I…Have…A…Plan – Misekumaw 2023

I Have a Plan!  Misekumaw Outpost the longest wait ever!

Overview

During the early phase of COVID Seth Saarien and I began discussing a trip to Milton Lake Lodge’s outpost on Misekumaw.  Seth had fished it in 2017 for a shorter 4 day trip and was pretty excited to get back.  I had seen and heard of a lot of great lakes in Northern Saskatchewan and this one stood out.  It was big, had access to a second lake and had really nice accommodations which they had constantly updated over the years soI was pretty excited to put the trip on the calendar for 2021.  Of course 2021 didn’t happen for any of us US fishermen.  Then 2022 was considered but by the time the border was open we all had multiple trips rolled from 2020 and 2021 to 2022.  We had to wait until 2023.  We chose Mid-June and we ready to roll.

Getting There

Getting to Northern SK isn’t easy or cheap.  First of all there is one US carrier flying to Saskatoon and it runs M/W/F right now.  Not much help when it seems many operators are doing Friday too Friday trips.  Once in Saskatoon we chose the super easy Marriot Courtyard at the airport.  They offer a decent bar with food and easy convenient shuttle service from their location less than a mile from the terminal.  Seth and his buddies drove from MN and ND to Saskatoon in less than 12 hours.  Steve (my fishing buddy) and I both flew up.  Connections from Albuquerque to SK are rough.  It took me 16 hours.  By comparision the drive would’ve been about 21 hours.  After overnighting in SK we got up early for the flight from Saskatoon to Points North.  This is where a big cost comes from for the ooperators in NE SK.  That flight which was included in our trip cost them $1400 CAD (my trip to Marshland Outfitters camp was $1800 for the same flight).  Thankfully it is included in the cost of the trip but when you consioder these SK trips vs ON make sure you consider the remotest drives the price.

Our flights to Points North left more or less on time, made a stop in Fon-Du-Lac and continued to Points North landing around 1030a.  After a quick connection to the river we found ourselves in bound to Misekumaw on a Twin Otter.  After landing and rigging up we were on the lake by 1p.  BTW…I’m sure that twin Otter for the six of us wasn’t cheap.  I’d say for our $3100usd trip they had to invest close to $2000cad just to get us into camp.

Camp Life 

WOW!  Very nice for an outpost.  3 separate guest cabins with 4 single beds.  Two showers with on demand hot water.  Washer and Dryer in case you get soaked through.  Flush toilets.   The main cabin has a full kitchen, frig, deep freeze, stove, new bbq and a fantastic desk to chill out on.  The boats have newer outboard motors and nice and tight 17 ft boats.

Milton provides food packages they you can choose from and then the food is waiting in camp.  So for $30 a person per day you have all the food you need.  I will say we upgraded one day to steaks which were missing when we arrived.  I assume a group before us ate some of our food or the camp caretaker.

Which brings me to the other nice thing at Misekumaw they provide a camp host.  They help with the boats and make sure the camp operates smoothly.  He did a good job for us, despite the food issue.

Fishing Techniques

Given the extremely low water the first task was to find 6-10 feet of water.  If it had some cabbage all the better.  I personally got 4 of my overs on Big Hammer Swimbaits in bleeding shad color.  I think any soft plastics would work.  We also did well on spoons.  It seemed like the Pink Doctor spoons in 4.5 was good.

The best location was the river flowing to the NW towards Fanson Lake.  The mouth at Misekumaw was good for the first ¼ miles.  Then the neckdowns as you head North were all good.

Wrap

This was a good trip with really good friends.  Super glad I booked this trip and stuck with it until we got to go.

Fishing – Good

Camp – Very Good

Travel – Difficult / Expensive

Guides – NA

Value – Good