MANITOBA
The weather in this part of the world continues to favour those who love to be outside. It has been a much better winter for ice fisherman in this part of the world. While we still have fairly deep snow in places the temperatures have been balmy compared to last winter.
Anglers are covering the province with many fishing for pike. These fish have remained active through the ice and some large fish are being caught across the prairies.
LAKE OF THE PRAIRIES
This reservoir has been spectacular for the last three years. With the a break in the weather the perch, walleye and pike have all been on fire. Clayton Schick recently headed out to enjoy the great fishing.
Lake Winnipeg continues to kick out big fish. How about this beast that Troy Barkman caught recently. This greenback measured in at an incredible 32.5 inches, making it the fourth largest walleye ever recorded in the Manitoba Master Angler program from Lake Winnipeg. Now that is a major achievement!
Congratulations on the fish of two lifetimes.
I can’t even imagine trying to getting that up the hole!
Still with Lake Winnipeg those who are willing to venture afar on some of the tributaries on the northern part of the lake have been finding some huge pike. Here is a beauty
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO
Jeff Gustafson has been home for the last three weeks and has been making some YouTube videos for one of his sponsors. He recently fired up the snowmobile and headed backcountry for some crappies near his home town of Keewatin, Ontario.
SASKATCHEWAN
Speaking of large pike, friend Wes David was contacted by hardcore angler Rylan Parrot about the success he was having the huge pike in his part of the word. Rylan lives on a farm just south of Grenfell, near the Manitoba border and once the chores are done, he heads out ice fishing. He has enjoyed some spectacular fishing this winter on the Qu’Appelle chain of Lakes. I had a chance to talk to him this week and provided some images and a story to this weeks fishing report. Some great stuff here!
Rylan gives us some impressive tips on technique.
TO TARGET BIG WINTER NORTHERN PIKE – RYLAN PARROT
USE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT
CHANGING UP THE GAME
ALBERTA
WES DAVID – FISHING THE WILD WEST TV
Hardwater anglers are landing northern pike across Alberta. Most ice anglers I’ve spoken with have said they have seen more northern pike activity during the months of December and January than in recent memory. Northern pike are biting on the standard presentations such as Herring on a Predator Rig beneath a standard tip-up. However, the pike movement which is seen on Aqua-VU cameras has been non-stop.
The northern pike in Crawling Valley Reservoir, near Bassano, are fishing very well. Crawling Valley Reservoir has an abundance of underwater structures that both pike and walleye use throughout the year. I like to set up and fish in eight to 12 feet of water on sharp drop-offs into deeper water adjacent to the north shoreline. Both walleye and pike use these drop-offs throughout the day and can often be caught while jigging a ¼ to ½ oz Big Sky Jig tipped with a frozen minnow or dead-sticking a frozen minnow or Herring hooked to a predator rig under a tip-up. I place my tip-up outside my ice shack at the sharper and deeper portions of the drop-off and keep an eye on it as I jig with my ice rod and reel from the comforts of my ice shack. These same techniques will work on most of Alberta’s southern reservoirs and on most northern pike water bodies across the province.