- Pike grow to OVER 50 inches here! TRUE GIANTS.
- Catch 100’s of Fish Each Day of your Stay
- Lindy Hammered Spoons and Muskie-Size Spinnerbaits Work Best for Pike
- Catch Walleye Casting from the Dock!
By Mark Nelsen
I’ve led a blessed life. As the former host (now retired) of Cabela’s Ultimate Adventures Television Show, I have fished and hunted around the globe, including a great number of fantastic fishing lodges in Canada. My most recent fishing trip to Canada for a different TV show, has been by far, the most productive in terms of quantity and quality of fish.
When my phone rang recently and Fishing Hall of Fame legend Babe Winkleman was on the line, it didn’t take long to answer – the phone or his question. Would I accompany him to Saskatchewan to fish at the acclaimed Cree River Lodge with owner Pat Babcock? Cree River Lodge is noted for being the land of giant pike. In addition to monster pike, the lakes and rivers of this fishery are teeming with walleye and you can even find trophy grayling in a few spots. But Babe’s invite was to target big pike, and I was soon headed north to extreme northern Saskatchewan.
Cree River Lodge is unique in that there is virtually zero fishing pressure on this incredible water. It’s the only fishing operation in the area and there are hundreds of miles of water at your disposal.
If you like adventure travel combined with great fishing, this is a place that should be on your must-go list. Babe Winkleman has been here several times with TV cameras in tow to film his show Good Fishing, and I was honored to be his guest for a few days at Cree River Lodge.
The lodge itself is a comfortable hub, with an elevated boardwalk leading to each cabin. Cabins have electricity, running water, private baths and heaters if needed. The generous and delicious meals are served in the main lodge. Anglers can bring their own tackle or the lodge can provide everything you need. There’s even a tackle shop in the lodge with all the proven artificial baits for sale on the spot should you run out or need backup. Great boats, gear and guides round out this ideal location.
Medium-light spinning outfits are the popular choice to target walleyes, while heavier baitcasting outfits are the perfect option for pike. We used both braid and mono for pike and both worked equally well. Jigheads with plastics worked perfectly for catching more shore-lunch sized walleyes than you could ever eat (you can literally catch a walleye every cast and catch enough for lunch in five minutes from the lodge dock). If you want to target large walleye, a lot of anglers opt to troll for them pulling Hot’N’Tots. For pike, we stuck mostly with Lindy Hammered spoons or muskie-size spinnerbaits, which worked great, but you will pick up pike while jigging for walleye as well, so be prepared to lose some rigs when that happens. I call it getting “zing-powed.” It happens.
The other thing that will happen to you is that a big pike will hit your hooked-up walleye as you bring them in. It occurs every day here, so be prepared when it happens boatside and you get the surprise of your life!
On our trip, I had a goal to beat my best-ever pike (which was 40”). I did that the first afternoon, shortly after arriving at the lodge. We were jigging for walleye when a 41.5” pike hammered my jig and I had an awesome 10-minute battle with that fish on my light spinning outfit. A quick measurement and we released her back to the water, as they do with all the big pike at Cree River Lodge.
I broke that new record over and over each day, finally ending with a 46.5” monster pike for my best of the week. They get bigger here – well over 50”, but neither Babe nor I never hooked up with a true giant on this trip.
I couldn’t begin to tell you the number of fish we caught, and the number of big pike we caught. As I said earlier, you can catch a walleye on every cast, even from the dock, and the pike catch rate is not far behind that. Catching hundreds of fish a day here is not an exaggeration, it’s the norm.
Cree River Lodge offers several options for length-of-trip, and owner Pat Babcock and his staff are easy to work with to customize whatever trip you have in mind.
There are a couple options to get here – you can fly commercial to Saskatoon, then continue on Transwest (a regional air carrier in Canada), to Stony Rapids. Cree River Lodge staff will meet you at Stony Rapids, transport you by van for about an hour to a river landing, then it’s a short boat ride to the lodge. Another option is a weekly charter out of Edmonton, with a floatplane connection directly to the lodge. The Saskatoon route demands an overnight each way in Saskatoon, while the Edmonton option should only require an overnight on the inbound trip.
Cree River Lodge also offers spring bear hunting for monster black bears. Check them out at: http://www.creeriverlodge.ca.