Author: Don Lamont

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…

A Unique Delta Marsh Cast and Blast Adventure “Grrrrrrrrr, grrrrrrrrr, grrrrrrrrrr,” I growled into my mallard duck call hard and long, trying hard to imitate a Canvasback. A big flock of beautiful canvasbacks had buzzed our decoy spread low and fast. The flock made a big swing out over the bay, banking hard to the right showing us their backs. The big, white bull (drake) canvasbacks were easy to spot. My heart was racing. The flock was full of bulls. Nothing excites me as a duck hunter like big, drake canvasbacks. They are a duck of lore, at the heart…

TALES FROM A CRAPPIE BIOLOGIST My first experience with Black Crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatis), a member of the Sunfish Family Centrarchidae, is one I can just barely recall. It was during one or more of our families’ summer trips from Winnipeg to my aunt and uncles’ island cabin getaway, in Clearwater Bay, Lake of the Woods. We would troll silver Canadian Wigglers for hours behind our 17’ homemade fiberglass canoe powered with a 1967, 3.5 hp. Johnson outboard motor, hunting mainly walleye. Okay, hunting only walleye. We’d often hook up with other species like Smallmouth Bass and Northern Pike. But we…

The rivers of Saskatchewan have long fascinated me. I have spent much of the last decade poised nicely between both the North and the South Saskatchewan, and for the vast majority of that time quite honestly I favoured the South. A magnificent river with a jagged course, great structure and back eddies, rocky shoals transitioning into deep channels, there always seemed to be something enticing me to throw a line and put in some time to unlock the secrets of an area. I hardly touched the North, and when I did I was confused, disappointed and all but willing to…

As we motored across the lake, I was glued to my Humminbird, watching the ever changing bottom structure, excited to start exploring and fishing.  The terrain looked like we were driving over sand dunes, steadily up and down; moving over 6 foot flats, then plummeting to 30 foot holes.  We were driving across a new lake, heading to setup camp for a three day fishing trip, and I was exploring the lake as we went, trying to find a place to start fishing. We found a gorgeous sand beach, sheltered from the wind, unloaded our gear and made camp, and…

Manitoba has an abundance of parks to explore, each with its own character and identity. As the birds begin to head south and leaves fall from the trees it can be one of the best times to get out and experience them. I am always keeping an eye on the weather all over the province and if there is an unseasonably warm day coming up for the Spruce Woods area, I don’t think twice and make plans for a hike and a fish. With countless kilometers of trails to cover and plenty of spots to fish, this area of the…

Friend Don “Sticky” Stokotelny loves to fish lake trout in the summer. One of his favourite destinations is Clearwater Lake in The Pas.  Last week he and his daughter headed up for a couple of days to enjoy both the weather and the fishing. Sticky says they found the lake trout positioned at the 50 foot level slamming into 5 inch ciscoes. By ripping spoons through them the two  had a day to remember with double headers the norm. He says they lost track of the number of fish landed. He was able to stay on the fish by using…