The nature of living well in Manitoba is a lot about having as much fun in our brief summers as you possibly can. For many of us, the perfect summer day is hitting the beach with family in tow. To me the only way to make a lazy summer day at the beach better is mixing in some fast and furious walleye catching.
I first got onto this amazing beach pattern about 6 years ago. We were at my wife’s family cottage near Grand Beach. We were set up on the sand with our toddler having a great time when I noticed an older gent trolling down the beach in a 12 foot beat up old Lund. He was trolling just outside the frolicking kids in three feet of water. My first thought was this guy might be a bit on the crazy side.
Crazy like a fox as it turns out. In an hour I watched him pull in a dozen fat greenbacks. Since that time, I’ve tried this pattern on beaches all over Lake Winnipeg from the area adjacent to the mouth of the Manigotogan River, to Winnipeg Beach, to the many beaches from Patricia to Victoria on the east side of Big Windy. From time to time, there are greenbacks – and a host of other fun fish – on all of them. And maybe the best part is you can take the whole family and make a beach day out of it. Here’s how to take advantage of this only-in-Manitoba super opportunity.
The Basic Pattern
Walleyes hit the beach throughout the summer to gorge on shiners. At times you’ll see walleyes, saugers and white bass causing shiners to break on the surface just off our sandy beaches and around the rocky points that separate them. This isn’t normally a big fish pattern. The norm are lots of 14-17 inch walleyes, with two small saugers typically mixed in per walleye. You can expect to catch tons of fun, hard fighting drum and white bass too. It’s awesome for kids of all ages. It’s not uncommon to catch dozens of fish in a morning or afternoon session.
We start by trolling crankbaits. It is a great way to locate the fish. Lake Winnipeg is mostly a lake with a featureless bottom so the predators you are chasing follow the bait, meaning they are often here today and gone tomorrow. Trolling covers water and locates fish. Typically the bite occurs in 4 to 10 feet of water, right on the beach. Oddly, trolling slightly deeper rarely produces as well. If this pattern is “on” that day on your beach, they’ll be shallow. There is a whole other pattern offshore in deeper water using “Lake Erie” types of tactics but that’s a more serious, more involved big water pattern and a story for another day.
I wouldn’t leave home for a beach trip without white shad raps. Other colors work too on any given day and as always, run different cranks to see what they want. But day in, day out, white deep diving cranks are the key. You need diving plugs because your lure must be hitting bottom constantly. There’s something about that act of kicking up sand that will out-produce any other trolling approach two to one. You’re dealing with a sand bottom, so snags are almost unheard of. To me, banging bottom with a white crankbait is the key. If you are only catching aggressive small saugers, or nothing at all, you need to slow down and break out the salties. Dragging salted shiners on the bottom with white jigs, or dragging lindy rigs or spinners very slow will really produce when the fish are not in the mood to chase. Use whatever wind you have to set up long drifts that cover the key 4-10 foot depths until you find them.
Speaking of wind, here’s a warning to the wise that you must heed at all times on Lake Winnipeg: ignore the wind at your peril! I love that you can’t see the other side of the lake. It creates a feeling of wilderness that you can only get on a huge lake. But this beautiful lake also has the potential to kill you if you don’t watch the wind and respect her power. If the wind comes up, get off the lake. If you see dark clouds brewing in the west, pull up and get out, no matter how hot the bite is. A few more walleyes just aren’t worth it. Part of the value of this beach pattern is you are close to shore and likely near the boat launch so you can easily escape if the Big Lake gets angry. This basic pattern can be “on” pretty much anytime from June through September-long weekend and into the Fall. The key for this shallow pattern seems to be periods of stable weather. South winds, and stable high pressure are often indicators that this beach pattern is happening. It is either happening or not though. Which brings me to the best part of this pattern. There’s always the beach
Walleyes aren’t biting? Who cares! It’s a beautiful summer sunny day with a warm south wind and you came prepared with camp chairs, a cooler with drinks and food, and a football. We nearly always mix in some fun beach time with this trip. You simply reel up and motor four hundred yards to your own personal paradise. We often fry fish or just cook hotdogs on the beach. The more the merrier so our boat often has several kids in tow. This is a foolproof all-family affair since fun at the beach is a sure thing on the rare days when this pattern doesn’t produce.