Steve Luethi and I along with a few other guys just got back from fly fishing 7 days at Cree Lake Lodge in Northern Saskatchewan. Our adventure began with a drive to Fort McMurray to catch a float plane into the lodge. Once we got the proper weight requirements for our flight sorted out, we flew approximately 90 minutes to the "Land of the Little Sticks", aka black spruce and sand of Cree Lake. Our quarry for the week would be monster pike, lake trout and arctic grayling. To add to the challenge, we were not using guides. It was a do it yourself trip in an outpost camp. We had our own food and the lodge supplied the boat, a map of the area and gas on a daily basis.
We had only one day when we were shore bound by big wind. We spent 7 days out on the water. We saw a lot of eskers, sandy shorelines, black spruce and big fish! Our trip included some challenges but we worked our way through them and enjoyed what the lake had to offer.
Cree Lake is massive. There are three fishing lodges on the lake. Cree Lake Lodge is a great set up. A fully guided trip there is not cheap but the quality of the fishery makes it so worth it.
Our day usually involved motoring to a variety of different locations on the lake to fly fish. We had good intel and our trip was hosted by Out FlyFishing's owner, Josh Nugent! Josh was able to take us to certain locations to fly fish that in the past were reliable places to look for pike and lakers.
We even drove the boats carefully down the Cree River to fly fish for arctic grayling! The pike in the lake are gigantic, some topping over 50 inches. The lake trout in the lake include some over 50 pounds.
We were able to navigate the massive lake using our GPS and In Reach system. The fly fishing was simply ourstanding. A Do It Yourself trip does have challenges and the price point is excellent although you have to be prepared for anything.
Check back, I'll post more pictures from our trip in the coming days!
45 Inch Northern Pike
Average lake trout!
Clearwater River
Steve landed a big pike just after Andrew netted a biggie!
We saw bears pretty much every day!
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