Nice weather conditions to be outside!
With a warm weekend forecast in most parts of western Canada it’s a great time to head out on the ice. Some anglers are using ATV’s to travel out on their favourite lake, but the preferred and safest mode is by walking out.
Manitoba
For the walleye angler, Lake of the Prairies is producing some outstanding fishing for both size and numbers. Roger and Sue Gere, who live in Langenburg, spent a couple days on this reservoir this past week. Roger says the south end near the dam has five to seven inches of ice while at the Roblin Bridge there is 8-11 inches.
They were catching their fish with glow in the dark jigs, tipped with a frozen shiner in 16 feet of water.
Phil Paczkowski, who owns Patch’s Bait Shop in Roblin and is an outfitter in the region, says he will have his ice rental shacks available by the middle of next week. He reports catches of 40 to 60 walleyes a day per group. Lake Dauphin continues with a hot bite as well just off the mouth of most of the rivers.
The real story this early season has been the great bite for stocked trout. One of the hottest lakes has been East Goose right in the town of Roblin. Roger and Sue Gere fished there two days this week and landed several Master Angler rainbows. Roger says there is five inches of ice on the lake, and the mild weather is making the aeration hole a little bigger. He says there is glare ice on many of the lakes, so cleats are needed. They used small jigs and spoons with orange or pink trout paste. They like to use the Jaw Jacker hook setter on their still lines.
STOCKED TROUT ACTION
There are several reasons that the stocked trout lakes in Manitoba are so popular at this time of the year. Probably the biggest, is that the largest trout of the year are caught at this time. This extends from now until the end of December. After that oxygen levels in many of our shallower, smaller stocked lakes decline, affecting fish activity levels. Fish become sluggish with depleted oxygen, and winter kill in a harsh winter is always a possibility.
This is especially the case in the Duck Mountains, with a higher elevation leading to thicker ice. Combine that with a heavy snow cover and things can get tough.
Beautiful Lake is a shallow lake, with no aeration system. It’s also full of scuds, minnows and other abundant aquatic life which all contributes to incredible growth rates in these fish. Brock Koutecky, a fisheries technician that works for the Swan Valley Enhancement group, says the lake is full of big browns and rainbows. There is only problem, the lake is susceptible to winterkill with no aeration system in place.
Krista Olenick, who lives in Swan River, headed to Beautiful on November 11th. She and two other female anglers set out to catch some early-ice trout.
“We set up along the weed line with high hopes of some fishing luck. The ice conditions were clear and 6 inches already. It was mid-afternoon when I hooked onto this beautiful 20.5” male brown trout. After a quick photo and measurement picture he went back in the water for someone else to catch. Looking forward to many more hard-water fishing days in the Duck Mountains this winter.”
All the stocked fish are triploids, which means they don’t spawn. Triploid fish are not interested in reproducing, which basically means all they do is eat!
Many of the rainbows are over 50 centimetres (20 inches), the brown trout not far behind. This is a direct result of some aggressive stocking by the province in conjunction with the Swan Valley Sport Fishing Enhancement Group. Over the last two years close to 10,000 trout have been stocked, some adult fish.
In the Whiteshell Provincial Park Caddy Lake has been producing some nice Master Angler crappie.
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO
Stocked trout and crappie have been the story in this part of the world as well. Jay Siemens has posted two early season vlogs from around the Kenora region. One was for stocked brook trout and the other early ice crappies. Check out the one vlog here.
Pro Jeff Gustafson was down in South Carolina catching giant red fish. He says Lake of the Woods is not frozen yet. Many of the big lakes are still open in this part of the world.
SASKATCHEWAN
Anglers are out on Last Mountain Lake with ice thickness about six inches. With the warmer weather, be very careful to check ice thickness as you go. This is walk out only. Jered Reiss, a hardcore angler from Regina shares some successful techniques.
“Early ice season is a unique opportunity to make the fish come to you rather than to drop a hook directly over top of them. Take advantage of this and start off fishing aggressive, but be ready to present a more subtle approach if necessary. Bold baits like the Sebile Flat Shad; Live Target Golden Shiner and Johnson Thin Fish are great lures for calling fish in from afar. They are at their best worked on a longer rod with a strong backbone. This longer rod produces the proper lure vibration when worked aggressively”
Read the full story here
Smaller lakes are frozen in most regions, with some good stocked trout success.
ALBERTA
With temperatures forecast to be in the teens this week, ice conditions south of Red Deer are shaky at best. Small stocked trout lakes are kicking out some nice fish right now. North of Red Deer anglers are targeting stocked trout and whitefish. Now is a good time for early season whitefish on several lakes further north. Dave Shmyr talks all about it in this article on the Hooked website.