Fishing in Saskatchewan, eh?

By Bill Schneider, 6-26-05

Fishing Saskatchewan is certainly different than fishing Montana.

The first big difference is that Canadians revere northern pike and walleye, not any fish with the genius name Salmo. In fact, in the north lake country of Saskatchewan, many anglers have never heard of the cutthroat trout. While spending two fantastic weeks fishing up there in early June, I talked to lodge owners and guides and explained that in some mountain states like Montana many anglers and fish biologists consider pike and walleye nuisance species. Not only do fisheries managers shy from managing for good pike or walleye fishing but sometimes try to eliminate these species. The response was…well…you can imagine what it was.

Some lodges promote CPR for pike and walleye, which does not stand for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It means Catch-Photo-Release, the Canadian version of Catch-and-Release. (Imagine preaching C&R for pike in Montana!) Also, when registering at the lodge you usually hear a small sermon like: “The locals frown upon keeping the big ones.� That translates into being acceptable protocol to keep one monster pike for a trophy mount, but not for eating. This attitude has obviously contributed to keeping a high population of twenty-year-old, twenty-pound-plus lunkers in the lakes.

Some lakes have slot limits for both northerns and walleyes, which also helps keep the fishery strong, especially in the face of mushrooming fishing pressure. We could tell the difference between lakes with slot limits where we caught more big fish as opposed to lakes without them where we caught as many or more fish but they were almost all hammer-handle pike or perch-sized walleyes. Hopefully, the Saskatchewan fisheries pros see this, too, and implement slot limits on more drive-in lakes to prevent growing fishing pressure from downsizing the fishery.

Like any traveler to the north country, anglers will have a hard time finding key local knowledge like which lakes have spur roads to them, campgrounds or boat launches. Many lakes aren’t even on the highway map or if there, they’re unnamed with no access roads shown. Basically, if a lake does not have commercial lodges on it, it’s almost impossible to find out any information about it—or even find it on the map. We could not find a decent map showing all roads and lakes.

The mosquito population lived up to its advance billing and made camping miserable. Fortunately, the bloodthirsty bugs aren’t a problem out in the boat—until you venture near shore, that is. Take lots of repellent and head nets.

Make sure your boat and vehicle are in good working order. You don’t want a break down up at Flin Flon or Stoney Rapids. It might be cheaper to abandon the boat or pickup truck instead of towing it in for repairs.

Most lakes have numerous reefs and barely underwater rocks. Bring a spare prop because regardless how carefully you watch the depth, you might bend or break your prop. Go slow in unfamiliar water, so you don’t take out the lower unit and end up with a very expensive vacation. We saw several anglers using the Buddy System to deal with this problem, always traveling together and fishing near each other, probably with little walkie-talkies to stay in touch. Having a buddy with a boat means you’d always have somebody to tow you home if you hit a reef.

You also need a GPS and a compass. The lakes are huge and filled with islands and big bays. In fact, plan on being half lost for the first day or so, but you can always store home in your GPS unit before leaving the boat dock and go directly back there regardless of how turned around you might be. After fishing the expansive lakes of Saskatchewan, I’m going up upgrade my fish finder to include GPS, which would be much more convenient than my hand-held unit, which eats batteries like I eat potato chips.

You can try mightily to find advance fishing information before your first trip up there, but be ready for a challenge. Some lodges won’t give out real fishing info, which is sort of the old school thinking that you should be hiring them for $300/day to guide you. The more modern-thinking lodge owners freely give out detailed fishing tips because they know this makes you more likely to stay at their place next time you head north. In summary, though, it’s no different than any place you go fishing for the first time; it takes a while to learn the ropes.

The old exploitive days are long gone. You don’t go to Canada and bring back two or three coolers full of filets like anglers did in the sixties and seventies. Even thinking that seems sort of insulting to Canadians. Nowadays, you can bring back a maximum of one daily limit (five walleyes and five northerns). Be sure to leave on a square inch of skin on each filet and only freeze two filets per bag because the border agents will definitely check your fish. Even though you’re done fishing, keep your fishing license because you must show it at the border.

To reach the good drive-in lodges, you’re looking at a minimum of 15-20 hours on the road. To avoid this long drive, you can choose one of the many fly-in lodges. They’re more pricey, of course, but you’ll probably have better fishing—and certainly less competition for it.

Perhaps more than the good fishing, I enjoyed the massive, sprawling, island-dotted lakes. They’re gorgeous and not lined with cabins or circled with highways. You’re flush with the feeling of wilderness remoteness—right up to the point of feeling a little scared that if your motor didn’t start they’d never find your remains. You can see moose browsing the shoreline, bald eagles perched on islands, and classic beaver lodges in almost every bay, but the highlight for me was the omnipresent loon. You can plan on concerto of Loon Music to top off an already wonderful and natural experience.
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