LAKE TROUT- TRIGGERING THE BITE: On our last trip for lakers, a big aggressive presentation did not trigger a bite. Luckily when you ice fish you can use two rods. For a couple years now, Kevin Siemen has been using big baits to attract lakers, then using a more natural presentation like a white tube jig to get the fish to bite. He particulary likes the baits pictured below. These are made by Musky Innovations. The big one is a 14″ walleye model. The smaller ones are 11″ walleye and golden tail sucker models. There are about 10…
Author: Don Lamont
Don Lamont
Don Lamont - The Complete Angler Don Lamont has been a full time professional angler for 41 years, hosting and producing the award winning “The Complete Angler” television series for fifteen of those. Don has received several awards for his commitment to public education and the future of recreational fishing in Canada. Don had a regular fishing column in the Winnipeg Free Press for 30 years and is currently editor of Hooked Magazine. He also recently took on the role of Executive Director of the Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters, if he wasn't busy enough already! He recently published a book that highlights many of his adventures over a lifetime of fishing. It can be purchased online at donlamont.com
Kevin’s 39 incher caught last year It’s not like we needed more snow, but more has arrived. Unfortunately some friends and I were out on the middle of Shoal Lake, Ontario when a blizzard hit on Sunday. We were hunkered down in our portables when I decided to venture outside about 1:30 p.m. Visibility was down to about 50 feet and a foot and a half of fresh snow and drifted on to the road already. Not wanting to get trapped down this narrow ice road that a commercial fisherman had made we decided to pack up and head…
Dave Genz is one of the most accomplished ice anglers in North America, if not the world. He fishes for a variety of species of fish but his insight on catching jumbo perch is second to none. Matt Straw, a freelance writer, did an interview with Dave for the In Fisherman 2013 Ice Fishing Guide that I purchased locally in November. Matt wanted to get some insight from Dave on how to go about targeting and catching perch larger than 12 inches. Since that publication has come out I have reread the story about a dozen times making notes that…
Jim with a nice one!While some anglers have been doing well ice fishing Lake Winnipeg this winter, others struggle. In talking and fishing over the years with a number of the top anglers on the ice, like Lee Nolden, Roger Stearns and friends Murray Olfasson and Jim Price, one thing remains clear, it pays to experiment. As Lee Nolden says, this year has been a very inconsistent one, with real good days and real slow days. Jim Price has been out three times and he has caught some good walleye all three occasions but every day the presentation has been…
The pursuit of winter walleye on Lake Winnipeg and the Red River has become a huge tourism industry in this province. More and more anglers from all over North America (and overseas) are coming to Manitoba to experience ice fishing for the greenback walleye. Even my dentist, who has a place at Gimli and has never ice fished before, has caught the fever.This winter so far, ice conditions on the southwest basin of Lake Winnipeg are excellent with minimal snow and relatively smooth driving conditions.As for the Red River, ice conditions are still variable and caution is required. Some anglers…
Lots of walleye this size means lake is healthyIt was my first ice fishing trip of the new season and what a way to start off. I was with friend Jim Price and we were out on the southwest corner of Lake Winnipeg this past Wednesday. Jim had been out five days previous with some other friends with good results. So I was pumped when he pulled up to the spot near the Chalet Beach road. Permanent shacks were scattered over the frozen surface of Lake Winnipeg, a mini colony out in front of Matlock and another near where we…
It is the dawn of another ice fishing season. Soon our small lakes and rivers will be frozen over followed by Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba. I have to say this year I am looking forward to catching perch more than any other species. Don’t get me wrong, I will be chasing a wide variety of species but last year got into some really nice big perch, quite a few in the 13 to 15 inch range. Catching those fish is fun, and somewhat of an art form in itself. Matching your ice fishing equipment to the size of the…
Sun finally comes out on Day 4! You roll the dice with the weather the last week in October in northern Saskatchewan. This year the weather and the fishing came up snake eyes. In four days of fishing Tobin Lake the temperature in this part of the world never got above minus three Celsius. Combine that with a brisk north wind all four days and you had wind chills in the minus 12 range. How cold was it? So cold that the front troll motor froze in place on more than one occasion! We were basically ice fishing out of a…
It had been a week since my last trip to the mighty Red. But a forecast of 10 Celsius along with some sunshine, not to mention the chance to catch some more trophy walleye was all the encouragement I needed. This time along were friends Jim Price and Phil Brake. Over the period of a week, a lot had changed. Water quality was not quite as good but current flow was still decent. There was quite a bit of debris in the water as water is released through the gates at Lockport. Notice water quality, down from a week agoWe hit…
GO BIG GREEN!The Delavau brothers hold some Red River green!A southeast was blowing some warmer air into southern Manitoba on Monday. Despite rain in the forecast I had convinced friends Jeff and Randy Delavau to partake in the greenback walleye run on the mighty Red River. Randy had not fished since he was a youngster and Jeff not for a couple of years. As I dressed them in two floater coats to protect against the weather we headed up river from Selkirk to the “Miracle Mile”. Use the double stackAnchoring the boat in 12 feet of water along the main river…