Author: Don Lamont

As we walked the shoreline of this tiny Northwestern Ontario lake, we had visions of the last trip here; although the last time we were on this lake we were standing atop two feet of ice, and had one of the most epic days of ice stocked trout fishing I’ve ever experienced. We got to the edge of the picture perfect brook trout lake; gin clear water with fallen trees littering the shoreline, begging for a jig or spoon to be pitched at them. We slipped into our waders, and stepped into the lake, slowly walking along and casting from…

“Check this out guys!’ yelled friend Don Delorme. Quickly moving to the side of the boat to see what all the excitement was about, an amazing scene was being played out in the water below us. Don had hooked a Lake of the Prairie walleye and was in the process of bringing it up the water column, when the afternoon sun illuminated the water to a depth of around two metres. Wow! A school of big walleye could be seen slashing and swirling at the fish that Don was fighting. Tim Reid, who was in the front of the…

Illustration by Sara Wilde The stories that are told at deer camp are works-in-progress that we edit and expand as time and memories see fit. Our character’s involvement may be downplayed or embellished, but as a whole these stories are about the kind of hunter we try to be. One of our camp’s perennial favourites is the opposite. It originates from our first season in the woods near Prawda, Manitoba, about ten years ago now. Truth is, it’s a shameful, heartbreaking story that invites ridicule, but we offer it up. Lessons in life will be repeated until learned, and the…

As summer starts to wind down fishing usually tends to slow a bit. That doesn’t seem to be the case this year in a number of our lakes, rivers and reservoirs. High water in many parts of our province, including the Whiteshell Provincial Park, has kept many of our freshwater game species in shallower water than usual. In high water years there are some key spots to find species like walleye, smallmouth bass and pike. One of my favourite fishing locations involves two key elements, weed edges and current. When you combine those two, fish will congregate in large numbers.…

We are well into summer now and by all accounts the fishing in most parts has been pretty darn good. I had a busy month with a lot of travel and some awesome angling. This despite unstable weather, rain, wind and intense thunderstorms. The fish, for the most part, seem unbothered and ready hit anything that might arouse interest. HOT SUMMER PRESENTATION:   It’s still almost impossible to beat a bottom bouncer and spinner rig for summer walleye and even huge pike. On a recent trip to Tobin Lake, Saskatchewan, friend Boyd Holmen and I caught numerous walleye using this setup.…

It was cool and dry in the mountains when we arrived on July 11th for our semi-annual fly fishing trip to the Crowsnest Pass region. Two years ago the streams and rivers in the region had been fairly high and fast. Totally different conditions greeted us this year and that was a good thing. Water conditions were relatively benign, with lower water levels and medium flow. In fact, when talking to Vic Bergman the first night, he said he was hoping for rain for the next couple of weeks in order to increase the flows a bit. Vic owns “The…

Over the years, I have spent a fair amount of time on Last Mountain Lake north of Regina. This natural lake stretches more than 70 miles and is also known as Long Lake for this reason. It is the largest naturally occurring body of water in southern Saskatchewan, although Lake Diefenbaker (created by damming) is larger. The lake was named for a Plains Cree legend about the Great Spirit shovelling dirt from the valley the lake now occupies and forming Last Mountain Hills east of Duval. It was early June when I made the trek there this year, heading north from Regina past Craven on…

Recently, my wife and I had a chance to visit Spain. Unfortunately our schedule didn’t allow us time to fish. A friend of mine, Ron Enns, had spent one day fishing in that country the year before and provided me this story: In April 2015 I walked a large portion of the 780 km pilgrimage from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.  I am an avid fly fisher and there were plenty of trout in most of the rivers I crossed so I arranged to spend a day fishing the Cea River near Leon with C & S Fly…

Start at the boat show when ready for a serious relationship. Others may question your commitment and mock your impulsive nature. Take comfort that you and your boat, your new love, can always cast off to where the current leads and where others’ voices are distant. I was told as a boy “the sea is in your blood”. Seems fate leads one to the boat show. The first boat I remember was made by Fisher Price and arrived with water ski and scuba gear, dolphin and mini sub. The experiences we shared proved transformative. Next, I captained our robin’s egg…

It all started a while back with a call from Kevin Stobbe, publisher of Hooked magazine. Kevin was asking if I could set up a helicopter ice fishing trip and write an article about it. Of course I said yes, but I needed to call my cousin Derek Longley owner of Prairie Helicopters Inc. for approval. Before I could even make the call Kevin calls me back saying wouldn’t it be cool if we could get Winnipeg Jets superstar Dustin Byfuglien to come with us? Now Dustin Byfuglien had just stated to the media playing in the All Star Game would…