MANITOBA
CONTENT IS KING
We are always looking to add content to our bi-weekly fishing report so if you have something to share make sure you drop me a line at don@hookedmagazine.ca. With the recent nice weather, conditions and patterns are changing patterns. What was the ticket last week, is not so much right now.
For example a week ago the fish on Lake of the Woods were still in the 10 to 12 foot range. With sun and warming water Jeff Gustafson and his wife Shelby found the fish in two to six feet. This is not surprising given the weather. Here is what he had to report.
We got out for a few hours this afternoon and caught a bunch of smallmouths and walleyes mixed together… averaged a fish about every four casts, including several doubles.🤣 dinner was good!
All fish caught on a @zmanfishingproducts MinnowZ swim bait on a 1/4 oz jig in two – six feet of water.
Gussy just recently returned home after a successful three stops on the Bassmaster Elite circuit. Gussy moved up to 25th spot in the Angler of the Year race. This is critical in qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic. You can check out the tournaments and standings at https://www.bassmaster.com/
I reached out to the Manitoba Fly Fishers and their President Mike Corrigan to provide reports during the open water season from their members, appropriately called FLY BITES!
PARKLAND
Mike was up to the Parklands region of Manitoba this week and provides this update!
The Parkland lakes are slowly coming around as temperatures warm the lakes. Twin fished well with water temperatures in the low teens early and warming to high teens as the week went on. The Tigers are surfacing for midges, brown beetles, and backswimmers and have moved into the shallows. Weed growth is slow to get going giving the angler the edge as the fish generally bury themselves and self release or snap off the fly. Even my foam Mouse was popular!
Persse is always an enigma, some days good while others it is challenging. This is one of a few Manitoba lakes that gives the angler a shot at Browns, Rainbows, and a Brookies. Again backswimmers (floating and sinking) are the ticket as well as small leeches.
ROAD CLOSURES IN THE DUCKS
A cottage owner from the Ducks updated road closures on the Manitoba Fishing Forum website at
https://www.manitobafishingforum.com/threads/duck-mountain-road-repair.175085/
PTH # 367 is closed from the Garland corner # 10 to Singush Lake . There is a major washout at what we call River Hill which moved three large culverts downstream, plus two other areas where water crossed the road. Repair of River hill will be extensive perhaps Sept.
# 367 is open from Singush Lake to San Clara with soft spots caution is warranted. Water was across at junction of Ice Creek road at the Shell River Bridge but now is open . I am aware of large trailer units making it to Childs and East Blue.
# 366 is open from Grandview north to East Blue. Flooding occurred at Elk Lake now repaired. Soft spots are common.
# 366 East Blue north to Swan River is open. Single lane at Roaring River and Favel Bridges.
Duck Mtn Cottage Owner.
LAKE OF THE PRAIRIES ON FIRE!
If there is one bright spot on the Manitoba fishing scene, it has to be Lake of the Prairies. With the reservoir getting much needed water from Saskatchewan, levels are back up and so are the fish!
Here is what regular contributors Roger and Sue Geres have to tell us!
We been out to Lake of the Prairies twice now and the bite is fantastic! All we have been doing is
jigging, and it seems the bait preference changes for them through the day from
minnows to leeches. We are jigging anywhere from 12-18 feet of water.
The walleye don’t seem to be set up on the usual spots yet so moving around and
trying different places till you find them then it can be a lot of fun.
We even got a master angler perch! Short shank jigs work the best to prevent the fish from stealing our bait.
While shore fishing one evening Sue also hooked into a decent carp.
RED AND ASSINIBOINE RIVERS
There have been catfish caught from shore all along the Red and Assiniboine rivers. Find the current seems and back eddies. The big catfish will hold just off the main current because of the cold water temperatures. Here is a nice channel catfish caught in the Assiniboine by Graham MacNeill
Long time contributor Gary Schewe had this report.
With the Red River dangerous to boat on, I went back to some old shore fishing tactics, from years ago. The fish are there, just have to get a presentation of food in front of them. 16oz of weight, and the fight was on. Using a Whisker seeker 9’ rod with a big bait caster, needed to muscle the cats in from the current, and out of the sunken wood and trees. Hard on a old guy!
LAKE MANITOBA
Anglers are catching plenty of drum in the Whitemud River as the spring bite is on big time. The river is full of drum along with some real monsters. Some walleye are being caught as well but current is still extremely heavy.
As for Lake Winnipeg access was an issue but boat launches are now reopening. It pays to check in advance to see what is open and what is not.
FINDING OUT ABOUT CLOSURES
The provincial government is slowly reopening campgrounds in the province as some nice weather has water levels receding. There are some relaxing of restrictions in the Whiteshell. Manitobans can check manitobaparks.com for the latest updates on conditions at provincial parks.
SOUTHWESTERN MANITOBA
There is still decent stocked trout action in many of our stocked trout waters. Bower Lake has been good for big brown trout all spring with the fish cruising the shallows looking for food. Check out this beautiful 21 inch fish that Darian-Dobrescu landed. Congrats Darian!
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO
LAKE OF THE WOODS-JAMIE BRUCE
VERMILLION BAY AND AREA- GLENN MCDONALD
Two weeks into open water season in Sunset Country and two things are clear. Fishing has been great and high water plagues our region. Highway 105, north to Red Lake remains closed due to high water. Many area lodges are closed due to access issues and/or high water.
As we enter June, no end is in sight to the high water issues. Coming off the back of two years of Covid, it feels like a sucker punch to the tourism industry.
Water levels throughout Northwestern Ontario are at record highs. State of emergency in some cities as they struggle to deal with rising water. For lodge owners it has meant extensive damage to docks and property. Our hope is levels will start to drop as we get warmer weather. So far this spring mother nature has only brought cool, wet weather. Last week’s storm with tornado warnings have not helped in any way.
Tourism, and in particular our American visitors, has been slow. The camps are starting to fill up. The combination of high fuel prices, outbreaks of Covid and the continued need for proof of vaccination at the border are keeping some Americans away. Despite all this, the anglers that do come are in for some amazing fishing.
As walleye season opened on May 21, most lakes had only been ice free for a week. Water temps varied from 40 to 50 degrees ( as I witnessed on Eagle Lake ). Many walleye had not yet spawned. We caught many that were still full of eggs, indicative of the hard belly of the females. We made the point to release every female.
PLASTIC IS FANTASTIC
Walleye were hitting jigs and minnows pitched up towards shallow rocks. Jigging below the boat was productive as well, as the fish were moving in and out of the shallows. I was using Drop Tine Tackle jigs and Bondy Bait plastics. I may not have caught quite as many as the jig and minnow combo, however I caught more than enough to prove it was a good option. After catching 50 or 60 walleye we moved out to the main lake to look for some smallmouth bass that hadn’t moved shallow yet.
SMALLMOUTH STILL DEEP!
With water temps in the low 40’s on the mid lake, open water reefs the bass were still grouped up together. Using the same jig/minnow or jig/plastic combination we were able to pick a dozen smallies off the reef using a slow presentation. Slowly popping the jig off the bottom and letting it sink on a tight line produced most bites. By the time I write this, in early June the bass should be moving into shallow spawning areas and preparing the beds for their spawn.
PIKE BONANZA
Adam Mueller, of Top Line Baits, out of southern Ontario visited the area and fished with Dave Bennett. Their main target was early season pike. Using lures from Adam’s bait company, they got into a fantastic pike bite. Even early season walleye were attacking the large twitch baits.
Slightly warmer weather is on the horizon, with no heavy rain amounts for a few days. Let’s hope it gives our region a break on the high water issues. For those visiting the area, please be patient with the road closures and local issues. Everyone is doing what they can to make it an enjoyable experience in sunset country.
https://bondyfishing.com/products/bondy-baitfish-3-75-10-pack
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https://www.youtube.com/c/54orbust
Lake levels continue to drop, albeit some are already back to normal. Please be advised that some backroads are still impassable from heavy snow loads and blowdowns from the Fall/Winter, so pack an axe.
STOCKED TROUT
Char species are still shallow as water temperatures are slow to warm. Some of the lakes are just getting to the 10-12 Celsius range. Pick a small lake and look for shallow areas. Lake Trout are still holding in the upper 10-15’ with water depths of 30 or more feet. Small light coloured minnow patterns are best, such as a “Zeke’s Nightmare”. If you spot fish, allow your sinking line to drop and and strip quickly as the fish are generally aggressively feeding.
Pike can be observed in the shallows and are likely post spawn and will feed on minnow patterns; there aren’t many flies they will refuse!
Smaller bass are feeding in deeper water. Lake temperatures are still a little cool to trigger spawning and I haven’t noticed any “nests” in the shallows yet. Again minnow patterns are your best choice.
There are already some surface feeding fish and several Mayfly species are already emerging. Remember to have an arsenal of Hexigenia ready when the mid June hatch happens. It seems most fish can’t pass up a meal of these monster Mayflies. There are many patterns out there, here is a link to one
Tight lines! Mike Corrigan
SASKATCHEWAN
LAST MOUNTAIN LAKE-ROB SCHULZ G&S MARINA
The lake levels are still coming up and are now 2 feet higher than last year.TOBIN LAKE
Rain and heavy wind has muddied the reservoir, making fishing tough. Conditions need to stablize for the fish to get back on the bite. There had been some great pike action in the main reservoir before the bad weather hit. Look for the action to resume once things settle down. The pike are on the shallow mud flats chasing bait fish.
ALBERTA
WES DAVID-FISHING THE WILD WEST T.V.
Lac La Biche a Walleye Anglers Paradise
During the last week of May, I spent a couple of days fishing Lac La Biche Lake, in north-central Alberta. I had no idea what I was about to experience. We at the BCM Inns in Lac La Biche, and I must say the BCM Inns is very angler friendly. They made outside plugins available for all anglers to plug in their boat (charge batteries for electronics) after a long day on the water. We launched at the Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park, which was about 12-minutes outside of Lac La Biche. From there we were into large walleye and northern pike almost immediately.
COLD WATER TEMPERATURES
Water temperatures varied from 48.5F to 50.5F as the ice had only been off the lake for about 10-days before we arrived. We were fishing cold water and post-spawn walleye, so we were told by the local anglers that the bite was slow which made sense for the conditions and time of year.
SLOW AND SUBTLE PRESENTATION
We decided to start with a slow subtle presentation, so we set up Lindy-Rigs. We ran 20-pound Sunline Braid as our mainline with a 3/8oz walleye sinker with a bead protecting the Palomar knot that attached a swivel to three feet of 14-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper Fluorocarbon, and a #2 hook. The majority of our bites came on the slender profile of a nightcrawler, a 4” Big Bite Baits Finesse Worm. However, a frozen minnow also worked.
SPEED CRTICAL
Speed was key and all our bites came with the boat moving at .7MPH. We presented our baits in a zig-zag pattern on and off the structure. Most bites came when we were moving our baits up structure from 23-feet of water to 11-feet of water. On average, the magic depth for a walleye hook-up was 16-feet of water. I couldn’t believe how many walleye we caught and released and I also couldn’t believe how many big walleye we caught and released. Most of the walleye we caught were 60cm in length or larger right up to 70cm, and these fish were in amazing shape for being post-spawn walleye.
There is no end to the structure for fish to call home on Lac La Biche Lake. Rock points, islands, sunken humps, and an abundance of baitfish make this lake a walleye and northern pike paradise.
Lac La Biche is one of the most amazing drive-to-lakes I’ve ever fished in the province of Alberta, and if the local anglers considered May a slow bite, I can’t wait to return in the summer or fall to catch these walleye after they have had the summer to feed on the abundance of baitfish.
Lac La Biche Lake is only minutes from the friendly community of Lac La Biche, which supports anglers and an amazing walleye and northern pike fishery.
Wes David Host & Producer of Fishing the Wild West TV