Esnagami escape: Lodge fishing in the season of social distancing

#5  The pike are prodigious

The pike fishing I experienced at Esnagami was very also good, and Cameron and I both landed trophy fish. The really notable thing, however, is that the pike in this lake were exceptionally thick (or, as the kids say, thicc). I’ve rarely seen pike this husky, except in the healthiest, most productive of wilderness lakes, such as those of northern Saskatchewan.

And here’s the truly odd thing: Esnagami’s pike fishing gets better and better as the weather heats up. Seriously.

As every esox enthusiast knows, in the early season you can find incredible pike fishing—especially up north—in shallow bays, as pike put on the feedbag after an arduous spawning period. Then, as the season progresses, pike leave these shallow bays to spend the summer cooler water. In Ontario, that usually means depths of 20 or 25 feet, where the pike become much trickier to locate and catch.

However Esnagami Lake is home to some unusual hydrology—it’s full of spring holes, constantly burbling up with icy cold water and nutrients. Thick weedbeds grow around these holes, and once the weeds are up by mid-July, the trophy pike set up quite predictably around these weeds, in only six to 10 feet of water. It’s a fascinating quirk of the topography. And the bottom line is that Esnagami has shallow-water spin and fly-fishing for pike all season long. In fact, the majority of their 40-inchers are caught during high summer. Or in other words: now.

All my pike were caught on the fly, which always a blast. When I was there two weeks ago, the fish were transitioning from their spring to summer locations, and generally lurking in three to six feet of water. So I switched back and forth between an 8-weight fly outfit with an intermediate-sinking line, and a 9-weight with a full-sinking line, depending on the spot. My top flies were weedless Peanut Butters ranging from four to eight inches long, an articulated two-part Seaducer and the garish, all-tinsel Supercharger. (If this is out of your comfort zone, there are a whack of pike fly-fishing tips at www.outdoorcanada.ca/pikeflytips.)

If you hit Esnagami later this summer, take some weedless flies, plus some big bass poppers and sliders to fish on top around the fresh weed. I’ve never fly-fished for pike on the surface, but from what they say, it promises to be about as much fun as you can have with your pants on.