Author: Don Lamont

Huge chunks of ice littered the shoreline and dock at Balsam Harbour as we ventured down Road 100 on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg this past Thursday, March 24th.. As friend Pete Hiebert eased his truck on plowed road on the north side of the dock, water surged over the gunnels. This was big truck 4×4 territory and on this day only his huge Nokian studded snow tires were to save us from a fate a number of other anglers were to face this day; a truck buried in a snow drift with a foot of slush underneath. Twice…

There are few better places in North America than Manitoba to ice fish for perch, for both quantity and size of perch and now is a great time to be out. Our huge shallow lakes hold endless schools of these tasty little morsels, and some of the smaller lakes especially in the southwestern part of the province have some real trophies.My favorite presentation, especially for aggressive perch is a small jigging spoon. Last trip out I used the new Slender Spoon in a silver prism colour from Reef Runner and it was very productive. A short lift and drop right…

Icing Lake Trout!As in most species, it pays to be mobile when trying to find active fish. It’s not unusual to try at least ten different areas in a full day on the hard water. Locations will change depending on time of year and the type of lake that you are fishing. On a crystal clear Canadian Shield Lake with plenty of deep water there are a number of different areas to try and variety always increases your chances of contacting active fish. I usually fish a medium sized Shield Lake that holds a decent population of lake trout and…

A shroud of ice fog enveloped the two vehicles in front of me, slowing progress on a early December morning.A brief coffee at the Tim Horton’s in Dauphin at 5:30 a.m. had been the rallying point for an ice fishing expedition that had us heading west on Highway # 5 towards Roblin. I was joining Chip Leer along with guide Don “Sticky” Stokotelny on a filming expedition that was to cover almost a week in this part of Manitoba. Chip wanted a shot at catching the tiger trout of Twin Lakes, a fish he never knew existed before this trip.…

It was a relatively balmy morning when we hit the ice at Chalet Beach last week. It was the first ice fishing trip of the year on Lake Winnipeg and we were following Lee Nolden, a guy that spends almost every day on this lake in the winter. Lee took us along the shore towards the mouth of the river, some five kilometers. We had to dodge a few small pressure ridges but overall the drive was one of the best I can remember on this lake. Still you need four wheel drive, snow tires and another vehicle along with…

If you asked most anglers what their favourite lure would be, a jig would be the answer most of the time. When you are dealing with frozen water that answer changes substantially. Jigging spoons, chunks of metal that are hammered into different thicknesses and weights, start to make huge inroads as far as the go to bait. The nice thing about ice fishing is that you get to use two rods, which means you can use a jig on your dead stick line while working a jigging spoon in another hole to either bring fish in or trigger aggressive bites.At…

The incredible string of great fall weather up until last week extended the open water fishing season for many anglers. With a change in the weather this week though, it’s almost time to think about ice fishing but not quite. A couple friends and I took advantage of the great weather in mid November to head out to Pine Falls and Traverse Bay. A southeast wind was blowing at about 15 knots but with comfortable temperatures it was a special day to be on the water. As we headed out to the first small island in the bay itself I…

There was no frost on the boats when we got up at seven the next morning. All of us were hoping another monster walleye would be caught by the group on our last day. The weather continued just to get better and a high of plus 13 celsius was forecast. Don’t forget this was the second day of November and we were a long way up the eastern side of Saskatchewan. As Boyd cruised into the mouth of the river, we noticed a ton of walleye showing up on his sonar. Quickly motoring back to check these fish out we…

THE FISH OF A LIFETIME! AGAIN!!As dawn broke on Day Three, the thermometer on Dales Cabin showed a balmy minus one Celsius. Everyone had gone to bed early the night before even though it had been Halloween and it was a very excited crew that hit the water that morning. Conditions were prime and three days of stable weather would only improve the bite. Since it was a Monday, Saskatchewan Power was running a bit more water through the dam at Nipawin. That is a good thing, because current on this system triggers an intense walleye bite.We were also pretty…

As the weather had cleared overnight, there was a considerable frost in the morning on all of our boats. The thermometer had dropped to minus eleven celsius but there was not a breath of wind.Our Captain had decided that we should head out to the big lake, some fourteen miles from the resort to check out the walleyes. A couple weeks previous, they had caught a number of nice fish using bottom bouncers and spinners in twenty two feet of water. We waited until about 10 a.m to make the long drive, the sun driving up the temperature quickly, making…