Last week’s July 17th column covered the first segment of our Wollaston adventure. I fished with my longtime friend, Art Jones, his son, Scott, and grandson, Carter. We drove to Saskatchewan’s Lake Wollaston, and we stayed with Wilderness Family Outfitters.

Our lodge was located on the shallower southern portion of the lake, the deeper primary body of water being a 30+ mile boat ride to the north by northeast. On Monday, June 24th, our first full day of fishing, Art and I followed Scott, Carter, and guide Brendon Jacobs to the Trout Narrows area 30 miles up the lake. I marked our trail on my hand-held GPS.

Our primary quarry was lake trout, a fish that prefers a water temp of 40-52 degrees F. With the warming water (60 F), the trout were already heading to summer climes in the deeper main portion of the lake. We would “ambush” the trout in the narrows that emptied into deeper waters. Brendon pointed out desirable areas to fish to Scott and Carter as we traveled. We also encountered a big bear as he swam across the lake.

Wollaston requires barbless hooks, and we flattened our hooks with a long-nosed pliers. Art and I did well on the Day One lake trout with Clackin’ Raps, and as I gained experience, I removed the front hook of my Rap and eventually went on to fish single hook lures for the remainder of the trip. I had especially good luck with a Johnson Silver Spoon as well as single hook soft plastic swim baits. Art had great success using a Mepps Syclops spoon. It appeared to me that Scott and Carter did very well with single treble-hook dare devil spoons in the five-of-diamonds pattern as well as Flat Fish.

The already great fishing improved day by day. On days two, three, and four, we fished without a guide. Scott and Carter did a fine job remembering places Brendon had pointed out, and an area known as Rocky Narrows yielded lake trout as well as big pike. Here I took a yard-long pike while Scott and Carter nailed even larger pike including Scott’s 49” monster – the biggest ever taken by an angler from our lodge.

We had to be careful about rocks lying just beneath the surface. Anglers preceding us did $2000 worth of damage by knocking off a lower unit. Following Brendon’s exact trail on our GPS was invaluable as it made long rides stress free “rock wise.”

On Day Four, in much-improved weather, we returned to the Trout Narrows area on our own. Just before reaching the Narrows, Scott stopped for whatever reason over an area that proved to be stacked with trout. The four of us played “doubles” continuously on 25”- 28” trout that were as fat as footballs. I might call this the high point of the trip although big pike were quite a thrill. Conservatively, we caught hundreds of lake trout. We also caught pike everywhere we put a line in the water.

On Day Five we hired guide Brendon to aid us in targeting big pike and spent the day in the Lost River area, a series of grassy-bottomed bays that would yield many big pike as the summer progressed. Art and I took big pike, Art’s on a red bucktail spinner and mine on the Johnson spoon. We also caught some fat walleyes in the 24 inch range. Wollaston is known for lake trout and northern pike, but it does hold some walleyes in the southern portion of the lake although, numbers wise, I wouldn’t recommend Wollaston if walleyes are the primary quarry.

On Saturday we headed up the road to the Umpherville River bridge where Scott and Carter were agile enough to climb down to the bank where they caught Arctic Grayling on spinners in the white water. I didn’t realize at the time that we could have fished the mouth of the Umpherville by boat.

For our trip, Art put everything including gas, motels, and groceries on his credit card. It made short work of bookkeeping. My share of the expenses, lodge included, was a reasonable $1532.

Wollaston is one of the great “drive to” fishing destinations in North America, but if I return to Wollaston next year, I will consider driving to Saskatoon, a long one-day drive, and flying in from there. Wilderness Family Outfitters (info@wildernessfamilyoutfitters.com) offers reasonable packages that include airfare and home-cooked meals.

See you next week.

Pictured below is Scott Jones and his trophy pike.