Author: Don Lamont

There are only two things that have made this relentless  winter bearable: NHL Hockey and Ice Fishing. Although the latter isn’t my first choice in pursuit of my favourite fish species, and I would much rather be targeting largemouths donning my favourite pair of flip flops; one needs to maintain his sanity. Chances are if you’re an avid fisherman, you at least spend a portion of y our winter on the ice. It may not be your first choice, but without ice fishing I know I would probably either turn into a snowbird or have a significant mental breakdown. As…

When the topic of ice fishing for pike comes up it’s hard not to think of late season fishing with tip-ups and dead bait in shallow water spawning areas. All for good reason, too. It’s a proven tactic for catching big pike. But what about the rest of the winter, before big pike head to the shallows? In my experiences, big pike spend much of the winter hunting in the same areas and depths that walleye do. In fact, every winter some of the biggest pike I see are caught on walleye gear while jigging for ‘eyes. GEARED UP My…

The Pelican Lake Healthy Water & Fish Committeecould not believe the number of anglers that turned out to their event, with 263 adult anglers and 42 junior anglers come out to fish. The horn to signal the start of fishing blasted at 10:00 AM and the finish horn sounded at 2:00 PM. During the 4 hours of fishing, they measured 414 fish in total; 57 Walleye, 122 Northern Pike, and 235 Perch. According to chair Trevor Maguire the higher than expected revenue brought in should allow them to double the size of the current aeration field located in the northern basin for next…

Pelican Lake, in southwestern Manitoba used to be a Mecca for ice anglers from Manitoba and the northern United States. Jumbo perch were in abundance along with the occasional walleye and pike thrown in for good measure.PK PredtorThen around 2005 the lake started to winter kill on a regular basis and all that changed. Residents were concerned about their lake and for years have been trying to figure out the best way to help the lake back to health. A number of different groups were formed over the years with mixed results. Lately though the lake has staged a comeback…

Current accommodations Nestled on a small bay at the start of the Winnipeg River at Pointe du Bois, Trail End Camp is a favourite destination by anglers in the know. Not only is the fishing great but the place is affordable, allowing anglers to spend money on bait and boat gas instead of accommodation and frills. And travel you will, with some 60 kilometres of river open to check out and navigate, all of it prime fishing waters as you headquarter out of this extremely comfortable and friendly lodge owned and operated by Vance and Maureen Hrechkosy. Now get this, you…

I had the opportunity to attend the Manitoba Lodge and Outfitters Conference last month in Winnipeg to listen to a panel headed by the Manitoba of Chamber President and CEO Chuck Davidson titled “ Getting Tourism on the government’s radar.” Having worked in the past as Outdoor Product manager for Travel Manitoba even I was surprised at the small amount the province reinvests to promote tourism. Travel Manitoba has a budget in the neighborhood of $7 million a year; a drop in the bucket considering tourism brings in more than 1.4 billion a year. Davidson is advocating more of a…

RED RIVER SHOULD BE HOT!Ice conditions across the province are improving. Many anglers are taking advantage of This one was near the bottom!good solid ice to get onto the Red River north of Selkirk. Anglers are targeting deeper stretches of the river all the way to the End of Main and catching some real nice fish. Check out the Manitoba Fishing Forum at http://www.manitobafishingforum for all the latest updates.Most ice anglers are reporting ice thickness of five to six inch inches. This means walking out, not riding! Caution is always required because there are always thin spots when current is…

Tim Au and the author holding a couple of beautiful greenback walleyeIt’s not often that Tim Au gets an opportunity to get out of the gym in the fall time. As a highly respected high school volleyeball coach at Miles Macdonnell Collegiate in Winnipeg, Tim devotes much of his spare time to honing the skills of his players. When volleyball season winds down at the end of November, he then is almost full time with his young family, at least until spring rolls around. He then takes on his role as the organizer of the very successful Miles Mac Angling…

DAY 3: As we rolled out of bed, we were pleasantly surprised to see the wind had settled down and switched over to the south finally. It promised to be beautiful day with temperatures slowly rising to five Celsius. Boat control was not going to be a problem which meant we had all kinds of options open to us. We decided to start at the mouth of the river, fishing in water from 16 to 24 feet. Watching the depth finder, we noticed that the bait and fish we had seen on Day One, were really not there in any…

Now that is a walleye!As we rolled out of bed and looked over the lake all we could see were whitecaps and trees bending over along the shoreline. The forecast this day was for winds steady at 50 kilometres with gusts of 70 kilometres. This meant we had to trailer our boats from the Tobin Lake Resort were we were staying out to the Nipawin Provincial Park. As it turns out, we had our best big fish day partly because we decided trolling cranks in this heavy wind was the only option. It also meant we decided to stop at…