Author: Don Lamont

Mike shows how it’s done!It was 1991 when I last visited Nestor Falls Ontario! Now that is a long stretch in anyone’s books but when I heard the crappies were back on the bite, I knew it was time to return. Friend Brent Kruger had lined up a two day trip with the owner of Sunset Cove Resort, Mike Gate. Mike and his wife Erin had purchased the resort three years ago, and have worked tirelessly to build up the business and update the resort and building. Located right on the shores of Sabaskong Bay, Mike has plowed a road…

A nice eater (Gene Collins photo)Dealing with the Deep freeze!Conditions at this time of year can be extremely tough to deal with when temperatures plummet to the -30 Celsius and below range. This year so far, anglers have been able to drive out on Lake Winnipeg with their vehicles. A lack of snow has allowed a pretty free range of access up until one hits an ice ridge. This is where it gets tricky. One angler on Saturday decided to test a soft spot with his foot. When it gave way he lost his balance and plunged into open water…

It has been a busy week on Lake Winnipeg as anglers take advantage of the warm weather. A couple different groups of friends were out this week, with both reporting excellent action for walleye. Jim Price found a way to get around the pressure ride on the west side near Warner Road to get out to deeper water and away from all the angling pressure. It paid off in spades with a number of nice walleye caught in 13 feet of water. This pattern was repeated yesterday with Gene Collins and friends headed out on snow machine. They landed 30…

STAYING DRY STRYKR Jacket and a big Tobin Lake walleye!For years I have been searching for raingear that would actually keep me dry. As editor of Hooked Magazine, I have to research new product that I can tell our readership about. I also like to test things out so when I checked the ICAST Awards for this year, I saw that a company I had never heard about won the award for the Best Technical Apparel: Stormr Fusion Bib Stormr has experienced exponential growth in the fishing markets over the past two years, owing to its comfort level, impenetrability and feature-rich design.…

Jim Price fools a Lake Winnipeg fish on a spoonAt the start of every ice fishing season anglers are looking for information that will help them be more successful. The funny thing about all of this, is that in my years in the business, there are many things that have been tried and forgotten only to be reinvented. I can remember fishing for stocked trout on a small gravel pit with a light flutter spoon some 25 years ago. Here is that rainbow from the archives!The slow flutter and drop of this light spoon was a great trigger for these aggressive…

Targeting suspended lake trout under the ice By Tom Armstrong This day ended up being a trip for the books, although it started out as more of a relaxed outing with friends than a serious fishing expedition. We headed to a lake trout lake that’s not known for numbers of fish, but known to hold a serious beast of a lake trout or two. With fairly easy access, it was a great place to fish a few hours with friends who aren’t much into ice fishing, more for an excuse to get out than hopes of leaving with limits of…

Embarking on a long anticipated fly fishing trip to realize that you arrived ill prepared or without the right tools to effectively capitalize on an amazing angling opportunity is something we have all experienced a time or two. Parkland lakes offer the “grand slam” of stillwater trout fishing, rainbow, brown, tiger, splake, brook and lake trout are all attainable targets, but each lake and their available species require their own dedicated strategy to maximize success rates. So let’s elaborate on the pre planning and get you on the right track. Lake Research The pinnacle item to a successful stillwater fly…

Catching Lake Superior steelhead through the ice is one of the most challenging and exciting types of winter angling there is. These big, nickel plated rainbow trout are tough to pattern at the best of times, and under the ice they become even more unpredictable. Yet hook up with a winter steelhead and it’s likely to be a fight you will remember. These fish strike at full snort and make mind boggling power runs. More than a few winter anglers have been spooled when they connected with a steelhead and didn’t have adequate line to handle the runs. Powerful stuff…

The prize that these fishers were after were the fast growing and large rainbow trout stocked annually by myself and by the men and women who raised them at our Provincial Fish Hatchery near Westhawk Lake. Obviously I knew these fish were in there. What I did not realise, until I started meeting some of these fishers, was that they were not only from Manitoba but the United States. In fact, the majority came across the border from North and South Dakota, Montana and Utah. These folks had heard about our cluster of stocked nutrient rich stillwater trout lakes…

The temperatures have dropped and the landscape has changed, a season many dread is upon us and I can credit ice fishing for me not being one of those people. The crisp layer on top of the snow pack crunching beneath your feet, each breath exhaled clearly visible as you near your intended spot on the ice. The rare chance of a sun dog on those almost too cold to be outside kind of days. These are just a few of the things I like about ice fishing. With so many species to target and many more bodies of water…