Dave They will? Yeah. It’s interesting. They’ll do that. They’ll eat it and. And that’s the boat because they’re not really they must see the boat, but they’re just not really worried about it. Or is that kind of a deal? 00;22;12;12 – 00;22;33;22 Nick I think it’s more of like they’re following a bait and, you know, it sees the boat as shelter and a lot of times a baits natural reaction is to jump out of the water a lot of times. So the fish is coming soon as that fly starts coming towards the surface, it thinks it’s like, oh, it’s getting away and oh wow, yeah, it that’s a pretty big win for them too. 00;22;34;00 – 00;22;43;16 Dave Okay. Yeah. So you make your cast and is the fly sinking down a little bit because it’s got some weight on it and then or, and then you’re kind of stripping it up towards the surface or how deep is the fly getting? 00;22;43;24 – 00;22;57;18 Nick You know, I like to tie unweighted pretty sparse bugs. You know, there again, if the fish’s glued to the bottom, you know, let it sink down to them. But a lot of times you’re fishing that, you know, three inches to a foot under the surface. 00;22;57;29 – 00;22;59;17 Dave Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. 00;22;59;18 – 00;23;01;19 Nick They usually don’t have a problem coming up for short. 00;23;01;28 – 00;23;15;00 Dave They don’t. Yeah, they’re going to move on it. And what is the I mentioned the flies a little bit. So when you’re tying the fly, do you have a mix or how you decide when to go more heavily dressed versus sparser is always kind of like the the sparser, the better on these flies. 00;23;15;00 – 00;23;24;19 Nick The reason I go sparse is just for ease of casting. You know, sparse flies cast a lot nicer. You know, they get whittled down a little bit quicker, but it just is what it is. 00;23;24;19 – 00;23;27;15 Dave Gotcha. They would eat a heavily dressed fly to probably. 00;23;27;16 – 00;23;32;08 Nick Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It’s just casting wise is not as pleasurable. 00;23;32;19 – 00;23;45;28 Dave Right? Right. Yeah. That’s cool. So you’re out there and then you guys fishing typically. I mean, how many different locations are you guys going to per day? Is it typically, you know, the spots and you’re hitting that from the good Friday. Are you are you boating around all day long? 00;23;46;10 – 00;24;13;06 Nick It’s a little bit of mix. You know, like we have a bunch of new lakes that we’re acquiring all the time. So there is like a lot of exploring to do, which is is pretty special. That would when you, you know, find a spot that possibly has never been fished you can find some pretty cool, some pretty cool stuff for sure but on unknown lakes you’re Yeah kind of going around fishing different spots and from what you’re seeing from there. 00;24;13;06 – 00;24;23;12 Nick Yeah kind of will determine how many spotty fish in a day. Sometimes you’re going to spot and take half a day to fish just kind of on other days they’re a little more sparse and takes a little more searching. 00;24;23;21 – 00;24;33;06 Dave Okay. And what do you think? Are, you know, people out there, whether they’re new or experienced, what do you think is a common mistake or mistakes that people make for their maybe their first time with the fake. 00;24;33;16 – 00;24;49;21 Nick Probably pulling the fly out too early, letting those, you know, not bring it right to the boat? Okay. I think a lot of like a lot of anglers enjoy the casting side of things and they’re already thinking about the next cast before they have finished the one they’re on right now. 00;24;49;27 – 00;24;55;24 Dave Right. So leave it all the way. No use putting your rod tip in the water and pulling in. Or how do you finish? How do you think you’re not doing the figure eight right. 00;24;55;28 – 00;25;15;11 Nick No, not doing the figure eight. But just kind of like again, you know, just reading the fish, if they’re coming in on it. Yeah, keep it in the water, keep it moving. And when they do eat, set the hook towards their tail, pull it back into them as opposed to, you know, keeping going. So hook the same way you’re pull in the flow. 00;25;15;23 – 00;25;17;26 Nick A lot of times you’re going to pull it out of their mouth. 00;25;18;00 – 00;25;27;01 Dave All right. So set it towards their tail. So if they’re if you’re stripping it in from right to left, you want it you want to jerk back to the right to make sure it sets towards the fish. 00;25;27;02 – 00;25;27;27 Nick Yeah, exactly. 00;25;28;05 – 00;25;31;10 Dave Yeah. So you’re setting it and you’re actually saying the hook, you’re not doing a strip set. 00;25;32;08 – 00;25;47;27 Nick When when they’re that close to the boat, you don’t really have, you know, room for a strip search. I kind of like a mix of both of, like a strip that you feel that weight and then kind of lift your rod like a trout said take thing. Yeah. 00;25;48;15 – 00;26;02;05 Dave That’s cool. So. And what is the up there? You know, on a day it sounds like you can get some pretty good action. I mean, how many fish could somebody expect to hook potentially on a sand? Good day. An average day or you know, up there. 00;26;02;13 – 00;26;05;14 Nick You know angling ability will be you know, kind of. 00;26;06;00 – 00;26;10;15 Dave Yeah. That plays a role right whether you can cast your casting ability and all that makes it. 00;26;10;15 – 00;26;23;22 Nick Absolutely like if we’re just learning how to cast, you know, you know be a little bit less. But you know, depending on what time of year you’re in, they’re like 20, 30 fish, if not more. You know, like you can have some pretty spectacular days. 00;26;24;01 – 00;26;34;08 Dave Right. Well, it’s amazing how you guys and and then, like you said, a chance to maybe get one of those trophies which in what way you break 40 inches. Is that kind of getting in that range? 00;26;34;08 – 00;26;42;20 Nick Yeah, Yeah, exactly. That’s kind of like the number everyone’s kind of looking for. And yeah, we see a lot of fish, even much larger than that in the season. 00;26;42;26 – 00;26;45;11 Dave You know, And what is a 40 inch way on average. 00;26;46;01 – 00;26;54;03 Nick Depending on girth. But like I’d say, you’re kind of reaching that, you know, £20 mark somewhere in there, you know, 15 to 20 depending on its, its girth. 00;26;54;14 – 00;27;02;03 Dave Yeah. Okay. And on the on the bite wire is there any any tricks there on that. Is that pretty standard up. 00;27;02;03 – 00;27;09;29 Nick Yeah, pretty standard. It’s, you know, it does wear out. So changing it, you know, fairly frequently is it’s not a bad thing. 00;27;10;23 – 00;27;13;17 Dave Like every every day or just depending on how many fish are eating it. 00;27;13;25 – 00;27;27;27 Nick Yeah exactly. Just seeing, you know, how it’s look and it kind of gets a little frayed or, you know, all twisted up that, you know, it’s good for a while. But if you at the fish that you’ve been dreaming of and yeah your gear is not tight. 00;27;27;27 – 00;27;38;22 Dave Not good. Yeah. Yeah. Is lose the trophy fish. Right. Have you had any those with you had to guess that messed up or you know, or somebody messed up in that fish just like the biggest fish you’ve seen you lost as that happened. 00;27;38;25 – 00;27;52;01 Nick Oh yeah. That’s it. You always lose all the really big ones, right? They’re all, they’re all giants. Yeah. Yeah. No, of course you, you do lose some big fish, but things don’t get down yourself, and there’s going to be another big one around the corner. 00;27;52;11 – 00;28;09;20 Dave Right? Yeah, there’s more. And that’s the great thing. Well, I want to circle back to on a few more of on the pike, but I was interested because walleye is a species that, you know, I’ve, I’ve heard people talk about fishing, farming. They feel like they’re one of those five species that are tough to find. Where in the world where have you fish, walleye? 00;28;09;20 – 00;28;11;12 Dave What where have you done that? Is that down south. 00;28;11;24 – 00;28;13;23 Nick Yeah. Mainly around Thunder Bay. 00;28;14;00 – 00;28;14;24 Dave Or Thunder Bay. Yeah. 00;28;15;00 – 00;28;23;21 Nick Yeah. There’s a great walleye fishing in northern Ontario that can be targeted on the fly. It’s not super popular by any means. It’s a very good eating fish. 00;28;24;03 – 00;28;26;11 Dave It is? Yeah. Well, I hope people love walleye. 00;28;26;11 – 00;28;27;11 Nick Yeah, absolutely. 00;28;27;19 – 00;28;32;22 Dave And why do you think it’s not? Is it because they’re hard to catch, is the reason. It’s not a more popular fly fish. 00;28;33;03 – 00;28;49;18 Nick It’s kind of like they’re, you know, a little bit deeper. It’s kind of like one of those ones that you have to fish, have your sink lines, loads sink to the bottom and strip it back, which, you know, maybe isn’t that everyone’s favorite or the reason why everyone has gotten five fish in the first place type thing, you know? 00;28;49;25 – 00;29;00;28 Dave Yeah. Yeah. It’s not like you’re not spotting like we’re talking here. Pike. This is a totally different deal. And no, is there any opportunities where, like you said, lake trout come up during the warm Is are there times when walleye can be shallower? 00;29;01;07 – 00;29;14;03 Nick Oh yeah. Springtime they start in the spring, which they will, you know, go into shallower areas. But that’s kind of like just for the first month of the season, three weeks of the season. And then they they go down a little bit deeper. 00;29;14;15 – 00;29;28;16 Dave Lower, deeper. Okay. If somebody wanted to was let’s see now, maybe they’re up in that region, you know, kind of around Thunder Bay or or would be a good start to learn more to maybe to get a walleye trip. Is there a good outfit out there or a place or what? Where would you send somebody? 00;29;28;27 – 00;29;40;18 Nick I think, you know, Lex will be a pretty cool fishery with lots of fish. If you wanted to target them on the fly, I would say, you know, and to me would probably be your your best time to target them. To me. Yeah. 00;29;41;00 – 00;29;42;04 Dave Okay. What was the name of that area? 00;29;42;14 – 00;29;46;00 Nick It’s in Sioux Lookout, Ontario. The lake could be Laksa. 00;29;46;14 – 00;29;48;02 Dave Laksa. Okay. How do you spell that. 00;29;48;15 – 00;29;51;03 Nick Lacey Pseudo, I believe. 00;29;51;12 – 00;30;06;07 Dave Oh, like soy. I gotcha. Like Salt Lake. Okay. Nice. Yeah, I think that that would be. I know. I like I said, I’ve heard a number of people over the years talk. I think we’ve done one walleye episode a quite a ways to go. So I’m going to have to look that up and see if I Yeah, I actually like saw it there. 00;30;06;21 – 00;30;21;24 Dave Yeah. Similar. I mean that whole area, I mean now we’re down in towards Ontario or in Ontario, but I mean there’s just it’s water everywhere, lakes, you know, I mean the the provinces are all just like the Midwest, right down in the States. That’s just there’s lakes. Thousands and thousands of lakes. 00;30;21;28 – 00;30;23;04 Nick Yeah, absolutely. 00;30;25;03 – 00;30;47;03 Dave On to Mark Lodge offers a world class experience with one of the finest rainbow trout and brown trout fisheries in the world. Their family owned and operated Missouri River Lodge offers comfortable accommodations, delicious home cooked meals and personalized service that make you feel like family days on the water are capped off by appetizers, beverages, dinner and stories on the back deck and around the campfire. 00;30;47;17 – 00;31;12;26 Dave Book your stay for an unforgettable fly fishing adventure where memories are made and the fish stories are real. You can head over right now to wet flights. Wycombe splash on D Mark that’s O and DMA r k on Demark Right now to book your magical Missouri River trip. Have you ever been up to the the Hudson Bay? You’re not far, I guess. 00;31;12;26 – 00;31;18;28 Dave Yeah, you’re kind of right. What is going on? Do you hear much about that? Is that something where people are fish in that area for on the fly? 00;31;19;05 – 00;31;35;05 Nick Not really. Not to my knowledge. Very, very remote, I believe. Like very little access for playing being kind of same thing. You’re only a transportation source. Yeah. And yeah, I haven’t heard much much about that area. 00;31;35;13 – 00;31;45;03 Dave Right. Because that’s kind of the way it works with pretty much all of the provinces or well, maybe, maybe not all, but you start driving north and eventually the roads don’t go all the way up north, do they? 00;31;45;11 – 00;31;53;20 Nick No, absolutely not. We’re kind of, you know, getting up to scout. You fly into what’s called Stony Rapids and essentially that’s the end of the road. 00;31;53;29 – 00;31;58;20 Dave That’s it. So Stony Rapids is the furthest northern place you can drive to, essentially. 00;31;58;20 – 00;31;59;00 Nick Yeah. 00;31;59;11 – 00;32;13;01 Dave Okay. And then and then you fly it up from there. This is good. Okay. Well, anything else on the pike that you would be you know, somebody right now is getting ready to head out pike fishing. What else would you be telling them to kind of get prepared? Have we talked about a few things? Any other items? 00;32;13;11 – 00;32;30;27 Nick Yeah, I guess. Fly selection, looking for it kind of depending on what time of year you’re going up there, like 4 to 6 inch baitfish type stuff. You know, later on in the season, if you’re in there August, they’re eating a little bit bigger baits so you can go that eight even, you know, 14 inch type flights. So some real big stuff. 00;32;31;14 – 00;32;42;15 Nick The bigger you go you’re going to be more so targeting larger fish. Yeah good selection flies. If the conditions align, you’re able to fish more on top order, which can be pretty fun. 00;32;42;20 – 00;32;46;16 Dave Oh, what is the top water now? What, what those what sort of flies would you be using there? 00;32;46;23 – 00;32;50;16 Nick Poppers, mice, trees, flies, stuff like that. 00;32;50;23 – 00;33;01;13 Dave Yeah, right, Right. Gotcha. Wow. And so in flies. So what do you think is the most important thing on the fly when you’re tying them? Is is color, you know, movement profile? What do you think is the biggest. 00;33;01;23 – 00;33;10;22 Nick Yeah, kind of all the above you know natural kind of Cisco type looking flies or black usually works pretty well. 00;33;11;02 – 00;33;12;00 Dave Okay. Black Yeah. 00;33;12;08 – 00;33;19;15 Nick Yeah. Just stuff like that profile. You’re looking for something you still cast, but, you know, has a has a little bit bigger profile. 00;33;19;24 – 00;33;39;05 Dave Okay. Yeah. And I think all the the standard stuff, I’m looking at a site here where they’re, they’re throwing a few out there the the single Buford there’s the Plains game changer style the Fletchers tweaker the lefty deceiver in the Closer. I mean yeah, those are all kind of your standard saltwater pounds, but those all would work there too. 00;33;39;11 – 00;33;42;29 Nick Yeah, the pika. They’re. They’re kind of like the freshwater barracuda. 00;33;43;05 – 00;33;47;23 Dave Yeah, right. That’s right. The freshwater barracuda. They look kind of similar, too, don’t they? 00;33;48;01 – 00;33;49;26 Nick You know, they sure do. Big teeth. 00;33;50;03 – 00;34;00;11 Dave Yeah. Big to you. What is it like when you catch you bring that fish in? It seems like it’s like a different. Right? It feels like it’s just everything’s a little bit different. The fins are all bit down towards the back. 00;34;00;21 – 00;34;01;05 Nick Yeah. 00;34;01;07 – 00;34;12;14 Dave I’m not sure if there are more intelligent fish. I’m not sure when to tell you because everybody, you know, you talk about trout with the brain they have. But do you feel like northern pike or or a little bit more intelligent than some other fish or is it just different? 00;34;12;23 – 00;34;20;05 Nick You know, it’s different. You know, the bigger they get, the more wise they are. You know, they but the other day, they’re pretty aggressive. 00;34;20;16 – 00;34;22;25 Dave Got the mouth is crazy how big the mouth is. 00;34;23;04 – 00;34;29;27 Nick Yeah It sure is. The eats are there’s no other fish that I’ve seen that eats the fly away. A bike does. 00;34;30;06 – 00;34;33;11 Dave Yeah. Which is how it how do you describe that. Eat what how do you describe. 00;34;33;22 – 00;34;51;10 Nick You know, you have a bunch of different ones but like here you get a big gill flare and, you know, an explosive kind of take that very it’s a very visually they don’t you know, they generally don’t sip a fly like a tripod. It’s a pretty visual experience. 00;34;51;19 – 00;34;59;06 Dave Yeah, that’s it. And have you there no musky up there. Right. Is that that’s one of the things that there are there’s some musky somewhere up there. 00;34;59;22 – 00;35;00;28 Nick No, too far north. 00;35;00;28 – 00;35;05;04 Dave Too far north. That’s right. So musky. Like it’s the temperature is the biggest thing of the water. 00;35;05;11 – 00;35;08;20 Nick Yeah correct. It’s just a little bit too cold for them. 00;35;08;26 – 00;35;12;26 Dave Yeah. Have you had a chance to chase Mosquito? All of you experience that at all? 00;35;13;03 – 00;35;17;28 Nick I have never on the fly, but yeah, I have thrown gear for the right. 00;35;17;29 – 00;35;27;28 Dave What is, is there a lot of difference between I mean I know they’re harder to catch the musky right but as far as the the take the fight and is that all kind of similar? 00;35;28;10 – 00;35;49;17 Nick Yes and no. You know, with Muskies it seems like you’re trying to get them in the bag as quick as you possibly can. You’re throwing a lot bigger baits. But yeah, the the eat is is pretty similar. But yeah, it seems like you’re you’re really trying to beat the fish up pretty quick with, with Muskie whereas with Pike you can enjoy a little bit more. 00;35;49;28 – 00;36;00;02 Dave Yeah you can John. Okay. And are you now as you look ahead we’re as we’re talking, it’s the new year, right? It’s the start of the year. When do you start getting ready to head out there for the season? 00;36;00;13 – 00;36;09;22 Nick Kind of right now, just, you know, All right. Trying time bugs for the for the season. Always trying to get a few new things for gear wise for the the returning guests and do once. 00;36;10;15 – 00;36;13;25 Dave We get new flies for the guests or new stuff to try to Yeah. 00;36;13;26 – 00;36;21;26 Nick Do some new things to try out every year It’s always late It’s nice to to try a few new things so these fish something interesting before right. 00;36;22;10 – 00;36;28;21 Dave Is there any other gear other than what we talked about that’s really important to have with Pike, I guess. Are you guys using nets up there to land them? 00;36;29;04 – 00;36;48;17 Nick Yeah, we got big, big giant nets too, to put them in. I think like one of the most important things, though, is, you know, just the the clothes that you’ll want to bring. All right. You know, like bring stuff for warm weather, bring stuff for cold weather, really good rain gears pretty important. And, you know, say your bags get lost or anything like that. 00;36;48;23 – 00;36;52;21 Nick The lodge does have you know, gear that that you can use. 00;36;53;04 – 00;37;07;29 Dave They do okay. Yep. So bring the gear and I guess there’s a I think there’s always a good tip on the flying is as maybe arrive day before or get there so you make sure you get your bags. Is that ever a problem people the flights occasionally losing track of the bags. 00;37;08;05 – 00;37;25;24 Nick Yeah it seems like it’s more it’s happening more and more now where flights are delayed or canceled, big bags are lost that if you’re able to with your schedule to show up a day early, that’s never better than it would suck that if you miss a trip because you’re you had trouble with travel. 00;37;26;06 – 00;37;31;01 Dave Yeah, definitely. So get up there. What was the name of that town that you arrived before you jump on the float plane story? 00;37;31;01 – 00;37;31;25 Nick Roberts So, yeah. 00;37;31;25 – 00;37;33;10 Dave So it’s getting to get to Stoney early. 00;37;34;01 – 00;37;45;10 Nick So, so getting to the lodge, you fly into Hammonton Oh, yeah. And there’s a, there’s a charter flight from Edmonton to study rapids. And from there you hop on a float plane and fly into the lodge. 00;37;45;19 – 00;37;47;25 Dave Okay? Yeah. So probably get to Edmonton a day early. 00;37;47;26 – 00;37;49;29 Nick Yeah, that’s, that’s usually a smart there. 00;37;50;09 – 00;38;07;06 Dave That’s right They’re not that Be cool to hang out there anyways. Nice. Okay well let’s we’re going to take it out of here pretty quick here we’ve got a segment our Toyota trivia segment. We’re going to break into this really quick and talk about this because we’ve got a great question, I think. And so so here’s the way this is going to work today. 00;38;07;06 – 00;38;29;00 Dave I’m going to I’m not going to actually ask I’m going to ask the listeners to answer this. So we’re going to have a question that’s going to be related to pike fishing. And then if folks listening have the answer, they can just go over to we’re going have a post on Instagram for this episode and and just comment there and mention at Prairie Toyota Dealers and at Scott Lake Lodge. 00;38;29;00 – 00;38;41;26 Dave And then that basically gets them entered. And I’m going to I’m going to be choosing a winner and giving away a fly line. So that’s kind of what we’re doing. So folks, it’ll it’ll be not the first person, but whoever I see there when I when I go over there to check it out. So so that’s that’s how it works. 00;38;41;26 – 00;38;57;04 Dave I’m going to say the question here and and Nick, don’t worry, you don’t have to answer this one. I’m just going to ask the listeners that even if you know the answer. But the question is just for Toyota trivia today, who is most often credited with bringing fly fishing for Pike into the mainstream? Is it? There’s four choices. 00;38;57;17 – 00;39;21;05 Dave Is it, A, Bob Popovic, B, Lee Wolfe, C, Joe Robison, or D, Lefty Cray, four famous famous flying or so If you know the answer to that, go over there right now on Instagram and just comment there. And like we said, tag Ascot, Lake Lodge at Prairie Toy Dealers, and then I will choose a winner and we’re going to announce it here, the upcoming episode on the podcast, and it’ll be a good a good time. 00;39;21;05 – 00;39;25;02 Dave So so first off, Nick, without answering the question, do you know the answer? Is that a pretty tough one? 00;39;25;11 – 00;39;27;28 Nick You know, I would think I would pick a different answer. 00;39;28;06 – 00;39;42;06 Dave Oh, there you go. Awesome. So we might even have a different This is great. So maybe I’m trying to think of what we’re going to do because I don’t let’s do this. Let’s put Ian. Well, I guess that’s that’s going to mix things up. Tell me who the guest who the other person you were thinking was. 00;39;42;13 – 00;39;43;27 Nick I would have said Larry Dahlberg. 00;39;44;04 – 00;40;02;13 Dave Yes. Larry Dahlberg. And we’ve actually interviewed Larry Dahlberg on the podcast, and he is he’s credited. So Larry Dahlberg, we’re going to we’re going to note that, but we’re going to still stick with the the four choices today. And out of the four that we said, who is the who is the one you would choose other than Larry Dahlberg? 00;40;02;16 – 00;40;18;11 Dave Who is the person you would say brought it to the mainstream? So, so cool? Well, that’s our tour. The trivia for the day. Always fun to give a shout out to Toyota. My question as we get into this random segment is obviously we’re giving a shout out to Toyota. Are you a what sort of vehicle are you driving? 00;40;18;11 – 00;40;21;08 Dave Are you a Toyota, a Ford? What’s your brand of choice? 00;40;21;17 – 00;40;22;17 Nick Our GMC. 00;40;22;27 – 00;40;33;17 Dave Oh, GMC, Yeah, perfect. What’s the are you pickup or. Yeah, yeah. Pickup. There you go. It feels like the in fact, when I see a GMC, I feel like they all look kind of similar. 00;40;33;26 – 00;40;34;16 Nick Yeah, they do. 00;40;34;23 – 00;40;48;03 Dave That, you see. I see a GMC is a lot and you’re like, Well, God, I thought that was a Toyota. They kind of have a lot of. I guess that’s the way the cars do it. They kind of see something that works and kind of almost copy each other. I guess that’s okay. So, so GMC Well, let’s let’s talk about this. 00;40;48;03 – 00;40;58;24 Dave We’re we’re talking about today, but tell me about Arctic Grayling or what is the unique thing about them up there? Do they do they get pretty big or are they small? What it was I’m sure you’ve caught a few of those up there. 00;40;59;04 – 00;41;19;09 Nick Yeah. They they’re not huge by any means. You know, we target them for wheat fly rods. Unique thing they’re they’re always looking up. You can as long as weather conditions are good, you can catch them off the surface and you can catch quite a few of them in a day if conditions are right. So it can be can be a lot of fun. 00;41;19;09 – 00;41;29;06 Nick You know, for someone that’s learning or someone that’s experienced, it can be a lot of fun. It’s a really unique looking fish. And there’s only so many places in the world that you can catch it. 00;41;29;16 – 00;41;35;29 Dave Yeah, that’s right. So we’ve got the grayling and then when you guys are up there, when you go and when are you going to be actually heading in to Scott Lake. 00;41;36;16 – 00;41;37;21 Nick Usually head up into me. 00;41;38;01 – 00;41;45;16 Dave Yeah. Anyway, so when you get up there, do you guys do some exploring, get out on the boats and get things going before clients or the clients coming in like, right away. 00;41;45;26 – 00;41;57;03 Nick More of just getting up there and getting the island ready for guests. There’s a lot of a lot of work that goes into getting the place ready for people to show up and yeah, it takes a team to do that for sure. 00;41;57;12 – 00;42;06;02 Dave What is that like? Is that a is it kind of because everything’s kind of closed up, right, for the winter, Nobody’s up there, so you just get there and on board things or what? What does that look like to get it going. 00;42;06;03 – 00;42;18;29 Nick Yeah. There’s, there’s bare boards, all the doors and windows, the getting the water going in cabins, ready for guests, getting, you know, fly or boats opened up that just kind of getting everything ready for for people to show up. 00;42;19;12 – 00;42;24;15 Dave Yep. You know do you guys are you seeing some wildlife up there when you’re you know, during the summer? 00;42;24;15 – 00;42;32;26 Nick Yeah, absolutely. We have bears, moose, Caribou Buzzcocks. Yeah. Not not saying that every single person will see one, but. 00;42;32;27 – 00;42;33;22 Dave You have the opportunity. 00;42;33;24 – 00;42;36;01 Nick Yeah You have the opportunity to see some pretty cool wildlife. 00;42;36;05 – 00;42;38;04 Dave Wow, You know, a bear. And these are black bears. 00;42;38;08 – 00;42;39;08 Nick Yep. Just black bears. 00;42;39;15 – 00;42;52;29 Dave Yeah, black bears. They got black bears and musk oxen would be amazing. Yeah. And they’re because they’re kind of roaming the prairies. Right? They’re roaming the area. And I guess they’re migratory too, right? The caribou numbers are kind of depending, but could you see a herd of them up there? 00;42;53;06 – 00;43;10;25 Nick I’m. You can. Yeah, absolutely. For for the summer. Most of them are a little further north. You know, we have a few fly out lakes, you know, way, way up north in the Northwest Territories. And up there you have a better shot of seeing the caribou. And we actually do we have one flat lake that you can actually get the opportunity Bear and grown grizzlies. 00;43;11;07 – 00;43;13;10 Dave Oh, and grizzlies. Yeah. 00;43;13;10 – 00;43;14;14 Nick Way, way up north. 00;43;14;20 – 00;43;28;24 Dave Oh okay. Yeah. You got to go further up north. God, this is great. Yeah. So you’ve got the wildlife and then, and then you know, everything else. I think just kind of flying in on a float plane. If you’ve never done that before, I’m sure. Is. Is that something you kind of get used to on the fly planes that kind of like flying in any plane? 00;43;29;02 – 00;43;38;25 Nick Yeah, you kind of do is still, you know, very, very, very cool. And you kind of have to take a break some and and realize how special it really is. Yeah. 00;43;38;27 – 00;43;50;15 Dave Cool. Well we’re excited to get up there. Any other words of advice before you head out of here today? You want to just, you know, before folks start traveling up, they’re looking into this on Pike or anything we missed today. 00;43;51;01 – 00;43;51;27 Nick Set the hook. 00;43;52;06 – 00;43;56;28 Dave Set took yeah is this trip said back to those trips is a lot of times you will be doing this trip set. 00;43;57;05 – 00;44;10;22 Nick Absolutely It’s again kind of like one of those ones that again you got to watch the fish if it turns on it real good. Absolutely. But if it’s if it’s still facing towards you, a lot of times the strips out with the road. So it works pretty well. 00;44;10;29 – 00;44;18;22 Dave It does with us. Okay. And are you now in the off season you’re down in Terrace are you hitting Steelhead hard during the season or are you out there going for it? 00;44;18;28 – 00;44;26;12 Nick Yeah, I tried to get out, did some skiing and that when when the weather conditions line up. Yeah. Trying it out after those things. 00;44;26;24 – 00;44;42;07 Dave Cool. Yeah, that’s a cool spot. You’re in there down Terrace, you’ve got I know Brian’s talked about that a lot. He’s a big skier and I think he’s. Well, we’ve had some pro skiers, right, that have been on the podcast and we’ve chatted with them. But there’s a good mix of, I think the steelhead, right? You can ski in the ski and fish for steelhead. 00;44;42;07 – 00;44;43;12 Dave There’s a good overlap there. 00;44;43;18 – 00;44;46;24 Nick Yeah, you can ski powder and catch or steal it. And same day around this country. 00;44;47;03 – 00;45;02;22 Dave Yeah, that’s cool. Awesome. Nick Well, I think we can leave it there for today. I think, like we mentioned, we’ll send everybody out to Scott Lake Lodge if they have questions for, for you guys. And. And is that the best place? I guess we can just head there to get more information on on pike fishing in the operation just hit the website. 00;45;03;00 – 00;45;03;23 Nick Yeah absolutely. 00;45;04;06 – 00;45;18;24 Dave Okay And good Well we’ll stay in touch with you there and hopefully we’ll be able to fish with you. You know, later this year and have a good time out there and find some pike. I guess that’s the goal, right? And then maybe if we find the pike we’ll switch over to lake trout that do people or people occasionally doing that. 00;45;18;25 – 00;45;20;09 Dave Are they trying to get multiple species? 00;45;20;17 – 00;45;32;09 Nick Um, yeah. Every guest is different. Everyone has different goals. And yeah, I think the best piece of advice is just go up there with an open mind and yeah, just experience everything you can. 00;45;32;18 – 00;45;47;03 Dave Yeah, exactly. Take it all in. I feel like that’s always the, the take home message on this. Right. The travel I think some people don’t, I’m not sure what type of person you are, but some people don’t really love to travel as much. You know the getting there. But I find that that’s kind of a fun part of it. 00;45;47;03 – 00;45;49;12 Nick And oh my God, it’s it’s all part of the adventure. 00;45;49;12 – 00;45;54;21 Dave Yeah. Yeah. So you don’t mind the travel, You don’t mind the all the planes and planes, trains and automobiles to get it all there. 00;45;55;01 – 00;46;01;18 Nick Generally, in my experience, the more difficult is that it is to get somewhere. The fishing’s pretty special. 00;46;01;29 – 00;46;15;00 Dave That’s right. Yeah. The harder it is to get there, the better it’s probably going to be in the end. That’s true in this case. Like, I mean, I’m not sure how many places you can go and say you might have a chance to catch 30 or 40. Pike Right. I mean, I’m I’m sure that’s not a there’s not a lot of places you can do that. 00;46;15;09 – 00;46;23;01 Nick Yeah. And, you know, we you don’t want to set expectations higher and that but you you can also catch more than that as well. 00;46;23;06 – 00;46;33;23 Dave Right. And could you also get I mean is it possible I mean again, getting skunked steelhead fishing is is just a normal thing. You could get skunked there, too, as the conditions change. 00;46;34;05 – 00;46;38;03 Nick You know, knock on wood, it doesn’t happen very often. 00;46;38;04 – 00;46;38;24 Dave It doesn’t. 00;46;38;24 – 00;46;43;26 Nick But, you know, weather conditions and stuff all, you know, play a part into into fishing. 00;46;44;09 – 00;46;45;14 Dave Yeah, yeah, definitely. 00;46;45;19 – 00;46;51;29 Nick But no, generally you’re going to have opportunities and what you do with those opportunities will kind of depict your success. 00;46;52;10 – 00;46;59;13 Dave Nice. Well, this is my good Like we said, we’re excited to get up there and thanks for all your time, Nick, and looking forward to hopefully meet you in person there. 00;46;59;21 – 00;47;02;29 Nick Yeah, I absolutely look forward to it. 00;47;02;29 – 00;47;16;13 Dave All right. If you enjoyed that conversation today, you can head over to White flight swing, dot com. Check out the show notes. We’d love to hear from you. If you haven’t checked with me, send me an email any time. Dave. I want flightaware.com I want to give a shout out to our fly fishing boot camp that we have going here. 00;47;16;13 – 00;47;32;23 Dave If you’re interested, go to fly swing dot com slash boot camp. We’ve got a bunch of great speakers this year. It’s going to be a great event. So signing up there will send you information when we get ready to go here. A couple of quick announcements next week. We’ve got a big week on the podcast again, as always in the bucket. 00;47;33;02 – 00;47;49;14 Dave Brian’s back for another round. Some great guests and Rick Mustache as well. So we’re going to keep this going and I really enjoyed this one. If you want to get access to our Montana Spring Creek School, it’s going right now. Just send me an email as always, day by web flightaware.com. I’ll let you know what we have on availability there. 00;47;49;23 – 00;48;06;11 Dave And and you can also sign up and get more information on that. Really excited to head out to another remote part of the world in Montana. We’ve got a special place we’re going to this year. So check in with me any time. I hope you enjoy this one and hopefully we can catch you on the next episode. And I hope you have a great afternoon. 00;48;06;26 – 00;48;20;23 Dave A great evening. And if it’s morning, I hope you’re enjoying that morning out there and we’ll look forward to hearing from you on that next episode. Talk to you then. Thanks for listening to the wet fly Swing fly fishing show for notes and links from this episode. Visit Wet Fly, swing, Dotcom.