Premium Northern Fly Fishing at it's Best
Cree River Lodge provides nearly unlimited opportunities for the fly angler. Endless shallow bays, channels, and flats teem with hungry, toothy pike. Feisty Arctic Grayling await in the nearby rapids, their spectacular leaps and brilliant colours will amaze you.
The aggressive, slashing strike of a monster northern pike as it inhales your fly right in front of you has to be one of the most spectacular moments in freshwater fishing. Chasing pike is becoming increasingly popular with fly rodders in recent years, and with good reason. Pike are an ideal quarry for fly fishing. Sight fishing for huge fish in the shallows is a blast!
For many people, the Arctic Grayling symbolizes the last frontier, the far north. To seek out these amazing creatures, you need to travel to the land of the northern lights, leaving civilization far behind. The best part is that Grayling are a lot of fun too. Imagine a fish that leaps completely out of the water to eat your fly… or better yet, come catch a few for yourself.
Whitefish can often be seen rising within easy casting range of the dock in the evening and endless numbers of walleye roam these waters. While neither is an easy target for the fly rod, both can provide entertaining fishing under the right conditions.
For the angler wishing to give fly fishing a try, we have several rods and reels available at the lodge. We can provide some basic instruction and our fish love to eat flies. Your next angling addiction awaits!
Fly Fishing for Pike
Fly Fishing Tackle Tips
These tips are meant as a guideline only. Most of you will have your favorite equipment and lures that you know work well. We have an excellent assortment of tackle at the lodge so if there's something that you are needing once you get up here, or have forgotten, don't worry. We probably have it!
Pike Fly rods
- 9 or 10 wt rods with WF floating lines. Sink tips can be advantageous under certain conditions.
Pike Flies
- Large streamers in a variety of patterns and colours, poppers and other topwater patterns can be a lot of fun at times.
Grayling Fly rods
- 4 to 6 wt rods with floating line
Grayling Flies
- dry – Sizes 8 to 14 – mayfly, caddisfly and stonefly patterns, heavily hackled for fast water. Foam patterns work well too.
- Wet – sizes 6 to 12 – Nymphs of the same species as well as streamers and soft hackle patterns.
Fly Fishing for Grayling
Grayling are a true river fish, preferring the flowing waters and the steady supply of protein flowing past in the form of surface and aquatic bugs. The rivers are also preferred by Grayling over the open waters of the lakes where their life-span can be shortened in a hurry by Northern Pike all to eager to make then into a meal.
Fly Fishing for Other Species
Beyond the thrill of big Pike thrashing at the end of your fly line, Walleye and Arctic Grayling are also well known to chase flies with abandon. In fact Arctic Grayling fishing on a light weight fly rod is one of the special treats of fishing in Northern Saskatchewan.
Many wet fly patterns will work for many species of fish. The streamers used for Pike can be a very successful Walleye fly. Use a sinking tip line and leave on your steel leader to sink your flies down a bit deeper into the Walleye holes. Large Woolly Buggers and Leech patterns are excellent for Walleye as well. Almost all fish will chase a minnow imitation fly such as a Muddler Minnow or a Clouser Minnow. These minnow patterns will also work well on Whitefish. A Whitefish might surprise you with an aggressive battle and are another fun fish on a fly rod.
