Pike in Canada, Log Vol. 1

The road between Melfort and the Lake Mirond turn-off
is just as remote as it looks.  I expected a whole tribe of
Sasquatch to cross at any time.

     I’m finally sitting down to write this, having fully recovered from a two-stage marathon road trip across Saskatchewan, Montana and Wyoming to return to Colorado.  I may need to educate my travel partners about the dangers of blood clots before next year.

The flooded Au` Appelle River in Saskatchewan Prov.

     The second day of travel was uneventful except for viewing the amount of flooding in Saskatchewan.  Crossing these great northern plains is scenic but flat, except for the deep valleys that hold the flooded Au` Appelle and Saskatchewan Rivers.  Right now Saskatchewan Province is flooded, and even the smallest streams and rivers are overflowing their banks.  Almost all of the road is bordered by farmlands, with the vivid chartreuse color of the rapeseed fields standing out.  As we get farther north the fields become forests of straight standing timber, lush and green, alternating with smaller scrub brush and often miles of ‘ghost forest,’ standing dead timber as thick and tall as the living but without greenery of any kind and only having short twelve inch bare limbs to reach out with.  Nearing the lake we begin seeing more large bodies of water and Pre-Cambrian shield rock outcroppings along the roadside.

Cabin 11 at Newmart Resort

Kitchen area



Dining/Living room



Bedroom 1 and 3 are the same
BR 2 only has 2 beds



    Newmart Resort is near the south end of Lake Mirond and has a grouping of cabins of various sizes, sleeping anywhere from four to twelve guests.  Each cabin has a full kitchen and toilet and a deck with a gas grill, a separate building houses a men’s and women’s showers.  The boats are 18 foot Alumarine or Lund  with 20 hp Yamaha tiller steer 4-stroke motors.



One of the docks at Newmart Resort



     After unloading our gear from the vehicles and organizing the cabin we had an easy dinner of grilled brats with sauerkraut, baked beans, and tomatoes.  We then prepared our tackle for the morning and went down to the docks to fish for a few hours, catching small pike and a few pan size walleye.  Then it’s off to bed after the long drive and ready for a full day of fishing tomorrow.

     Lake Mirond is a long and narrow body of water, about 20 miles North to South and 3 – 4 miles wide.  The north and south end break up into large bays with a lot of rocks and islands while the middle of the lake has a lot of small to medium size bays with frequent small islands near shore.  Newmart Resort is in a hidden bay near the south end.  A GPS is helpful to be able to follow a trail back to the starting point. Two minutes of motoring and you get a sense of isolation.

     Today we went halfway up the lake to a medium sized bay, (they seem to call everything a bay here, instead of a cove.)  I caught a small 20 inch pike on the first cast with a Johnson Mullet Spin.  I like to experiment, so after a few small fish on the Mullet Spin and seeing a few busts on the surface, I tied on a frog.  The frog had frequent hits, but none of the pike were getting hooked.  Casting the Red-Eye Spoon was the best producer today including a 29 inch and two 25 inch pike and one 14 inch walleye.  For variety and experimentation, I tried and caught a lot of pike on a Hollow-Belly Swimbait, and a few on a large chartreuse crankbait with a slow wobble on the surface.  Everything I tried at least got hit and almost everything caught at least a few fish.

     The wind picked up this morning and a front passed through bringing about an hour of steady rain.  The pike have to be under 29.5 inches to keep, so we are keeping those between 28 and 29.5 inches to bring home and a few between 25 and 28 inches for shore lunch and dinner in the cabin.

     When I refer to everyone, this consists of: John, Jerry, Chuck, Vern and I.  We have five this year, but there are others who regularly go on this trip but could not make it this year.  I am still the new guy, this is my second year with the group, but some of them have been doing this trip for 12 years.  They have visited several different lodges and lakes, but keep returning to Newmart Resort, this is the seventh time they have visited here.

This was my least favorite spot for shore lunch with all the
weeds, but all the rest were great.  From left to right: John,
Vern (cleaning fish,) Jerry (cooking front), and Chuck
(cooking back,) not pictured: Jeff, standing in the
fish bucket with slime foot.

     We pulled into the bank for a shore lunch around noon, cleaning the fish and cooking over camp stoves, we ate pike, walleye, and the ‘just add water’ hash browns.  Balance in an metal boat can be tricky and while moving supplies from the boat to the shore I lost it and placed my foot right into the fish bucket, where we put fish we are keeping until the end of the day when we can clean them. With fish in the bucket and some water it is full of slime, so I had slime foot for the rest of the day.

    Coming in we had to run with 3 foot rollers most of the way, about half throttle on the little 20 hp Yamahas, but the boats took it well and we were soon back.  We can leave gear in the boats here without fear of anything being stolen, so when we got back all we had to do was carry daily supplies back to the cabin.

     After fish cleaning, dinner is venison steaks, corn, tomatoes and fruit cocktail.  Pretty tasty, roughing it in the great white north.