MANITOBA
We are moving well into June and with the trees blossoming it is that magic time of year when walleye and other species have recovered from the spawn and the bite is on big time! It is one of the magic times of year to be on the water.
Weather and Fish
Fish like stability in their environment and this earl season has been anything but that. Rain, wind, cold and repeat. Still the fish need to eat and now is the time. Water temperatures are cool so fish might be shallower than you think, especially in the afternoon if there is some sun to be had.
Freshwater drum are one of the most exciting game fish we have in this part of the world. They get bit and they fight hard plus they are aggressive predators always looking for a meal. Friends Rog and Sue Geres finally made the road trip from Saskatchewan to try their luck on the Whitemud River. They were not dissappointed with some big fish for the Master Angler book. Roger says most were caught on jig and minnow or jig with rubber
“FLY BITES” reports from members of the Manitoba Fly Fishers Association (MFFA)
Lockport
A number of our members have been reporting some great fishing at the floodway, with the recent rains the spillway is high and unsafe for wading. Channel Catfish are numerous, with reports of large Pike also being caught. Try darker coloured Clousers, DDH’s, and other minnow imitations in the floodway.
NORTHWEST ONTARIO – MIKE CORRIGAN
The lakes in the Kenora are slowly warming and the post spawn Pike are aggressive on brightly coloured minnow patterns. Bass have been a little slower on the bite as some lakes, with the cooler weather surface temperatures, are in the low teens C, Stocked Brook Trout/Rainbow Trout lakes are still fishing well with leech patterns, small Mayflies, and Beetles/Boatmen.
Musky Season is Almost Here!
With Musky season now only a week away, weed growth may be a little slower than usual. Hooked Contributor Glenn McDonald is a hardcore musky man and has his own You Tube channel 54 or bust. Glenn writes numerous articles on the topic so check out this one on the Hooked website. Glenn talks about the latest trends in the musky world that might help you catch more fish this year here.
SASKATCHEWAN
Fishing is really starting to ramp up across the southern and central part of the province. As we move into pre-summer patterns look for those fish to hold on the first drop-off when inactive and then get up on the sand flats and scattered rock when the wind blows.
Friend Rob Schulz is gearing up for another great carp season on Last Mountain Lake. If you have never tried this species or style before you are missing out. It one of the best fishing experiences you will find anywhere. To find out more and book a trip with Rob check out the link here.
CHANNEL CAT FISHING IN SASKATCHEWAN
Yes, believe it or not there are channel catfish in this province, mainly centered around the southeast corner. Hooked Contributor Michael Sweatman loves to take his family fishing for them at this time of the year. Check out this great article that will get you started on the road to your first catfish.
ALBERTA – WES DAVID FISHING THE WILD WEST TV
Fishing the Lac La Biche Region
The Lac La Biche Region is jam-packed with amazing lakes and fishing opportunities. It has a variety of what I call wilderness lakes with easy access to the water. The region is also home to the legendary Lac La Biche Lake which is a stone’s through away from the town of the same name.
We arrived at the Canalta Hotel in Lac La Biche on Sunday afternoon, booked into our rooms, then headed for Pinehurst Lake, 40 minutes from town to see if we could hook into a few walleye. Walleye were found on the sand flats in eight to 14 feet of water around isolated rocks within the sand. We bottom-bounce a PK Sure Death rig with a pink blade from PK Lures and baited it with a 4” Creep worm, black with a white tail from Liquid Mayhem. Walleye would hit the bait as the bait would move past the isolated rocks. This pattern was consistent for about three hours until the bite slowed and eventually turned completely off.
Day 2
On the morning of day two, we launched at the Winston Churchill boat launch about 15 minutes from the Canalta Hotel at 7:30 am. The lake is low, but the boat launch is in great shape and launching my 20-foot Tracker Targa was no trouble.
Once on the lake, we started bottom-bouncing the same presentation mentioned above at Pinehurst Lake, zig-zagging from shallow water (eight feet) to deep water (20 feet). Although the Humminbird was marking fish, after an hour of fishing, we only hooked into two fish, and one was a northern pike. We had the same experience with Lindy Riggs moving the boat at .3 mph. I’ve experienced a slow bite before, but this was painful. We would move the boat until we marked walleye then set up over the top of them and vertical jig. I even sent down my Aqua-Vu camera to see what was happening and how the walleye reacted to my presentation. Nothing seemed out of the normal. The walleye just had a bad case of lock-jaw. We tried a variety of different baits and even downsized our bait to the point where we were getting perch bites and only hooked into one walleye.
Casting and retrieving is what they wanted.
I had a 3/8 oz pink and orange Snake Eye jig from Big Sky Jigs baited with the tail half of a 4” Creep worm, making it a 2” black Creep worm from Liquid Mayhem which was imitating a leech. I would cast the jig and bait out into 13 feet of water and slowly (painfully slow) crawl my presentation along the bottom back to the boat. This was the only presentation that triggered consistent bites from the monster walleye within the depths of Lac La Biche Lake.
Painfully slow was key to triggering bites on Lac La Biche Lake during the last week of May.