Day two of my trip.
This post is from Arctic Lodges, Saskatchewan. I’m rather tired, as we were up around four this morning. Shower, breakfast, then took a cab to the airport where we caught a charter at 6:30 to the Lodge. Three hours later we landed, they ferried us by boat (short run) to the island with the lodge, where we were set up in our cabin for the week, fed lunch, and then spent the afternoon fishing.
First a lesson, anytime you travel write down and print out your itinerary to the finest detail. Something I did not do. While at the motel last night, I asked about the shuttle to the airport. The motel was not clear about how it worked (because they didn’t know). I was thinking a shuttle from the charter plane was scheduled to pick us up at 6:30. Given the motel’s fuzziness, I called Duane to confirm what to do. Good thing, as we were to take a motel shuttle to the airport, and be there in time to catch the plane scheduled to leave at 6:30. The motel only has one shuttle and it was booked when we needed to leave, so I had to arrange for a cab, which I hate.
Why do I hate taxis? Simple, most drivers don’t speak English very well, and fewer still seem to know how to where you want to go if it isn’t a well-known landmark. That proved to be the case with this one, as he ended up making a U-turn after a phone call to his dispatcher. I then keyed the air charter into my phone’s GPS to ensure we got to our destination.
After taking off, all went well, although three hours in the air after a couple cups of coffee was difficult on this ole boy’s plumbing. Made it without an accident, but it was a dash to the tree line after landing.
The hospitality at Arctic Lodge has been nothing short of fantastic. I'm feeling more than a little pampered We were greeted at the dock as our boat pulled in, shown around, and then taken to our cabin where our luggage was waiting. While a bit rustic, it comes with a nice wood stove, and it’s has indoor plumbing which will be a plus later this evening. We then spent an hour or so unpacking, and rigging up a couple rods, had lunch, and met up with our guide, Peter.
We decided to spend the afternoon chasing Northern Pike. My view was that would be the closest thing to a sure bet, and I was correct. In fact, while waiting for Peter and the boat, I made a few casts off the dock and had my first pike of the day, a nice fish in the upper twenties (inches, not pounds). The afternoon proved to be productive with us catching solid numbers of fish, nothing huge, but at least six of mine exceeded 30 inches.
We quit fishing early, as both Ron and I were bushed. Back at the lodge, we had a couple drinks, and enjoyed a full meal, of soup, bread, veal cutlet with all the trimmings, wine, and a warm bread pudding with cream to top it off.
Now I don’t know about you , this is living the life of Reilly, and I’ve eight more days of this hardship to endure. Tomorrow I think we’ll concentrate on Lake Trout, which the guide indicates are plentiful, and up shallow. As I understand it, they will be mostly five to ten pound fish, but they did catch a forty pound fish last week. I can only dream. I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow.
