Fishing in Saskatchewan

Pike anglers navigate the back bays of Scott Lake.

Driving through Saskatchewan on the Trans-Canada Highway, a traveler might form the impression that this province is an arid one dominated by wheat fields and dusty rolling hills with cattle ranches. This major-highway vantage point, however, doesn’t reveal that this prairie province is home to more than 94,000 lakes and countless rivers and streams. In fact, fully one-eighth of Saskatchewan’s one-quarter million square miles is covered with freshwater, resulting in a rich and varied sportfishery.

Indeed, Saskatchewan has several important river systems that drain large areas and provide significant habitat for many popular sportfish. Prominent native species include lake trout, grayling, walleye, sauger, northern pike, perch, whitefish, burbot, goldeye, and lake sturgeon. Throughout Saskatchewan, however, introduced species have also enriched the opportunities. Brown, rainbow, brook, cutthroat, and tiger trout, as well as splake, have been stocked in ponds, lakes, and streams throughout the province for most of the past 50 years, and a strong trout fishery is the result. One southern lake even offers a successful largemouth bass fishery.

Saskatchewan boasts an exceptional road- accessible fishing, especially in the far northern reaches of the province. Several paved and gravel highways and roads reach remote wilderness fishing lakes that would otherwise require long and expensive flights. And these same roads take the adventurous angler to jumping-off points where floatplanes provide still greater wilderness exploration.

More than 200 outfitters are scattered throughout the central and northernmost areas of the province, providing services that range from rustic to downright luxurious. In addition, outpost camps exist on hundreds of remote lakes where few have wet a line.

Although Saskatchewan’s far north offers numerous trophy fisheries, especially for northern pike and lake trout, the southern region also has outstanding opportunities to catch trophy specimens. In the valleys of the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, walleye (called pickerel here by many anglers) over 10 pounds are caught with remarkable frequency, and northern pike in the 10- to 20-pound range are fairly numerous. Although they are increasingly rare, large lake sturgeon are available, and big carp are a definite possibility. And some of the largest members of all species are caught in winter through the ice.