Author: Don Lamont

When it comes to premiere ice fishing destinations, hardwaters within the borders of Manitoba have risen to the top of many lists. The phenomenal rise in popularity amongst visitors and residents alike choosing to fish here, owe in large part to the Lake Winnipeg craze that took the angling world by storm during this last decade. What many anglers are starting to uncover however, is that we have countless other lakes and rivers that offer incredible fishing for all number of species. We embarked on a recent trip across the province to get an up close glimpse at just a…

As the cold snap eases slightly in this part of the world, time to put on your explorer’s cap and head into the backcountry of Manitoba for some world class crappie fishing. The whole Caddy Lake chain made up of North and South Cross Lake, Sailing Lake and Caddy itself can kick out some awfully nice fish. There are other areas though that will start to produce for those willing to do the work. Places like the Pinawa Channel, Big Whiteshell Lake all have trophy fish. Populations of these fish are ever expanding and down the road the Winnipeg River…

Despite some warmer than normal temperatures for most of December in Manitoba, we have plenty of ice now on almost all of our lakes.  Earlier in the week I headed out to check the perch action on East and West Shoal Lakes with a group of friends. While we only caught two perch and one pike in a half day of fishing we did mark quite a few fish that wouldn’t bite. I am sure this fishery will pick up as the winter goes on. No problem driving around with 18 inches of good solid ice with minimal snow cover.…

As we opened up our motel room door on Monday morning we were greeted by deep snow. There must have been about eight inches of the white stuff to push off of our vehicle. Snow plows were busy in the town of Roblin as we met up with Phil Paczkowski at Patch’s Bait Shop. While Phil owns this tackle store, he is too busy with the other parts of his business to spend much time there. He has his sister run the store while he runs Yo-Fisherman Outfitting. He has a minnow trapper’s license and supplies live bait to the…

It was a wintery wonderland as we left Winnipeg for our three day trip to the Parkland region of Manitoba on Saturday morning. Overnight frost and no wind had coated the trees with a glowing white cover of snow and ice. As we pulled into Roblin the temperature was just under freezing. West Goose Lake, right in town limits was our first lake to fish on this trip. We met up with Phil Paczkowski, who owns Patch’s Bait Shop in town and who is an outfitter in the region. Phil has been a hardcore fisherman all his life and…

As ice fishing season swings into action here in the great white north, anglers in Manitoba are flocking to their local retailers to find the next hottest item. When Ardisam (a Wisconsin company) came out with the new ION X last year I knew I had to have one. The original ION had a 3 amp battery, which while dependable had some anglers concerned they would run out of charge on cold day with plenty of drilling. That has all changed. The ION X features a new single piece cast bottom design as well as a 5 amp-hour XC5 lithium…

Time to load up the vehicle and head west. I plan on taking a couple days to ice fish the Parkland area of Manitoba. Reports indicate good solid ice on a number of the smaller trout lakes, in some cases 12 inches earlier in the week. While caution is utmost, it is time to get the rust off. The two most productive lakes right now are located right in the town of Roblin.  East and West Goose Lakes have been pleasant surprises the last couple of years with great numbers of 55 to 61 centimetre rainbows and browns plus a…

Smallmouth bass are great sport on the end of the line and cold late fall days see these aggressive predators schooled up on deepwater structure chasing down anything that moves. One key point to consider when looking for areas that are holding fish at this time of year is that all spots are not created equal. On a medium sized lake like Falcon you might have most of the large bass in the lake in three small areas. This can make finding them somewhat of a chore but when you do, look out! One of my first experiences with fall…

Gale force winds were blowing across the prairies as I headed up to Tobin Lake last week. When I arrived there seven and half hours later my friend was up on his roof in Carrot River replacing some shingles that had blown off. Thanks goodness that evening the winds dropped off and were pretty much negligible when we launched the boat the next day to fish the large part of the reservoir. You don’t want to be on Tobin Lake itself when the wind is really blowing. As we headed out we noticed how dirty the water was, never mind…

Fall is a great time to be on the water and with a great week of weather in the forecast it’s time to get hardcore. Recently I spent a day on Big Whiteshell Lake. It had been a number of years since my last visit but with reports of big crappie getting caught there in the past year, I decided to head out and see for myself. The last lake survey done on this body of water was in 2012 and since that time the crappie population has been increasing, which shows in the Master Anglers records over the last…