The river of my dreams – God’s River Lodge 2022

Overview of God’s River Lodge – I have kept an eye on God’s River Lodge over the last 10 years or so.  I heard some good and some bad rumors over that time, but the draw of the river was always there.  Like a dream you have over and over, but you never get to see how it ends, when you wake up right before the end.  You see God’s River is known as one of the top 5 Brook Trout Rivers in North American and I had never caught one, until something finally triggered my chance to visit.  My son who used to fish with me on fly-ins out of Red Lake graduated with his master’s degree in Computer Engineering and got a cool real first job here in Albuquerque.  It had been almost 10 years since our last trip.  In April he said “hey dad, we haven’t done a fishing trip in a long time.  We should go this summer.  September would work with my new job” Suddenly, I was fighting to maintain my composure as this was exactly what I have been waiting to hear for 10 years.  I said yes, we should, and I have the perfect place.  I had already booked 3 trips and spent a bunch of money, but I was pretty sure my wife would clear her two men to go.  After a deep sigh and slow head shake from the “boss” we were cleared to go.  Enter God’s River Lodge special deal.  You see they are always full in June but very lightly booked later in the season.  So, they offered 50% of the second person when traveling with a full price customer for July-Sept and a lower base rate for those slower months.  I could get my son and I at an American Plan Lodge, guided, for $4350 inclusive from Winnipeg for 5 days.  I was finally going to get a shot at the river of my dreams.

Getting There – The first major plus to GRL is the location near the small village of God’s River which has a runway and regularly scheduled service direct from Winnipeg.  So, if you get to Winnipeg, you just grab a commuter flight to God’s River and you are there in less than 2 hours.  It also allows the lodge to offer completely flexible start and end dates on trips.  This works really well when there are so few flights to Canada from the states.  My best routing was Albuquerque to Las Vegas to Winnipeg.  That Vegas to Winnipeg is only offered on Thursday and Sundays.  So, I flew to Winnipeg on a Thursday night and into the lodge on a Friday am.  We were able to fish Friday 2p until Noon Tuesday and we were home around noon Wednesday.

Camp life – One major improvement to the lodge happened in 2018 or 2019.  They built brand new Triplexes which have 3 apartments in them.  Two side rooms with two queens and a full bath.  A center room with 2 bedrooms (4 beds) and bath.  So, it supports 2 guys/4 guys/2 guys.  Then they have two of these structures.  Each room offered satellite tv offered from Shaw with more than 100 channels.  For us that meant we had access to NFL football and NHL pre-season hockey in the evenings!  The food was very good and served hot made to order for breakfast and dinners which included Steak, Pork chop, Meatloaf, Ribs with a different desert fresh every day.  Lunches were either bag lunches or shore lunches.

Fishing Techniques – Pretty easy when you have a native guide who has fished the lake their whole life.  Find mid-lake, boulder filled shoals, and it is game one for spawning lake trout from approximately Sept 5-30.  I lost track of the number of lake trout after 100 two different days.  Another day we targeted pike but nearly got blown off the lake after 29 smaller pike by a 25mph gusting to 35mph wind.  We decided to return to the lodge have a hot lunch and then go back out to the river to avoid the wind.  The best lures for trout were Ratt-l-Traps in 1oz / 4in in Silver and blue and Silver and Chartreuse.  We also had luck with rainbow trout and paintball doctor spoons, husky devyles in Yellow and gold, and half wave spoons with red stripes and gold back.

Fishing the river was a challenge.  The lake was 4 ft above normal levels, and all that water was flowing north out of God’s Lake via God’s River.  The river which is normally fast moving during our visit was a raging torrent.  Thankfully our guide had no problems navigating.  I wish I could say it wasn’t a problem for the brookies, but it was.  Yes, they were spawning and beautifully colored up but getting lures down to the proper depth in a ragging boiling torrent wasn’t easy.  The best we could do was 3in sinking Rapalas.  The best technique was casting just barely into the fast-moving water and let it wash the lure downstream.  When the lure was changing direction from parallel to vertical to the boat give it a pull and fight it back upstream slowly to the boat.  The Trout would hit on the turn and slow retrieve upstream.  It yielded 5 trout for me.  We also picked up pike and walleye in and around the rapids, including a really nice 27 in walleye for my son.  Getting a few brook trout was nice but it wasn’t quite the dream I was hoping for.  On the other hand, the Lake Trout fishing more than made up for the slower brookie fishing.  Sometimes you have to take what the water gives you and when it takes away one thing it often offers up something else.

There are a few negatives to consider.  The best fishing appears to be June and September.  I imagine you would catch a good number of fish mid-summer but for my money I would stick with June and September.  The commuter flights in and out of the small villages can be very full and somewhat flakey as they can change their routing to serve the most people as efficiently as possible and if you are unlucky you might go from a direct non-stop to a 3 stop flight that adds hours to the travel time.  The lodge removes this issue in June by running private charters, but in September you would not have that luxury.  The weather in mid to late September can be a challenge.  We landed in Sunny and 61. Saturday was 48/36 with 10-20 mph winds causing 2–3-foot waves on the main lake.  Sunday, we saw highs of 38 and lows around 35 with 20-35 mph winds causing 3–4-foot waves on the main lake.  Monday, we started with snow and 33 and managed 41 for the high with minimal wind.  Finally, Tuesday was 55 and sunny with no wind.  Such is September in the North.  I will say even with 30 mph winds the river was fishable and as always stunningly beautiful.

Wrap – Amazing.  Absolutely amazing lake trout fishing.  We had a great time despite some really rough fall weather.  The accommodations were good.  The food was very good.  The price was exceptional.  Travel was pretty good too.  In terms of value this trip was priceless.  Best part is my son loved the trip and wants to go back in 2023.  God’s river is going to offer the 50% off deal again to folks booking in fall 2022 for fall 2023.  Hopefully we can make this trip happen again in 2023!