After the worst winter in 116 years anglers in this part of the world in 2014 we are ready for it all to end so they can get out on the water. Do you want to hear the good news? With another late ice out, just like last year, the fishing should be just crazy when the season opens. All species will have to make up for lost time as the water finally warms.
This was certainly the case last year on the two spring trips that I took. A number of lakes in southern Manitoba were still frozen when the season opened. Heading to Lake of the Woods we found water temperatures in the main lake averaging about five Celsius while the back bays were a few degrees warmer. Since water temperature and current flow is a key at this time of year, we looked for areas that had those two criteria. We were rewarded with some post spawn walleye, some big smallmouth bass and a lot of hungry pike with an accidental lake trout thrown in for good measure.
We patterned mud bottom bays in two to four metres of water for the walleye during the day but in the evening hit a current area. This proved to be a bonanza as we landed a number of big walleye which we caught on five inch swim baits, white the preferred colour. For the pike we found them staging at the mouth of big bays in about 2.5 metres of water. We had good luck throwing lipless crankbaits for the active fish. Once that action slowed we switched over to Berkley Hollow Belly swim baits and ended up with some bonus walleye and pike.
Earlier in the day we had found some jumbo smallmouth in two to three metres off of rock shorelines adjacent to shallow flats and deeper water. These smallies were taking a five inch Berkeley Hollow Belly swim bait with a paddle tail, a tribute to the size of ciscoes these fish were targeting.
ROUND TWO
On our next trip ten days later water temperatures had risen to the 14 Celsius, a real key to making these fish move into shallow water in an attempt to fatten up. We started out fishing in a huge bay that had extended sections of shallow water. In order to try and figure out a pattern we started trolling at the mouth of the bay using Rapala Husky Jerks in about three metres of water.
I knew the fish had to be somewhere in this bay given the overcast conditions and perfect water temperature so I dropped down the front troll motor and kept working shallower. As soon as we entered two metres of water, my two fishing partners and I started catching one pike after another, many triple headers. We then started experimenting with different lures to see if we could catch any larger pike. My most effective big pike lure produced once again, a chartreuse and white Rapala Sub Walk. As I headed further back into the bay, all of sudden my front Humminbird depthfinder started showing deeper water. It went from 1.5 metres to three metres along one of the shorelines. This change in depth meant we had found the creek channel in this large bay and sure enough one minute late one of my friends hooked onto an extremely large walleye using a smaller Husky Jerk. From then on it was one fish after another as moved further into the bay working both sides of the deeper water channel. As we neared the end of the island that was situated in the middle of this huge bay, the old channel started to shallow up a bit into two metres. Still, there was fish back here as shallow as one metre.
One of the most exciting moments of the day came when a huge pike swallowed the smallmouth bass I had hooked off a shoreline rock pile. Then at the end of the day a huge walleye hit my small orange Husky Jerk at the side of the boat, taking my lure with him as he exited stage left…Wow, that is what we wait all winter for!