Situated in an ice tent on Shoal Lake, Ontario I could watch the underwater world unfold below me on my Humminbird Ice 55 flasher. Friends and I were fishing an extended point off one of the myriad of islands that dot this eastern section of the lake. As I bent over the flasher I could see a fish streaking to my lure, a blur of blue on my five colour display. As soon the two intersected I braced for the bite. Sure enough my rod tip dipped enough to indicate that this fish had committed. Setting the hook I hung on for what I knew would be a hard battle from another jumbo lake whitefish. Streaking and darting this fish gave me everything I could handle on the tackle I was using. Shaped like a bonefish my four pound fireline was taxed to the limit with my medium light ice fishing rod bent over right to the hole.
TREMENDOUS SPORTFISH:
Lake whitefish could be the most spectacular ice fishing quarry that we have access to in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. Preferring cool clear water lakes with water depths in the twenty to fifty metre range, the lakes of the Canadian Shield make for prime habitat. These aggressive winter predators, though, are also more adaptable than the lake trout, tolerant to warmer water temperatures. This expands their range to a wide variety of lakes in this part of the world. Hard to catch? Not in the least, as long as you keep a few certain rules in mind.
LOCATION:
In the wintertime, whitefish can be found in a wide variety of locations.
On this particular day we keyed in on two different areas. One was an extended point off a main lake island that dropped into deep water. Whitefish love transition spots between hard and soft bottom, preferring to feed off either insect larvae or small minnows in the winter. Mid lake shoals and extended soft bottom flats also provide forage opportunities for these fish. In fact, on the first location, we found some beautiful hard fighting lake whitefish on a twelve metre sunken island that was also holding perch.

I started by using a small Eye-Dropper jig by Northlands Tackle tipped with a small white one inch Berkley power grub. Once I lifted my lure off bottom I could see about five marks rising behind my bait. As it turned out these were small perch, a good thing when looking for whitefish. As I reeled up my lure to the ten metre depth, I could see a single green mark streaking up after my bait. Holding my lure steady, then giving it a slight twitch, was all that was required to elicit a vicious strike from the first whitefish of the day.
PATTERN: Almost all the whitefish caught that day came using the same technique, by dropping a lure to the bottom and reeling halfway up the water column. This would cause the whitefish to streak to the lure and slam the bait. Using electronics sure helped but is not an absolute necessity in this type of fishing.
LURE SELECTION: Small silver spoons like the Williams Ice Jig, and the Northlands Eye-Dropper work well. Small jigs with Berkley one inch power tubes or two inch power grubs are also excellent producers. We also had excellent success tipping a one-quarter ounce jig with a Berkley two inch Realistix Minnow in chartreuse and glow. A small jigging Rapala can also be deadly along with Cicada’s. An aggressive jigging action with artificial lures will call whitefish in from a distance, important considering that they can be scattered over a fairly large area.
If the fish do get finicky, rigging up a small hook below a couple of split shots with a dead shiner minnow can get you some jumbos as well.
The use of a hydrographic map, if available, will allow you to find in advance areas that are likely to hold whitefish. Since larger whitefish are usually very aggressive in the winter time, it won’t take long to determine if there are fish in the vicinity.
As the days get longer in March, whitefish tend to get into larger schools with fifty to hundred fish days a real possibility.
Winter roads crisscross Shoal and we accessed the lake via the Clytie Bay Road which extends off the Rush Bay Road. Slush this year and poor maintenance of roads means a four wheel drive vehicle is required on this section of the lake.
MANITOBA WHITEFISH LAKES: North Steeprock Lake in the Porcupine Hills is absolutely loaded with lake whitefish. Westhawk and Falcon lakes have abundant populations as does the entire Winnipeg River system, especially the Nutimik Lake section.
In the Duck Mountains many a master angler whitefish has come through an ice hole in March from Gull Lake. Cross Bay up at Grand Rapids, has huge lake whitefish which can grow to size of thirty inches or better, a challenge to any ice anglers equipment. Don’t forget Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park, a spectacular lake whitefish fishery. Not to be overlooked as well are the eating qualities of this fish !

Marketing Manitoba in the United States

Manitoba has some of the best hunting and fishing opportunities in the world. Despite those attributes with some tough economic times in the United States it is sometimes difficult to continue to attract clientele to come to enjoy what Manitoba has to offer. Kevin Palmer, who manages the hunting and fishing marketing strategy for Travel Manitoba knows this is not the time to pull back in marketing efforts to the United States. Palmer unveiled a new initiative at the All Canada Shows in Minneapolis, Chicago and Milwaukee this past month that centred around a new theme “Manitoba Monsters”- a reference to the abundance of trophy sized northern pike and large game.
To reinforce the point the new Travel Manitoba booth featured an imposing twenty foot inflatable replica of a pike to attract attention. . “I saw young kids dragging their grandfathers to our booth so they could get a closer look at the giant fish,” said Kevin Palmer “The adults ended up spending time at our booth and walking away with Manitoba literature.” In both markets, the special TV exposure was part of larger broadcast ad campaigns that included a raft of “Manitoba Monster” commercials on TV and radio in the days leading up to the All-Canada Show.
“The net result is that Manitoba projected an out-sized presence in the local media and at the show that far exceeded the number of lodges and outfitters who exhibited — and we didn’t spend a fortune doing it,” Palmer said.
“Spectators and exhibitors were overheard saying it looked like the ‘All-Manitoba Show,’ Palmer said. “This is really a testament to Manitoba lodges and outfitters working in unison with our organization to promote the industry. It was certainly noticed by operators from competing provinces, who dropped by our booth and said they thought Manitoba’s efforts boosted visitor turnout.”

Jerry Dunlop, of Dunlop’s Fly-In Fishing Lodge, credited the marketing program for helping bring traffic and sales to his Chicago show booth. “I’ve done the Chicago show for four years, and this was by far my best,” he said. “There were new people who had never been to an All-Canada Show. Some mentioned the radio ads.”
Shawn Gurke, whose family owns and operates Nueltin Fly-In Lodges in northern Manitoba, said, “For the first time, as long as I’ve been in this business, I’m encouraged by the efforts of Travel Manitoba. They are creating visibility for the best that Manitoba has to offer.” He added, “One of my regular customers came by my booth and said he saw me on TV.”

Tip Up Pike

Resting against the side of a ice shack, the early March sun warming me, I heard the unmistakable beep of a tip up going off. That’s right, technology is a wonderful thing and the group of anglers I was fishing with this particular day last year had all the best equipment in their quest to catch trophy pike. In fact, my friend had a beautiful portable shack set up on sleighs so that he could move locations to the latest hotspot. Inside that shack, he had a workbench, stove and couch, all to make the experience more memorable. What impressed me the most, though, was his wall of tip-ups, all designed to make ice fishing for trophy northern pike as efficient as possible. Those tip-ups included the latest models, those that had a battery powered beeper that triggered when the flag was tripped. When I heard the buzzer go off, I knew we were in business!
We were fishing a large reservoir with extensive mud flats which averaged about three feet in depth. After arrival, two of my friends took a snow machine, sleigh, and auger to drill twelve holes around the perimeter of the guide shack, about a hundred yards away. When fishing this shallow it is pretty critical to spread out and be quiet once you are setup
Yes, at this time of year, the big pike are moving towards the back bays to spawn and shallow water troughs are a key place to find them. As the day wore on we landed and released ten nice pike, the largest forty two inches. All were caught on tip-ups, using either ciscoes or Portuguese sardines rigged to sit upright on ultra sharp quick strike rigs.
In shallow water at this time of the year, the tip-ups were the most effective way to cover water.


WORKING WITH TIP-UPS

There are a variety of different tip-ups out on the market right now.
In cold blowing snow conditions it’s nice to work with those that cover the hole, like a HT Enterprises Polar Therm or the new Frabill Arctic Siren that gives off a big beep when a fish takes the line.
Still variety is good and we also had a number of the Frabill Big Foot Classic models that got the job done. Some tip-ups now have an extension for the tip-up flags so you can see them in deep snow. There will be days when all the fish will come on holes that are covered.
For ease of operations when setting up and storing at the end of long day, tie a snap swivel on the end of your Dacron line. You can open this snap swivel to either rig up or break down your quick-strike rig and leader which should have a heavy duty ball bearing swivel on the end. When storing your quick strike rigs using a round tackle tamer like you would for your walleye spinner rigs. This prevents tangle and keeps sharp hooks out of the way. Setting the tip-ups properly is the key to getting bit. If you are fishing deeper water it’s a good idea to have snap- on weight to quickly find bottom, then a bobber stop to allow you to find that depth again. You can also use a split shot if need be. For a leader I prefer Berkley Sevenstrand, just under a metre in length. A long trace is a must to prevent cutoffs when pike roll in the line.

Spring ice fishing for pike with tip-ups can be an exciting and rewarding experience. Give it a try this year but remember to carefully release all those big fish.
Angler Notes:
Lake Winnipeg is still producing some outstanding ice fishing for walleye. There is some road access on the south end but most anglers are using snowmobiles for both safety and access. Twin Beaches on Lake Manitoba is still good for perch but many other sections of Lake Manitoba have been slow this year for these tasty creatures.
The First National Angler, Young Anglers is to be held next Saturday, February 28th at the Delta Hotel in Winnipeg. For more information go to their website at http://www.angleryoungangler.ca/

Complete Angler goes for February Lake Trout

The snow on the lake was soft, powdery and extremely deep making the snow machine struggle to keep up speed with a heavy load of ice fishing equipment in the sleigh behind. With the break in the cold weather and a forecast of rain in the near future we knew that we only had a small window of opportunity to chase some Northwestern Ontario lake trout. After a twenty minutes ride down a narrow back trail we had arrived at one of the hundreds of lakes that dot the landscape between Kenora and Vermillion Bay. I had spent a fair amount of open water on this particular lake, one that boasted not only big lake trout but bass, walleye and a few large pike. Our first stop was to a small island next to the main lake, a place with a cliff like drop that went from six to fifty metres in a very short span. It was such a sharp drop in fact that our fish locators had a tough time registering bottom, half of our sonar cone bouncing off the side of this sheer rock face. After drilling half a dozen holes, we started working the water column from bottom to top with a variety of heavy spoons and jigs. Fifteen minutes after arrival, I had the first hit, a small tap on a rapid retrieve to the surface. Dropping back down to about the twenty metre level, I jigged my Swedish pimple in the zone where I had the hit. Sure enough the trout came back. Rolling and head shaking like only a lake trout can, I eased him toward the surface. Friend Steven Wintemute was waiting beside the hole, making sure to take the transducer out of the ice hole to avoid tangling. Unfortunately for me the fish shook the hook just below the hole. Encouraged, we renewed our angling efforts with increased concentration. Ten minutes later Steven hooked into another fish and judging by the bend in his rod, I knew this was a smaller fish. Still, a short time later we had our first laker on the ice. After an hour with only one more bite we headed south to a narrowed down section between two parts of the lake. This time our holes were in slightly shallower water but the pattern was the same, we were against a granite wall, a place in which hungry lake trout hunted ciscoes. Steven had the first fish in no time, a big solid lake trout that hit his white tube jig ten metres below the hole. I rushed into his portable tent, just in time to the see the tube drop out of the fish’s mouth below the hole. One of the neat parts about fishing on a lake like this is the water clarity- you could still see your lure ten metres down.
I hurried back out of the tent to my hole, figuring if there was one good fish around, there could be more. Sure enough on my very next drop with a glow and chartreuse Lindy Flyer jig tipped with a two inch Berkley Gulp smelt I had a fish almost rip the rod out of my hand with the strike. This was no small fish, my rod bent over almost to the hole. Five minutes later I had made little progress, the laker rolling and bulldogging to shake the hook. Gradually gaining line, I could see that I had the fish now up to the twenty five metre depth range on my Humminbird Ice 55.
It had been twenty years since my last visit to this lake and it might be another ten until I come back but the memories of this day and others will last a lifetime. These kinds of experiences are out there, a myriad of lakes to choose from with nobody around but you and the ravens.