Tales from up north and the one that got away

One of the highlights of my fishing year is my annual fishing trip to Canada. This year my wife and I headed to Amisk Lake in northeastern Saskatchewan. We stay at a fishing camp run by Angell's Fishing and Hunting Outfitters.

While there, we met two other Montana fishing parties, one from Great Falls and another party from Bigfork. Another group of Flathead anglers was coming the following week.

Amisk Lake, also called Beaver Lake, is a large lake, 22 miles long and about 12 miles wide. Amisk Lake is unique because it has several hundred islands.

Island size varies from less then an acre to sprawling Missi Island, which covers several thousand acres. Missi Island itself contains 13 lakes.

Including island shoreline, Amisk Lake has hundreds of miles of shoreline. You could fish a lifetime and never explore all the bays, peninsulas and reefs.

Amisk Lake has a reputation for giant northern pike.

I have a good friend who landed a dandy 25-pound Amisk Lake pike three years ago. He has that trophy mounted and I get green with envy every time I see it. So I've set a fishing goal of getting one of those giants before I close my tackle box for the last time.

This is the third year of trying for my 25-pounder. The key to catching big pike in the spring is water temperature. Soon after ice-out, shallow bays tend to warm first, attracting small fish.

Big northerns then follow their prey base into these shallow bays and become vulnerable to fishermen. Later as the entire lake warms, big northerns move back into cooler, deep water where they are difficult for fishermen to find them.

On our first morning of fishing we headed out to our favorite bay, Wolverine Bay. The weather was cold, cloudy and unsettled. In was long-john weather and fishing was slow.

We started the morning by casting an assortment of spoons and plugs. When these lures produced only a few fish, we switched to trolling with spinners and dead minnows. That setup would not only catch northern pike, but we could also pick up good-eating walleyes.

Fresh walleye pike are rated by many fishermen as the best eating of all freshwater fish. It was on our menu for a couple of meals. Bill Matthews, a member of our fishing party, does a superb job of frying walleye fillets in his deep-fat fryer.

During that first morning, we landed several northern pike. JoAnn caught the first nice fish, a seven-pound fish about 34 inches long. Then we found a hot spot in the lake and had our first doubleheader, when we each had a fish on at the same time.

One of the drawbacks to our trolling setup is that our spinner baits did not have steel leaders. Northern pike have many sharp teeth, so steel leaders are normally used to keep pike from biting their way to freedom. But I caught several pike, including a six-pounder, with no problem.

My biggest thrill of the day was hooking into a truly large pike. After fighting it for several minutes, I had it within 30 feet of the boat. Then it decided to take off, snapping the 12-pound test line at the reel, which sounded like the crack of a rifle. Like all big fish that escape, it had to be a dandy!

JoAnn's seven-pound pike was the big fish of the day. The next day we fished another favorite bay, Hidden Bay, where I landed a 14.5-pound northern. This was the big fish of the trip.

All in all we had another great fishing trip to Canada. But I'll have to return next year to continue the quest for my elusive 25-pound northern pike.