Oh..oh..this is good! The first group!

This in from Brett Hendricks. Sounds like they had a hell of a trip!!
<*))))))))>< ~~~~~~

Well, where should I begin? A group of us had been kicking the tires on this trip for the better part of five years and finally decided to take the leap of faith this year. Bottom line - great decision.
Day 1 – Fred Hodge and I arrived in camp a few hours before the others in our group due to the float plane taking everybody in on two trips. After getting organized in cabin 2, Fred and I headed down to the dock to throw some casts before the others arrived. Fred’s first cast with an orange Mepp’s #5- boom a super fat 38 incher. After fumbling through my bag for some pliers and assisting with the release my first cast was greeted by his twin brother. Two casts, two 10lb pike. Not a bad start.
Our other four partners finally arrived around noon and after stowing gear and getting squared away everyone was scrambling to get their rods together and start fishing. The scene on the front dock was somewhat comical with four guys tossing various spoons and small bucktails. On about his third or fourth cast John nailed a 42 inch trophy about 5 feet from the camp’s water intake pump. It was just the beginning.
Due to severe ice on the main lake (more on that later) our guides were unable to get to camp from Fort Resolution. No big deal. We had a few trophy pike newbie’s with us so we decided it would be best to go 3 x 3 in each boat so each crew had some big pike handling/releasing experience in the boat.
We fished around the Beck’s and the Tower Island inflow, and while we didn’t get any more trophies that first day, that was all about to change…

Day 2- With marked maps and John Mich’s advice, we tried getting into the Back Bay because of all the success he and his groups have had there in the past. It wasn’t going to happen. Due to extremely low water levels (or high sand levels depending on your view) there was no way you were getting a boat into the Back Bay. The water was 6 inches deep in many places, and what seemed like deeper channels only lead to more clay and sand. After about an hour and three or four route changes we abandoned the idea and headed over to Beck’s.
We picked up a few good fish and a few smaller trophies. Inconnu were also on the menu, and with everyone wanting to catch a fish they had never caught before they definitely were a welcome bonus. The wind had turned the entire Beck’s area into a glass of chocolate milk so around 10:30 a.m., my boat- with Bill and Mike Smith decided to head up to Thubin. It was about to get ugly.
Thubin started with a few snot rockets and hammer handles and then somebody upstairs decided to throw the big fish switch. For three hours we basically had a 36 inch+ fish coming to the boat every 2 minutes. 38, then a 39, then a 44, then a 39, then a 40, etc, etc. This went on until about 2 o’clock and we had to head back for lunch. While we only boated 5 trophies in that stretch, we must have caught at least forty other fish in the 38 to 40.5 range.
We returned after lunch with the entire Taltson Bay armada and began right where we left off. For the next two hours anywhere you looked somebody’s rod was doubled over, somebody was taking a picture, somebody was getting out the cradle, etc. All in all I think the four boats put about another fifteen trophies in the book and double that many 38- 40.5. John also caught the biggest pike of the trip that day with a fat 48 incher falling to orange and black Mag Dawg.

Day 3- We wanted to rest the Thubin area after basically carpet bombing it with four boats the day before. We fished around the islands, the Tower Island in-flow, and the river channel by camp. The walleyes were still pretty spotty but we were catching a lot of nice Inconnu and large pike. We didn’t catch any huge fish on day 3 but we did manage another seventeen trophies with most of them right around the 41-42 inch range.
Day 4- We decided to hit the Beck’s area hard as the other group (Rick Sweeney and Steve Ciambrone) had been having considerable success in that area for over two days. The wind had picked up and there was a good “walleye chop” on the entire lake. Apparently the pike all got the same memo that day - “EAT”, and they did. We simply hammered them all day. Mike Smith borrowed a Drifter Tackle Super Stalker from one of my boxes and at the time I didn’t think much of it- (should’ve brought more). Every time we looked over at their boat, Mike was reeling in another fish. The whole group hammered fish all day and it didn’t seem to matter where you cast or if the boat had drifted out of position. Johnson Silver Minnow’s (they all end up silver anyway) and Doctor Spoons were on fire. The Super Stalker which Mike aptly named “Gilbert” was the hottest lure by far. Rough estimates say that Mike and “Gilbert” caught close to 150 fish that day and that his guide asked him to take the lure off on several occasions. When the smoke cleared on Day 4 our group had racked up another 22 trophies and enough 38-40 inchers to get the tape out at least another fifty to sixty times.

Day 5- THE ICEMAN COMETH
ICE- Some people like it in their drinks, others use it in their coolers to keep things cold. Some guys even like to fish through it. Unfortunately, none of brought our augers or Vexilars.
Because we had left Thubin alone for two days we thought it would be good to head back down and visit all our new pike friends in the Thubin River again. Big mistake. After a couple of hours of mediocre fishing we decided to pull the plug and head back to Beck’s, the big girls just weren’t in Thubin that morning. About a mile out of Thubin and still 3- 4 miles from Beck’s Camp we ran into a small problem. Ice- and lots of it. A wind shift had pushed the entire ice flow on Great Slave hard against the south rocky shore. This wasn’t some broken up slush or 1 inch thick skim ice me and others in our group have busted through a hundred times in the past while duck hunting. We are talking a literal iceberg/glacier anywhere from two to five feet thick. Can’t go through it, can’t go over it, can’t go under it, got to go around it…………….by foot.
We ditched the boats in a small protected cove and set off up the rocky shoreline towards Beck’s in hopes (picture us praying to God) that Rick and Steve from the other group would be there fishing and could boat to camp for help. To make a long story short- we got to Beck’s ( after about 3- 4 miles of pretty good hiking), they were there, and we borrowed their boat and went back to the last open water where we had left Fred, Bill, Steve, and guide Lester. After some shuttling around we were all back in camp around 6 p.m., minus three boats and some fishing gear. Some of guys went out that night while most of us stayed in camp. The whiskey, cigars, and wood burning stove somehow outweighed going back out that day. All in all it was a crazy day that only yielded 4 trophy pike and one trophy nature hike. We missed out on some great fishing as Rick and Steve put thirteen or fourteen more trophies in their boat by fishing the Beck’s area with light spinning rods and small spoons ( they were bored with their musky sticks and Calcutta 400’s).
Day 6- Down three boats, we again had to do some logistical changes to get everybody fishing. Three of us piled into Don’s small transport boat he runs back and forth to Fort Resolution while the other three guys went fishing with Lester ( guide). While things were a bit cramped we all managed to have a great day of fishing. Happy to not be hiking or staring at an ice flow we fished in and around Beck’s and the Tower Island in-flow all day. The walleyes really picked up and I think most guys boated about 20- 25 of them while casting for pike. The Inconnu where also still hitting. We only managed ten trophy pike, but the walleyes and inconnu really made it a good day.

Day 7- The Finale
Started the morning by running down towards Thubin and retrieving our marooned fishing vessels. It was a site for sore eyes to have all our gear and boats back. A south wind had pushed the ice flow back out a good ten to fifteen miles into the lake. Fished around Beck’s with limited success- not sure if was the brown water or because we had fished it hard all week- but with the open water Thubin was calling our name. Got there and it was on. Me and John hit four trophies in the first 20 minutes we were there. The other boats joined us and everybody was slamming big fish. Again, Doctor Spoons were on fire. Unfortunately, the wind shifted a little bit and everyone started worrying about the ice again. In the hour or so everybody was in Thubin we boated about ten trophies and another twenty 38-40’s. If we could have stayed I think we could have easily put another three to four trophies in each boat before lunch. Back around Beck’s and Tower Island things were a bit slow until John and I headed into the Beck’s channel mouth. It was like we stumbled into a bee’s nest. For the next hour and a half we slammed one adult pike after another. We probably caught close to twenty five fish in that time span with the smallest being 38 inches. With seven trophies in the boat and running forty minutes late for dinner we decided to wrap it up.

The Pike totals for the week for each guy looked like this-
John Rozek- 42, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 41, 42.5, 41, 42.5, 41.5, 41, 42.5, 41,44, 45, 41, 43, 41.5, 43, 44, 47¾, 42, 42, 41, 44, 41, 42.5 ,41
Brett Hendricks-41, 41, 42, 43, 42.5, 41, 42, 41.5, 44, 45, 42, 41, 42, 45, 42, 43
Fred Hodge- 46 ½, 41, 41, 41.5, 43.5, 43, 41, 41, 42, 44
Bill Smith- 44, 42, 42, 43, 41, 41
Mike Smith- 43, 44, 41, 42, 42, 44, 43, 42, 42, 42.5, 44, 42, 41.5 43.5
Steve Smith- 42, 42, 44, 42, 41.5, 42




Summary- A great trip with some adventure thrown in and the best pike fishing any us had ever experienced
Hottest Lures- Doctor Spoons, Johnson Silver Minnows, fat bass type crankbaits, large Bulldawgs, and “Gilbert” (Drifter Tackle Super Stalker)
Hottest Spots- Beck’s Camp, Thubin, and Tower Island inflow/outflow

























*** Note to all! please remember that you can add a comment to this post. So feel free to add something; stories about specific pictures, memories, tales, etc. Also feel free to send me anything I should add about your trip. Send to: jamie@customfish.com ****


Brett,
That's a fantastic report! Kudos!
Jamie