First Fishing Report of 2013

The 2013 fish slaying season has started with a bang! The first guests at the lodge are 2 brothers from the southern United States. They insisted on being the very first anglers of the year: no exceptions. As fishing season was fast approaching, we were desperately awaiting the ice to vacate our summer paradise.

With exactly 4 days before opening day, the ice drew its last breath and Lloyd Lake resumed its more comfortable summer state. But...we'd never fished Lloyd this close to ice out. Would the fish inherit poor lessons from the lazy ice? Or would they be ready to bring spring and slam anything and everything?

We present to you the evidence from the first couple of days.You be the judge.

 

 

 

 

The fish gods have smiled on us. Here’s to a grand start to a grand opening year!

Ice Road 2013

Derrick digs out the Argo. Let the journey begin.

Just over 2 weeks ago, we returned from what is becoming our annual ice road adventure. The water level will be nice and high this year at Lloyd Lake—there has been record snowfalls. Around the lodge, the snow is 4 feet deep in many places. Thanks to the enormous amount of snow, getting into the lodge also meant getting stuck at least 30 times. No exaggeration. And we’re not talking a little bit stuck, folks. We’re talking standing-in-waist-deep-snow-shovelling-out-a-buried-Argo-and-snowmobile stuck. It was fun!

The shallow snow, as modelled by Dez.

"Which way is the road supposed to go? I'm standing on 6 feet of snow!"

Stuck for the second time in 2 minutes.

Making our own path to the middle of nowhere.

Yes, we have to cross that. It's called the beginnings of an ice road, people.

We made it to the lake!

Hello cabin 3. Glad you're still standing under all that snow!

Hard to believe, but this is the dock and beach. Fear not, guests of 2013. It will melt.

Over a week, we resupplied the lodge with essentials, like 1,200 pounds of quarts counter tops for the kitchen, new heaters for all the cabins, and a solid mahogany poker table…you know, the essentials. These will all be installed and ready to go when our first guests arrive on May 26.

Say hello to the Ranger, a.k.a. the shiny new transport from the airstrip to the lodge and between lakes. Oh yeah! Who can say they've driven a Polaris Ranger over an ice road to a fishing lodge? Derrick's got one fewer item on his bucket list.

We hauled everything in as fast as possible so that we could maximize our ice fishing time. Even at that pace, it took 6.5 days. Hauling in each load took 4.5 hours, meaning we could do 3 trips a day if we were out the door at 6 a.m. It was hard work. We slept like babies every night.

Last load!

Derrick is dreaming about the fishing...after we unpack and organize everything we've hauled in.

And after all that, we had a blast exploring Lloyd Lake and Big Fish Lake in winter. After long days of work, it was so rewarding to drop a line and hook into some trophy fish. There was one incredible evening where the fish gods smiled down on us and we hooked into a couple of gorgeous pike, mere minutes apart.

"Um...Dez? Do we have a bigger auger?"

All is right in the world.

Little brother.

BIG brother. (Real story: Derrick hooked this one and passed Dez the rod. Thanks bro.)

As much as we would like to paint a glamorous picture that everything ran smoothly, it didn't. While the wild beauty of northern Saskatchewan is breathtaking, it becomes downright treacherous in a second when your machine breaks down. We all agree that buying and properly maintaining the Argo is the best money we have spent at the lodge yet. We definitely had to rely on each other and on the trustworthiness of our equipment. On the final day, with everything having gone way too good to be true, we found ourselves hiking 4 miles in pretty deep snow. Mr. Argo had (temporarily) had enough. 

Gorgeous. And scary.

It’s moments like this when you truly feel alive. What made the walk so much better was when I reached into my pocket and found 2 chocolate bars. We laughed over it after. Here’s the thing: initially the feeling of isolation and even desperation is overwhelming and makes you panicked. Lucky for us, by talking things out and using our heads, we were able to troubleshoot the problem and repair it so we could get back on the way. Nevertheless, for those moments, if you can’t rely on the people around you and don't have a positive attitude, you could find yourself in great danger.

But enough about the serious stuff. We look forward to seeing everyone in 2013. Tight lines until then!

The man who "can't catch walleye." Good one, dad!

"Whoa! It's bright out here. Where's my shades, man?!"

5 Northern Pikes

Lloyd Lake has always produced great northern pike. So have our other lakes. In fact, you can catch pike in any of the 4 lakes we have on offer. There are lots of them in the 5 to 25 lb range, and they're aggressive once you have 'em hooked. This past season, none of the boats fishing for pike ever came home without having caught at least one decent pike.

Here are 5 great sharks we saw in our 2012 season. Tight lines!

The first beauty of the season. Caught by our very first guest at the end of May.

One of the beautiful pike this group caught on an afternoon in early June on Lloyd Lake.

Trevor's first hour of his first evening. Caught on the fly. 20 lbs or so.

One of the season's beauties, caught on Preston Lake.

Although he's usually fishing for walleye, Derrick occasionally hooks up with a nice pike too.

Our First Fishing Report!

It's time for the first Lloyd Lake Lodge fishing report. Woohoo!

On Thursday, our fishermen launched a total assault on Lloyd Lake's walleye with one first-time angler purportedly catching 42 walleye before lunch, and then moving on to some great northern pike action. There were several walleye caught in the 3 to 4 pound range with the biggest weighing in at 4.4 pounds. Keep in mind that nearly every boat was fishing walleye, but even so, the biggest northern weighed in at 12.7 pounds.

Even the owners get to catch a walleye every now and then. Derrick guided, and I landed this one as soon as my hook went in the water. Thanks bro, and thank you fish!

Yesterday morning the water looked like glass with hardly a cloud in the sky; a perfect day for slamming fish. More walleye mayhem ensued. The largest was 5.6 pounds. As for northern pike, the anglers report unreal top water action. They landed two 20+ pound beauties and lots in between.

One of yesterday's two huge northerns. Congrats Rod and Tony. Great fish!

Today may be a day for lake trout. They’ll probably be heading to Big Fish Lake. In a couple of evenings of fishing for about an hour each time last weekend, we pulled in three 8+ pound lakers, and quite a few in the 3 to 4 pound range. We’ll see what stories our anglers bring home tonight. 

As for Arctic grayling, our first clients two weeks ago landed a few nice ones. In fact, one of the guys completed the Lloyd Lake grand slam (walleye, pike, lake trout, grayling). We haven't gone grayling fishing since, but we'll keep you posted when we do.

Tight lines, everyone!