Reindeer Lake

[EZM]

Headed up to Reindeer Lake next week ....... southside at Nordic Lodge.

Anyone been out there? How was the fishing? Anything to share with us?

Looking forward to it - it should be fun.

[EZM]

Bueller? ............... Beuller?

[cube]

Headed up to Reindeer Lake next week ....... southside at Nordic Lodge.

Anyone been out there? How was the fishing? Anything to share with us?

Looking forward to it - it should be fun.

Very envious.

Are you planning on chgecking out the meterorite hole for the lake trout?

Good Luck on your trip.

[huntingd]

Was up a couple weeks ago. Bought a cabin 30 minutes south of Nordic on waddy lake. Drove up and tried from the shore and caught some pike. Nothing big but like I said we were just tossing spoons from shore. Hope the road is open for you guys. I was stuck a couple days late due to the fires.

[Kokanee9]

That's a road where your gravel guard on the boat trailer will be tested if your hauling it up there.

I have always meant to make it there but always managed to get sidetracked on all the water before then and ended up fishing too long at too many places and would run out of time. Never had any dates booked with a lodge, just went with a zodiac for lakes with no launch, and the trailered boat when there was a launch.

I always went in mid-late june and found the mosquitoes in the evening and horseflys during the day could be a little overwhelming at times.

Also, be aware of the delivery trucks running up and down that road. They try to make the trip as fast as possible and always watch for them coming up to any curve or hill where you can't see what's on the other side.

Good luck and enjoy your time up there!

[binnzer32]

I hope your packing some bondy baits......Headed up to Reindeer Lake next week ....... southside at Nordic Lodge.

Anyone been out there? How was the fishing? Anything to share with us?

Looking forward to it - it should be fun.

[EZM]

The road opened back up this week and it's been raining a little - so the fires should not be a factor.

I don't know anything about the lake but it looks like the crater is about 20km from the lodge so it should be close enough to check out. We definitely want to catch a few lakers.

Thanks for all the info and heads up - I will let you all know how it went. We are back on the 30th - so expect a report.

[dodger]

Looking forward to a couple of pics! Tight lines EZM.
Dodger.

[Kokanee9]

....................

Thanks for all the info and heads up - I will let you all know how it went. We are back on the 30th - so expect a report.


Sounds good.

Let us know how much area was burnt by the road on the way to there. I was also wondering about Missinipe. Were there any fires in that area?

Thanks.

[Bushmaster]

There was just a TV show on this afternoon about Nordic Lodge....mostly about the day to day operation of running a lodge.

[THERICARDO]

Reindeer in Sask?

[huntingd]

Sounds good.

Let us know how much area was burnt by the road on the way to there. I was also wondering about Missinipe. Were there any fires in that area?

Thanks.


Lots of area burnt between la ronge and there with a bunch south of missinnippi as well. It was pretty rough up there until about 30 km north of missinnippi. The fires were crossing the road in a few spots but the road has been open for a week so it should be good now.

[EZM]

TrophyPikeHunter called the lodge today to ask a few last minute questions. Sounds like everything is good to go.

Driving out Friday - back on the 29th or 30th ... should be awesome. I'm pretty pumped for this trip.

Trying to get a rock guard together for the back of my truck so I don't beat the heck out of my boat on the 220km of poor pit run gravel roads up there. The lodge advised us to make sure we had spare tires.

[Falko]

Do you have a bow protector on the trailer?

[THERICARDO]

TrophyPikeHunter called the lodge today to ask a few last minute questions. Sounds like everything is good to go.

Driving out Friday - back on the 29th or 30th ... should be awesome. I'm pretty pumped for this trip.

Trying to get a rock guard together for the back of my truck so I don't beat the heck out of my boat on the 220km of poor pit run gravel roads up there. The lodge advised us to make sure we had spare tires.



Enjoy man, my pops is there right now and have been smashing fish for 3 days... said roads are sketchy but good overall. they staying until friday evening, have had some rain and smoke is all but cleaed for most part.. just smokey smell is all he said

[THERICARDO]

Pike been deswtroying anything really he said but cranks been drawin in large fish...

[Lowrance Fishburn]

I flew up there a few weeks ago, stayed at arctic lodges. It was a great lodge with really good food and the people who worked there were nice and helpful. We did have a few issues with our guide, who was an older native fellow that was a bit of an A-hole - took away form the trip a bit.

The pike fishing was outstanding, landed a lot of big big pike. The laker fishing was good but had a few dry spells and only 1 over 20 lbs.

I wish i could tell you where to go but that lake has so many islands i was lost the entire time. Hopefully the smoke has cleared up as it was pretty hazy up there a few weeks ago.

Really amazing lake though. Good Luck!!

[Tfng]

Good luck! Post a few laker pics when you get back.

[EZM]

A few pictures of the trip to Nordic Lodge on Reindeer Lake ..... enjoy ...

Fishing slowed down this week and the guides were struggling to put clients on big fish. We caught a pretty reasonable amount of fish, but nothing worthy of bragging about. Weather was nice.

[EZM]

And a reminder why Canadian Shield Lakes can be very dangerous. Here is a mid lake reef that comes up literally inches below the water and comes up from 40 feet of depth straight up. This area is 300 yards from the closest visible shoreline or structure and seems like a logical and "safe" place to cross. Luckily we were trolling slowly when we spotted it.

As water levels are the lowest they have been in years, this hazard has not been mapped and would end your day in disaster. Some of these bays and areas are 80-100 miles from civilization. We were near a town and a resort and probably saw 2 maybe 3 boats pass a few miles away per day.

[Tfng]

And a reminder why Canadian Shield Lakes can be very dangerous. Here is a mid lake reef that comes up literally inches below the water and comes up from 40 feet of depth straight up. This area is 300 yards from the closest visible shoreline or structure and seems like a logical and "safe" place to cross. Luckily we were trolling slowly when we spotted it.

As water levels are the lowest they have been in years, this hazard has not been mapped and would end your day in disaster. Some of these bays and areas are 80-100 miles from civilization. We were near a town and a resort and probably saw 2 maybe 3 boats pass a few miles away per day.

You were lucky to find it at a slow speed.

I learned the hard way to carry a spare motor in my boat when fishing remote areas. I carry a five horse in the bow now. 16 foot boats don't paddle well.

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Slow fishing up at Reindeer? Dayum thats a shame, we had decent luck and landed a couple lunkers in mid June. What were u using for pike and for lakers? I had the most success with a salmo sweeper for bike pike and my own homemade down rigger set up since they didnt provide them, just a sinker a 3-way swivel and a blue-red flatfish was getting hammered.

[Lowrance Fishburn]

PS, the boat u were using, if its the one in your pic, looks pretty sweet. Downriggers a trolling motor and a windshield? Nice

[EZM]

PS, the boat u were using, if its the one in your pic, looks pretty sweet. Downriggers a trolling motor and a windshield? Nice

Yes - that's my boat - thank-you .... it's small enough to get into some sketchy launches but big enough to deal with some choppy waves.

[EZM]

Slow fishing up at Reindeer? Dayum thats a shame, we had decent luck and landed a couple lunkers in mid June. What were u using for pike and for lakers? I had the most success with a salmo sweeper for bike pike and my own homemade down rigger set up since they didnt provide them, just a sinker a 3-way swivel and a blue-red flatfish was getting hammered.

PIKE

We trolled spoons, crankbaits mostly for pike and did some casting with pretty much anything we had in the tackle box. Pike fishing was steady once you found a shoreline with some Pike around. Some parts of the lake where the shore goes immediately to deep water 40' plus - there are no pike around.

Pike seemed to be willing to take anything you threw at them (just like any pike lake really).

The shallow bays were also devoid of life .....no perch, pike or even minnows .... likely low O2 levels as the weed growth was in full swing. We found most of the Pike on Rocky shorelines in 15'-20' of water with some structure and some weeds or just outside of those shallow bays.

I'd say Pike fishing was OK ... not great .... but not terrible. The guides in some cases were not doing any better - as a matter of fact we landed more lakers compared to any other group out there.

Pike we were usually reporting numbers just a little over the average based on the groups that went out - everyone agreed it was slower than expected.

LAKE TROUT

Lakers were in deep wide straights and into the inlets of the crater. We were able to catch lakers pretty steady trolling spoons. The Silver/Yellow UV spot Coyote and William Wobbler Yellow/Red Five of Diamonds were the best lures for lakers. They seemed to prefer yellow, light and fluttery spoons.

They would not take a spoon that had a flasher, dodger or lake troll in front of it for whatever strange reason. So we fished bare spoons 48" back behind a dipsy diver or deep six. The downrigger wasn't used at all as the structure was up and down and the rocks snag everything. They were holding anywhere from 20 feet to 40 feet down - so a rigger wasn't required.

I did hook into one monster - but after not being able to gain any ground, and having her swim whereever and whenever she wanted, we kicked the boat into neutral and she ran toward the boat at a high rate of speed, shook and came unbuttoned. Using a single barbless has some disadvantages ..... seemed to me that fish knew exactly what she was doing. She stripped over 100 feet of line (I had a line counter) in the first 2-3 seconds. I gained 50 feet and she took another 60 feet - it was pretty awesome. I've landed many lakers in the 12-15lb range with that same set up and the rod had a reasonable bend - this rod was doubled over to the water and bent beyond anything I've experienced.

It's hard to imagine a heavy action rod, with 30lb power pro and level wind reel set at roughly 20lbs of drag wouldn't move her, but I'm guessing she was a monster. I wish I would have at least saw her.

Other than that - all the fish were of average in size. We only took 2 lakers (5-6lb) lakers home between the both of us and let everything else swim.

Overall the weather was great - the accommodations were good - and we had an opportunity to explore a new lake.

[EZM]

You were lucky to find it at a slow speed.

I learned the hard way to carry a spare motor in my boat when fishing remote areas. I carry a five horse in the bow now. 16 foot boats don't paddle well.

The lodge gave us specific paths along and between specific islands to follow to get to a few general areas. Anything and everything in between we moved at low speed (under 10mph) with our eyes on the water and depth finder or just slow trolled over the area.

Once we passed over it - with my side imaging - I was able to verify a 200' wide corridor of safe water. SO we set up the track and were able to map out quite a bit of the water on the lake as we explored over the 5 days. After that I just followed my previous path and cruised right over it with no issues.

The lodge warned us about a few specific area that had known hazards but they are not marked at all - or in some cases marked poorly ( a white bleach bottle tied to a rope and brick ) which is impossible to see when the sun is high or low on the horizon OR if there is any white chop.

The water is the lowest it has been in a generation according to an older native guide we spoke to. We found a few new hazards the lodge was unaware of as the water was low and what would have been "cruised right over" in years past now would make short work of your motor and leg.

It's my second time on a big Canadian Shield Lake and both trips had me on edge sometimes. If you are slow, deliberate, careful and diligent you should be ok.

The cool thing is - there are no tubers, skiers or boat racers around ...lol.

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Ah man i get the chills just reading about an epic laker battle. I know what u mean, the 23 lb lady i caught took me for an incredible run as well, my arms were getting sore by the time we landed it. I have it on the gopro so i'll post pics but that was the only laker over 10 lbs i think we had the entire time, lots of 3-5 lbers . Shame to hear the fishing was slow, awful long haul for ok fishing. The structure in that lake is incredible though and with its massive size its a total guessing game really, our guide put us onto some big fish but the biggest pike and laker we caught was from my cousin and I saying " hey, lets check out that spot over there" and getting lucky i guess. At least u guys were out-fishing the other boats, thats always a bit of an ego boost when u know u did better than anyone else that day. Thanks for the info on what u were using, i doubt i'd journey back up there for the price we paid but if u ever wanna hunt lakers lemme know :fighting0007::fighting0007:

[TrophyPikeHunter]

Unfortunately, none of big fish...:(