Every second year the Lamont clan and their relatives head to Clear Lake in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park, to enjoy a week of companionship. One of my responsibilities is to bring along the boat for daily fishing excursions. Over the last twenty some years I have almost always spent at least one day on the water here every year. This past December I had a spectacular day ice fishing for Whitefish. It was the second week in July when we visited this year.
CLEAR LAKE IS GREAT PIKE WATER
This time we were after the abundant pike that swim in these pristine waters along with some of the elusive walleye. Our first few days were spent chasing around the pike that swim in almost ever section of the lake. One of the highlights of the trip occurred on Day 3 while jigging for walleye. I had hooked a small walleye when out of nowhere a huge pike grabbed it by the side. Over the many years I have fished, I have probably seen this happen about a dozen times. That didn’t change the thrill of seeing this unfold before everyone in the boat. The pike did let go and the walleye lived to swim another day.
RAINY WEATHER TRIGGERS A HOT WALLEYE BITE!
On the Wednesday morning mid week rain clouds rolled in as we were out on the water. We had decided to spend some time looking around to see if we could find some larger walleye. I started searching on my Helix 10 along sharper break lines closer to the main lake basin. In no time I started marking some fish that looked like walleye in about seven metres of water. Dropping a waypoint, I circled back over the fish, dropping my back troll motor. In no time we started catching some beautiful Clear Lake walleye, including one Master Angler fish. It turned out to be the best morning of walleye fishing I had ever had on the lake.
CHECK NATIONAL PARK REGULATIONS BEFORE YOU HEAD OUT
Anglers are allowed to keep two walleye on the lake, but as it stands there is no size restriction that I could find. While we released all our larger walleye it would be nice if they included a size restriction in the regulations. Clear Lake is also known for it’s huge pike but we didn’t land any on this trip.
There is a lot more to do than fishing in Riding Mountain. The town of Wasagaming has a great visitor centre, along with restaurants and gift shops. Great ice cream as well! Oh, and they have a big red chair for photo ops.
For more information visit www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/mb/riding