When I hear the words “fishing” and “Saskatchewan“ together, it brings a smile to my face and a flutter of excitement in my heart. Although I’ve only been to Saskatchewan twice, both adventures have been epic.

My first trip to this province took place last winter; I flew out to host seminars at the Regina Outdoor Sports Show. While there, I had the opportunity to meet up with fellow presenters, Jason and Jeff Matity of MatitysGetFishing.com. These brothers are two of the kindest I’ve met throughout my travels, and we became friends quickly after our day on the ice. Their mandate is sharing information and helping anglers catch more fish, so be sure to check out their website. Thanks to Jeff and Jason I was able to catch the biggest pike of my life during my visit. That adventure included a 43 1/2-inch pike with a girth of 20 inches—I’ll never forget the giant head coming up out of the ice.

Part One: Last Mountain Lake
You can bet that when another opportunity came about to fish in Saskatchewan, there was no hesitation. I was beyond excited and pretty much sleep-deprived until I finally departed on this trip—I was so excited at getting another crack at some giant fish. Tourism Saskatchewan brought me in this time, and of course, I made plans to fish with the Matity’s again for the first part of this trip. This time we fished on Last Mountain Lake where Jeff has been a guide for over 10 years at G&S Marina Outfitters.

I had heard a lot about Last Mountain Lake, as it’s a hot spot for giant walleyes and pike and brings in anglers from around the globe.

Upon my arrival, I dropped my suitcase off at my cabin and headed out on the water with Jeff, his son Ben, and Jason. I had the pleasure of taking Jason out fishing last summer when he visited Ottawa, but I hadn’t seen Jeff and Ben since my last visit. We shared some good laughs together—what a hilarious crew.

We made a short run out in the boat, got rigged up with some bottom-bouncers and some of Ben’s homemade blades and were into fish before we knew it. There were lots of walleye coming aboard. I was pretty thrilled to be on the water right off the hop and into some fish right away.

We kept a few smaller walleyes on the first evening to contribute to a fish fry taking place later at G&S Marina Outfitters. It was great chatting with Rob, the owner of G&S, and his daughter Kendra. I also had the chance to meet Rob’s wife Donna the following day.

After the fish fry that evening I settled in and snapped some photos around the property. What a gorgeous location. G&S is located right inside Rowan’s Ravine Provincial Park, on the east shore of Last Mountain Lake.

The next few days were dedicated to fishing, fishing, and more fishing. I had the opportunity to try out some lures I hadn’t tried before and was able to catch fish on each. My favorites were the Fergie Special, Big Hammer Swimbaits and the Reel Bait Flasher Jigs under a float. I’ve used spoons, swimbaits and float presentations many times back home, but these were all pretty unique in their own way and have been very successful for the Matity’s along with other guests. I picked up some Big Hammer Swimbaits at the Marina Store to try back at home and the Matity’s were so kind as to send me home with some of their personal stash of Fergie Spoons.

Now, you’re going to wonder about that epic pike photo accompanying this article. After three fantastic days of fishing, it was our final morning on Last Mountain before I would be heading to Lake Diefenbaker for the second half of my trip. We had success walleye fishing, so Jeff wanted to focus on targeting pike and see if we could locate some big females. At this point, my largest pike and fish of the trip the 37-incher. I was up against a 43 1/2-inch fish, if I wanted to beat my personal best pike from my last visit to Saskatchewan. Time was ticking, as we were nearing the end of our last outing together and would soon need to head off the water. The area was thick with weeds and we were casting the Big Hammer Swimbaits and burning them over the top. Ben hooked into a nice pike that tried to bury him in the weeds. He worked it, held the spool and lifted up to pop this fish free and out of the weeds. What a beauty, measuring 40 inches. We were pretty excited at the sight of this quality pike and were convinced there had to be more around.

A few more casts, and my swimbait was smashed by a fish that took off toward the other shoreline—there was almost no stopping this fish. I gained some ground on it, and as it got closer—like Ben’s fish—it decided to dig down into the weeds and bury itself. I was able to lift on it and pop it free, but down it went again. One more pop and it was now getting closer to the boat.

I remembered hearing something along the lines of “That’s what my biggest pike—ever did!” exclaimed from Ben. And then he fell silent, caught in the moment of truth when this fish was getting close to the net. We all fell silent because a fish like this can cause great heartbreak if lost at the boat. By this point, we saw the monstrous head. The fish started to roll and tried to bolt downward, but Jeff was able to slide the net under the belly and tail. Then, success! At this point I was screaming and we were all celebrating with high-fives. We quickly measured the fish, snapped some photos and I released her on camera.

“Forty-four freaking inches!” I had yelled out in the video. What a fish. I had the shakes for about an hour afterward.

This was literally the last fish of the morning for me, and I was absolutely okay with that. This is the type of fish I was dreaming about. Thank you so much Jeff, Jason, Ben, Rob, Donna and Kendra for having me. It was the trip of a lifetime with the fish of a lifetime. At this rate, it only makes perfect sense for me (and all of you) to plan now and visit Saskatchewan again and aim for another personal best.

Part Two: Lake Diefenbaker
As if this already amazing trip couldn’t get any better, I would now be fishing with the Konrads for a few days on Lake Diefenbaker. I hopped on a bus from Regina to Saskatoon where I would be meeting up with Sean and Adam Konrad, known as “The Fishing Geeks.” These identical twin brothers are household names and have achieved angling greatness as holders of the world-record rainbow trout and the world-record burbot! You can read more about their amazing catches on their website and see their frequent big fish on Instagram and Facebook. I was fortunate to meet these two through the Alumacraft Boats team and was really excited at the opportunity to be able to get out on the water with them. Adam and Sean are both incredible anglers, and people—I think there’s something in the water in Saskatchewan.

Needless to say, the Konrads are dialed in. I was super-excited and feeling quite privileged to get out on the water with them, especially after having recently watched them on 39 Hours, a competition documented on YouTube by Uncut Angling. There was a lot of buzz about this show within the angling community. I’m really hoping there’s another series.

This part of my adventure would be completely different from the first half, as we would be spending most of our time fishing at night. Nighttime photography is a little trickier, but we did get into some quality fish and managed some great photos. The first night I fished with Sean, and Adam would be joining us the following evening after work. We were into some fish right away on crankbaits, and it was on that evening that I was lucky enough to land my biggest walleye of the trip at 31 inches. It’s quite a thrill in the dark not knowing which species you may have on, and not to mention this lake is home to many species.

The walleye action was pretty much non-stop, and we were able to get into some other species as well. Sean landed this gnarly northern pike that looks as if it could have been in an altercation with a pelican. And were there ever a lot of pelicans on Last Mountain Lake and on Diefenbaker. The size and wingspan of these massive birds blew me away.

We did a bit of fishing in the daytime as well, but nighttime provided the best success. When the Konrad’s are fishing on Lake Diefenbaker, especially for the monstrous trout, they are typically fishing at night. For this portion of my trip I stayed in Saskatoon (at the Saskatoon Inn) and rented a car at the airport out to Lake Diefenbaker each evening.

The drive through the countryside to and from Diefenbaker was beautiful. Saskatchewan has such a stunning and vast landscape, the kind of images you see on the wallpaper of your computer. I got to witness some gorgeous sunsets and sunrises on this trip and also experienced the craziest lightning storm of my life. You can see these storms rolling in from miles and miles away since the landscape is so flat. On the evening of the storm, we had to wait it out in the car for a couple hours until it passed by as lightning was striking all around us. It was quite a show, lighting everything up every few moments in the darkness. I was thankful to be able to fish each day of this trip and also catch quality fish everyday.

And that’s a wrap—what a trip. The trout eluded me this time, but it just gives me another reason to visit Saskatchewan again. I had such a great time with the Konrads fishing at night too, something I don’t often do back home. The fishing was fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for better people to spend my time in Saskatchewan with.