Here is the report from the thread Fall Patterns I was asking about. Sorry about the length.
Day 1 - I left Saskatoon at 9:20 am monday september 30th and arrived at WhiteGull Creek at 12:30 pm. It was 16 degrees and open blue skies when i left Saskatoon and it was overcast and spitting when I arrived at White Gull. I had heard rumours of having the biggest brookies in North Eastern Sask and I wanted to give it a try. I first started fishing a pool near the highway. I landed a half dozen 4 to 7 inch brookies and missed many strikes. A beaver decided he didn't like me there and began swimming and slapping the water around me for about 5 minutes. After he left I couldn't catch another fish there. I headed up stream to another access and hiked about a km down stream and then 2 km up stream looking for deep pools, overhangs or a glimpse of a nice brookie. The creek looked like It had seen very heavy traffic and I saw no brookies over 10 inches, landed only landed a couple around 7 inches and found no deep pools. I packed up and headed to stay the night at Shannon Lake. I tried night fishing when i arrived. I used a boatman and the water was swarming with them when i paddled out there in my float tube. I had a couple of rises by my hook but it was overcast and pitch black. I was completely blind out there. The next morning I awoke to this.
Day 2
It was a beautiful spot to fish. I tried boatman at several different depths (2-10 ft) and speeds (almost stopped to skimming the surface) but had no luck. I also tried olive leeches, black leeches, small chironomids and prince nymphs. I saw many boils within casting distance and even saw a couple of nice browns come out of the water.
I packed up and headed to McDougal Creek for some brookies. I hit one pool beside the road and landed a dozen 4-11 inch brookies on a prince nymph, and on small brown leeches that look almost like scuds. I observed several large brookies come from the depths of the pool to check out a large black leech i had but none of them hit it.
I then decided to head up the road to Burtlein Lake and hiked in for some Tigers and Splake. I was surprised when i arrived and saw that there were 12 boats left there. To me there is nothing that says trashy park like seeing a dozen decrepit boats left at a lake. I have seen this at several other of the parks nice lakes. I guess because its public property people can leave what ever they want there?
I started fishing with a black leech but because the dark colour of the water i switched to an olive leach and began working the reeds. I had around a dozen fish on within a couple of hours and lost the biggest ones but landed one decent Tiger Trout. I had a heck of a time getting fish in my net and only ended up landing two. Both times the fishing seemed to pick up and I would get hits or a fish on every other cast a beaver decided to start slapping the water around me.
Day 3
The last day it was snowing lightly and 2 degrees. I tried fishing Nipiwan Lake, McDougal Creek, and WhiteGull Creek with only one fish caught on McDougal Creek. I observed several Brookies feeding at the edge of the overhanging muskeg on Nipiwan Lake but the beavers found me just as i pulled up within casting distance. I saw no further signs of fish and gave up soon after.
Over all it was a good trip, with great scenery and some ok fishing. A little frustrating but I can't complain too much. Thanks for the help.
Narrow Hills Saskatchewan -
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