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SASKATCHEWAN FISHING LODGES

Cree Lake Lodge, Pike Capital of the World

By Bill Schneider, video by Gene Colling, 8-13-10

One of the many sandy beaches on Cree Lake, Gene Colling and his monster 47-inch pike, the management team (list at end of article), the comfy log cabins, and juggling graying isn't easy. Photos by Bill Schneider and Gene Colling.

When you walk into the main building at Cree Lake Lodge, that’s the sign you see on the wall, Pike Capital of the World. Actually, to be fair, a lot of fishing lodges justifiably call themselves something similar, but after visiting more than my share, I’d have to say Cree Lake Lodge deserves the title.

Fishing is so unpredictable. My fishing partner, Gene Colling, and I constantly theorize and speculate and curse about it. When you have some fantastic fishing, you never know if all the “stars” (i.e. season, lure or fly, leader, line, color, speed of retrieve, location, depth, distance from shore, water depth, shoreline vegetation, structure, wind, a great guide, clouds and water temperature, to name a few) just happened to be perfectly aligned or whether it’s commonly that good.

As far as catching monster pike goes, I haven’t found anything better than Cree Lake, and I choose to believe every ‘star” doesn’t have to be aligned to get it. More likely, it seems, it’s frequently like that. I’m certainly expecting it to be the same when I go back.

Sadly, we had only two days at Cree Lake, but we had spectacular success during our short stay, especially with big pike. We caught eleven northerns over 40-inchs in about eight hours of fishing, including Gene’s gigantic 47-incher and a big-shouldered 44-incher that couldn’t resist my special homemade fly--my biggest ever on a fly rod. Gene landed five trophy pike in one spot in about 45 minutes.

Frank Morris, our 75-year-old native guide, sort of shrugged it off like it was just a normal day at the office, but I’d like to hear from anybody who has ever done better than that.

I’m not saying the same couldn’t happen on a lot of lakes up in Pike Heaven, northern Saskatchewan, but Gene and I have spend a grand total of about three months fishing for pike there, and it’s only happened to us once, here at Cree Lake. In most lakes, you catch a lot of small pike and a few big pike, but at Cree Lake we had a hard time catching one small enough for shore lunch.

Andrew Schreiber along with his wife Rachelle and two sons, Adam and Brandon, and Adam’s wife, Darrelle, recently purchased historic Cree Lake Lodge, which was built back in 1954. They also own Pierce Lake Lodge, which is a drive-in fishing camp, but plan to sell it and concentrate on making Cree Lake Lodge one of the best in Saskatchewan.

You’d think the owners would trumpet the incredible fishing when I ask them my “what’s different about your lodge” question, and they do, sort of.

Yep, Brandon agrees, “the fishing is the best.”

“But it’s also the environment,” Brandon’s father Andrew adds. “Where are you going to find another lake like this?” he asks. “The landscape and location are better than most lodges.”

Video by Gene Colling

Cree Lake is the third largest body of water in northern Saskatchewan, topped only by Athabasca and Reindeer lakes. It’s 50 by 80 kilometers and has about 500 islands, which converts into somewhere around 2,500 kilometers of shoreline.

Cree Lake encompasses both the famous Athabasca Oil Sands and Precambrian Shield regions of Saskatchewan. This means part of the lake looks a lot like other shield lakes, but the rest is dotted with sandy slopes and beaches. Some of the bays, like a couple we used for shore lunch, almost look like they could’ve been on a South Pacific atoll.

With that incredible resource and the fishing it produces, you’d think the lake would have several lodges, but no, Cree Lake Lodge is the only operating fishing camp on the massive lake. Two other lodges have operated in the past, but they both were closed in 2010.

One more difference is how Cree Lake Lodge views its customers. “We really care for our guests,” both Brandon and Andrew emphasized, but went on to say he didn’t want too many of them.

“We’ll be putting the money back into the business to make this as good as it can be for our guests,” Andrew explained. “We want to keep the number of clients to a manageable level so they get higher quality service and a better fishing experience.”

You won’t hear that from most lodge owners, who would like nothing better than to run at capacity.

The Saskatchewan government doesn’t officially class Cree Lake as a CR (catch and release) lake, but the owners of Cree Lake Lodge owners have voluntarily make catch-and-release the lodge’s policy, again to improve the fishing experience for their guests and to preserve the magnificent natural resource. So, if you’re into taking home a cooler full of fillets, Cree Lake Lodge is not your place.

“We’re really into conservation,” Andrew noted, just like it wasn’t unusual.

As another bonus, Cree Lake has no commercial fishing, which obviously improves the outcome of most sport fishing trips.

And it isn’t just pike, not hardly.

I had the best grayling fishing of my life at Cree Lake. Regrettably, I only had a half-day on the Cree River as in flows into the lake, but that was enough to catch about 50 grayling, all surprisingly feisty and about 13-16 inches. Bring a 4- or 5-weight fly rod and a few small nymphs and you’ll have as much fun as you ever had fishing.

I now have a soft spot for grayling. Some anglers think they’re too easy. To that, I say, ha! Even in prime habitat like the Cree River, I found grayling to be leader-shy and only willing to eat my fly on an ideal drift. Non-believers often use heavy gear, catch a few, don’t think it’s that much fun, and say, “let’s go catch some more pike.”

Not! On light tackle, grayling are amazing--and amazingly beautiful, too, with their iridescence and sail-like dorsal and a delicateness about them that you won’t find on another freshwater fish. They’re rare, but worth the hunt. They’re an “indicator species” that demands the highest quality environment, so when you find them, you know you’re fishing the best that’s left.

And grayling never stop fighting. You can’t even hold them still for two seconds to get a photo.

Ditto, almost, for lake trout. We only had a half-day but put about 20 lakers in the boat--nothing huge, all about the 4-7 pounds, but lots of action. Again, we didn’t have much time for lake trout, but in talking to lodge guests and seeing all those photos of giants on the wall, it has to be excellent, especially in June when lakers are still shallow and in late September when they come into the shallows to spawn.

Just like you needed any more build up on the fishing, but Cree Lake is one of those rare “grand slam” opportunities where you can fish for all four major Saskatchewan game species at Cree Lake--northern pike, lake trout, arctic grayling and walleye. We only spent a few hours walleye fishing and caught a few, but didn’t have time to do it justice. Other anglers at the lodge told us they’d had great walleye fishing.

One more difference I noticed was that Cree Lake Lodge’s cabins and general operation seemed nicely suited to couples and to groups of female anglers. You don’t see many women at Canadian fishing lodges, but I suspect this lodge could become an exception.

Like many Saskatchewan fishing lodges, though, Cree Lake does have limited opportunities for hunters, offering excellent black bear hunting.

Another thing we liked about Cree Lake is the no “nickel and dime” policy on drinks or anything else. Everything is included in the price except gratuity and fishing gear.

And great food, too. Master chef Danny Savoie laid out some memorable tables, including my favorite, Lobster Tacos, with real lobster. (No, even though the fishing is eminently excellent, even Danny can’t catch those lobsters in Cree Lake. He flew them in from Maine instead.)

So, enough said, eh? Let’s just conclude by betting that a trip to Cree Lake would be a “can’t miss” plan.

Management team (left to right): Bruce Biller, Andrew Schreiber (standing), Larry John, Terry John, Denny Savoie, Devin John, Art Jamvier, Andre John, Frank Morris (our guide) and Brandon Schreiber.

Footnote: For more on traveling and fishing in Saskatchewan, click here.

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