By Kent Danjanovich
Senior Editor
Gods Lake is world renowned as one of the most prolific fishing waters found anywhere on earth. Each year, travelers from around the world venture to its waters in search of giant northern pike, lake trout, brook trout and walleye. This area of Canada is unique in the fact that many of the waters in the continuous flowing river system travel from south to north, which results in water levels staying constant or even increasing throughout the summer months, resulting in wonderful fishing opportunities. My first trip to Gods Lake took place this past July with Greg Dick and his staff at Elk Island Lodge and believe me, it won’t be my last!
Big brook trout like this are available on a fly out to God’s River.
First, let me fill you in on a little history of the area. In 1824, the first Hudson Bay Post was established on Gods Lake, Manitoba, thus commencing development of the area. Business for the company was probably marginal since the Post closed in 1832. It was subsequently re-established in 1868 and once again abandoned in 1872.
Finally, in 1888 or 1889, a Bay Post was located on the north shore, which resulted in a long term presence in the area. Trading conditions apparently improved and the Hudson Bay Company continued operations at Gods Lake until 1964, although the facility at one time was moved to Gods Narrows with its final location at Elk Island.
In the fall of 1932, Gods Lake was catapulted from relative obscurity to the forefront of the news. About five years after the first prospectors were known to have visited the area, R. J. “Bob” Jawsey and Archie McDonald flew in with a canoe from Knife Lake and landed on the north side of Elk Island. Unbelievably, within a few hours after landing and while looking for a camp site, a strike was made a few hundred yards west of Elk Island (on what is now known as Jawsey Island) from which “gold was panned freely”. Numerous claims were immediately staked and as rumors of the strike broke out, other prospectors entered the area and laid claim to a large part of the northern shore of Elk Island and many of the islands to the north and northwest. Claims were consolidated and at one time during early 1933, some five companies were actively involved in trying to determine the value of their holdings.
Our guide, Barry, asked us what we wanted to key on our first day and we simultaneously exclaimed, “Northern Pike!"
Initial production commenced in 1935, peaked in 1939 and the mine was finally shut down in September 1943. During this period it produced more than $60,000,000 in gold and silver ore. While in operation the mine supported a local population of approximately 400 people and a town that included a clubhouse, ice rink, movie house and church.
With the demise of the mining activity, a few forward looking men recognized the great potential Gods Lake offered for spectacular fresh water sport fishing, located in a tremendous wilderness setting. Gods Lake, with over 400 square miles of surface area (1/3 the size of Rhode Island), has large areas of water with depths in excess of 150 feet, with a known depth of 400 feet, thus maintaining a surface temperature that normally does not exceed 60ºF. The lake therefore contains a large population of lake trout and the cold water allows catches of this species near the surface during the entire season. The lake also has large shallow areas where the average depth is less than 25 feet which support large quantities of northern pike and walleye. And of course, the outlet of this great lake is the fabled Gods River which has some of the best brook trout fishing on the North American continent.
After dinner we headed back to our boat and Kevin Orton soon hooked into our first lake trout of the trip, a beautiful 32-incher.
Fellow Pro-Staffer Kevin Orton joined me for our first visit to God’s Lake and Elk Island Lodge. We arrived in Winnipeg, Canada at 10:30 am and picked up our bags and then made our way to the Calm Air counter for our connecting charter flight for Elk Island. An hour later we were boarding our plane with about 30 other anxious fishermen. After a short 1 1/2 hour flight, we found ourselves landing on the runway of Elk Island, smack dab in the middle of massive Gods Lake.
Greg Dick and his staff met us as we deplaned and loaded our bags into a transport as all of us made our way to the main lodge. Each group was assigned cabins and we quickly changed clothes and made our way back to the main lodge for a quick lunch and to meet our guides before heading out for our first afternoon on the water.
Our guide, Barry, asked us what we wanted to key on our first day and we simultaneously exclaimed, “Northern Pike”! We made our way to the dock and jumped in our 18 ft. aluminum boat with a 40 hp Yamaha, making quick work of the 20 minute ride to our first secluded bay of the trip. Kevin would be on the Sony filming for an upcoming edition of Sportsman’s News Television and I found myself hurriedly rigging up my Redington rod and reel, spooled with floating line with a twenty foot sink tip, sporting 17 pound test leader and tipped with a large red and white fly that looked to be irresistible.
Elk Island's floating fleet can accommodate 50 guests per stay.
I stripped out about 60 feet of line, made a couple of false casts and then let the fly hit the water and start sinking for a second or two before I started to strip it back in. No sooner had I made my first strip and WHAMMO, the first northern of the trip struck and we were off to the races! Kevin had barely started setting up the camera and I was already fighting the first big northern pike of the trip. After a five or ten minute battle, Barry slipped his fingers under the gill-plate of a gorgeous 38 inch pike, then grabbed the needle nosed pliers and eased the fly out of the pike’s mouth and released him back into the tea-stained water of the grassy bay. What a start to what would be literally hundreds of fish a day during the next four days that would make their way to the side of our boat.
The next morning we decided to first hit a couple of areas to pick up some walleye for our shore lunch. We grabbed our spin cast rods and reels, tied on a light jig head and tipped it with a nightcrawler from a container that one of Barry’s last fishermen had left from a couple of days before we arrived. Kevin (You need to know that Kevin has been deemed the luckiest fisherman in the world, but that’s another story) set the hook on the first walleye and we soon found ourselves setting the hook on fish after fish and it didn’t take too long for us to put five 20-inchers on the stringer. (We had to work hard to find these fish, because most of the fish were too big to keep for shore lunch!) destine for our first shore lunch later that morning.
After lunch, we landed roughly 50 fish a piece and then we headed back to the lodge for dinner, the first of many great meals that were served to perfection during our stay. I also have to mention that it was tough to down the scrumptious entrees every night, since the appetizers laid out before each meal were enough to fill us up, but you know we would never want to make the kitchen staff think we didn’t like the food!
After dinner we headed back to our boat and Barry soon had us hooking into our first lake trout of the trip, a beautiful 32 incher. The next two hours found us fighting and releasing almost a dozen lakers and very unwillingly, we had to put our rods away for the night and we made our way back to our cabin.
The next two days proved to be much of the same, with dozens of northern pike from 30 to 40 inches giving Kevin and I a run for our money. For those of you that have not fished for northern pike, either with a fly rod or with hardware, well let’s just say, “What are you waiting for?” And as if the fishing to this point had not already been superb, the last day of our trip would offer even more excitement.
Greg informed us that he had a couple of spots available on the floatplane the next morning to fly to Gods River in search of monster brook trout. Now to those of you that have spent any time in pursuit of this gorgeous fish, the chance of having the opportunity to land a brookie over 20 inches is maybe a once in a lifetime event. Well, we had the pleasure of landing double digit numbers that day, with eight measuring over 20 inches and the biggest stretching the tape to over 23 inches (see the complete story from this trip in the August 2011 issue). After dinner our last night, we headed back out for a few more lakers and then back to our cabin on our last night at Elk Island Lodge. Needless to say, our expectations were more than met and Elk Island Lodge passed the test with flying colors!
We are proud to welcome Elk Island Lodge as one of our newest Platinum Approved Outfitters and highly recommend them as a “Must Do” trip for fishermen or fisherwomen looking for a great adventure. Their God’s Lake location is breathtaking and everything about your stay is nothing short of spectacular. Greg and his staff can accommodate groups from two to 50 and can tailor a package that will suit you to a tee. Their season runs from the end of May to the last week in August, so visit them on the web at www.elkislandlodge.com or give them a call today at 888-559-6633 to talk about all of the possibilities. And don’t forget to tell them the guys at Sportsman’s News sent ya!
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