During the past August, my friend George Liska and I had the pleasure to visit the Wollaston Lake Lodge that is placed in the north east part of the Canadian region of Saskatchewan.

In Canada, there exist several hundreds of fishing lodges, but I chose this one because several friends that I have in USA told me great word about this remote arctic lodge. But the most important thing that convince me to go there was the huge quantity of fishes that are caught every season, that in Canada is only 3 months, from June to August. For example the last season more than 52.000 pikes were caught and of them 966 were from 40 to 43 inches, 421 from 43 to 50 inches and 51 over 50 inches! About the other fishes were caught 6294 walleye, 3216 lake trout and 2669 arctic grayling, no bad!!

The Wollaston Lake Lodge so is one of the few lodge where in a fishing week or in a day, you can realize the grand slam: the catch of all four the most appreciate arctic fishes.

The lodge can accommodate until a maximum of 50 fishermen and dispose of a numerous fleet of 18 feet Lund Pro V powered by 80 Hp outboard; in this way you can reach also the very far fishing spot in a short time.

The lodge is surely the most beautiful and well organized that I have visited in all this my years fishing around the world. I have traveled from Africa to Asia, from Europe to America and Caribbean and I have never found a lodge so professional. Everything was accurately prepared: the 25 boats were all new Lund, the meals were super excellent like in the most renowned restaurant, all the guides know very well all the areas and every summer spent 2 weeks at the guide school to prepare for the season., and obviously the fishing was fantastic.

The lodge is placed on north part of Wollason Lake, that is one of the biggest lake of Saskatchewan; over 6400 square kilometers with more than 4000 kilometers of shoreline; the thousands of shallow bays and the continuous drop-off create a perfect habitat for pike, walleye and lake trout

CANADIAN PIKES

The pike is the fish more representative and the most fished by the clients of the lodge that come in this remote Canadian region. The average size is around 4-6 kilos, but fishes from 10 to 15 kilos are caught every week. It is for this reason that the Wollaston Lake Lodge is so renowned in all North America. Every year, also, are caught several fishes around 16-18 kilos or more; for example on the 2001 season the clients of the lodge caught 51 of these.

Around the first week of June the ice of the lake is almost completely off and pike moves from deep waters to shallow bays where he can find warmer water and here start spawning.

So usually it is in June and in the first 2 weeks of July that pikes are concentrates in delimitates areas of the lake. They are also more aggressive than usual and will attack with no hesitation every lure that they will see pass near them. High quantity of catch are guarantee in these periods and from 30 to 50 fishes per person a day are common. The official record of the lodge is 225 pikes caught by a boat in a day fishing!

To come fishing in these period at the Wollaston Lodge is compulsory to book one or 2 years in advance, or you will find surely full booked.

In mid July and August all the pike scattered in mid water preferring zone with aquatic vegetation and the fishing come a little bit more difficult. Any way, statistics say that it is in these two months that are caught the biggest pikes of the season.

As regard my experience, I think to have seen in four days more pikes than in all my life! The water of the lake is so clear that seems a swimming pool; on the first days the hot and shiny sun make the lake like an aquarium; it was quite easy to see many and many pikes from 10 to 15 kilos stay in the weed beds. Fishing that day was very difficult because the bigger fishes didn’t want to eat. They wasn’t absolutely interested in our lures; any way we had better result with medium and small size fishes. me and my friend George ended that day with around 40 pikes and 3 small lake trout.

The other fishing days were luckily cloudy and windy, so the bigger fishes decided to move and also to be more aggressive with our lures; the average size was a little bit more high with pike around 5-6 kilos. We caught also nice size fish like several 7-9 kilos and a 10 and a 12 kilos.

The average number of fishes caught by our boat was around 40-50 a day. We lose many fishes also because in Saskatchewan it is compulsory to fish with barb-less hooks and during the fighting, mainly under the boat, was enough easy that the fish went off. 

The clients of the Wollaston Lake Lodge fish for pike for the 85% of the time they spent on the lake and only the other part of the time for walleye, grayling and lake trout.

Lake trout are very good fighters and it is a fish that in this lake can reach and sometime go over the 35 kilos like the one caught last year by a lucky U.S. fisherman.

Usually June and the end of August are the best moment to catch this beautiful arctic fish; in fact in these periods they mainly stay in shallow open water and to spot and to catch them is easier. Any way in the other periods with the help of a downrigger it is possible to fished them in deeper waters.

We have spent only very few time fishing for this fish, because we contract the big pike fever and we spent almost 90% of our fishing trip with the goal of catching a big one. Any way we appreciate how they fight , with several run in deep water and when they reached the boat was spectacular see them jumping over the water.

Our biggest lake trout was only around 3 kilos, but during our stay were caught some trouts over 8 kilos.

We have spent few hours also for walleye, fishing with ultra light tackle, and I can assure you that the fishing for this small predators is very funny. We fished for them using small jigs at the mouth of a river that runs near the lodge. The average size of the catch was 1 kilos with some fishes over 1,5 kilograms.

Fishing for walleye isn’t too easy, you have to find the right lure color and also the right speed of retrieve, that must always be very very slow. Every bite was very suspicious and delicate, but during few hours of fishing we had more than 20 bites each.

We haven’t had the time to fish for grayling, but many other clients of the lodge do it with nice results like some fishes over 1 kilos. 

Surely for Canadian pikes you need a powerful rod and an appropriate reel; I used mainly a Shimano Techium with a casting capacity of 20-60 grams linked with a reel with a 0.35, but also a 25 LB braided line is a good choice. You never know the size of the predator that will attack your lure, could be a big one, so it is better always be ready with the right tackle combo.

Any way if you what to have some fun with medium size pikes a spinning rod with a power like 15-40 or 20-40 grams, and a lighter line (0.25) is surely proportionate and will guarantee you long and exciting fighting.

What about the best lures there? I have done this question to several guides of the Wollaston Lake Lodge and all of them had for me the same answer: "Use spinners". In fact more that half of the clients of the lodge use 3-4 or 5 size spinners by Blue Fox or Mepps. Seem that these iron lures in these waters work better than any other lure. Many pike over 10 kilos were caught during the week with spinners.

I have used them very few with nice results; my best fish with a spinner was an 7 kilos pike. I preferred to use Rapala Husky Jerk of 10 and 12 centimeters and the Rapala Tail Dancer of 9 centimeters. As colors we used darker colors in sunny days and light and bright colors during cloudy days with very good results.

I have had the pleasure also to test some news Blue Fox spoons like the Esox and the new Inkoo with excellent results, mainly with the former.

The right size of the lure was essential during our fishing days; in fact seems that pikes didn’t prefer big size lures over 12 centimeters, probably due the fact that in that period the lake was full of small minnows no long more that 8 centimeters and for that period they was the mainly forage also for the bigger pikes.

I have seen also lots of "crazy" pike , surely well over the 8 kilos come on the surface to eat May flies, that are insect that aren’t long more that 3-4 centimeters...fishing is so strange sometimes!

For trout fishing was also compulsory the use of very small lures maximum 8 centimeters with natural colors like gray or like rainbow trout imitation.

Absolutely not to forget are the steel leader for pike that must be at least 30 centimeters long and with a power of 40-60 lb. Also the snap swivels must be of strong and of good structure and with a power of at least 50 lb. I recommend you Sampo, Rosco or Barckley.

For walleye fishing a light spinning rod 10-15 grams is a good choice; as lure we have mainly used small jig, in particular the new Wildeye Finesse and the Wildeye Vibrotail of Storm that imitate in a very real way a small forage fish that is present in the lake.

For any necessity in the lodge there is a small, but well provided, fishing shop where you can buy lures, clothing, boots, and general fishing tackle.

What I have to say more...if you like pike fishing, (but also walleye, trout and grayling) Wollastone Lake Lodge is the place where to fish absolutely, at least once in your life! 

USEFUL ADDRESSES

You can contact the lodge at this address: Wollaston Lake Lodge, 2-415 51st. St.East, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7K 6V4, Canada. You can also visit their web site www.wollastonlakelodge.com or contact them by e-mail: info@wollastonlakelodge.com

For general information about Canada contact directly the Canadian Tourist Commission, 235 Queen Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0H6, www.travelcanada.ca