On a Mission for the Canadian Grand Slam
Legendary Florida guide Andrew Bostick with one of the 870 pike he and his partner caught at Stevens /Nicklin
Repeat guest Wayne Meland is a die-hard fisherman with a special affinity for saltwater angling. He became a Gangler’s guest several years ago with numerous trips to our Maria Lake mini-lodge. In 2025, he decided he wanted to key on catching the Canadian Grand Slam and booked his group into Stevens/Nicklin. We wanted to share his report.
Ken,
After my last trip you told me that a great opportunity to catch all the Canadian Grand Slam in one day was the Stevens-Nicklin Outpost. So… for 2025 I banded together a group of family members and friends (including four first timers) and we made Stevens-Nicklin the destination in late July.
After our Friday evening in Winnipeg enjoying some local breweries and the fantastic folks of the city, we jumped on the charter and headed north.
The first couple days the wind howled out of the NW, so the group stayed fairly close to camp and caught a pile of the always willing North Seal pike and some walleye.
Day three the wind died down and despite some on and off rain we were unleashed across the vast fishing area Stevens-Nicklin has to offer. My buddy, Bob, and I made our way over to the grayling zone and we each promptly caught a dozen or so, which completed my first Trip Grand Slam. As we came back to our boat, the other guys from our group had arrived at the mouth of the grayling stream and were all catching a few of their own.
That evening after enjoying dinner prepared by camp manager, Trevor, we all took a nap with the intention of getting up in the middle of the night to see what was supposed to be the best meteor shower of the year. We did see a few meteors but they were nothing compared to the spectacular Northern Lights. Most of us stayed out on the beach enjoying the show for about an hour before heading back to bed to rest us for another incredible day of fishing.
Thursday, Bob and I were determined to find the lake trout. To that point the group had only managed to catch a stray one here or there in some of the deep holes in Nicklin Lake. We scouted around for a couple hours until we saw a couple fish in the distance break the surface to eat dragonflies. We idled over to where we had seen the busting fish and the bottom reader showed a steep drop off from about 35 feet to 65 feet and the bottom 10 feet of the slope was loaded with fish. We dropped our jigs and were both instantly hooked up. We were basically getting hit every drop with some fish chasing the jigs all the way to the surface. Our hook up rate was relatively poor because we were using butterfly jigs that are typically used for offshore salt water fishing, but we kept getting hit and catching plenty so we didn’t bother switching to lures with hooks that were more exposed. We each caught about 15 lakers in an hour and a half or so, and I told Bob, “today is the day for our single day Canadian Grand Slams”.
We had caught a few pike on the way over to where we found the lakers, so we headed for the grayling stream. I caught seven fairly quickly and Bob added six, then we were off to where we had caught the majority of our walleye. On the way there we stopped for 15 minutes and added a couple more pike to our total for the day. When we made it over to our favorite walleye spot Bob caught a dozen or so and I added eight. At that point we called it a day. I finished the day with six Canadian Grand Slams and Bob had three….MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Friday, Bob and I spent almost the whole day throwing top waters for Northerns and the other guys swarmed to the lake trout hole that we shared with them to catch their fill. Pike just don’t quit and are flat out angry…What a blast!
For the trip seven of the eight of us caught Grand Slams. Other trip highlights included Andrew and Jay focusing on and catching 870 pike including Andrew’s 43 incher, Aiden catching five species adding a burbot and whitefish to his Grand Slam, three prop replacements, a bear strolling through camp, and sightings of moose, many eagles, porcupines, otters and Jeff and Chris seeing a wolf.
Stevens-Nicklin was spectacular Ken! I can’t wait to return back there in 2026 with Bob and six of my other buddies/adventurers.
When it comes to fishing, nothing comes close to a Gangler’s trip!
Wayne Meland
